When the Irish revolutionary John Mitchel visited Cuba in 1853 the Caribbean island was under Spanish domination.
In Ireland, back in 1848, Mitchel had been given a sentence of 14 years' transportation to Tasmania, then known as Van Diemen's Land, for urging the famine-stricken Irish peasantry to revolt against their conditions.
He escaped from captivity on June 8th, 1853, and sailed for New York, stopping off in Cuba for four days. Steaming into Havana harbour on November 22nd, he noted that the Moro Castle was "bristling with guns" for fear of an American invasion. Cuba is independent these days but the fear of invasion remains - though the castle itself has become a museum.
Mitchel found Havana to be "a noble city" with the harbour "crowded with ships of all nations". The city is as noble as ever but the harbour, doubtless because of the US trade and travel embargo, was virtually empty when I visited Cuba recently.
That night, Mitchel went to the opera, finding that "soldiers were drawn up before the theatre; and soldiers marshalled the playgoers to their places". The island was held in subjection by 25,000 Spanish troops.
Informed about the conditions of Cuba's oppression - her wealth was requisitioned by foreign civil and military officials who spent the money in Madrid while barring the locals from social advancement - Mitchel cried out: "My friend, it is another Ireland." I am indebted to my colleague Brendan O Cathaoir for drawing my attention to the Cuba episode in Jail Journal, Mitchel's once-famous account of his imprisonment and escape.
Arriving in the US, Mitchel resumed his career as a journalist and, notoriously, supported the Confederacy in the subsequent Civil War:
if he thought Britain was
on one side, then he would support the other. Two of his sons died fighting for the Confederate forces,
one of them at Gettysburg.
A more modern building overlooking Havana's harbour is the Hotel Nacional, which dates from 1930. Aficionados of the Godfather movies would find it a fascinating place. As you walk through the dazzling sunshine of the lobby, you almost expect to meet Al Pacino in a white linen suit, doing a reprise of his role as Michael Corleone. The hotel's Vista al Golfo bar also functions as a museum with photographs of former guests, including Marlon Brando who, of course, played the Don.
The Nacional was owned at one time by a real-life gangster, the infamous Meyer Lansky, and you can almost smell his cigar smoke still wafting about the place. When the corrupt dictator Fulgencio Batista seized power in 1952, he appointed Lansky as his "adviser on gambling reform", no less.
Other mobsters who frequented the hotels included Lucky Luciano, Frank Costello and Santos Traficante. Wherever the Mafia was (regrettably for his admirers), Frank Sinatra never seemed to be far away and the "Chairman of the Board" got into a spot of bother when a secretly-taken photograph of the singer at the hotel, with his arm around Lucky Luciano, came into the possession of a Senate committee on organised crime.
The great love of Sinatra's life, Ava Gardner, also has her picture in the Vista al Golfo. After their marriage in November, 1951, the pair honeymooned at the Nacional. (The Cuban Government is again promoting the island as a honeymoon destination.)
George Raft, another entertainer with alleged Mafia associations, is pictured dancing with film star Betty Grable. The Duke of Windsor, with Mrs Simpson, were other famous guests and there is a striking shot of a very inebriated-looking Errol Flynn, actor and hell-raiser.
Ernest Hemingway is there, too, but the Nacional has weaker associations with the great writer than the Hotel Ambos Mundos, in the older part of the city. During his early visits to Cuba from 1932 to 1939, "Papa" always stayed here, in Room 511, which is now a small Hemingway museum. It is said that he wrote part of his Spanish Civil War novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls, in this room. He is also believed to have written his famous short story The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber there.
Hemingway described it as "a good place to write" and must have liked the view of the old city and the cool breeze from the harbour that came in through the windows. Being Hemingway, he also found time to fish and his giant boots and fishing-hat are preserved in a glass case.
There is an Irish connection with the district, through the new Hotel Palacio O'Farrill. The spelling may not be quite standard but we are told that Don Ricardo O'Farrill hailed originally from Longford and set up in business as a slave-trader in 18th-century Cuba. This establishment has rooms decorated in the style of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries and the first "Cuban-Irish Cultural Feast" was held there during St Patrick's week last March.
The O'Farrill family crest is on display, with the motto in Irish, "Bhris me mo ghreim". This can be translated literally as "I broke my grip", though a more poetic version might be, "I broke (and shared) my morsel (of bread)". But not with the slaves, presumably.