Speech at the opening of an Exhibition on the Irish in Latin America
University College Cork, 26 January, 2017
President Murphy,
Ambassador Malfavón
Ambassador Hernández
Ambassador Cardoso
Ambassador Streeter
Ambassador Bernal
Ambassador de la Puente Ribeyro
Distinguished guests,
Queridos amigos,
Es para mí un gran placer estar aquí en la Universidad de Cork para inaugurar esta exposición tan valiosa sobre los lazos entre Irlanda y América Latina.
[I am delighted to be here today at University College Cork to open this important exhibition on the Irish in Latin America].
Is mian liom mo bhuíochas a chur in iúl d'ár n-óstach, Uachtarán Choláiste na hOllscoile Chorcaí Michael Murphy, a chríochnóigh a théarma oifige an tseachtain seo sula dtógann Patrick O'Shea cúairimí na hoifige ina áit. A Uachtaráin Murphy, is mian liom comhghairdeas a dhéanamh leat as na deich mbliana ráthúla a chaith tú i mbun stiúrtha na institiúide atá tar éis fás agus forbairt go mór agus tú i bhfeighil an tí.
I would like to thank our host, President Michael Murphy of UCC, who this week will complete his term in office before handing over to incoming president, Patrick O’Shea. President Murphy, allow me to extend my congratulations to you on a most successful ten years at the helm of an institution which has only grown in stature and esteem under your stewardship.
UCC’s work in recent years in forging links in Mexico, Central America, Colombia, Peru, Brazil and Chile has been exemplary. Under President Murphy’s leadership, you have become a dynamic force in the development of partnerships with Latin American universities. You can be particularly proud of being the only university in Ireland – indeed the only English-speaking university in Europe – that is part of an Erasmus Mundo programme focused on public universities in Central America, and thus facilitating student and faculty exchanges for Salvadorans, Hondurans and Guatemalans and others that might otherwise not have the opportunity to study and teach in Europe.
UCC also distinguished itself as an institution of learning by having dedicated Department of Latin American Studies and a Centre for Mexican Studies, so ably led by Professor Nuala Finnegan. I believe that UCC’s decision to focus on Latin America will reap not just academic rewards, but rich cultural and social rewards in the years to come and I commend your vision and your commitment to deepening these relationships.
May I commence by commending Margaret Brehony, the curator of this exhibition, which I understand will be exhibited in its Spanish language version throughout Latin America, and also the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade who commissioned it. I look forward to speaking at the opening of this same exhibition when I visit Cuba next month.
Latin America, and in particular the development of its political and economic landscape, has never been far from my thoughts during my political and academic life of over fifty years. I have had the pleasure of visiting the region twice as president of Ireland, from Chile at the southern tip, through Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Mexico. In two weeks’ time, I embark upon a visit to Peru, Colombia and Cuba, all countries which feature in this exhibition and whose histories were marked by the contributions of Irish migrants.
During my official visit to Chile in 2012, I had the honour of laying a wreath at the monument to one of those featured in this exhibition – Chile’s liberator, Bernardo O’Higgins. Bernardo’s father, Ambrosio O’Higgins, born in County Sligo, had risen to the highest ranks of the Spanish colonial administration, eventually becoming viceroy of Peru. Bernardo O’Higgins in turn went on to lead the Independence Army against Spanish rule and to this day is celebrated as the Founder of the Republic of Chile.
During my visit to Mexico in 2013, I also had the opportunity to pay tribute to the valour of the San Patricio Battalion, ‘the Irish soldiers of Mexico’, who fought for Mexico in the Mexican American War of 1846-47, a war which coincided with the influx of Famine migrants to the US and which saw many Irish recruits to the US army switch sides.
The contributions of those such as O’Higgins, or the San Patricio Battalion or Admiral William Browne, founder of the Argentine navy, are reasonably well-known in Ireland. However, one of the great merits of this exhibition is that it will also cast a light on lesser-known experiences of Irish migration.
The refrain of this exhibition, ‘Exile’ provides an important reminder of that contribution, and the often profound role played by Irish men and women in the development of the modern and independent republics of Latin America that exist today. It is comprehensive in scope, covering the exploits of notable Irish and Irish-linked figures such as William Lamport, Eliza Lynch, and Roger Casement while also highlighting the role of lesser known Irish migrants whose experiences contributed significantly to the crafting of modern day Latin America.
Today we remember and celebrate the achievements of many of the Irish men and women who, in the 17th and 18th centuries, escaped a ravaged Ireland under British colonisation, and found sanctuary in France and Spain, flourishing and achieving prestigious positions as colonial administrators in the service of the crown or in the imperial armies.
It reminds us, too, of the importance of inclusive historiography, to confront the reality that some Irish exiles who had suffered the realities of colonialism in Ireland became the agents of colonialism in Spanish-ruled Latin America. It also recalls, however, the dramatic shift in allegiance that took place in the space of one or two generations: the children and grandchildren of those first Wild Geese go on to play influential roles in the revolutionary campaigns against Spanish rule, leading to the establishment of independent republics in Latin America from the early 1800s onwards.
Importantly, today we are enabled to recall, thanks to Dr Brehony’s work, the lesser known stories such as that of the hundreds of Irish railroad workers who were brought from New York to Cuba in the mid-19th century to work alongside Canary Islanders and enslaved Africans to build the Havana-Güines railroad. Many of them gave their lives to the project - a sad reflection on the reality of forced labour in the Caribbean.
The importation of Irish workers was also, of course, motivated by the project of ‘Whitening’ of Cuba with a black majority sowed to slave labour. However, their truculence and insistence on the rights of labour, be it from a remembered land agitation background or the exploration of trade union militancy in the coastal stations quickly brought them to see some common cause with other coerced labour.
Importantly, this exhibition does not shirk from showing us the complex truth that alongside those Irish who were exploited as railroad workers in Cuba, were families of Irish origin who operated large sugar plantations worked by slaves. Indeed, amongst the staunch defenders of slavery was Spanish General Leopoldo O’Donnell, a descendent of Hugh O’Donnell and one of the largest African slaveholders in the world, whose notorious reputation was warranted.
Such recalling of the fuller experiences of Irish migration to Latin America, allows for a greater understanding of the common history we share and the impact of Irish migrants on the politics, culture, intellectual tradition and foreign policies of Latin America.
Next month I will have the honour of opening this exhibition in the Palacio del Segundo Cabo in Cuba. I have, therefore, been reflecting on the similarities our two nations share; on the long shadows cast by our histories of oppression by more powerful neighbours, and the complexities that lay behind our struggles for liberation and independence.
Just as conflicting motivations defined Ireland’s struggle for independence, with republicanism in any European sense not always a prominent ideology, so Cuba’s struggle was also characterised by divergent incentives. In Cuba the desire by some to maintain slavery, and in Ireland the ambitions of the upwardly mobile graziers to hold on to accumulated land, saw a desire for limited independence only to become the ambition of certain groups of citizens.
We also, as nations, understand the yearning to reclaim a distinctive cultural identity, realising its fundamental importance to achieving true freedom. For both our peoples, the assertion of that right to a shared and unique culture has enabled an understanding of valid freedom as a generous social vision.
Today, as we contemplate the ways in which Irish men and women played their part in the great narrative of Latin American history, it is appropriate to reflect in turn on the significance of Latin America for Ireland. For many migrants, it held out a promise of freedom and adventure and an escape from poverty.
In recent years, Latin America has provided important examples of socially inclusive economic governance, its younger economists demonstrating great originality in their writings on achieving growth that delivers both sustainability and poverty reduction. Latin America has been an innovative force in the worldwide struggle against neoliberalism. According to the United Nations Development Programme, 90 million Latin Americas were lifted out of poverty between 2000 and 2012. It was also the only region in the world that managed to reduce income inequality during the first decade of the 21st century - uniquely combining economic growth with reduced inequality and poverty levels.
Today, the history of the Irish in Latin America is the subject of an emerging area of scholarship both in academia in Ireland and across Europe and the Americas. I believe there is so much to be learned, and so much to be gained, by strengthening Ireland’s relationships with Latin America and with the exchange of scholarship, including a development based on science and technology without borders.
Esta oportuna exposición ofrece una base sólida para este trabajo mientras construimos un futuro enraizado no sólo en una historia común sino también en un reconocimiento de nuestra presente interdependencia.
[This timely exhibition helps us to realise that there is already a solid foundation beneath us which will support that work as we look to a future rooted not only in a shared history, but in a world that respects its interdependency.]
Muchísimas gracias.
Thank you very much.