Looking to the Continent

IRELAND AND EUROPE:

Joe Carroll on how EU membership cemented Ireland's ties with Europe

Down the centuries, those who rebelled against English domination of Ireland have often turned to continental Europe for help in their armed struggle. And countries like Spain, France, Italy and Austria have also provided refuge from the long reach of a vengeful occupier.

It is a tradition that lingered on until the second World War when the IRA turned to Nazi Germany for help following their "declaration of war" against Britain for their occupation of the six counties of Northern Ireland. During the first World War, the preparations for the 1916 Rising by the Irish Republican Brotherhood included the sending of Joseph Plunkett to Germany to study military tactics. The Proclamation referred to Germany as our "gallant allies" and German arms to be landed in Kerry were meant to be a crucial part of the Rising.

Over 300 years earlier, the 16th century uprisings by Gaelic Ireland against Protestant English rule had involved appeals to the Catholic powers of Spain and France who also saw England as their enemy, but only intermittently much to the frustration of the Gaelic chieftains like Hugh O'Neill and Hugh O'Donnell. Communications were slow between Ireland and the Continent so by the time the Irish appeals for aid arrived it was possible that Spain or France had signed a peace treaty with England and Ireland was off their agenda.

Sometimes the aid did come but too late, or in the wrong place or too limited. But for the English officials largely confined to the Pale on the east coast the threat of invasions, especially from Spain in the 16th century, must have been a constant worry. Philip 11 of Spain was always receptive to helping the Irish defeat his bitter enemy, Queen Elizabeth. The Earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnell played the Spanish card only to see the Battle of Kinsale destroy their hopes and the Spaniards to sail back home never to return.

Irish colleges then began to be established in Spain, France, what later became Belgium and in Rome. There young Irishmen were educated and trained as priests. Many of them would return to serve in an Ireland where Catholicism was virtually outlawed. In this way cultural links were established which survived the failed military ventures. By 1690 there were an estimated 30 Irish colleges on the Continent.

On the military front, it was to France that Irish hopes turned as Spanish power declined. When the Stuart monarch, King James 11, was ousted from his throne by the Dutch William of Orange in the Glorious Revolution, he arrived at Kinsale with French troops supplied by his ally, Louis X1V. The Irish rallied to his cause and fought under French officers. When it all collapsed after the battles of the Boyne and Aughrim, it was to France that Sarsfield and the 22,000 "Wild Geese" sailed 84 years after the Flight of the Earls.

Unlike the earls and their retinue of women, children and servants, the Wild Geese had valuable services to offer to the lands that sheltered them. The Irish soldiers joined French regiments and formed their own to fight for King Louis. They also moved further into Europe to serve the Hapsburgs in the Austrian Empire.

The French Revolution with its slogans of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, inspired the United Irishmen movement towards the end of the 18th century. Wolfe Tone travelled to Paris to ask Napoleon for help to free Ireland of English rule. Like Philip of Spain, and Louis XIV, Napoleon was attracted by the plan to strike at the enemy England through an uprising in Ireland. He despatched aid but the weather, the curse of other foreign invasions of Ireland, scattered fleets and sent them to the wrong places. The small French force under General Humbert which landed at Killala was soon to be defeated and Wolfe Tone himself arrested in 1798 at Lough Swilly from where the earls had embarked in 1607.

When the spirit of revolution swept France and the rest of Europe in 1848, the Young Irelanders sent a delegation to Paris for help. Nothing came of it but the British government was alarmed and arrested the leaders in Ireland.

In the next century, France had become the ally of England so Irish revolutionaries had to turn to Germany as we saw earlier. In the 1930s, Irishmen went to Spain to fight on both sides of the bloody civil war which tore that country apart.

None of the appeals for military help from Europe down the centuries worked. But a folk memory lingered. When Ireland applied to join the European Economic Community in 1961, the country was making a different kind of appeal to France and Germany - to secure economic independence from Britain through joining in the movement for closer European integration. This time it worked.

Sections

Search for

Services

Looking to the Continent

IRELAND AND EUROPE:

Property

Jobs

Motors

Dating