Distributor from label on p. [4] of cover.

Provides a wealth of detail on how "the wild geese" - the Irish who refused to submit to the English - played a significant role in the armies of Spain. It is well-known that many Irishmen who refused to submit to the English in the reigns of Elizabeth and the early Stuart kings, including the famous earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnell, went to fight for the king of Spain, but what they did when they joined the Spanish armies is much less well-known. This book provides a wealth of detail on the activities of the Irish in the Spanish armies in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It outlines who the Irish soldiers were, how they were recruited and the terms under which they served. It discusses their military roles both in the wars in Flanders between the Spanish and their former Dutch subjects, and, later, in the Hispanic peninsula, showing how the Irish were often employed as elite troops who made significant contributions to major military actions, such as the siege of Breda in 1624. It examines military tactics, explores the politics of the Spanish armies, showing how the Irish fitted in, and discusses how, when the rebellion of 1641 broke out in Ireland, many Irish soldiers returned to Ireland to resume the fight against the English. Eduardo de Mesa completed hisdoctorate at University College Dublin. He is the author of La pacificación de Flandes. Spínola y las campañas de Frisia (1604-1609) (2009), and Discurso Militar del Marqués de Aytona (2008), co-author of La Monarquía de Felipe III (2008), and author of numerous articles, chapters in edited collections, and encyclopedia entries.

The Wild Geese, Irish soldiers exiled in France at the end of the seventeenth century, gained fame fighting for France on the battlefields of Europe, India and America in the eighteenth century.

This volume brings together contributions from a range of scholars, not only from the Celtic heartlands, but further afield such as Austria, Canada and Poland. The chapters are based upon a number of presentations on a wide range of Celtic Studies given at a conference in Poznań, Poland, in October 2014. The book, as such, emphasizes the international aspect of the field, and highlights the relatively strong position of Celtic Studies in Poland, through the inclusion of Polish scholars working on Irish and Breton, and by introducing an academic audience to the ‘conversation’ on Celtic matters which was held recently on Polish soil. Celtic Studies are currently undergoing a series of changes with respect to the approaches adopted, and the field is brought into question in this volume with an examination of the notion of Celtoscepticism, which, as pointed out, when tackled in the right way, can breathe new life into the subject and can be viewed as a positive movement. As such, a number of contributions here problematize the changes in thinking of many linguists over the concept of who is a speaker of a Celtic language and how well they speak it, as well as the connection between traditional Celtic cultural practices and the concept of well-being. The volume also provides chapters on Mediaeval Celtic Studies which showcase the work of a number of emerging scholars in the field, who examine various aspects of Celtic textuality in Mediaeval Scotland, Brittany and Wales. Indeed, this book gives voice to a number of early career scholars, placing them carefully alongside more established scholars in the field, in order to show the continuation of established methods of investigation.

Irish Brigades Abroad examines the complete history of the Irish regiments in France, Spain, Austria and beyond. Covering the period from King James II’s reign of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1685, until the disbandment of the Irish Brigades in France and Spain, this book looks at the origins, formation, recruitment and the exploits of the Irish regiments, including their long years of campaigning from the War of the Grand Alliance in 1688 right through to the Napoleonic Wars in 1815.What emerges is a picture of the old-fashioned virtues of honour, chivalry, integrity and loyalty, of adventure and sacrifice in the name of a greater cause.

'The wild geese as Irish mercenaries in Europe were unofficially known, had a deservedly high reputation as fighting men. Forced to flee their native island after the defeat and expulsion of the Catholic King James II, the Irish Brigades followed their master to his exile in France - and remained. Fed by continual drafts of fresh exiles from Ireland, whence they had been driven by anti-Catholic discrimination, the Brigades served both the Stuart - or Jacobite- cause, and that of the French Crown with distinction out of all proportion to their numbers. Eventually the emancipation of the Catholics in Britain and the French revolution dried up the source of recruits and helped ensure that the valuable military services of the Irish would - at least for the 19th and early 20th centuries - be given to Britain. O Callaghan s history is a rich and full one which, as its author insists, cannot fail to be of interest to British, as well as to Irish, readers. Illustrated with several portraits.