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 Long
before Notre Dame football was a gleam in the eyes of a few enterprising
priests, the
Fighting Irish were legendary. They were not football players. They
were not street brawlers, or rebels defying the English. The Fighting
Irish were a legacy of our American Civil War. The name meant courage
under fire, endurance and gallantry.
The opposing
armies in 1861 boasted many thousands of Irish immigrants. Maybe,
thought some of these recruits, serving their adopted country would
dispel the anti-immigrant, anti-Irish attitudes they faced in America.
Some believed strongly in the Union. Some with Fenian ties hoped it
would aid in their fight against England.1
The proud bunch
in the 69th New York infantry soon earned a distinct
reputation. They sprinted into battle with the cry, “Clear the Way!”
These soldiers, with names like Kelly and Murphy and Daly and Byrnes,
were fearless. So was their commander, Col. Michael Corcoran, who
refused an order to parade his regiment for the visiting Prince of
Wales. For this effrontery a court-martial was ordered, but quickly
dropped at the outbreak of civil war.
 Robert
E. Lee himself christened these spirited sons of Erin. Learning that
the 69th faced his troops across the field, he nodded: “Ah
yes, that fighting 69th!”
The regiment was
born in 1851 with volunteer companies founded by Irish immigrants in
sympathy with the Young Irelanders. The unit joined the state militia
under Col. Corcoran. It became the 69th New York infantry
and the nucleus of the Irish Brigade built by Gen. Thomas Meagher. He
gathered several infantry units: the 63rd and 88th
New York, 28th and 29th Massachusetts, 116th
Pennsylvania, and added the 2nd New York Artillery. Meagher
had escaped after being exiled to Australia for his Fenian exploits in
England. He was a scrappy commander, dogged by a talent for trouble.
By the time he resigned in a huff, the Fighting Irish had fought their
way to a lasting legacy.
“Whenever
anything absurd, forlorn or desperate was to be attempted,” snorted an
English war correspondent, “the Irish Brigade was called upon.” After a
doomed assault on Marye’s Heights, one Confederate general was more
succinct. “Their bravery,” he observed, “was worthy of a better
cause.”
Their regimental
flags were emerald green adorned with a golden harp. At the top was the
unit’s name, with a bottom banner emblazoned in Gaelic: Riamh Nar
Dhruid O Spairn Iann. Our resident linguist, Pierce Kent, suggests a
poetic translation: “Never a Battle They Would Not Contend.” It was an
honor to carry the colors into battle. But it carried a special risk,
since capture of enemy colors brought a coveted trophy.
 At
Fredericksburg the Irish put green sprigs in their hats and charged the
heights. At Antietam they won accolades for bravery. At Gettysburg
they fought so fiercely their ranks were decimated. Survivors were
assigned to other units. Fellow soldiers mourned their loss even as
they celebrated their Irish valor.
In time, new
brigades of Erin’s soldiers were cobbled together. The Fighting 69th
lived on, serving with distinction in both world wars. Its famous
colors were presented to the Irish people in 1963 by Pres. John F.
Kennedy. This flag now hangs in the Dail in Ireland, in tribute to the
men who fell.
Their story
echoes the haunting words of the Irish poet Yeats, who would write of a
terrible beauty, born of the 1916 Easter uprising. Yet half a century
before, worlds away, the courage and sacrifice of the Fighting Irish had
given birth to a terrible beauty of its own.
Today’s 69th
regiment, now part of the New York National Guard, was among the first
units to arrive at the World Trade Center on 9/11. At least 19 of its
soldiers have fallen in Iraq.
1:
The Fenian
Brotherhood was a secret revolutionary organization in the United States
and Ireland in the mid-19th century, dedicated to the
overthrow of British rule in Ireland.
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