Confounding the Garibaldian Liars: The Letters of Albert Delahoyde, Irish Soldier of the Papal Battalion of St Patrick and Papal Zouave in Italy, 1860-1870

Abstract

Albert Delahoyde was representative of the strong sense of Irish
Catholic nationalism that inspired young Irishmen to volunteer to
serve Pope Pius IX in 1860. His experiences aid us in understanding
how the Irish viewed Italy during the nineteenth century, especially
as his lengthy stay in Italy meant that he witnessed the completion
of Italian unification in 1870. In the wider picture, the relationship
between Ireland and Italy at this point in the mid-nineteenth century
was one of lost possibilities. Despite a number of commonalities
in the respective situations of Ireland and Italy, the events of the
1860s demonstrated how the two countries negatively impacted on
each other, as, due to the transnational dimension of Catholicism,
their respective causes could no longer remain the same.