Waiting for a plane back to Dublin from the US recently, I noticed there were several American soldiers in desert uniforms about to board flights to Iraq, writes Deaglán de Bréadún
This was Atlanta Airport in the Deep South, where patriotism runs deep, and the soldiers were regularly applauded by the crowd. Four of them who stood near me were clearly chuffed by the response but continued chatting away to each other - in Spanish.
They were gone before I had a chance to ask them, but the balance of probability is that these four youngsters heading off on a very dangerous assignment for Uncle Sam came from families of Mexican origin. Given that we weren't all that far from San Antonio, Texas, it is even theoretically possible that their ancestors fought under the president of Mexico, Gen Antonio López de Santa Anna, at the Battle of the Alamo.
My head was full of the Alamo because I had just come from San Antonio and a visit to the battle site. It was originally a religious institution with the interesting name of Misión San Antonio de Valero.
Despite the echo, I don't believe there is any connection with Eamon de Valera.
But there is a strong Irish link with the Alamo. As you enter the main doorway you will see the flags of every country and state that was represented among the defenders. The first, on your left, is the Irish Tricolour.
The Green, White and Orange is on display because nine persons born in Ireland are known to have fought and died at the Alamo.
There were probably more who fought there in the cause of Texas independence from Mexican rule: one source claims there were 13 Irish-born and many more with Irish connections.
The names that have come down to us are inscribed for all to see.
A few of the Irish ones are fairly typical of this country, others you don't come across every day: Samuel E Burns, Andrew Duvalt, Robert Evans, Joseph M Hawkins, Thomas Jackson, James McGee, Jackson J Rusk, Burke Trammel, William B Ward. There is another name, Stephen Dennison, who is listed as "England or Ireland".
It has been suggested that most of the Irish dead were of Scots-Irish background.
One wonders if their shades are entirely happy to be represented by a Fenian banner, although this was 1836, not long after the 1798 Rebellion in which Ulster Presbyterians played such a prominent part. Interestingly, the Scots, Welsh and English who died are each represented by their national flags and I did not see the Union Flag anywhere.
Having won its independence from Mexico in 1836, Texas joined the US as the 28th state in 1845.
The best-known Alamo defenders are, of course, Jim Bowie of Bowie Knife fame and Davy Crockett, the former Congressman from Tennessee who is immortalised in song as the "King of the Wild Frontier".
Bowie and Crockett are said to have had Scots-Irish connections, as is the commander of the Alamo, Colonel William B Travis. Legend has it that, as hope of reinforcements was fading, Travis drew a line in the sand with his sword and asked any man willing to stay and fight, to step over it.
We are told that all except two of them did.
A cool customer by all accounts, when Travis was brought the initial news of the Mexican advance he declined to read the letter, "as I was dancing with the most beautiful woman in San Antonio".
The Alamo is an emblem, the ultimate symbol of fighting to the end, hand-to-hand, against overwhelming odds, and dying for your patriotic principles. The Mexican perspective gets little consideration but the defenders of the Alamo have been celebrated in song, story and celluloid.
For some reason it enjoyed a great vogue in the early 1960s and I can remember the excitement as I and my schoolmates crowded into what was then the Kenilworth Cinema in Harold's Cross, Dublin, to see John Wayne, Richard Widmark and the lads throwing shapes on the silver screen.
I remember it as a disappointing film: too long and too much waiting around, but sieges are like that, I suppose. Another generation has encountered the epic once more in the 2004 film version, with Billy Bob Thornton as Crockett.
Then there was a song written by, of all people, the hippy troubadour Donovan, better-known for wistful folk-ballads like Catch the Wind. Donovan's Remember the Alamo is a rousing number although I doubt that "Hey up" was common parlance in 1830s Texas, as in "Hey up, Santa Anna, they're killing your soldiers below".
Some of the original structure of the fort still survives and the Alamo site is maintained by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas who rely entirely on voluntary contributions and sales from the gift shop.
This is Texas, where self-reliance is the order of the day.
Nor is there any admission charge to the Shrine of Texas Liberty.
A leaflet given out by the Daughters concedes that "the facts surrounding the siege of the Alamo continue to be debated" but points out that the battle has become the epitome of heroic struggle against overwhelming odds.
Our guide was not slow to draw a contemporary parallel but admitted that Santa Anna was not in the same category as Saddam Hussein.
Whatever the truth and the rights and wrongs of the Battle of the Alamo it would be mean-spirited indeed to dispute the bravery of the defenders whose mentality was encapsulated in the words of Daniel Cloud, who wrote on his way to San Antonio that, "Death in the cause of liberty and humanity is not cause for shuddering".