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Irish ArgentineProject

The register

The people

Admirals and shepherds, priests and editors, writers and the disappeared. Every entry carries a grade for its Irish link, with the evidence one tap away, and says where the sources disagree.

41 people · documented lives and disputed links

  1. 11520–1828
  2. 21826–1889
  3. 31844–1891
  4. 41916–1989
  5. 51990–2027
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41 people · documented lives and disputed links

Era 1 · 1520–1828

Spanish subjects, stranded soldiers and a Mayo admiral

Irish names in the viceroyalty, soldiers who stayed after 1806, and William Brown's navy.

Read about this era

  • John Mooney

    1803

    Irish link: Documented

    The Streamstown man who, with his son-in-law Patrick Bookey, was the first named Westmeath settler-employer in Argentina in the late 1820s.

    • Land and business
  • A portrait of John Thomond O'Brien

    John Thomond O'Brien

    1786–1861

    Irish link: Documented

    The Baltinglass-born aide-de-camp to San Martín, who tried to recruit Irish emigrants in the 1820s, was jailed by Rosas and now lies in Mendoza.

    • Navy and wars
    • Politics and public life
  • A small reproduction of a portrait of Michael O'Gorman

    Michael O'Gorman

    1749–1819

    Irish link: Documented

    The Ennis-born physician of the Spanish viceroyalty who promoted the Protomedicato in 1780 and founded medical teaching in Buenos Aires.

    • Medicine and science
    • Education

  • Patrick Lynch

    1715

    Irish link: Documented

    The Galway merchant who settled in Buenos Aires in 1749 and became the ancestor of the Argentine Lynches, including the novelist Benito Lynch and Che Guevara.

    • Land and business
  • A bronze bust of Peter CampbellBronze bust

    Peter Campbell

    1780–1832

    Irish link: Documented

    An Irish soldier of the 1806 invasion who deserted, turned gaucho and tanner, and commanded Artigas's river fleet; Uruguay remembers him as the founder of its navy.

    • Navy and wars

  • Peter Sheridan

    1792–1844

    Irish link: Documented

    The Cavan-born sheep pioneer of the 1820s, the largest employer of early Irish labourers, who owned some 40,000 sheep when he died.

    • Land and business
  • A photograph of Thomas Armstrong

    Thomas Armstrong

    1797–1875

    Irish link: Documented

    The Offaly-born merchant and banker who recruited the first Westmeath–Longford emigrants in 1826 and became Fr Fahy's banker and landlord.

    • Land and business
  • An engraved portrait of Admiral William Brown

    William Brown

    1777–1857

    Irish link: Documented

    The Mayo-born founder of the Argentine Navy, who broke the Spanish blockade off Montevideo in 1814 and commanded the fleet against Brazil.

    • Navy and wars

Era 2 · 1826–1889

Midlands and Wexford shepherds make the pampas Irish

Emigration chains from Westmeath, Longford and Wexford, the sheep boom and life in the camp.

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  • An engraved portrait of Fr Anthony Fahy

    Anthony Fahy

    1805–1871

    Irish link: Documented

    The Loughrea Dominican who was chaplain, banker and matchmaker to the Irish of Buenos Aires from 1844 to 1871, and a supporter of Rosas.

    • Church
    • Community
  • A portrait of Camila O'Gorman

    Camila O'Gorman

    1828–1848

    Irish link: Documented

    Shot with the priest Ladislao Gutiérrez on Rosas's orders in August 1848, aged about 20; the granddaughter of an O'Gorman merchant from Ennis and the best-known Irish-named victim of the Rosas years.

    • Politics and public life
    • Church
  • A photograph of Eduardo Casey

    Eduardo Casey

    1847–1906

    Irish link: Documented

    The Irish-Argentine land developer who founded Venado Tuerto, first exported live cattle to England and was ruined in the crisis of 1890.

    • Land and business
  • A portrait of Edward Mulhall

    Edward Mulhall

    1832

    Irish link: Documented

    Co-founder, with his brother Michael, of The Standard in Buenos Aires in 1861; a sheep farmer and businessman from a Dublin family who befriended two Argentine presidents.

    • Letters and journalism
    • Land and business

  • John Brabazon

    Irish link: Documented

    The Westmeath Protestant whose camp journal is the earliest Irish voice from the sheep frontier, recording faction fights, drink and murder.

    • Land and business
    • Letters and journalism
  • A photograph of John James Murphy in old age

    John James Murphy

    1822–1909

    Irish link: Documented

    The Kilrane emigrant of 1844 who landed with £1, dug ditches at Chascomús and died owning two estancias: the arc of the sheep boom in one life.

    • Land and business

  • Margarita Morgan

    1839–1923

    Irish link: Documented

    The benefactor who gave the Irish saints' altars to Luján basilica and built a hospital, a chapel and a school at San Antonio de Areco.

    • Community
    • Church
  • A photograph of Mother Evangelista Fitzpatrick, about 1880

    Mother Evangelista Fitzpatrick

    1822–1885

    Irish link: Documented

    The Dublin-born Sister of Mercy who led the first Irish nuns to Buenos Aires in 1856 and ran the Irish Hospital, a school and an orphanage until the community left for Adelaide in 1880.

    • Church
    • Education
  • A photograph of William Bulfin

    William Bulfin

    early 1860s–1910

    Irish link: Documented

    Offaly-born writer who went to the pampas as a young man, rose from contributor to owner-editor of The Southern Cross as 'Che Buono', and wrote Rambles in Eirinn (1907).

    • Letters and journalism

Era 3 · 1844–1891

Priests, papers and a disastrous ship

Fr Fahy's chaplaincy, the Irish press, the City of Dresden affair and the institutions that outlived it.

Read about this era
  • A photograph of Kathleen Boyle

    Kathleen Boyle

    1869–1941

    Irish link: Documented

    The Dublin-born headmistress who founded the Colegio Inglés of San Martín in 1894, open to pupils of any origin or religion and later renamed San Patricio.

    • Education

  • Marion Mulhall

    –1922

    Irish link: Reported

    Travel writer and wife of Michael George Mulhall, whose books on Paraguay, Mato Grosso and the pampas are read as an Irish woman's voice from 1870s and 1880s Argentina.

    • Letters and journalism
  • A portrait of Michael George Mulhall

    Michael George Mulhall

    1836–1900

    Irish link: Documented

    Dublin-born co-founder of The Standard (1861), South America's first English-language daily, and author of the Handbook of the River Plate and later statistical works.

    • Letters and journalism
  • A photograph of Fr Patrick Joseph Dillon

    Patrick Joseph Dillon

    1841 or 1842–1889

    Irish link: Documented

    Fahy's successor as Irish chaplain, who founded The Southern Cross in 1875 and sat in the Buenos Aires legislature and the national Senate.

    • Church
    • Letters and journalism

Era 4 · 1916–1989

From the GPO roof to the 1982 rupture

Bulfin's flag, diplomatic relations, the dictatorship's victims and the war of 1982.

Read about this era
  • A photograph of Alice Ginnell

    Alice Ginnell

    1882–1967

    Irish link: Documented

    Born at Kilbride near Mullingar, she was her husband Laurence's partner in the 1921–22 Dáil mission to Argentina, where her Spanish was a key asset.

    • Politics and public life
  • The Argentine polo team of 1924Team photograph, 1924

    Arturo Kenny

    1888

    Irish link: Reported

    A member of the polo team that won Argentina's first Olympic gold in 1924; the Copa Arturo Kenny is played at Venado Tuerto each year.

    • Sport
  • A photograph of Benito Lynch

    Benito Lynch

    early 1880s–1951

    Irish link: Documented

    Novelist of gaucho life, born in La Plata in the early 1880s, of documented descent from Patrick Lynch of Co. Galway; author of Los caranchos de la Florida and El inglés de los güesos.

    • Letters and journalism
    • Arts
  • Eamon Bulfin photographed in 1916

    Eamon Bulfin

    1892–1968

    Irish link: Documented

    Born in Argentina to William Bulfin, he raised a flag over the GPO in 1916, was deported to Buenos Aires and became the Irish Republic's first representative there in 1919.

    • Politics and public life
  • Edelmiro Farrell in 1944

    Edelmiro Farrell

    1887–1980

    Irish link: Documented

    Army officer and president of Argentina in 1944–46, the grandson of Matthew Farrell of Co. Longford, in whose government Perón rose to power.

    • Politics and public life
    • Navy and wars
  • Alberto Korda's photograph of Che Guevara, 1960

    Ernesto "Che" Guevara

    1928–1967

    Irish link: Documented

    Rosario-born revolutionary with documented but remote descent from Patrick Lynch of Co. Galway; Ireland's claims on him, from a Kilkee plaque to a 2017 stamp, are contested.

    • Politics and public life

  • Fidelis Rush

    1914–1997

    Irish link: Reported

    The Rojas-born Passionist priest, of Westmeath and Longford stock, credited as a precursor of Argentina's Irish-Celtic music movement.

    • Church
    • Arts
  • A childhood photograph of Gloria Kehoe

    Gloria Kehoe

    1954

    Irish link: Documented

    Short-story writer of Wexford and Offaly descent whose book Pico de paloma appeared in April 1977, weeks before she was abducted and taken to the ESMA, where she was killed.

    • Letters and journalism
    • Arts
  • Jack Nelson in El Gráfico, 1942

    Jack Nelson

    1891–1983

    Irish link: Reported

    Captain of the Argentine polo team of 1924, who scored the winning goal in the final that brought the country its first Olympic gold.

    • Sport
  • A photograph of Joe Baxter

    Joe Baxter

    1940–1973

    Irish link: Reported

    Secretary-general of the far-right group Tacuara who later moved to the revolutionary left; from an Anglo-Irish Protestant family and killed in an air crash near Paris in 1973.

    • Politics and public life
  • A photograph of Juan Pedro Garrahan

    Juan Pedro Garrahan

    1893–1960s

    Irish link: Documented

    The Buenos Aires paediatrician of Westmeath descent whose name the national children's hospital has carried since 1979.

    • Medicine and science
  • A portrait of Laurence Ginnell

    Laurence Ginnell

    1852–1923

    Irish link: Documented

    Westmeath TD sent by de Valera as the Dáil's envoy to South America in 1921; his Buenos Aires mission launched a loan, won provincial attention and foundered after the Treaty.

    • Politics and public life
  • The Argentine polo team at the 1936 Olympic GamesTeam photograph, 1936

    Luis Duggan

    1906–1987

    Irish link: Documented

    The 1936 Olympic polo gold medallist from the Duggan family of Ballymahon, wool brokers and landowners behind the town of Duggan.

    • Sport
    • Land and business
  • María Elena Walsh photographed in 1963

    María Elena Walsh

    1930–2011

    Irish link: Reported

    Poet, songwriter and children's author of Manuelita and El reino del revés, of reported Irish descent on her father's side; later a member of the Council for the Consolidation of Democracy.

    • Arts
    • Letters and journalism
  • A photograph of Mateo Banks

    Mateo Banks

    1872–1949

    Irish link: Documented

    A Chascomús estancia family's son, recorded by SILAS as a family murderer sentenced to life in 1923: a dark entry kept for completeness.

    • Land and business
  • Paddy McCarthy in athletic dress, photographed in 1903

    Paddy McCarthy

    1871–1963

    Irish link: Documented

    The Cashel-born teacher who arrived in 1900, coached boxers while the sport was unlawful and taught football at Lobos and Estudiantes.

    • Sport
    • Education
  • Patrick Rice during an interview in Mexico City, 1982

    Patrick Rice

    1945–2010

    Irish link: Documented

    A Fermoy-born priest who lived in a Buenos Aires shanty town, was abducted and tortured in October 1976, survived with the Irish Embassy's help and spent the rest of his life on human rights.

    • Church
    • Community
  • Rodolfo Walsh

    Rodolfo Walsh

    1927–disappeared 25 March 1977

    Irish link: Documented

    Writer and investigative journalist of Irish descent, schooled at the Instituto Fahy, author of Operación Masacre and the Irish stories; shot and disappeared by an ESMA task group in March 1977.

    • Letters and journalism
    • Politics and public life
  • The three priests and two seminarians of San Patricio, in press photographs printed in 1985The five, El Periodista, 1985

    The Pallottines of San Patricio

    –1976

    Irish link: Reported

    Three Pallottine priests and two seminarians killed at St Patrick's, Belgrano, on 4 July 1976; the order came from Ireland, the case is unresolved and a canonisation cause is open.

    • Church

Era 5 · 1990–2027

A descent community with living institutions

State visits, working holidays, Gaelic games revived, and Brown at 250.

Read about this era
  • A portrait of Cecilia Grierson

    Cecilia Grierson

    Irish link: Reported

    The first woman in Argentina to qualify as a doctor, with an Irish mother; an Irish Fellows award for Argentine, Bolivian and Paraguayan applicants carries her name.

    • Medicine and science

Collections

Short lists that tell one story each.

How we grade an Irish link

A grade is never raised by inference, and a surname alone is not evidence. Living people are shown by their public role only.

Irish link: Documented
Irish birth, or a named Irish-born ancestor with a county or townland.
Irish link: Reported
Irish descent stated by sources, origin not traced.
Irish link: Claimed, weak
Rests on a surname, a list or a disputed account.
Irish link: Connector
No Irish descent; a living link between the two countries by work.
Irish link: No Irish descent
Often listed as Irish, but the sources say otherwise.

Where next

Every name here leads somewhere

A person opens onto their era, the places they knew and the record that remembers them.

The timelineFive centuries of dated events, with their sources.The placesTowns, churches, estancias and graves on both sides of the ocean.What's on this seasonThe parades, matches and anniversaries that keep the link alive.Ask about anyoneThe guide answers from these entries and shows its sources.