In the Irish Brigade

Name: In the Irish Brigade
Rating: 2.5 (5 reviews)

by G. A. Henty

First published 1901

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2.5(5)

Desmond Kennedy leaves Ireland to join O'Brien's regiment in the Irish Brigade serving France during the War of the Spanish Succession. His family's Jacobite loyalties make military service abroad a natural path, but Desmond soon finds that war in Louis XIV's armies involves court politics and secret missions as well as conventional campaigning.

His adventures carry him through France, Flanders, Scotland and Spain. He rescues a kidnapped woman, faces captivity during a Jacobite enterprise, serves the Duke of Berwick and uncovers corruption while attached to the army in Spain. Desmond's career connects the experience of exiled Irish soldiers with the wider European war, while his eventual return home raises the question of whether service abroad can restore the family position lost through earlier political defeat.