From the "Somos Primos" Hispanic genealogy newsletter: Why Mexico celebrates St Patricks Day! The San Patricios: An Historical Perspective At a recent screening of The San Patricios documentary at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va, historian BRIAN MCGINN gave the following analysis of the San Patricio Battalion. The program was sponsored by the Conradh na Gaelige (Gaelic League), based in Washington D.C. We reprint his remarks with his permission. The first question that arises in connection with the San Patricio documentary is why it took 150 years for the story of the San Patricios to be told in such a compelling manner? First, from the viewpoint of the U.S. military, the less said about such subjects, the better. Desertions reflect poorly on political leadership and military command; defections even more so. And this is still true, since many Americans are still unaware of the U.S. defectors who fought with the NVA/VC during the Vietnam War. In general, Irish-Americans have also been uncomfortable with the story of the San Patricios. They could argue, and convincingly, that the overwhelming majority of the 4,811 Irish-born soldiers who served in the U.S. army during the Mexican-American War did not desert. Even if all the San Patricios soldiers were Irish--and they were not--Irish-born deserters would represent less than four per cent of Irish soldiers. During the 19th century, when the Irish place in U.S. society was far from secure, when Irish immigrants faced the hostility of violent nativists and the Know-Nothing Movement, dwelling on the San Patricios was seen as giving ammunition to the enemy. And those instincts were correct--the Know Nothings in fact used the San Patricios in their propaganda as proof of the unreliability of Irish Catholic immigrants. Most of the leading generals of the Civil War--Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee among them--had served as junior officers in the Mexican-American War. It is interesting to note that never again would U.S. military commanders make the mistake of sending Irish Catholic soldiers to face death under bigoted officers or without chaplains of their own faith. The well-known blood-sacrifices of the Irish during the Civil War--at Antietam, Fredericksburg and Gettysburg--to a large extent put to rest the question of Irish loyalty to the Union. But it ushered in an era of historical myth-making in which the Irish became superpatriots, steadfastly loyal to the Republic and always fighting on the "right" side. Carried to its extreme, we have the claim that Irish Catholics were loyal patriots to a man and that Irishmen in fact composed half the forces of George Washington during the American Revolution. This school of Irish-American history, of which the leading exponent was Michael J. O'Brien of the American Irish Historical Institute, tolerated no exceptions to its message. But perhaps Irish people have a more realistic view of their own military history. They know that Irish soldiers could be found fighting on both sides of almost every major conflict from the 17th through the mid-20th century. In Europe, in the armies of France, Spain, Austria, Russia--and Britain. In the New World, on both sides of the American Revolution--we have eyewitness accounts of the Maguire brothers, who had been fighting on opposite sides, meeting. So most Irish-American scholarship on the San Patricios, until recently, was devoted to proving that a) the unit was not really Irish, b) if it was Irish, it was not Catholic, and c) in case a and b were proven correct, it was an ineffectual band of drunks who had repudiated their Irish heritage. After watching the film, we know better. Although men of Irish birth may not have made up an absolute majority of the San Patricios at all times, Irish Catholics did form its largest ethnic component--ranging by various estimates from 40 per cent to 60 percent. And the ethos of the unit was undeniably Irish. Curiously, people in Ireland have no trouble in accepting and indeed embracing the San Patricios as national Irish heroes. I happened to be visiting Ireland last after the battle of Saratoga. And they know that Lord Edward Fitzgerald, one of the heroes of the 1798 Rising, served in the British uniform in South Carolina during the Revolution. They know that opposing the 144,000 Irishmen in the Union Army were some 30,000 in Confederate ranks, and that the Irish Brigade's charge up Marye's Heights at Fredericksburg was halted by the fire of Robert McMilllan's regiment of Irish rebels. They also know that desertion and defection are part and parcel of every war. And that bodies of Irish soldiers have changed sides since at least 1586, when a regiment of Irish Catholics rounded up after the Desmond Rebellion and shipped to the Netherlands to fight for the Protestant Dutch, promptly deserted to their Spanish Catholic opponents. They recall that during World War I, Roger Casement toured German POW camps and recruited some 50 Irish prisoners--captured as members of British units--to form the nucleus of an Irish Brigade fighting on the German side. So the fact that 200 or more Irishmen deserted and changed sides during the U.S., war with Mexico should not surprise us. Indeed, in the political and religious climate of the time, we could legitimately ask why the number was so small. Which brings up a final point: the vast majority of Irish soldiers who have fought in foreign armies have served with noted courage and loyalty. Witness the 202 Medals of Honor awarded to Irish-born U.S. soldiers between 1861 and 1914. Against that background, we should take note when Irishmen as a body make a conscious decision to risk their lives by switching sides in the midst of a conflict. And we should treat with healthy skepticism simplistic explanations that they were simply a misguided bunch of naive and reckless adventurers, motivated by opportunism and too much alcohol. Finally, we should welcome this film, and the school of "warts and all" history it exemplifies, as evidence of the maturity and self-assurance of Irish America, of its openness to an honest reexamination of its own past and the many varieties of Irish experience in the Americas. Brian McGinn Dan Hogan [email protected]