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The Castlebar Races

How a friendship between France and Ireland began.

During 1798, the Union Ireland Society (a revolutionary organization inspired by the French Revolution) asked the French country for help to fight against the British power.

On August 6, 1798, 3 French frigates embarked a little more than 1000 people per frigate, left a port of Rochefort from Ireland.

On August 22, 1798, the Irish rejoiced because the French frigate landed in the northwest of Ireland. The Irish people lived in poverty following the occupation by England while much of Protestant England possessed great wealth. The march of this small army went smoothly to the town of Killala. The French army very quickly took a town, then a new town called Ballina, despite the presence of the English cavalry. More and more Irish joined the French army. The English army began to fear the 2000 French and Irish men led from the town of Castlebar. Castlebard was defended by around 6000 English soldiers. An army composed of French and Irish soldiers went to Castelebar by a special route. A battle ensued.

On August 26, 1798, the French army took a town in reverse, at the moment when a great panic settled in the English army which abandoned an enormous quantity of rifles, cannons as well as a baggage of our general. The people of Ireland called this battle by a nickname "the Castlebar Races". The British army was arrested for when they saw Lord Cornwallis with his army.

The French army in Ireland won another victory at a battle of Collooney on September 5, 1798.

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