In Spain at the beginning of the 18th century there were hundreds of Irish officers in the military service, and eight Irish regiments.  Among the officers were thirteen Kellys, thirteen Burkes, and four Sheas.  It seemed that Ireland had soldiers for the world.  Don Patricio, Don Miguel, Don Carlos, Don Tadeo took the place of Patrick, Michael, Charles, and Thadeus.  O’Hart gives a list of sixty descendants of the “Wild Geese” in places of honor in Spain.  General Prim was a descendant of the Princes of Inisnage in Kilkenny.  An O’Donnell was Duke of Tetuan and field marshal of Spain.  Ambrose O’Higgins, born in county Meath, Ireland, was the foremost Spanish soldier in Chile and Peru; Admiral Patricio Lynch was one of its most distinguished sailors; and James McKenna its greatest military engineer.  The son of O’Higgins was foremost among those who fought for Chilean independence and gained it, and one of his ablest lieutenants was Colonel Charles Patrick O’Madden of Maryland.

In Austria the Irish soldiers were particularly welcome.  They count forty-one field-marshals, major-generals, generals of cavalry, and masters of ordnance of Irish birth in the Austrian service.  O’Callaghan relates that on March 17, 1766, His Excellency Count Mahony (son of the O’Mahony of Cremona), ambassador from Spain to the court of Vienna, gave a grand entertainment in honor of St. Patrick, to which he invited all persons of condition who were of Irish descent.  Among many others, there were present Count Lacy, President of the Council at War, the generals O’Donnell, McGuire, O’Kelly, Browne, Plunkett, and MacElligot, four chiefs of the Grand Cross, two governors, several knights military, six staff officers, and four privy councillors, with the principal officers of State.  All wore Patrick’s crosses in honor of the Irish nation, as did the whole court that day.  Emperor Francis I. said:  “The more Irish officers in the Austrian service the better; bravery will not be wanting; our troops will always be well disciplined.”  The Austrian O’Reillys and Taaffes were famous.  It was the dragoon regiment of Count O’Reilly that by a splendid charge saved the remnant of the Austrian army at Austerlitz.

In the American war of the Revolution, General Charles Geoghegan of the Irish Brigade made the campaigns of Rochambeau and Lafayette.  He received the order of the Cincinnati from Washington and was ever proud of it.  Lieutenant General O’Moran also served in America.  He was afterwards executed in the French Revolution, for the “Brigade” remained royalist to the end.  General Arthur Dillon, who served in the Brigade, was also guillotined in 1794, crying, “Vive le roi!” At the foot of the scaffold a woman, probably Mme. Hebert, also condemned, stood beside him.  The executioner told her to mount the steps.  “Oh, Monsieur Dillon,” she said, “pray go first.”  “Anything to oblige a lady,” he answered gaily, and so faced his God.