Rome’s  Irish Connections

By M.J.Cryan

There is no green stripe down via del Corso, nor does the beer flow green on March 17^th, but Rome does have plenty of Irish connections to remember on St. Patrick’s Day. The Eternal City’s Irish population, about 2,500 strong, celebrates the day in a subdued manner still in touch with historical reality, recalling the saints, scholars and soldiers who lived here before them.

Irish itineraries about Rome may include a visit to one of the Irish churches: St. Patrick’s, St. Isidore’s, San Clemente, San Silvestro or the Irish College where members of the community gather wearing the traditional shamrocks flown in for the day.

At the Franciscan church of St. Isidore’s on Via degli Artisti visitors are greeted at the entrance by paintings depicting the patrons St. Patrick and St. Brigid. Graves of many scholars and patriots who died in exile are to be found in the crypt while the church houses a funerary monument to Amelia Curran erected by her friend, Lord Cloncurry. Most touching is the monument to Octavia Bryan who died in 1846 on her wedding day and at whose funeral Cardinal Newman preached his first sermon as a Catholic priest.

The earliest Irish connection however is visible in the ancient, circular church of St. Stefano Rotondo immersed in the quiet green of the Coelian hill. This 4^th century basilica has been undergoing restoration for so long that even a pluri-decaded Roman resident like me has seen it just once, and then by chance. March 17^th would be a perfect day to try one’s luck and ring at the convent where one of the sisters may let you in to admire the venerable Roman columns set in a circle after the fashion of the Temple of Vesta. On a bit of the curved wall that is not embellished with frightfully realistic scenes of martyrdom is a white marble plaque with a Latin inscription surmounted by a 7-pointed crown. It commemorates Brian Boru’s son, King Donnchadh of Munster, who came to Rome on a pilgrimage when already in his late seventies and who died here in 1064.

San Clemente Basilica located between the Colosseum and St. John Lateran is another church of great interest for Irish and all other visitors to Rome for it is a compendium of art, archaeology and architecture: a true layer-cake of history. To enter the quiet church from the roaring traffic of Via Labicana and to hear the lilting voices of white-robed Dominicans puts one in the prefect frame of mind for a refreshing plunge into the past.

Irishman Father Leonard Boyle was a well-known figure at San Clemente and at the Vatican Library where he was Prefect. In his "San Clemente Miscellany I” he described the vicissitudes of the Irish Domenicans’ 300 years in Rome. An exciting section of the book is dedicated to  the 19^th century prior, Father Joseph Mullooly and how he excavated the basilica, renowned for its Comastesque pavements, bringing to light an earlier 4^th century church and, on a still lower level, a pagan Mithraic temple and Roman houses.

The archaeologist-priest Mullooly was also an important figure in a little-known chapter of international military history. In 1860 he acted as mediator between Austro-Irish officers and the papal government during the formation of the St. Patrick’s Irish Brigade which fought several battles of the defense of Pius IX and the Church’s temporal domains.

About 1000 Irish volunteer soldiers came to Rome, the papal cities of Macerata, Ancona and Spoleto in May and June 1860 in what has been called “The Last Crusade”, fighting against the Italian unification forces of King Victor Emmanuel and Garibaldi. The diarist Gregorovius described the “eggs and spinach” colored uniforms of the Irish he saw on Via del Corso that spring although archival sources tell us that only a few officers found the time and money to have such uniforms tailor-made before the battles began in September.

The Austrian army promised 500 greatcoats and guns for the regular troops but many Kerry farmer lads had to try and stuff their 6-foot frames into uniforms designed for much smaller Italian soldiers.

While in Rome the Irish volunteers were housed in barracks on Via Cimarra near St. Mary Major’s where several Irish pubs flourish today.

In the festival town of Spoleto in Umbria, the 14^th century Rocca built by Cardinal Albornoz still dominates the heights once defended by these Irish soldiers under the command of Major Myles O’Reilly. A monument nearby commemorates the Italian forces who, due to superiority in numbers and artillery, won the battle of Spoleto in September 1860, thus ending the Irish Brigade’s participation in the Risorgimento battles. 

The huge castle, for many years a prison, has undergone complete restoration. Hopefully a plaque records   the Irish volunteers who, far away from their homeland, fought for a cause in which they believed.