The Flight of the Wild Geese: Ireland’s Exiled Soldiers and the Heritage They Built Across Europe

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In October 1691, thousands of Irish soldiers stood on the quays of Cork. They looked out across the Atlantic. Most would never see Ireland again.

This is the story of the Wild Geese — Ireland’s exiled military class. They left not by choice, but by defeat. Yet they built a legacy that shaped Europe for generations. If your ancestors carried an Irish surname before the Famine, there is a real chance they walked in the footsteps of these men.

What Were the Wild Geese?

The term Wild Geese (Na Géanna Fiáine in Irish) describes Irish soldiers who left to serve in continental European armies. The phrase dates back to the 16th century. But it became famous after 1691.

Wild geese migrate south from Ireland every autumn. They leave Irish skies behind. The Irish soldiers who fled their homeland carried that same sense of seasonal exile — flying away, never quite returning.

The name stuck. In time, it came to mean something larger than one departure. It became a symbol of Irish resilience — soldiers who were beaten at home but refused to stop fighting everywhere else.

Who Were the Wild Geese Families?

These were no ordinary soldiers. Many came from Ireland’s oldest Gaelic noble families. They were the O’Briens and O’Donnells. The Dillons, Burkes, and MacMahons. The Sarsfields and O’Neills. These families had fought to keep Catholic Ireland free. They lost.

After the Treaty of Limerick in 1691, they faced a stark choice. Stay and live under the Penal Laws that stripped Catholics of land, education, and basic rights. Or leave and carry the fight to Europe.

Most chose to leave.

The Night Ireland Lost Its Soldiers — October 1691

The Williamite War ended in disaster for Catholic Ireland. The Battle of the Boyne in July 1690 went to William of Orange. The Battle of Aughrim in July 1691 was even worse — it became the single bloodiest day in Irish history. The Jacobite cause collapsed.

The Jacobite commander, Patrick Sarsfield, was a Kildare man of fierce pride. He negotiated hard. The result was the Treaty of Limerick, signed on 3 October 1691.

Under its terms, Sarsfield and his fully armed army could sail to France. They could serve King James II in exile. Around 14,000 Jacobite soldiers accepted those terms. They boarded ships in Cork. Many brought their wives and children.

They sailed on 22 December 1691. Irish people watching from the shore gave them a name. Na Géanna Fiáine. The Wild Geese. Leaving across the water as the year turned cold.

On the quays in Cork, women watched their husbands disappear over the horizon. Children held their mothers’ hands. Older men stood in silence. The grief of that morning never fully left Irish memory.

The Irish Brigades of France

France welcomed the Wild Geese. They arrived in time of war and brought skills that Louis XIV needed badly. The French Crown formed Irish regiments from the refugees. These became some of the finest troops in the French army.

The most famous regiments included:

• Dillon’s Regiment — founded by Theobald Dillon, it fought under the French Crown for over a century
• Clare’s Dragoons — under the O’Brien family, the Earls of Thomond from County Clare
• Burke’s Regiment — drawn from the Connacht Burkes, one of Ireland’s great Norman-Gaelic families
• Mountcashel’s Regiment — named for Justin MacCarthy, one of the first to bring Irish troops to France

Each regiment carried its own colours. Each fought under the flag of France. But each remembered Ireland. They kept Irish as a spoken language inside the regiments for decades. They named their children after Irish counties. They kept alive the hope of going home.

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“Remember Limerick!” — The Battle of Fontenoy, 1745

The Wild Geese of France found their greatest moment on 11 May 1745.

At the Battle of Fontenoy in what is now Belgium, France faced the combined British and Allied forces. The battle was going badly for France. The British line had punched through. French regiments fell back.

Then the Irish Brigade charged.

Around 4,000 men in six regiments ran at the British position. Their battle cry rang out across the smoke and mud: “Remember Limerick!” Fifty-four years had passed since the Treaty of Limerick. They had not forgotten.

They broke through the British line. They turned the entire battle. France won the day. The outcome changed the course of the War of the Austrian Succession.

The Brigade suffered 656 casualties — the highest loss percentage of any French unit at Fontenoy. They paid in Irish blood for a French victory. Back in Ireland, every Catholic heard what those men had done. Fontenoy became part of the Irish story — the exiles who fought on, even when their homeland had lost everything.

The Irish Brigades of Spain and Beyond

France was not the only country to welcome the Wild Geese. Spain also formed Irish regiments from the Catholic refugees.

• Irlanda Regiment — established 1698, one of the oldest Irish regiments in European service
• Ultonia Regiment — established 1709, named for Ulster, the province of its founders
• Hibernia Regiment — Hibernia being the ancient Roman name for Ireland
• Dublin Dragoons — formed 1701 from Dubliners in exile

The Ultonia, Irlanda, and Hibernia regiments later fought together in Italy during the War of the Austrian Succession. O’Donnell soldiers served in Austria. Wild Geese families sent sons to Russia, Prussia, and the Papal States.

By 1750, Irish military families had spread across the entire continent. The Irish diaspora did not begin with the Famine. It began here — with men who refused to put down their swords and go quietly.

Famous Descendants — What the Wild Geese Left Behind

The Wild Geese did not just fight. They built dynasties.

The MacMahon family fled County Clare in 1691. Their ancestors were lords of Corcu Baiscind, descended from High Kings of Ireland. They settled in Burgundy, France. Generation after generation rose through the French military ranks.

Patrice de MacMahon was born in 1808 at the Château de Sully. He became a Marshal of France. He then served as President of the French Republic from 1873 to 1879. An Irish family fled Ireland in defeat in 1691. Their grandson’s grandson became leader of France.

The Dillon family name survived in the French army for over a century. Count Arthur Dillon commanded the Irish Brigade at Fontenoy. His regiment still fought under the French Crown at the start of the French Revolution.

The O’Donnell branch settled in Austria. Enrique O’Donnell, a descendant of the great Gaelic lords of Tyrconnell in Donegal, served in the Spanish army and rose to command level. Irish names. European careers. These men changed history on behalf of countries that were not their own — because Ireland had left them no other choice.

Does Your Family Have Wild Geese Roots?

You may carry Wild Geese heritage and not know it. The surnames most closely associated with the Wild Geese include:

• O’Brien / Brien — County Clare and Munster
• Dillon — Westmeath and Connacht
• MacMahon / McMahon — County Clare and Monaghan
• Burke / Bourke — Connacht
• O’Donnell — County Donegal
• Sarsfield — Kildare and Limerick
• O’Neill — Ulster
• O’Rourke / Rourke — County Leitrim and Connacht
• Browne — County Galway and Connacht

If your family carries any of these names — and your ancestors left Ireland before the Famine — it is worth asking the question. Did they first go to France or Spain before reaching America? Many Irish-American families in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia descend from Wild Geese returnees. Soldiers who served in French regiments sometimes made their way to the American colonies after their service ended.

If your roots lie in Connacht — the province hardest hit by the Jacobite defeats — our 5-day Connacht heritage itinerary follows the lands most connected to the families who departed in 1691. For those tracing Mayo roots specifically, our County Mayo heritage guide covers the emigrant families of the west in detail.

How to Research Your Wild Geese Ancestry

Tracing Wild Geese ancestry takes a slightly different approach to standard Irish genealogy research. Start with Irish records first.

The 1926 Irish Census can show where your family lived and whether any branch stayed in Ireland. Civil registration records from 1864 onwards track families who remained. Catholic parish registers before 1864 can often pinpoint your county of origin going back to the 1820s.

Once you have a county and surname, the specialist Wild Geese research begins:

• Military Archives Dublin — holds Irish military records and can point to European connections
• Archives nationales, Paris — French state archives hold Irish Brigade muster rolls and officer lists
• Archivo General Militar de Segovia, Spain — holds records of the Irlanda, Hibernia, and Ultonia regiments
• thewildgeese.irish — a dedicated online research community for Wild Geese descendants

For a full step-by-step approach to your research, our complete Irish ancestry guide covers every record type available — from civil records and parish registers to DNA testing and Griffith’s Valuation.

The Wild Geese left Ireland. But they left traces behind them. In the records. In the regiment lists. In the surnames that crossed European borders for three hundred years. October is Family History Month in North America. There is no better time to start looking.

Frequently Asked Questions About the Wild Geese

Did the Wild Geese ever return to Ireland?

Some did. After the French Revolution disbanded the Irish Brigade in the 1790s, many Wild Geese descendants eventually made their way back to Ireland. Others emigrated to the United States and Canada instead. The majority stayed settled in France, Spain, Austria, and other European countries where their ancestors had built new lives.

How many people left in the Flight of the Wild Geese?

Around 14,000 Jacobite soldiers left Ireland in late 1691 as part of the original departure. Many were accompanied by wives and children. Over the following decades, further waves of Irish emigrants joined the European Irish Brigades. The total number of Irish soldiers who served in continental European armies between 1691 and 1750 is estimated at around 40,000 or more.

What does Wild Geese mean in Irish culture?

In Irish, the term is Na Géanna Fiáine, meaning the wild geese. Wild geese migrate south from Ireland every autumn. The name became a metaphor for Irish soldiers who went into exile — flying away across the sea each time Ireland lost a war, always carrying their homeland in memory.

What Irish surnames are linked to the Wild Geese?

Many Gaelic Irish families contributed soldiers to the Wild Geese brigades. The most prominent surnames include O’Brien, Dillon, MacMahon, Burke, O’Donnell, Sarsfield, O’Neill, O’Rourke, and Browne. If your family carries any of these names and traces roots to pre-Famine Ireland, researching Wild Geese connections is a worthwhile place to start.

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