In the early nineteenth century, thousands of volunteers left
Ireland behind to join the fight for South American independence.
Lured by the promise of adventure, fortune, and the opportunity to
take a stand against colonialism, they braved the treacherous
Atlantic crossing to join the ranks of the Liberator, Simon
Bolivar, and became instrumental in helping oust the Spanish from
Colombia, Panama, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. Today, the
names of streets, towns, schools, and football teams on the
continent bear witness to their influence. But it was not just
during wars of independence that the Irish helped transform Spanish
America. Irish soldiers, engineers, and politicians, who had fled
Ireland to escape religious and political persecution in their
homeland, were responsible for changing the face of the Spanish
colonies in the Americas during the eighteenth century. They
included a chief minister of Spain, Richard Wall; a chief inspector
of the Spanish Army, Alexander O'Reilly; and the viceroy of Peru,
Ambrose O'Higgins. Whether telling the stories of armed
revolutionaries like Bernardo O'Higgins and James Rooke or
retracing the steps of trailblazing women like Eliza Lynch and
Camila O'Gorman, Paisanos revisits a forgotten chapter of Irish
history and, in so doing, reanimates the hopes, ambitions, ideals,
and romanticism that helped fashion the New World and sowed the
seeds of Ireland's revolutions to follow.
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