History Lecture 9 March: Irish émigrés in Austrian Service


In this presentation, the second in the series of lectures on Irish historical links with Austria, Dr. Declan M Downey, explores the circumstances in which significant numbers of Irish people arrived in Austrian-Habsburg territories how they contributed to the defence, governance and diplomacy of the Erbländer during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), and the Turkish Wars (1663-’64 and 1683-’99).

Foremost among the first wave of the Irish in Seventeenth-Century Austria were the Taaffes of Ballymote & Carlingford, the Walshes of Carrickmines, the Butlers of Roscrea, the Brownes of Camus & Knockainy and the Hamiltons of Donegal & Leitrim.

The lecture incorporates the notorious role of the two Irishmen and two Scotsmen in the judicious murder of General Count Albrecht von Wallenstein on 25 February 1634, and it will highlight the significant actions of Francis Taaffe and Thaddeus O’Hussey at the Siege of Vienna in 1683.

A video recording of this lecture is available on request.