Taoiseach Michéal Martin has hailed the contribution of Stephen Moylan, a Cork-born aide-de-camp to US founding father George Washington, as an example of the influence of the Irish diaspora in America.
As the US prepares to mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration on Independence, the Taoiseach said Moylan was an important historical figure when it came to Irish-American relations.
He noted that Moylan, born on Blarney Street in Cork City in 1737, emigrated to the US and served under Washington during the American Revolution, which began in April 1775.
“It is very fitting to stand here on Blarney Street to honour a man whose life is representative of the long and enduring connections between Ireland and the United States of America. It was Stephen Moylan who first used the term the ‘United States of America’ in written form,” Martin said as he unveiled a plaque to Moylan at the Rock Community Centre.
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“He used the phrase in a letter to George Washington’s military secretary, dated January 2nd/3rd, 1776, well before it was used in the American Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776.”
He said Corkonians had helped to liberate many countries and Moylan’s words were “a living link”, connecting with the almost 10 per cent of Americans today who are of Irish ancestry. He said he was delighted to meet Irish-American people who had travelled to Cork for Saturday’s event.
“Moylan’s story is not an unusual story ... I remember being in Colombia three years ago and visiting the statue of Daniel Florence O’Leary, who left Barrack Street at 16 years of age and became aide-de-camp to Simón Bolívar, the founder of the Colombian independence movement.”
Martin said Ireland could be proud of its role in America’s fight for freedom, noting three of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence were Irish-born. He said it was estimated that 45 per cent of the Continental Army were Irish-born or of Irish descent and that Moylan was “among this cohort”.
Moylan enlisted in 1775 and quickly rose up the ranks, being promoted to quartermaster general and becoming a close confidante of Washington. He saw action with his own cavalry unit until the surrender of British forces at Yorktown in 1781.
The Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Fergal Dennehy, said it “brings me immense pride to celebrate one of Blarney Street’s own” and that Moylan “stands as a beacon of the enduring transatlantic friendship between Ireland and America”.
Tom Coleman, chair of the Blarney Street & Surrounding Areas Community Association, said locals were proud that someone who left almost 300 years ago had connected “the history of Blarney Street to the founding history of America”.
Morgan O’Sullivan, of the Irish America 250 group, said Moylan, who is buried in Philadelphia, was recognised as a true American patriot of whom Ireland could be rightly proud.
