A correspondent who was present at the Chilean Independence Day dinner in London tells me that the speech-making contained little reference to Bernardo O'Higgins, the Irishman who is famous as the liberator of Chile, and who, as first Director-General of the Republic, is commemorated by having his portrait printed on the postage stamps of this South American State.
Bernardo O'Higgins was the son of Don Ambrosio O'Higgins, Marquise de Osborno and Viceroy of Peru, who was born of humble parents at Summerhill, County Meath, about 1720, and, as a small boy, used to carry letters to the post for Lady Bective. He emigrated to South America as a youth, and, after many vicissitudes, entered the Government service, and by his diligence and fearlessness rose to be the representative of the King of Spain.
He never returned to Ireland, but sent home a large sum of money to his father and mother, making Father Kellett, parish priest of Summerhill, his almoner.
The boy, Bernardo O'Higgins, was educated in England, and returned to Peru about the time that the cruelty and excesses of the Spanish soldiery drove the inhabitants of Chile into revolt. He threw in his lot with the patriots, and took part in several unsuccessful battles in the fight for freedom. Eventually he became the leader of the insurgents, and resolved to make a bold bid for victory. In company with John McKenna - a Monaghan man, who had resigned from the Spanish service after a distinguished career in the Irish Corps of Military Engineers - and Jose de San Martin, an Argentine officer, he organised a patriot force at Mendoza, and crossed the Andes, to inflict a crushing defeat on the Spaniards at the Battle of Chacabuco. So was the Chilean nation reborn, and Bernardo O'Higgins elected first President.
The Irish Times,
September 25th, 1928.