The Irish military diaspora refers to the many people of either Irish birth or extraction (see Irish diaspora) who have served in foreign military forces, regardless of rank, duration of service, or success.
Many foreign military units were primarily made of Irish people or those of Irish military diaspora and had the word 'Irish', an Irish place name or an Irish person in the unit's name. 'Irish' named military units took part in numerous conflicts throughout world history. The first military unit of this kind was in the Spanish Netherlands during the Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Dutch. A notable example would be that of Owen Roe O'Neill.
Read more about Irish Military Diaspora: Austria and Austria-Hungary, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Latin America, Papal States, Portugal, Russia, Spain, United States of America
Famous quotes containing the words irish and/or military:
“Of all the characters I have known, perhaps Walden wears best, and best preserves its purity. Many men have been likened to it, but few deserve that honor. Though the woodchoppers have laid bare first this shore and then that, and the Irish have built their sties by it, and the railroad has infringed on its border, and the ice-men have skimmed it once, it is itself unchanged, the same water which my youthful eyes fell on; all the change is in me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In all sincerity, we offer to the loved ones of all innocent victims over the past 25 years, abject and true remorse. No words of ours will compensate for the intolerable suffering they have undergone during the conflict.”
—Combined Loyalist Military Command. New York Times, p. A12 (October 14, l994)