MILITARY HISTORY OF THE IRISH NATION COMPRISING A MEMOIR OF THE IRISH BRIGADE IN THE SERVICE OF FRANCE

This is a history of Irish military valour as employed against the old enemy, England, from the wars of Elizabeth down to the War of the Spanish Succession. The Earl of Tyrone led a guerilla resistance to attempted English colonisation at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries; from then on Irish soldiers were much sought after by the Catholic powers of Spain and France who often employed them as mercenaries against the Protestant Dutch and English. Occasionally, the Irish found themselves battling their fellow countrymen who had taken service in the British Army. At the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 Irishmen found themselves fighting on both sides – for William of Orange and James II. Irishmen also distinguished themselves fighting on the French side in the War of the Spanish Succession. Published in Dublin in 1845, this is a splendid record of Irish arms.