On St. Patrick's Day, Mexico Remembers the Irishmen Who Fought Against the US Christopher Woolf - PRI's The World
go to original March 18, 2015

Mexican music by bagpipes band of St Patrick Battalion (Carlos Rodríguez)

St Patrick’s Day is celebrated around the world — even in Mexico.

“Every St Patrick’s Day, the first toast that I make is in honor of the San Patricios,” says Martin Paredes, a Mexican blogger based in the US. “A group of Irishmen came to the defense of Mexico, and many of them died in defense of Mexico. That has to be lauded as one of the greatest honors ever, because they were fighting for an adopted nation — and they died for an adopted nation.”

The story is pretty complex and goes back to the Mexican-American War, from 1846 to 1848.

Paredes has written extensively on the San Patricio Battalion, "a military unit that was composed mainly of Irish soldiers that were serving in the US Army when the US was invading Mexico," he explains. "These were US soldiers that left US lines and joined Mexican lines and fought for Mexico against the United States.”

Many were recent immigrants, fleeing the Great Famine in Ireland, who had joined the US Army for the promise of land and an enlistment bounty.

The reasons they deserted are complicated, Paredes says. As Irishmen and Roman Catholics, these immigrants faced a lot of discrimination in the overwhelmingly Protestant United States. “When the US actually went to war, many of them — being strong Catholics — saw what they considered an unfair invasion of a foreign country," Paredes says.

The Irish deserters formed the core of the "Battalion of Foreigners," which was later renamed the "Batallón de San Patricio." Roman Catholic deserters from Germany and other European nations also joined them, as did some foreign residents of Mexico City. There were also several African Americans who had run away from slavery in the southern United States.

Read the rest at PRI's The World

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