The Irish Legion in Contemporary Colombian Children's Fiction: Jairo Buitrago's Los irlandeses

Abstract

During the 1810s and 1820s thousands of Irishmen enlisted in the patriot armies of South America, many of them in the British and Irish Legions fighting with Simón Bolívar in the independence wars of Venezuela and Colombia. Two hundred years later, Colombian writer Jairo Buitrago brings back the lives of those soldiers and officers in Los irlandeses, a short novel for young teenagers that vividly recreates the harshness of the war and the sufferings and loyalty of those brave men. With a thorough investigation of the historical context and a sound and lyric prose, the book tells the story of Lucas, a Colombian fourteen-year-old boy who, in the company of four Irish soldiers from the Rifles, survives the war and grows up, approaching the novel to a Bildungsroman. This paper analyses how the Irish soldiers are portrayed in this novella for children and the historical context in which the action is set. The edition and the illustrations in charcoal by Santiago Guevara provide a new concept in picture books.