Mexico didn't fare so well against US invaders in 1847, losing 870,000 square miles of territory in a land grab that left deep marks on the national psyche and the little-known legacy of a battalion known as the San Patricios. The San Patricios, or St Patrick's battalion, were 250 soldiers from Ireland and other European nations who deserted the US army during the Mexican-American War to join their fellow-Catholics on the Mexican side, fighting to the death even as Mexican troops attempted to surrender. The victorious US troops hanged 48 members of the battalion.
Once an obscure historical footnote, the San Patricios are now at the centre of Ireland's increasingly warm relations with Mexico thanks to expanded bilateral trade and the enthusiasm of Mexico's Ambassador to Ireland, Mr Daniel Dultzin. Where once the anniversary of the brutal hangings was recalled by a handful of mid-ranking bureaucrats and a loud military band, this year the two countries pulled out all the diplomatic stops to revitalise these early stirrings of international solidarity.
Mariachi musicians
In her last reception at Aras an Uachtarain, the former President, Mrs Robinson, invited an army of Mariachi musicians, praised the San Patricios for "taking a moral stand" in an unjust war and accepted a replica of the battalion's banner, a green flag with a gilded image of St Patrick and "Erin go Bragh" on one side, the Mexican eagle on the other.
Ireland's Ambassador to the US, Mr Sean O hUiginn, flew down to Mexico City for the September 12th commemoration, while Mexico's beefed-up delegation included President Ernesto Zedillo, accompanied by his ministers of Defence, Education and Foreign Affairs and the city's mayor, Mr Oscar Espinosa.
President Zedillo called the desertions "an act of conscience" and said the men "listened to the voice of justice, dignity and honour, joining Mexican patriots who faced an aggression that lacked any justification." Sean O hUiginn read a speech linking Ireland and Mexico together through "a tragic and deeply traumatic history of conquest and conflict" which marked the two nations and gave them a shared sense of history.
"Nowadays," the ambassador added, "Ireland and Mexico are strong, democratic and independent nations, free to build alliances with other nations in a world which is increasingly interdependent."
After the commemoration at the San Patricio memorial plaque in Churubusco, on the south side of Mexico City, participants laid a wreath, ate lunch and enjoyed a concert of Irish music played by three Mexican musicians.
Hollywood tribute
Meanwhile, the actor Tom Berenger is busy rehearsing his lines for Hollywood's tribute to the San Patricios, called One Man's Hero, which began production last week. The title of the film captures the ambiguous legacy of the Irish brigade, which means very different things to different people.
If you read the US history books, the San Patricios were lazy, drunken swine who joined the Mexicans on receiving a substantial pay increase and written guarantees of "as much land as you can use" when the war was won.
Mexico's history books, in contrast, tell a story of poor Irish immigrants mistreated by their superiors, who joined their Catholic Mexican brothers once they realised the anti-imperialist nature of the war, finding parallels with famine-era Ireland under the heel of British rule.
Mexico suffered dozens of invasions through the years, by Spanish, French, Austrian, English and US troops and has a museum dedicated solely to preserving the memory of these events.
"It's not just the San Patricios; the entire war has been forgotten," said Laura Herrera Serna, a historian at the Intervention Museum. "More than anything, it has been a problem of trauma. The impulse has been to forget, to erase this extremely painful story," she said.
While historians debate the accuracy of differing versions of the San Patricio story, the ignominious end of the battalion is not in doubt. The US army overran the convent of Churubusco on August 20th 1847, court-martialling the captured renegades. The battalion's leader, James Riley, escaped death because he had deserted before the US declaration of war; but 48 San Patricios were not so lucky and were hanged until dead in Churubusco.