Five centuries
From Magellan's crews to Admiral Brown's 250th birthday in 2027: every dated event, with its source, how sure we are, and where the accounts disagree.
98 dated events in five eras
Two nations, one ocean, a shared story.
The story
From the Spanish viceroyalty to Admiral Brown's 250th birthday in 2027, every dated event with its source and where the accounts disagree.
Era 1 · 1520–1828
Irish names in the viceroyalty, soldiers who stayed after 1806, and William Brown's navy.
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McKenna, citing Boyd-Bowman's index of sixteenth-century settlers, records two Galway brothers, William and John, as ship's boys on Magellan's Trinidad and says they served at the first Mass on Argentine soil, at the mouth of the Santa Cruz river, on 1 April 1520.
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McKenna, citing Lafuente Machain, records the brothers John and Thomas Farel on Mendoza's 1535–36 expedition; he calls them natives of Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Spain, so they were of Irish descent rather than Irish-born.
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Search summaries of the Irish Jesuit Archives and Wikipedia say English privateers captured the Limerick Jesuit in 1586 and set him adrift in an open boat, which reached Buenos Aires; he went overland to Córdoba and then Paraguay. Neither page has yet been read in full.
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Born in 1715 to parents from two of the Galway tribes, Lynch moved via Bilbao and arrived in Buenos Aires in 1749 as a militia captain, according to Nathan Mannion of EPIC, the Irish Emigration Museum; Che Guevara's father, Ernesto Guevara Lynch, descended from him.
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McKenna says few Irish came in the 1600s and early 1700s, when the region was a poor backwater, and that Irish names appear in numbers only after 1776, when Charles III created the viceroyalty with Buenos Aires as its capital.
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McKenna says the Ennis-born physician, trained in France and Spain, left Spain for Buenos Aires in 1777 under a royal order and stayed until his death in 1819; Murray's SILAS entry calls him a physician in the Spanish viceroyalty.
Dr Michael O'Gorman's birth year
Born in Ennis in 1749.
Source: Patrick McKenna, Nineteenth Century Irish Emigration to, and Settlement in, Argentina, MA thesis, Maynooth, 1994, 1994(opens in a new tab)Search summaries give his birth year as both 1736 and 1749.
Source: Hispanopedia, Miguel O'Gorman, 11 October 2026(opens in a new tab)We say: Born in Ennis, Co. Clare, in the mid-eighteenth century.
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The Argentine Navy's biography gives 22 June 1777 in Foxford; the date rests on Brown's own testimony.
Whether any document records the birth date
Born in Foxford on 22 June 1777.
Source: Armada Argentina, Almirante Guillermo Brown (argentina.gob.ar), 11 October 2026(opens in a new tab)The Foxford birth and the 1777 date rest on Brown's own testimony.
Source: John de Courcy Ireland, Almirante William Brown, History Ireland 9:3, September 2001(opens in a new tab)We say: We give the Navy's date and say it is reported, not recorded.
Brown's family origins
Born into a Catholic family; taken to the United States as a child, orphaned, and went to sea as a cabin boy.
Source: Armada Argentina, Almirante Guillermo Brown (argentina.gob.ar), 11 October 2026(opens in a new tab)Related to the Westport Brownes; Admiral Lord Howe got him a place as a Royal Navy midshipman, and the poor-peasant origin story is highly unlikely.
Source: John de Courcy Ireland, Almirante William Brown, History Ireland 9:3, September 2001(opens in a new tab)We say: Present both, attributed: the Argentine Navy's account, then his Irish biographer's.
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An Argentine medical-history editorial says O'Gorman, already in Buenos Aires, promoted the creation of the Protomedicato of the Río de la Plata, the body that licensed and examined doctors, surgeons and pharmacists, with Viceroy Vértiz in 1780 under royal authorisation.
Protomedicato and medical school dates
Protomedicato in 1780; the medical school's first regulations in 1801.
Source: Carlos Grasso Fontán, Contexto histórico de las prácticas médicas en la Revolución de Mayo, Salud(i)Ciencia 17(8), September 2010(opens in a new tab)Protomedicato on 1 July 1779 or 17 August 1780; the medical school in 1799.
Source: Hispanopedia, Miguel O'Gorman, 11 October 2026(opens in a new tab)He founded the faculty of medicine in 1780.
Source: Patrick McKenna, Nineteenth Century Irish Emigration to, and Settlement in, Argentina, MA thesis, Maynooth, 1994, 1994(opens in a new tab)We say: Helped create the Protomedicato around 1780 and the city's first medical teaching.
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After the 1806 defeat the prisoners were sent to Córdoba, Mendoza, Tucumán, San Juan and other provinces; in Córdoba twelve petitioned to remain as Spanish subjects, and those who stayed swore loyalty to the king and were baptised if not already Catholic (Giuffré 2024).
Irish leaders of the 1806 invasion
Popham, Beresford and Beaufort were all Irishmen.
Source: Patrick McKenna, Nineteenth Century Irish Emigration to, and Settlement in, Argentina, MA thesis, Maynooth, 1994, 1994(opens in a new tab)Beresford and Pack were Irish of the Ascendancy; Popham is not confirmed.
Source: Mercedes Giuffré, Tras las huellas de los prisioneros irlandeses radicados en el Plata, Ideas suplemento V, 15, 2024(opens in a new tab)We say: Beresford and Pack were Irish-born (Giuffré 2024).
The 88th Regiment and the flints in 1807
A company of the 88th was ordered to remove its flints to limit civilian casualties.
Source: Military History Wiki, 88th Regiment of Foot, 11 October 2026(opens in a new tab)The 88th was sent in without flints for fear the Irish would join the Spanish; about 800 died.
Source: Millicent V. Craig, Background, Daltons in History 3:11, November 2000(opens in a new tab)The 88th's 1st Battalion surrendered in the street fighting of July 1807 and reached England in November 1808.
Source: National Army Museum, regiments page, 11 October 2026(opens in a new tab)We say: The 88th surrendered in the street fighting of July 1807; never use the 800 figure.
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The Argentine Navy says Brown traded from Montevideo from late 1809 and reached Buenos Aires on 18 April 1810 in his own frigate Jane; de Courcy Ireland gives 1811 aboard a captured privateer, and Mayo County Library a first visit in 1809 and a return in 1811.
Brown's arrival in the River Plate
Late 1809 aboard the Belmond, trading from Montevideo, then Buenos Aires on 18 April 1810 with the frigate Jane.
Source: Armada Argentina, Almirante Guillermo Brown (argentina.gob.ar), 11 October 2026(opens in a new tab)Arrived in 1811 aboard a captured privateer, the Grand Napoleon, renamed Eliza.
Source: John de Courcy Ireland, Almirante William Brown, History Ireland 9:3, September 2001(opens in a new tab)First visited in 1809, when Brazilian authorities seized his boat; returned in 1811 on the Eloisa.
Source: Mayo County Library, Admiral William Brown – a brief sketch of his life, 11 October 2026(opens in a new tab)We say: Arrived around 1810.
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Murray's SILAS entry says O'Brien, born in Baltinglass, Co. Wicklow, in 1786, came to Buenos Aires in 1812 to open a merchant house and then joined the army; Fanning's biography has him emigrating in the 1810s to profit from the textile trade.
O'Brien's birthplace
Born in 1786 in Baltinglass, Co. Wicklow.
Source: Edmundo Murray, O'Brien, John Thomond, DILAB, 7 May 2009(opens in a new tab)Born in Mallow, Co. Cork, in 1787.
Source: Villanova Digital Library item, 11 October 2026(opens in a new tab)We say: Baltinglass, Co. Wicklow (1786), per Murray and Fanning.
O'Brien's arrival and enlistment
Came to Buenos Aires in 1812 to open a merchant house; joined the Mounted Grenadiers in 1816.
Source: Edmundo Murray, O'Brien, John Thomond, DILAB, 7 May 2009(opens in a new tab)Emigrated in the 1810s to profit from the textile trade; enlisted as a cavalry officer in 1813.
Source: Cork University Press, Don Juan O'Brien by Tim Fanning, via Project MUSE, 2020(opens in a new tab)Arrived in 1816.
Source: Villanova Digital Library item, 11 October 2026(opens in a new tab)Arrived towards the end of the eighteenth century.
Source: Patrick McKenna, Nineteenth Century Irish Emigration to, and Settlement in, Argentina, MA thesis, Maynooth, 1994, 1994(opens in a new tab)We say: Arrived in the 1810s as a merchant.
The Navy's biography says a first attack on the island on 11 March 1814 failed and Brown renewed it on 15 March and took it; Mayo County Library says he captured it on St Patrick's Day, so we say March 1814.
The day Martín García fell
The renewed attack took the island on 15 March 1814.
Source: Armada Argentina, Almirante Guillermo Brown (argentina.gob.ar), 11 October 2026(opens in a new tab)He captured the island on St Patrick's Day, 17 March.
Source: Mayo County Library, Admiral William Brown – a brief sketch of his life, 11 October 2026(opens in a new tab)We say: In March 1814.
The blockade-breaking victory that Argentina marks each year as Navy Day; the city fell to patriot forces on 23 June.
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After fighting in Uruguay under General Soler, O'Brien joined San Martín's Mounted Grenadiers in 1816 and was made captain after Chacabuco and aide-de-camp to San Martín; he went on to fight at Cancha Rayada and Maipú and in the Peru campaign (Murray, SILAS).
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McKenna reports Parish's figure of a little less than 500 Irish in 1824; the later figures he gives are about 1,500 in 1832, from the Irish chaplaincy, and about 3,500 before the 1842 Anglo-French intervention, while Casey gives 2,500 for 1832.
Irish numbers in 1832
About 1,500 in 1832, from the Irish chaplaincy.
Source: Patrick McKenna, Nineteenth Century Irish Emigration to, and Settlement in, Argentina, MA thesis, Maynooth, 1994, 1994(opens in a new tab)2,500 in 1832.
Source: Moira Casey, El Padre Fahy y su obra en Argentina, Ideas suplemento II, 8, 2021(opens in a new tab)We say: Give each figure with its author and year; never a single number.
Brazil declared war on 10 December 1825; on 12 January 1826 Brown was made fleet commander, fought about 20 enemy ships at Quilmes on 30 July 1826, captured 12 Brazilian ships at Juncal in February 1827 and burned his grounded ships at Monte Santiago in April 1827 (Armada Argentina).
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In 1826 Buenos Aires figures commissioned O'Brien to recruit Irish immigrants, and two years in Ireland brought little success (Murray, SILAS); McKenna says Thomas Armstrong visited Ireland the same year, and that the Liverpool bank Dickson & Montgomery sent Patrick Browne of Forth and Bargy, Co. Wexford, out in 1826.
O'Brien's recruiting trip
Commissioned in 1826; two years in Ireland.
Source: Edmundo Murray, O'Brien, John Thomond, DILAB, 7 May 2009(opens in a new tab)Recruited in Ireland in 1827–28.
Source: Nally (1992), 1992(opens in a new tab)We say: In the late 1820s.
Origin of the Westmeath chain
An ex-soldier of 1806–07, John Murray of Streamstown, by family testimony and with no direct evidence.
Source: Patrick McKenna, Nineteenth Century Irish Emigration to, and Settlement in, Argentina, MA thesis, Maynooth, 1994, 1994(opens in a new tab)O'Brien's recruiting of 1826–28 and his meeting with John Mooney.
Source: Edmundo Murray, O'Brien, John Thomond, DILAB, 7 May 2009(opens in a new tab)We say: Organised links began with recruiting in the late 1820s.
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McKenna, citing Thomas Murray (1919), names John Mooney and his son-in-law Patrick Bookey of Streamstown, Co. Westmeath, as the first recorded nineteenth-century Irish emigrants, arriving in 1827, and says they became the most important employers of Irish labour in their meat-salting works.
John Mooney's arrival
Arrived in Buenos Aires in 1827.
Source: Patrick McKenna, Nineteenth Century Irish Emigration to, and Settlement in, Argentina, MA thesis, Maynooth, 1994, 1994(opens in a new tab)Arrived in 1828.
Source: Nally (1992), 1992(opens in a new tab)We say: In the late 1820s.
Era 2 · 1826–1889
Emigration chains from Westmeath, Longford and Wexford, the sheep boom and life in the camp.
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Casey says the Irish asked Dublin for chaplains, that Fr Patrick Moran came in 1829 and died a year later, and that Fr Patrick O'Gorman followed; on 22 February 1829 Moran wrote that this was the country for the Irish farmer to emigrate to (McKenna).
The first Irish chaplains
In 1822 Rivadavia let an Irish priest stay in the Dominican priory as Irish chaplain.
Source: Patrick McKenna, Nineteenth Century Irish Emigration to, and Settlement in, Argentina, MA thesis, Maynooth, 1994, 1994(opens in a new tab)Fr Patrick Moran, a Jesuit, came in 1829 and died a year later.
Source: Moira Casey, El Padre Fahy y su obra en Argentina, Ideas suplemento II, 8, 2021(opens in a new tab)We say: Irish chaplains served from the 1820s.
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In McKenna's account the first large movement into the countryside came around 1830, to the Chascomús area and north-west along the Salado river; shepherds moved with their flocks rather than settling, and by the 1840s small, mobile, mostly male Irish communities had formed there.
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Island, of the 71st Highlanders, had married Bartola Gómez y Farías and been alcalde of San Antonio de Areco in the 1820s; a unitario, he fled after the defence of San Pedro, was found in a convent in Catamarca and shot on 6 April 1841, leaving nine Argentine children (Giuffré 2024).
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Murphy, born in 1822 at Haysland, Kilrane, Co. Wexford, left home on 13 April, took a cart to Wexford and a boat to Liverpool, sailed on 21 April with 115 Irish emigrants, was becalmed for about three weeks and landed with £1.
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A Mayo heritage page says Brown returned briefly in 1847 and was deeply distressed by the Famine; de Courcy Ireland says he brought famine relief to Foxford and never took Argentine citizenship.
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Camila, granddaughter of the merchant Thomas O'Gorman, left Buenos Aires with the priest Ladislao Gutiérrez on 12 December 1847; they were recognised at Goya in June 1848, and on 18 August 1848 both were shot at Santos Lugares, Camila aged about 20 and pregnant (Murray, SILAS; Gálvez, La Nación).
Camila O'Gorman's age and place of death
Aged 20, born 1828; shot at Santos Lugares.
Source: Edmundo Murray, O'Gorman, Camila, DILAB, 7 May 2009(opens in a new tab)Aged 23, born 1825; shot at San Andrés.
Source: Wikipedia, Camila O'Gorman, 11 October 2026(opens in a new tab)We say: Executed on Rosas's orders on 18 August 1848, aged about 20, with the priest Ladislao Gutiérrez.
The Irish role in Camila's arrest and sentence
Fr Michael Gannon recognised the couple; Fahy and Vélez Sarsfield demanded exemplary punishment (citing Julianello 2000).
Source: Edmundo Murray, O'Gorman, Camila, DILAB, 7 May 2009(opens in a new tab)Rosas consulted Fahy, who agreed the case justified exemplary punishment and approved the execution.
Source: Moira Casey, El Padre Fahy y su obra en Argentina, Ideas suplemento II, 8, 2021(opens in a new tab)An Irish priest who knew Gutiérrez recognised them on 16 June 1848; Camila's father had denounced them.
Source: Lucía Gálvez, Camila O'Gorman y Ladislao Gutiérrez: el amor más prohibido, La Nación, 30 January 2005(opens in a new tab)We say: According to the historians Murray and Casey, Fahy backed the sentence; an Irish priest is said to have recognised the couple (do not name him).
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McKenna's account of the sheep frontier says 1849 saw the largest single annual intake; in his database of emigrants with known arrival dates, 154 arrived in 1840–49 against 32 in the 1830s and 16 in the 1820s.
The government decreed official honours; Fr Anthony Fahy gave the last rites and led the prayers at Recoleta, where the two lie a few steps apart.
Counting Argentine-born children, the community came to 8,623; Korol and Sabato's reading of the returns, cited by Cruset, also records 10,637 people from Great Britain in the whole country, 5,878 of them in the province.
Era 3 · 1844–1891
Fr Fahy's chaplaincy, the Irish press, the City of Dresden affair and the institutions that outlived it.
The British Packet of 20 January 1844 recorded the arrival on 11 January of the brig Plata from Liverpool, carrying Rev. Mr Fay, appointed by the Archbishop of Dublin as chaplain to the Irish Catholics, then put at 3,500; it was his 39th birthday (Casey 2021).
Fahy's arrival
11 January 1844 on the brig Plata, as The British Packet recorded.
Source: Moira Casey, El Padre Fahy y su obra en Argentina, Ideas suplemento II, 8, 2021(opens in a new tab)1842 in one place and 1843 in another.
Source: Patrick McKenna, Nineteenth Century Irish Emigration to, and Settlement in, Argentina, MA thesis, Maynooth, 1994, 1994(opens in a new tab)We say: Appointed in 1843; landed on 11 January 1844.
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Fahy formed a committee of Bartolomé Foley, Patricio Bookey, Santiago McDonnell, Guillermo Lennon and Juan McKiernan, and a letter of 15 June 1847 to the Archbishop of Dublin went with the money, urging sober, industrious farm workers to come to Argentina (Casey); McKenna says over £400 was sent.
The size of the 1847 Famine fund
Over £400 was sent.
Source: Patrick McKenna, Nineteenth Century Irish Emigration to, and Settlement in, Argentina, MA thesis, Maynooth, 1994, 1994(opens in a new tab)£411.
Source: Wikipedia, Anthony Dominic Fahy, 11 October 2026(opens in a new tab)We say: More than £400.
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Fr Fahy secured the sisters through his own sister, prioress of the Carmelite convent in Loughrea; from 1857 they ran a school for Irish girls on Riobamba Street, and they left Argentina in February 1880.
How many sisters came in 1856
Seven sisters arrived under Mother Evangelista Fitzpatrick of Baggot Street.
Source: St Aloysius College, Adelaide, Mother Evangelista Fitzpatrick (search summary only), 11 October 2026(opens in a new tab)Four sisters arrived.
Source: Mercy International, Argentina (search summary only), 11 October 2026(opens in a new tab)We say: A group of Sisters of Mercy arrived on 24 February 1856.
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Founded by the Mulhall brothers, recent emigrants from Dublin, it became South America's first English-language daily; its opening editorial held that people of all the British Isles shared one tongue, and it ran until 1959.
Who founded The Standard
Michael George Mulhall and Edward Thomas Mulhall published the first issue on 1 May 1861.
Source: McGinn, An Irishman's Diary, Irish Times, 7 September 1999(opens in a new tab)Edward T. Mulhall founded The Standard in 1861.
Source: Delaney, ABEI Journal 2, 2000(opens in a new tab)We say: Founded by the Mulhall brothers.
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Casey gives 20 February 1871, with burial two days later in the clergy pantheon at Recoleta; whether he died of yellow fever, after attending a sick Italian woman, or of the heart disease on his death certificate is disputed.
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Fr Patrick Joseph Dillon announced the paper by circular in November 1874 and produced it in The Standard's office, promising a liberal tone modelled on Dublin's Freeman and no attachment to any Argentine party.
The date of the circular announcing the paper
Dillon announced the paper by a circular of 2 November 1874.
Source: Murray, DILAB, Dillon, Patrick Joseph (1842-1889), 1 November 2005(opens in a new tab)The circular was dated 1 November 1874.
Source: DIB, Dillon, Patrick (search summary only), 11 October 2026(opens in a new tab)We say: Announced in November 1874; first issue 16 January 1875.
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Dillon led the formation of a club that pressed for Irish political representation, though critics noted few poor members; Archbishop Federico Aneiros wrote to Rome for Irish religious, and an Irish committee paid the Passionists in Dublin for Irish priests.
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Kent Stone, a Boston-born convert, founded three retreats and won over an Irish community that had paid for Irish priests and received others; search summaries place the first meetings to help Ireland in mid-1881, starting in San Pedro.
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A lay body of the community whose first confirmed work was St Bridget's school, opened on 19 March 1899 and handed to the Sisters of Mercy by the end of 1902.
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The earliest references to hurling in Argentina date from 1887–88, in Mercedes and near the Passionist monastery of San Pablo at Capitán Sarmiento, according to King and Darby.
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Fr William Whitmee, with Bernard Feeney and Joseph Bannin, set up the school between 1885 and 1887 in the town that was the seat of the western Irish chaplaincy.
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Agents paid per head under a government passage scheme filled the steamer with mostly urban poor from Dublin, Cork and Limerick, promised land; they landed in mid-February to no lodging, food or work, and about 700 were sent to a colony at Napostá near Bahía Blanca.
How many people the City of Dresden carried
1,772 emigrants, about 1,500 of them Irish.
Source: Mulvany, The Dresden Affair, National Maritime Museum of Ireland, 21 February 2023(opens in a new tab)1,774 emigrants, mainly from Dublin, Cork and Limerick.
Source: Murray, DILAB, Dillon, Patrick Joseph (1842-1889), 1 November 2005(opens in a new tab)About 2,000 Irish, the largest single-origin shipload ever to reach Argentina.
Source: Geraghty, Argentina: Land of Broken Promises, Buenos Aires Herald, 17 March 1999(opens in a new tab)About 1,800.
Source: Roger, Irish Schools and Educators in Argentina, 1850-1950, IAHS/SILAS, 2005(opens in a new tab)1,700 Irish on one ship, many destitute.
Source: Mulligan, review of Kelly, Irish Times, 27 July 2009(opens in a new tab)We say: About 1,800 emigrants, most of them Irish.
When the City of Dresden sailed and landed
Left Deepwater Quay, Queenstown, on 25 January 1889 and arrived on 15 February 1889.
Source: Mulvany, The Dresden Affair, National Maritime Museum of Ireland, 21 February 2023(opens in a new tab)Sailed from Cobh and landed on 16 February 1889 after nineteen days.
Source: Geraghty, Argentina: Land of Broken Promises, Buenos Aires Herald, 17 March 1999(opens in a new tab)Sailed in September 1889.
Source: Murray, The Irish Road to South America, SILAS, June 2006(opens in a new tab)We say: Sailed on 25 January and landed in mid-February 1889.
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The colony of Dresden families near Bahía Blanca was dissolved in March after more than 100 deaths, mostly children, and 520 colonists walked back to Buenos Aires; on 14 May the Ladies of St Joseph's Society founded the Fahy Institute for orphan boys.
When the Fahy Institute was founded
Founded on 14 May 1891 by the Ladies of St Joseph's Society; moved to a farm school at Moreno on 16 December 1929.
Source: Roger, Irish Schools and Educators in Argentina, 1850-1950, IAHS/SILAS, 2005(opens in a new tab)The school's own site says it was founded in 1927 by the Asociación de Señoras de San José.
Source: Instituto Fahy (read 11 Oct 2026), 11 October 2026(opens in a new tab)We say: Founded in 1891 for orphan boys after the Dresden arrivals; now at Moreno.
Fewer Irish-born than in 1869 but a larger community once Argentine-born descendants are counted; in Buenos Aires city the census found 2,852 people of Irish descent, 915 of them Irish-born.
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The association founded in 1883 opened the school on 19 March 1899, and the Sisters of Mercy, back in Buenos Aires since August 1890, took it over by the end of 1902.
Where Santa Brígida came from
The Irish Catholic Association opened St Bridget's on 19 March 1899.
Source: Roger, Irish Schools and Educators in Argentina, 1850-1950, IAHS/SILAS, 2005(opens in a new tab)Fr Fahy's orphanage for Irish girls grew into Colegio Santa Brígida.
Source: Ali, article on Fr Antonio Fahy, Canal 26, 29 June 2025(opens in a new tab)We say: Opened in 1899 by the Irish Catholic Association.
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William Bulfin printed hurling rules in The Southern Cross in August 1900 and helped form the Buenos Aires Hurling Club that year; King and Darby date the first match between constituted clubs, Almagro v Palermo, to 15 July 1900.
Hurling's first organised play in 1900
The first official match between constituted clubs, Almagro v Palermo, was played on 15 July 1900.
Source: King and Darby, Becoming Irlandés: hurling and Irish identity in Argentina, Sport in Society 10:3, May 2007(opens in a new tab)An Argentine hurling club was formed on 15 July 1900.
Source: Wikipedia, Hurling Club, 11 October 2026(opens in a new tab)We say: First recorded in 1887–88; organised matches from 1900.
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A Catholic weekly covering Buenos Aires affairs, Irish culture and provincial readers' letters, it ran under this title into the 1920s and then as The Argentine Review to 1935, and it hosted the Sinn Féin debate of 1907 to 1908.
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William Bulfin's book came out from Gill of Dublin; late in the year a proposed Buenos Aires Sinn Féin branch set off a debate in The Hiberno-Argentine Review in which a reader signing Irish-Porteño wrote that he was an Argentine and foreign politics did not interest him.
Era 4 · 1916–1989
Bulfin's flag, diplomatic relations, the dictatorship's victims and the war of 1982.
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Born in Buenos Aires in 1892, Bulfin raised a green flag lettered Irish Republic, one of two flags over the GPO on 24 April 1916; he was condemned to death and reprieved, and his Argentine citizenship helped save him.
Why Eamon Bulfin was spared after the Rising
His death sentence was commuted because he was born in Argentina.
Source: DFA, Argentina–Ireland 2016: a shared commemoration (search snippet; page now redirects), 2015(opens in a new tab)He was spared reportedly after the Argentine envoy intervened.
Source: Edmundo Murray, Bulfin, Eamon (1892-1968), irlandeses.org, 7 May 2009(opens in a new tab)We say: His Argentine citizenship helped save him.
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After internment at Frongoch, Bulfin was deported on 21 March 1917 under the Aliens Restriction Act 1914, according to Edmundo Murray; in Argentina he was convicted of deserting military service and freed in 1919.
A de Valera letter of 6 May 1919 set his aims: build direct trade, co-ordinate Irish opinion in Argentina and align it with the demand for a republic; the Dáil's foreign affairs report of August 1921 lists him as the Republic's representative in Buenos Aires.
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Ginnell arrived at the end of July 1921, during the Treaty negotiations, to raise money, step up propaganda and extend the diplomatic network in Latin America; most Buenos Aires papers treated his arrival as minor news, The Southern Cross excepted.
Little's précis said Ginnell was well received and had launched a loan aimed at £500,000, of which he expected only £10,000 to £15,000, and that President Yrigoyen's government favoured Ireland but would not recognise the Republic.
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Argentine accounts say Argentina recognised Ireland in 1922, one of the first countries and, by their account, the first in Latin America to do so; no 1922 document of recognition has been found.
Argentine recognition of Ireland
Argentina was the first Latin American country to recognise Ireland officially once it became a Free State in 1922.
Source: CARI, Presencia de Irlanda en el mundo actual, Documentos de Trabajo No. 63, 23 July 2001(opens in a new tab)Argentina recognised Ireland in 1922 and, as President McAleese wrote in 2010, was the first country to recognise Ireland as a sovereign state.
Source: Silvia Merega, Relaciones Bilaterales Argentina-Irlanda, Suplemento Ideas I (USAL), 2020(opens in a new tab)In 1921 President Yrigoyen's government would not commit Argentina to recognising the Irish Republic.
Source: DIFP Vol. 1, No. 109, précis of a report on Argentina by P.J. Little, 4 October 1921(opens in a new tab)We say: One of the first, and by Argentine accounts the first in Latin America.
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The club traces its origin to August 1922, when Irish immigrants created the Federación Argentina de Hurling, by its own account; hurling was played regularly until the 1940s, when hurleys could no longer be imported.
Founding of the hurling federation and the Hurling Club
The club's origin lies in August 1922, when the Federación Argentina de Hurling was created.
Source: La Nación, Hurling Club centenary feature, 2 March 2023(opens in a new tab)The Hurling Club was established in 1925.
Source: GAA.ie, GAA breaking new ground in final frontier of South America, 11 December 2025(opens in a new tab)The Argentine Hurling Federation was founded in August 1920.
Source: King and Darby, Becoming Irlandés: hurling and Irish identity in Argentina, Sport in Society 10:3, May 2007(opens in a new tab)We say: The Hurling Club traces its roots to 1922, by its own account.
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Arturo Kenny and the captain Jack Nelson, both of Irish descent according to Olympedia, played in the team that beat the United States 6–5 in the final; Nelson scored the winning goal and Kenny six goals against Spain.
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In 1925 Borges printed in the Buenos Aires magazine Proa a Spanish version of Molly Bloom's closing monologue from Ulysses; bibliographies differ on the issue number.
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First published in Spanish in 1944, the story follows a historian, Ryan, investigating his great-grandfather Fergus Kilpatrick, a murdered patriot who turns out to have been the traitor, his killing staged as theatre.
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A leader of the coup of 4 June 1943, Farrell became vice-president and then president in 1944 and held office until 1946; Perón rose to power within his government.
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A self-taught Buenos Aires insurance writer, Salas Subirat was the first translator of Ulysses into Spanish, in the Santiago Rueda edition of 1945.
The Argentine foreign ministry dates the exchange of notes to 29 July 1947; Argentina's embassy in Dublin opened the next year, replacing a consulate general set up decades earlier.
When diplomatic relations were established
By exchange of notes on 29 July 1947.
Source: Cancillería, 100 años de amistad Argentina-Irlanda, exhibition catalogue, 2017(opens in a new tab)In June 1947.
Source: Wikipedia, Argentina–Ireland relations, 11 October 2026(opens in a new tab)We say: 29 July 1947, per the Argentine foreign ministry.
Argentina's embassy in Dublin opened in 1948, with José Bessone and Jorge Posse its first representatives; Ireland's mission in Buenos Aires opened in 1948–49 and stayed its only mission in Latin America until 1999.
Opening of the Irish mission in Buenos Aires
Ireland opened its embassy in Buenos Aires in 1948.
Source: ireland.ie, Ireland in Argentina, 11 October 2026(opens in a new tab)The Irish embassy in Buenos Aires began work in 1949, the year after Argentina's in Dublin.
Source: Cancillería, 100 años de amistad Argentina-Irlanda, exhibition catalogue, 2017(opens in a new tab)We say: Opened in 1948–49.
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For the hundredth anniversary of his death, Argentina gave Foxford a bronze bust of Admiral Brown and Ireland issued a commemorative Brown stamp.
The Argentine foreign ministry's 2017 exhibition catalogue lists a 1965 treaty abolishing visas between the two countries.
In the early hours of Sunday 4 July 1976 the priests Alfredo Leaden, Alfredo Kelly and Pedro Dufau and the seminarians Salvador Barbeito and Emilio Barletti were killed at San Patricio parish; the Pallottines had come to Argentina from Ireland, and as of June 2026 no one has been convicted.
Who carried out the San Patricio killings
In 2006 a court charged 17 members of an ESMA task group, but the Federal Appeals Chamber found it unproven that the killers came from the ESMA.
Source: Página/12, Dandan, on the San Patricio case, 4 July 2016(opens in a new tab)Since 2022 the case has examined a Federal Police reprisal for the bombing of the Coordinación Federal building on 2 July 1976.
Source: Tiempo Argentino, Masacre de San Patricio: llaman a indagatoria a 4 expolicías, 9 June 2026(opens in a new tab)We say: Unsolved; no one convicted as of June 2026; name no perpetrators.
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The Fermoy-born priest and the 18-year-old catechist were abducted after a prayer meeting in October 1976 and tortured; both survived, with prompt action by Irish Embassy staff credited in part, and Rice was deported in December 1976.
Date and place of Fr Patrick Rice's abduction
Abducted on 11 October 1976.
Source: Irish Times, Kelleher, Mass will celebrate life and work of late human rights activist, 16 August 2010(opens in a new tab)Rice's own complaint reportedly gives 12 October 1976.
Source: IACHR Annual Report 1978, Case 2450 (search snippet), 1978(opens in a new tab)Abducted in Villa Soldati and tortured in a clandestine centre.
Source: Cancillería, 100 años de amistad Argentina-Irlanda, exhibition catalogue, 2017(opens in a new tab)Abducted in La Plata and taken to the ESMA.
Source: Wikipedia, Patrick Rice, 11 October 2026(opens in a new tab)We say: Abducted with Fátima Cabrera in October 1976.
The writer of Irish descent, author of an open letter to the military junta in March 1977, was shot and abducted in Buenos Aires on 25 March 1977 by what the Argentine government's account identifies as an ESMA task group; his remains were never returned and he is listed among the disappeared.
Date of Walsh's open letter to the junta
Published on 25 March 1977, a year and a day after the coup.
Source: Argentina.gob.ar, Rodolfo Walsh, 9 January 2023(opens in a new tab)Dated 24 March 1977.
Source: Edmundo Murray, Walsh, Rodolfo, irlandeses.org, 2009(opens in a new tab)We say: His open letter of March 1977; ambushed on 25 March.
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Between 8 and 10 December 1977 twelve people, among them founders of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo and two French nuns, were abducted after meeting at the Santa Cruz church of the Passionists, a congregation of Irish origin; Azucena Villaflor was taken from her home in Sarandí on 10 December.
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Founded by Christine Rasmussen in 1979 and directed by Dominique Duré for about two decades, the school offers classes for all ages, performances and outreach; the Irish Government's page on it speaks of 47 years of history.
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On 29 May 1979 the Republic of Ireland and Argentina drew 0–0 at Lansdowne Road before 25,000 in an unofficial international in aid of UNICEF; Maradona came on in the second half and later wrote about a Frank Stapleton tackle in his tour diary for El Gráfico.
As a non-permanent Security Council member, Ireland voted on 3 April 1982 for Resolution 502, demanding an end to hostilities and Argentine withdrawal from the Malvinas; Argentina maintains its sovereignty claim to the islands, and the UK says it will not negotiate sovereignty without the islanders.
Two days after the General Belgrano was sunk, the Irish government called for an urgent Security Council meeting to prepare a ceasefire resolution and asked EEC members to look again at sanctions; Haughey cited the heavy loss of life, while Britain described the sinking as self-defence under the UN Charter.
Why the Irish government changed course in May 1982
The Belgrano sinking and the heavy loss of life prompted the new statement; Ireland was not interested in laying blame (Haughey, 4 May 1982).
Source: National Archives of Ireland, 2012/90/868, transcript of Haughey's RTÉ interview (via CAIN), 4 May 1982(opens in a new tab)Haughey acted from political opportunism and anglophobia (Stephen Kelly).
Source: Stephen Kelly, An opportunistic Anglophobe: Charles J. Haughey, the Irish government and the Falklands War, 1982, Contemporary British History, 30 March 2016(opens in a new tab)Ireland's links with Argentina were too weak to justify the risk; the statement was agreed at Kinsealy without consulting the UN representative (Michael Lillis).
Source: Michael Lillis, Mr Haughey's Dud Exocet, Dublin Review of Books, 10 March 2012(opens in a new tab)We say: Each view is attributed to its author; the site endorses none.
On 17 May 1982 all EC members except Italy and Ireland renewed the import ban on Argentine goods; Ireland and Italy undertook not to undermine it, and Noel Dorr later called the fallout with Britain the greatest Anglo-Irish controversy in a generation.
The film about Camila O'Gorman was nominated for the 1985 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
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Founded about 1989, the society holds an annual asado at The Rustic Inn, Abbeyshrule, timed near Argentina's Friendship Day on 20 July, and completed an oral history project on emigration to Argentina with archives in the Westmeath and Longford libraries.
Era 5 · 1990–2027
State visits, working holidays, Gaelic games revived, and Brown at 250.
The sides' first full Test was played at Lansdowne Road on 27 October 1990; by October 2015 they had met 15 times, Ireland winning 10 and Argentina 5.
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President Robinson's visit to Argentina, Chile and Brazil from 19 March to 2 April 1995 was the first state visit by an Irish president to Latin America; she met President Menem on 20 March and told an official dinner she was the first Irish president to visit Argentina officially.
From its opening until 1999 the Irish embassy in Buenos Aires was Ireland's only resident mission in Latin America, according to the Argentine foreign ministry; a History Ireland article on the mission makes the same point.
Ahern arrived in Buenos Aires on 23 July 2001 on the first official visit by an Irish head of government, met President Fernando de la Rúa, and the two governments signed a memorandum of understanding on high-level political consultations.
When the political consultations were agreed
The mechanism was agreed during Ahern's 2001 visit and first met in March 2004.
Source: Cancillería, joint communiqué 107/2004, 19 March 2004(opens in a new tab)The political-consultations memorandum dates from 2008.
Source: Silvia Merega, Relaciones Bilaterales Argentina-Irlanda, Suplemento Ideas I (USAL), 2020(opens in a new tab)We say: Agreed in 2001 (Cancillería).
During President McAleese's visit in March 2004 the first Argentina–Ireland political consultations met at the Argentine foreign ministry, covering trade, judicial assistance, drugs, counter-terrorism and EU–Mercosur, under the mechanism agreed in 2001.
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Taoiseach Bertie Ahern unveiled the bronze, a gift from the Argentine Navy, in September 2006; it was moved to its present spot with a new plinth and plaque in August 2012.
When the Dublin Brown statue arrived and was unveiled
Unveiled in September 2006 and moved in August 2012.
Source: Come Here To Me, Admiral William Brown, 8 March 2013(opens in a new tab)LÉ Eithne brought a statue home in 2007 to be erected in Dublin.
Source: Pat McCarrick, Western People, Brown's legacy unites Foxford and Argentina, 5 October 2025(opens in a new tab)We say: Unveiled on Sir John Rogerson's Quay in 2006; name the donor only once confirmed.
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During the 150th-anniversary tour the first Comhaltas branch in South America was founded at Ceolaras Coleman in Gurteen, Co. Sligo, by 26 musicians and four dancers from Buenos Aires, and a Mayo delegation twinned the county with Adrogué.
Signed in Buenos Aires in March 2008 by Dermot Ahern and Jorge Taiana, the agreement allowed up to 100 people a year each way; an exchange of notes in 2017 raised the quota to 200.
Original working holiday terms, 2008
Under 35; 100 places a year; up to nine months for Irish participants and 12 for Argentines.
Source: Irish Examiner, on the working holiday agreement, 19 March 2008(opens in a new tab)Aged 21 to 30; 100 places per country.
Source: Silvia Merega, Relaciones Bilaterales Argentina-Irlanda, Suplemento Ideas I (USAL), 2020(opens in a new tab)We say: Signed in March 2008 with 100 places a year; 200 from 2017.
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The city-run street festival on Avenida de Mayo, held since 2009 and coordinated with the Almirante Brown Irish-Argentine association, ran until 2023 and was suspended in 2024.
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The cup was created in 2012 by the Argentine Embassy in Dublin, Ireland's embassy in Buenos Aires, the UAR and the IRFU; Ireland had won all three contests by November 2018.
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President Fernández de Kirchner received Higgins at the Casa Rosada on 11 October 2012; his programme included a lecture on Irish–Argentine links, a meeting with the community, a ceremony for Admiral Brown in Plaza Irlanda and a visit to the Espacio Patrick Rice at the former ESMA.
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From March 2016 Ambassador Justin Harman ran a programme of events marking both the Rising centenary and the bicentenary of Argentina's 1816 declaration of independence; the frigate ARA Libertad docked in Dublin from 27 to 31 July and its crew visited Foxford.
An exchange of notes in Dublin in 2017 raised the age limit to 35 and the quota to 200 places; the Irish Government says about 200 young Argentines a year now travel to Ireland under the agreement.
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Founded in 2017 by volunteers led by Francisco Lynch, the club competed at the 2019 and 2023 GAA World Games, fields underage teams and has hosted the Copa Almirante Brown since 2021.
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The Irish Government's page on the diaspora in Argentina says the Southern Association for Irish Studies was created in 2017, and that the universities of La Plata and La Pampa have Irish Studies chairs.
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Cuenca del Plata GAA has hosted the one-day Gaelic football blitz in San Isidro since 2021; the November 2025 edition was the largest yet, with over 150 players in men's and women's competitions from clubs in Argentina, Chile and Paraguay.
Census 2022 counted 2,904 residents born in Argentina and 1,348 Argentine citizens, plus 232 people with dual Irish-Argentine citizenship; it was the first census to ask about citizenship rather than nationality.
How many Argentines live in Ireland
2,904 residents born in Argentina at Census 2022.
Source: CSO PxStat F5014, population by birthplace and citizenship, 26 October 2023(opens in a new tab)1,348 Argentine citizens plus 232 dual Irish-Argentine citizens at Census 2022.
Source: CSO PxStat F5006, citizenship by age, 26 October 2023(opens in a new tab)Over 3,000 Argentines currently live in Ireland (no source given).
Source: Connaught Telegraph, Celebrations to mark 250th anniversary of birth of Mayo naval hero, 10 March 2026(opens in a new tab)We say: 2,904 residents born in Argentina at the 2022 census.
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The 13th edition ran on Saturday 18 March 2023 from midday on Avenida de Mayo with more than 40 stalls, the Regimiento de Patricios band and pipers; in 2024 the city festival was suspended and the St Patrick's parade went ahead on its own.
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Founded in Buenos Aires on 16 January 1875 by Patrick Joseph Dillon, the paper marked 150 years on 16 January 2025; that year the Embassy of Ireland spent €34,515.60 of Strategic Diaspora Project funds on digitising it.
When The Southern Cross turned to Spanish
English-only, with occasional Irish lessons, until 1977.
Source: Irish Echo, A proud 150 years, 16 January 2025(opens in a new tab)Turned mainly Spanish in 1964.
Source: globalirish.ie, on The Southern Cross (search summary), 2010(opens in a new tab)We say: Published in English until the 1960s or 1970s.
Launched in April 2026, Ireland's third diaspora strategy carries a case study of the Hurling Club in Buenos Aires, a government estimate of roughly 500,000 Argentines with Irish ancestry, and a commitment to mark the 250th anniversary of William Brown's birth in 2027.
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Federal judge Daniel Rafecas, who has had the case since 2022, summoned four former Federal Police officers for questioning in late June 2026 on a reprisal hypothesis that is not established; the case remains unsolved and no one has been convicted.
The programme opened on 1 June 2026 at 09:00 Argentine time for 200 places; applicants send one email each to VFS Global from that moment, and the first 200 receive an appointment to submit documents.
Working holiday age limit for Argentines
Aged 18 to 35 inclusive at the time of application.
Source: Embassy of Ireland Argentina, Working holiday programme, 11 October 2026(opens in a new tab)Under 35 on the appointment date.
Source: VFS Global, Ireland Working Holiday 2026 guidance for Argentinian nationals, May 2026(opens in a new tab)We say: Aged 18 to 35; check the current round's terms.
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The anniversary was marked with an exhibition at the city legislature on 29 June, a Mass at the parish on 4 July 2026 presided over by Archbishop García Cuerva, and a Mass on 5 July at the Centro de Espiritualidad Palotina.
From Monday 5 October 2026 all visits to the embassy at Avenida del Libertador 1068, Recoleta, are by appointment only, arranged in advance by email, until further notice.
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A Nations Championship Test is scheduled for Friday 6 November 2026 at the Aviva Stadium, kick-off 20:10; the most recent meeting there ended Ireland 22–19 Argentina on 15 November 2024.
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Ireland's Diaspora Strategy commits to marking the anniversary in 2027, and organisers in Mayo and Argentina plan events, a hoped-for ARA Libertad visit, a documentary, Brown Between Two Seas, and a delegation to Argentina.
Where next
The last entry is Admiral Brown's 250th birthday in 2027. Here is how to keep going.
