1745 05 11 Fontenoy 1315 h ‘God save Ireland’ – Sean O’Brogain
Having reorganized his forces for what should have been a decisive attack upon the Allied column, Saxe had to go through the anguish of seeing his plan founder because of an unauthorized attack by the Comte d’Apcher whose men had compromised tee passage of the Irish Brigade.Their path finally clear and led by the Viscount Clare and Count Thomond, the sh charged forward, crashing into the ranks of the enemy Guards who had earlier swept aside the French front line – nicluding the Gardes Françaises and the Gardes Suisses and threatening the Armée de Flandres with defeat.As the Irishmen surged forward, tradition has it that a cry went up from their ranks ‘Cuimhínigí ar Luimneach agus ar fheall na Sasanach!’ which translates as ‘Remember Limerick and the Saxon perfidy’, a potent reminder of what many believed to have been a deliberate breach of the treaty that ended the Williamite War in 1690. Attacking in two divisions; the first comprising the regiments of Berwick, Lally and Rooth and the second those of Bulkeley, Dillon and Clare, the Irishmen crashed into the British line, the fierce scrum being an almost immediate stalemate with neither side being able to gain the advantage.The fighting was fierce, and here we see Colonel James Dillon being killed instantly by a musket ball to the head, his men scarcely breaking ranks as they close with the foe. The Irish attack serves to pin the British Guardsmen in position, thereby achieving Saxe’s aim of stopping the column dead in its tracks, and giving him the chance of committing other units to the combat at other points on the Allied perimeter, a series of hammer-blows designed to crack the Anglo-Hanoverian ranks and allow the French to convert a retreat into a rout.
The Irish Brigade suffered some 500 casualties on the day while capturing 15 cannon, a sergeant of Bulkeley captured a colour from the Coldstream Guards and the attack of the Irish compelled the British Guards to retire