A new exhibition, The Wild Geese in Austria, the story of Irish soldiers forced out of Ireland and who served in the Hapsburg empire, was opened yesterday by the Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism, Mr O'Donoghue.
The Minister said the exhibition, at the National Museum of Decorative Arts and History, Collins Barracks, Dublin, dealt with those soldiers of destiny who left Ireland under duress but who established an unparalleled tradition of military and public service to the Hapsburg empire from 1618 to 1918.
The story of the Wild Geese was generally well known in Ireland but one of its more remarkable and interesting aspects - and probably the least known - was that of the Irish in Austria-Hungary, he said.
A spokesperson for the museum said the story was told in the exhibition through portraits, uniforms, weapons and documents, made available by museum and military authorities in Vienna.
Two of Austria's greatest soldiers in the 18th century were Irish, Marshal Maximilian Ulysses Browne and Marshal Franz Moritz Lacy. Mr Eduard Count Taaffe was prime minister in the late 19th century and Mr Gottfried Banfield, Austria's famous air-ace in the first World War was the son of a Cork-born naval hero in the Austrian navy. The exhibition runs to next summer.