The Irish In War

So like a lot of people i cannot wait to see Irishmen properly represented on the battlefield for this game. In British, french, armies and others even.

But I have always wondered, what is it that made the Irish such wanted soldiers in Europe? and America? why were they so valued? what had they that others didn't? I read Wellington saying

"
"Upon my honour, I never witnessed a more gallant charge than that just now made by your regiment."

"the most Irish of all Irish regiments" (Oman) and in Grattan's own words were "a parcel of lads that took the world aisy" and "without shoes they fancied themselves at home, without food they were nearly at home."

And American civil war officers

""As soldiers they exhibited a zeal for combat, obediance to battlefield orders, a steadiness in the face of fire, a cool indifference to death that was sometimes unnerving to other soldiers around them and an incredible endurance on the march. In camp few appeared on sick call and most maintained excellent health in spite of unsanitary conditions that quickly struck other troops with sickness." Russ A Pritchard Jr."

"During the war one participant familiar with irish sodliers observed, " other men go into fights finely, sternly and indifferently, but the only man that really loves it, after all, is the green immortal irishman. So there the brave lads from the old sod, with the chosen Meaghar at their head. laughed and fought, and joked as if it were the finest fun in the world."

So why? what had irishmen that others didn't?

Irish were everywhere because of the English and Faminine they had to leave the country.

If I was Irish, and had been kicked off my land for being catholic, I would have left for France, joined the French army with hate in my heart and got my revenge. That would have been my mentality.

The reason the Irish were so widespread in European armies was because so many had to emigrate to escape religious persecution under the Penal Laws passed by the British (especially after 1691). If you were an Irish Catholic (as 80% were in the 1700s), you could not buy land, have an education, inherit an undivided estate (if you had siblings), buy a horse, enter the legal-profession etc. Almost all the land was owned by colonial British landlords or their descendents, and rents were very harsh. So there were few opportunities for economic advancement for a Catholic choosing to remain in Ireland. Hence emigration. The ban on Irish Catholics joining the British army wasn't lifted until the 1790's.