Customer Reviews

The Wild Geese of the Antrim Macdonnells

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This book examines the problems confronting the Irish immigrants to Europe by concentrating on the lives of a series of emigrants from one Irish family, the MacDonnells of Antrim. A continuous succession of MacDonnells served in the armies of Spain, France and Austria between 1600 and 1820. One of them kept a diary of his experiences with Bonnie Prince Charlie in the '45 rebellion, another was a Spanish admiral at Trafalgar. Other Irish families covered by the book include the O'Neills, Magennises, O'Briens, Maguires, Butlers, Wogans and Sarsfields.

I discovered this book's existence from a bibliography in a similar book about Hugh O'Neill, the Earl of Tyrone (that of the Flight of the Earls), by Sean O'Faolain. This is a related story about the similar exile and diaspora of the Ulster clan McDonnell around Europe, following the Protestant usurption of Catholic James II in the Glorious Rovolution. It details the different cadet branches of the of McDonnell family from different generations who left Ireland and formed Irish Regiments, fought for foreign kings, aswell as supported the Jacobite cause from abroad.

It is a truly astonishing tale of Irish family history aswell as personal narrative European history of the conflicts and wars fought within Europe throughout the 17th and 18th centuries.

However, because of the former it did seem to be a book that can only be fully appreciated by fellow McDonnells and not necessarily by the general reader, who could, through certain tracts react by exclaiming, "so what?" to it all. Because of this I have to say I also struggled to remember the different McDonnells and their kinsmen despite three genealogical charts contained in the book.

The research is excellent, however, using the Stuart Papers at Windsor and several other archives around Europe. The writing is clear and concise and despite the complicated narrative which travels from one family and time period in each chapter I felt I came to understand a small part of Irish history in Europe.