Special Event – Irish Storyteller Conor McAnally – Eagle & Harp || Hotel Posada de La Aldea

Special Event
– Irish Storyteller Conor McAnally
– Eagle & Harp

Tuesday, October 1st, 2019
from 6:00 pm to 7:15 pm

Hotel Posada de La Aldea,
Ancha de San Antonio 15

Eagle & Harp: The Story of the San Patricio Battalion in the Mexican-American War

A very special event has been added to the Storytelling Festival for 2019–Irish performer Conor McAnally’s one man show about the famous Irish-led corps of soldiers who left the U.S. Army to fight on the side of Mexico.
Hotel Posada de la Aldea, Ancha de San Antonio #15, 200 pesos at the door.
For more information email smastories@gmail.com

How did hundreds of Irish and German Catholic soldiers from the US Army find themselves on the other side of the Rio Grande fighting for Mexico? The rates of desertion from the US Army during the Mexican American War were the greatest in its history before or since. The desertions started before the war even began as the US occupied the disputed territory between the Nueces and Rio Grande Rivers. This was the time of Manifest Destiny, the emergence of the first Nativist Movement in the United States, the anti-immigrant Native American Party, and waves of anti-Catholic sentiment throughout the USA. The Mexican American War had huge consequence – the loss of California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Utah and Colorado. It was one of the biggest land grabs in history.

The San Patricio Brigade fought bravely and are celebrated in song, story, film and book in Ireland and Mexico. In San Miguel de Allende and many other cities and towns in Mexico, the San Patricio Brigade is remembered on St. Patrick’s Day with a parade. Within San Miguel’s Parroquia, the brigade is honored by a prominent statue of Saint Patrick, which is covered with milagros and photos of loved ones.

Conor McAnally brings to San Miguel the Irish tradition of the Seanachai – the storytellers who traveled the country passing on the news, the stories, traditions, myths, legends and living history of the Irish people. Conor has always been a storyteller and comes from an acting family. His father Ray performed on stage, radio, television and in films, such as with Daniel Day-Lewis in My Left Foot and with Robert De Niro in The Mission. Conor’s first career was a journalist for a Dublin newspaper. His reportage on the urban guerilla warfare in Northern Ireland in the early 70s as Catholics sought civil rights made him enemies on all sides – a target of British Intelligence, Loyalist Paramilitaries and the Irish Republican Army itself.

Conor went on to careers as a radio and television journalist, a TV host and Executive Producer, Producer, Director and Writer of television shows in a wide range of TV genres. His shows have won 24 major awards including five British Academy Awards and five from the Royal Television Society. Conor is also a multi-camera music director for festivals like Austin City Limits in Texas, and splits his time between homes in Austin and Portumna, County Galway in Ireland. County Galway was the original home of John Riley, the leader of the San Patricio Brigade.

Hotel Colonial ubicado en el corazón de San Miguel, pensado para hacer de su viaje de placer o negocios una grata experiencia, ya que el sabor de su cocina, la tranquilidad y el colorido de la provincia armonizan de manera inigualable.