Description
Many thousands of heroic Spanish soldiers and sailors served alongside Irish forces in the 16th and 17th centuries, campaigning against English rule. While many of the Spanish galleons were lost at sea, the memory of the men’s bravery, on land and at sea, still endures in Ireland.
Many Irish nobles who were defeated in battles, left Ireland to continue campaigning, as leaders of exiled Irish soldiery and under Irish insignia. Many joined the Spanish and French armies in conflict with English forces and their allies, across mainland Europe over the centuries. This exodus of Ieaders from Ireland is known as The Flight of the Earls.
In 1702 the Irish Brigade of the French Army, famously defeated the Austrian army at the battle of Cremona in Northern Italy. Later, an officer of Napoleon’s Légion Irlandaise renamed the entire townland and his house at Foxhall in the Swords area of County Dublin to ‘Cremona’. The original 18th century house and gate lodge at Cremona, survive intact to this day, evolving as a living history and research venue dedicated to overseas Irish militia heritage.
The Cremona commemorative shirt collection pays homage to the many Irish legions and militias formed across the globe, from the Tercio Irlandés of Spain of 1587 to the Irish Transvaal Brigade of South Africa 1899. Editions currently available: 1. La Légion Irlandaise; 2. La Brigade Irlandaise; 3. Irish Militia Heritage; 4. Montgomery Guard of Boston; 5. La Légion Irlandesa de Simon Bolivar; 6. La Armada Invencible; 7. Flight of the Wild Geese; 8. The Sarsfield Grenadier Guard of California; 9. La Légion de Patricios de Buenos Aires; 10. El Batallón de San Patricio, Mexico.
