Our unusual Irish ancestors – the poets, madmen and scoundrels who hail from Ireland

World explorers, famed criminals and revolutionaries – The Irish are represented throughout history and modest to boot

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Joseph Brant, the Irish-Indian Mohawk leader inducted Fitzgerald into the Seneca nation of the Iroquois League.

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Irish history is a constant reminder of how both amazing and modest we Irish actually are.

While researching for my new book, “Poet Madman Scoundrel 189 Unusual Irish Lives”, I was astonished at how at least one Irish person managed to turn up at every significant historical event practically anywhere in the world.

For a tiny country with a small population, we have managed a global representation. But our ancestors were modest because they lived before celebrity was invented so their successes, and failures, are often neglected. In this year of the Gathering,  we should carry out a world audit of all the places we have been and  events in which we participated.

For example, we Irish discovered America. Here in Ireland we quietly accept that Brother Festivus was on the beach in Miami in the sixth century to greet Saint Brendan (484-577) when he eventually showed up after his adventurous voyages across the Atlantic from Ireland.

A thousand years later Columbus picked up an Irish man in Galway on his way west, on the basis that he had better take along someone who knew the way. Even though that same anonymous chap was first off the Santa Maria, he allowed Columbus to take the credit. But we haven’t just sent our saints to America.

Mary Ann Duignan (1871-1929) left Longford for Chicago to pursue her ambition to become the most successful prostitute, ever (we might wonder how such a status is measured: number of clients or gross income).

Following a life of crime and adventure across North America and Europe that saw her doing time with Constance Markievicz (1868-1927), breaking one boyfriend out of the notorious French Devil’s Island prison and attempting to gun down another, she eventually achieved her ambition.

We were involved in the American revolution on both sides. Wolfe Tone (1763-1798) was allowed to emigrate to America to avoid getting into revolutionary trouble in Dublin. Though he bought a farm in Pennsylvania, he didn’t like America. However, after his death in Ireland in 1798 his grief stricken family returned to the farm where they soon settled in and learned to enjoy life, a lot.

Fellow revolutionary Lord Edward Fitzgerald (1763-1798) sailed from Cork to South Carolina in 1781 to fight against the American revolutionaries (this was before he discovered the virtues of rebelling for himself). As a typical Irish man he had lots of charm. He proved to be such a charismatic and loveable soldier that the American revolutionaries were practically queuing up to surrender to him. A South Carolina slave called Tony Small nursed Fitzgerald back to health after he was severely wounded and left for dead in a fight. Fitzgerald and Small travelled together across the entire of North America from Canada, down the Mississippi, and into New Orleans. Along the way, Joseph Brant, the Irish-Indian Mohawk leader inducted Fitzgerald into the Seneca nation of the Iroquois League.

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