It’s Saint Patrick’s Day, and that means that today, across the world, Irish people and people who wish they were Irish will be downing insane amounts of beer, tucking into corned beef and soda bread, and having a merry
It’s Saint Patrick’s Day, and that means that today, across the world, Irish people and people who wish they were Irish will be downing insane amounts of beer, tucking into corned beef and soda bread, and having a merry ol’ time. Including the Irish-Chileans.
Wait...Irish people in Chile? You bet! (Luck of the Irish, right?)
In the 18th century, when large waves of European immigrants were pouring into the Chilean south to take advantage of the “free” land (most of which belonged to native tribes) and/or to seek a better life away from oppression and persecution in their native countries, the Irish were one of the most notable and influential groups, with their large numbers now reflected in a hefty number of modern Chileans boasting of Irish heritage (at least 120,000 direct Irish, 700,000 from the British Isles).
With the majority migrating over to Chile in the 18th and early 19th century, Irish-Chileans form a very important part of the cultural fabric of the south, with many immigrants becoming sheep farmers in the Magallanes region. Spain (which owned Chile until the War of Independence in the early 1800s) put Chile on the map for many Irishmen as a viable place to move to, which they did in droves, to a place where the fields of waving grass, wide open pampas, and chill weather of the Magallanes region likely reminded them of home. This made them prime movers-and-shakers in the colonization of Patagonia and Chile’s south.
For the Irish, Chile offered a haven from the Protestant government back in England, which harshly discriminated against Irish Catholicism. Their flight to South America was part of a larger immigration trend known as “The Wild Geese,” which referred to the Irish leaving their homeland en masse during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries to flee religious persecution. Arriving in Chile, they brought their religion and culture, and Irish cultural identity fused into the overall cultural iden