de prisoner with his army at Sedan, but he
suppressed the Commune after the war and was President of France from
1873 to 1879. The device by which 300 Irishmen took part on the
French side in the war with Germany has a grim humor. They went as
aides in an ambulance corps fitted out in Dublin by subscription,
but, once on French soil, enlisted in the army. "Maybe we can kill as
well as we can cure," said one of them. The _Compagnie irlandaise_,
as it was called, did creditable work, and was in the last combat
with the Prussians at Montbellard. Their captain, M.W. Kirwan, was
offered a Cross of the Legion of Honor, but for some reason declined
it. Dr. Constantine J. McGuire, who won the decoration for bravery
before Paris during the siege of the Commune, did, however, accept
it, receiving the cross from the hands of Marshal MacMahon, and, hale
and hearty, wears the red ribbon on occasion in New York today.

Even as this chronicle of daring deeds and daring doers is being
penned, in the ranks and as commanding officers on the side of the
allies in the far-flung battle lines of the great European war, are
men of Irish birth, and, let it not be forgotten, not a few of the
opposing side are the descendants of the Irish military geniuses who,
in days gone by, fought so gallantly across the continent "from
Dunkirk to Belgrade". They are all, every man of them, bearing
bravely, as of yore, their own part amid the dangers and chances of
the fray.

If the inspiring story is of necessity here barely sketched in
outline, it nevertheless clearly indicates that, as it has been for
two thousand years of Irish history, so it will be to the end of the
human chapter--the Irish race is the Fighting Race, and willing, even
eager, to risk life itself for vital issues.

REFERENCES:

Keating's, MacGeoghegan's, Mitchel's Histories of Ireland; J.C.
O'Callaghan: The Irish Brigades in the Service of France, The Green
Book; Lossing: Field Book of the Revolution, Field Book of the War of
1812; Several Mexican War Histories; Battles and Leaders of the Civil
War; The Irish at Home and Abroad (New York, 1856); Canon O'Hanlon:
Irish-American History of the United States; O'Hart; Irish Pedigrees;
Martin I. Griffin: Life of Commodore Barry; John D. Crimmins: Irish
Miscellany; Joseph Denieffe: Fenian Recollections; Plowden:
Historical Review of the State of Ireland (London, 1803); Hays:
History of the Irish (1798) Rebellion; Macaulay: History of Eng