The Irish-Americans Fighting For Mexico (1847)
This Day
Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia
4.6 • 982 Ratings
🗓️ 11 September 2025
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It's 1847. This day, a battalion of Irish immigrants are hung by the U.S. Army for deserting to the Mexican side in the Mexican-American War.
Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how the "San Patricios Battallion" was formed, why Irish immigrants might feel more allegiance to Mexico than the United States, and how this group became martyrs in both Mexico and Ireland.
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to This Day, a history show from Radiotopia. My name is Jody Avergan. |
| 0:11.5 | This day, September 10th, 1847, the execution of St. Patrick's Battalion. |
| 0:18.6 | St. Patrick's Battalion was a group of Irish-American immigrants fighting in the Mexican-American |
| 0:24.0 | War, and they are sometimes known as the San Patricios. |
| 0:27.8 | And they have this Spanish name because, well, they were fighting on the side of Mexico. |
| 0:32.9 | So yes, take a moment to try and follow that, get your head around it. |
| 0:35.8 | Irish immigrants come to the U.S. |
| 0:37.5 | goes to war with Mexico, and many of those immigrants look at the contours of the battle |
| 0:42.3 | and say, hey, you know what, we're going to fight with those guys against the United States. |
| 0:46.3 | It is a really fascinating story of immigration, religion, shifting allegiances, and ultimately, |
| 0:51.9 | the moment we're marking right now, this mass execution. Depending on how you |
| 0:56.1 | count, when these fighters were executed by the U.S. government, it is kind of considered the largest |
| 1:00.9 | mass execution in U.S. history. So here to discuss Mexico's Irish heroes are, as always, |
| 1:07.7 | Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley. |
| 1:11.2 | Hello there. |
| 1:12.1 | Hello, Jody. |
| 1:13.1 | Hey there. |
| 1:13.9 | Are you ready to do a mix of an Irish and Spanish and Southern American accent? |
| 1:19.3 | Oh, I've been working on it. |
| 1:20.5 | I think I've got it nailed. |
| 1:21.6 | It's going to be offensive to at least people on three different continents. |
| 1:30.2 | If you offend multiple parties, then it doesn't actually. |
... |
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