UCD John Hume Institute for Global Irish Studies 
UCD John Hume Institute for Global Irish StudiesUCD Crest

EDUARDO DE MESA GALLEGO

The Intellectual and Cultural Mentality of Irish Soldiers in Spanish Military Service during the 17th Century

Supervised by: Dr Declan Downey, UCD School of History and Archives

The Intellectual and Cultural Mentality of Irish Soldiers in Spanish Military Service during the 17th CenturyOverview and Methodology
This study will trace the individual careers of Irish soldiers in Spanish service, and reconstruct the intimate details of their social lives and cultural activities using archival sources, principally papers contained in the archives of the Council of State, the Council of Finances and the Council of War of the Hapsburg Monarchy. The Irish persisted in maintaining a mental and cultural distinctiveness over at least two generations in Spanish Society, yet this cultural self-awareness did not prevent their integration and assimilation into Spanish Society. A combination of Habsburg political ideology and the religious, educational and intellectual formation of Spanish Reformed Catholicism helped the Irish to integrate
successfully in Spain. And these factors also combined to form or forge a cultural and intellectual worldview among those Irish soldiers, students, merchants and clergy who lived in Spain and later returned to Ireland.

Aims

  • To make available information from hitherto untapped Spanish and Belgian archival sources concerning Irish self-definition, cultural awareness and intellectual developments among the military communities in Seventeenth Century Flanders.
  • To analyse how the Irish soldiers learned the Art of War from the “Spanish School”, how they fought in
    the wars of the Spanish Habsburgs, and how they returned to Ireland and fought for the Confederation.
  • To analyse and portray how these Irish émigrés maintained and developed their identities as well as develop their political, social and cultural identification with the broader political, ideological
    and cultural interests