The Wild Geese - Revision history

TCDE-Team at 13:55, 17 February 2026

2026-02-17T13:55:00Z

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	== More sources ==		== More sources ==

	<gallery mode="packed" heights="~~350px~~" caption="[[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]]'' (vol. 4, 1993)">		<gallery mode="packed" heights="150px" caption="[[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]]'' (vol. 4, 1993)">
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TCDE-Team at 13:54, 17 February 2026

2026-02-17T13:54:09Z

TCDE-Team at 13:27, 17 February 2026

2026-02-17T13:27:00Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 15:27, 17 February 2026
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			[[File:the-irish-times-1954-09-13-p6-the-wild-geese.jpg\|thumb\|180px\|right\|[[The Irish Times]] (13 september 1916, p. 6)]]

	''The Wild Geese'' is an article written by [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] published in [[The Irish Times]] from 13 to 22 september 1954.		''The Wild Geese'' is an article written by [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] published in [[The Irish Times]] from 13 to 22 september 1954.

TCDE-Team at 13:25, 17 February 2026

2026-02-17T13:25:07Z

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TCDE-Team: Created page with "''The Wild Geese'' is an article written by Arthur Conan Doyle published in The Irish Times from 13 to 22 september 1954. TOC == Editions == * in ''The Irish Times'' (13-22 september 1954 [IE]) * in ''A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society'' (vol. 4, 1993 [UK]) == The Wild Geese == [[The Irish Times (13 september 1916, p. 6)]] File:the-irish-times-1954-..."

2026-02-16T16:04:18Z

Created page with "''The Wild Geese'' is an article written by Arthur Conan Doyle published in The Irish Times from 13 to 22 september 1954. __TOC__ == Editions == * in ''The Irish Times'' (13-22 september 1954 [IE]) * in ''A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society'' (vol. 4, 1993 [UK]) == The Wild Geese == thumb|180px|right|[[The Irish Times (13 september 1916, p. 6)]] File:the-irish-times-1954-..."

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← Older revision		Revision as of 15:54, 17 February 2026
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	[[File:the-irish-times-1954-09-13-p6-the-wild-geese.jpg\|thumb\|~~180px~~\|right\|[[The Irish Times]] (13 september 1916, p. 6)]]		[[File:the-irish-times-1954-09-13-p6-the-wild-geese.jpg\|thumb\|250px\|right\|[[The Irish Times]] (13 september 1916, p. 6)]]

	''The Wild Geese'' is an article written by [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] published in [[The Irish Times]] from 13 to 22 september 1954.		''The Wild Geese'' is an article written by [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] published in [[The Irish Times]] from 13 to 22 september 1954.
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	=== Historical Sources ===		=== Historical Sources ===

	The student of history who endeavours to collect information about the Brigade finds his materials very limited. There is O'Callaghan's industrious, but aggravating history, and there is O'Connor's well-written, but incomplete, work upon the subject. Then for the later days of the Brigade there is Mrs O'Connel's recently published book upon 'The Last Colonel of the Irish Brigade,' and finally there are the allusions to the Irish regiments in such books as 'Fieffes et troupes Etrangères dans le service de la France, and scattered information in various military memoirs.		The student of history who endeavours to collect information about the Brigade finds his materials very limited. There is O'Callaghan's industrious, but aggravating history, and there is O'Connor's well-written, but incomplete, work upon the subject. Then for the later days of the Brigade there is Mrs O'Connel's recently published book upon 'The Last Colonel of the Irish Brigade,' and finally there are the allusions to the Irish regiments in such books as 'Fieffes et troupes Etrangères dans le service de la France,' <ref>Translation: "Fiefs and foreign troops in the service of France."</ref> and scattered information in various military memoirs.

	I have no doubt that among old Irish families who have been intimately associated with the Brigade — such families as the Dillons, the Nugents and the Walshes — there must be letters and papers about the matter; but it is a curious thing that during a hundred years the Brigade never found among its officers a single man to give any intelligible account to the world of their aims, their point of view, their organisation and their exploits.		I have no doubt that among old Irish families who have been intimately associated with the Brigade — such families as the Dillons, the Nugents and the Walshes — there must be letters and papers about the matter; but it is a curious thing that during a hundred years the Brigade never found among its officers a single man to give any intelligible account to the world of their aims, their point of view, their organisation and their exploits.
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	The French loss was about 1,400, the Austrian about 1,200. The Irish had 600 men engaged and lost 350 killed and wounded. These figures speak for themselves.		The French loss was about 1,400, the Austrian about 1,200. The Irish had 600 men engaged and lost 350 killed and wounded. These figures speak for themselves.

	The French present could not find words to express their sense of what they owed to their Irish comrades. Count de Vaudrey, in his account, says: 'Les Irlandais ont fait des choses incompréhensibles. The strangeness of the adjective gives an index of the height of the Count's admiration.		The French present could not find words to express their sense of what they owed to their Irish comrades. Count de Vaudrey, in his account, says: 'Les Irlandais ont fait des choses incompréhensibles.' <ref>Translation: "The Irish have done incomprehensible things."</ref> The strangeness of the adjective gives an index of the height of the Count's admiration.

	But I fear that no adjective of a historian could give the brigade the satisfaction which they had from the action of Louis, who at once raised the pay of all the Irish Regiments to the highest scale which was known in the French Army.		But I fear that no adjective of a historian could give the brigade the satisfaction which they had from the action of Louis, who at once raised the pay of all the Irish Regiments to the highest scale which was known in the French Army.
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	While Irishmen had been performing these feats in the service of France, their military reputation had been equally high in Spain and in Austria. That is a branch of the subject which I shall not touch upon, as it would require a paper by itself. The Emperor Francis I of Germany left a paper after his death which says: 'The more Irish Officers in the Austrian Service, the better. Our troops will always be disciplined. An Irish coward is an uncommon character and what the natives of Ireland dislike from principle they generally perform through a desire for glory.'		While Irishmen had been performing these feats in the service of France, their military reputation had been equally high in Spain and in Austria. That is a branch of the subject which I shall not touch upon, as it would require a paper by itself. The Emperor Francis I of Germany left a paper after his death which says: 'The more Irish Officers in the Austrian Service, the better. Our troops will always be disciplined. An Irish coward is an uncommon character and what the natives of Ireland dislike from principle they generally perform through a desire for glory.'

	In an account of a Court festival in Vienna we find that there were present: 'Count Lacy, President of the Council of War; Generals O'Donnel, McQuire, O'Kelly, Browne, Plunket and McEligot,' with grand crosses and orders innumerable — and this at a time when under no possible circumstances could a Catholic officer rise to be more than a colonel in the service of his own country — so much so that, when a certain major-general in the British Army was asked what religion he was of, he replied that he was of the religion of major-generals.		In an account of a Court festival in Vienna we find that there were present: 'Count Lacy, President of the Council of War, Generals O'Donnel, McQuire, O'Kelly, Browne, Plunket and McEligot,' with grand crosses and orders innumerable — and this at a time when under no possible circumstances could a Catholic officer rise to be more than a colonel in the service of his own country — so much so that, when a certain major-general in the British Army was asked what religion he was of, he replied that he was of the religion of major-generals.

	In discussing this question we must remember all the time that the Catholic countries were even more distinguished for intolerance than the Protestants, and that in this very Austria the fate of the Lutheran officer would be as hard or harder than that of the British Catholic. Neither side can fairly blame the other, and looking back at it all, we can only marvel, with the dying Swedish Chancellor, upon the little wisdom which it takes to govern the world.		In discussing this question we must remember all the time that the Catholic countries were even more distinguished for intolerance than the Protestants, and that in this very Austria the fate of the Lutheran officer would be as hard or harder than that of the British Catholic. Neither side can fairly blame the other, and looking back at it all, we can only marvel, with the dying Swedish Chancellor, upon the little wisdom which it takes to govern the world.