From A History of the Irish Settlers in North America by Thomas
D'Arcy McGee South American Revolutions--Co-operation of the
United States--Irish Staff of Simon Bolivar--The O'Higginses--
MacKenna--O'Connor--O'Carroll--Captain Esmonde--O'Reilly--The
O'Briens--Issue of the South American Struggle DURING the
generation, of whose good and evil actions we have been
discoursing, a series of events transpired in South America,
which exercised a material influence over the Irish settlers at
the north, and deserves to be mentioned in detail, in this
place: The revolution in South America dates from the year 1808,
and its independence from the year 1823, when the last of the
Spanish forces evacuated Caraccas. That struggle of fifteen
years was marked by events worthy of the pen of the greatest of
historians. The contest might be said to have three divisions,--
Bolivar's in Columbia, O'Higgins' in Chili, and that of the
Argentine Republic on the Rio de la Plata. Of the life and
actions of Simon Bolivar, this is not the p