Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day

With St Patrick's Day to be celebrated on the coming Thursday, one's thoughts turn to the Irish Diaspora, past and present. It's hard today to grasp the scope of Ireland's population outflow especially during the 19th century but if there's one indicator of its vastness it's that the waves it generated are still resonating from New York to Iraq. "Tell on," as my mother says, when she senses there's a story to be related.

Well, let's consider this example: In early 1851 a group of Irish immigrants in New York City formed a militia which later that year was incorporated in the New York State Militia and designated the Sixty-Ninth Regiment. When President Lincoln made his first call for reinforcements following the bombardment of Fort Sumter in 1861, the "69th", as it became known, was quick to volunteer, and it went on to fight under General Sherman at the First Battle of Bull Run, where its Gaelic war cry "Fag a' bealach!" (Clear the way!), left a lasting impression on those who heard it. It was a Confederate officer, however, who gave the 69th its legendary nickname. After hearing that the regiment was to face him during one critical encounter, General Robert E. Lee remarked, "Ah yes, that Fighting 69th."

When the First World War came, the Irish component of the regiment was still dominant and for bravery displayed in Lorraine, Chamapgne-Marne and Meuse-Argonne, the Medal of Honor was awarded to regiment members with names such as William Donovan and Richard O'Neil. By the time the Second World War came, the Irish influence had diminished somewhat but was still very much present as the records show.

And this brings us to the present day because the first members of the Fighting 69th to die in combat since the Second World War were killed on 29 November last year on a country road northwest of Baghdad. The attackers had buried a 200-pound bomb attached to two 155-millimeter artillery shells and detonated the charge by remote control. The blast killed Sergeant Christian Engeldrum, 39, and Specialist Wilfredo Urbina, 29. Not very Irish, those names, and as a further indicator of how New York's changed mosaic is now represented in the regiment, the New York Times reported: "In the battalion's personnel office alone, the staff includes a Puerto Rican real estate agent raised in Lower Manhattan, a Jew from the Bronx, a white Manhattan publishing executive from Oklahoma, an Ecuadorean student living in Queens, an Italian-American from Staten Island and naturalized American citizens from Barbados and China who now live in Brooklyn."

Despite the changing demographics, the Irish tradition is not completely forgotten. At the beginning of the year, the unit was given the job of safeguarding the five-mile stretch of highway linking Baghdad Airport and the "Green Zone", the fortified compound that houses American and Iraqi government buildings. The highway is frequently called the most dangerous road in Iraq and is now referred to within the military as "Route Irish". And it was along Route Irish a week ago that a car carrying the Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena was traveling. More tomorrow.