A portrait of Patrick Sarsfield.Public Domain
In a small guesthouse in the West Cork town of Skibbereen lives a man who could help to solve one of the most enduring mysteries in Irish history.
The question of whatever became of Patrick Sarsfield, the swashbuckling freedom fighter who led the 12,000-strong Wild Geese to France in 1691, is one history teachers have never been able to answer.
But a former church crypt in the rural village of Huy in southern Belgium may soon be about to offer up its secrets. And it’s the DNA of Tim Sarsfield from Skibbereen that will definitively say if the remains of his famous ancestor have finally been located.
Dr. Loïc Guyon, Honorary Consul of France and Head of the Department of French Studies at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick is spearheading the campaign to locate and repatriate Sarsfield’s remains to Ireland.
After signing the Treaty of Limerick with William III’s army following the Jacobite forces’ defeat at the Battle of the Boyne in 1691, Sarsfield was forced to emigrate to France.
He brought with him thousands of his soldiers who enrolled in King Louis XIV’s army to continue the fight against William of Orange and his allies.
Benjamin West's 1781 painting of The Battle of the Boyne. (Public Domain)
Famous Ancestor
The 17th-century Irish nobleman from Lucan is particularly remembered for leading the proud defence of Ireland in the Siege of Limerick in 1690, including the famous ‘Sarsfield Ride,' one of the most daring feats in Irish history when he led 600 men on horseback through Clare, Tipperary, and Limerick to blow up the English train bound for the city.
It was while fighting in the service of France that he was believed to have been fatally wounded at the battle of Landen in July 1693.
Conflicting versions of the circumstances of his death meant that the location of his burial remained a mystery – up until recently.
In 2022, after nearly two years of research, Dr. Guyon was able to determine that Sarsfield was most likely one of the two anonymous French officers who were buried in August 1693 in the church of Saint-Martin d’Outre-Meuse in Huy, Belgium, some 35 km south of Landen.
Last month, the remains were finally unearthed and a DNA sample taken from Tim Sarsfield is currently being compared with that of his ancestor’s remains.
And in a few weeks’ time, all will be revealed.
"My father would be thrilled my DNA may bring Patrick home"
65-year-old Tim, who only moved to Ireland in 2014, said he still can’t quite believe his role in the whole episode.
He told the Irish Mail on Sunday: "I grew up in England and my father John [Sarsfield] who was a lovely man, a wonderful man, always spoke about Patrick Sarsfield and how we were related.
"He spent years investigating the whole genealogy. In fact, my mother used to grumble and say, 'it’s all about the bloody Sarsfields!' She was a Scot from Edinburgh, you see.
"He would have been absolutely thrilled that I provided the DNA that finally may bring Patrick home. I haven’t always done everything right, but this is something that I can certainly say will make the family proud!"
Tim moved to Ireland from Canada in 2014 so that his father could see out his dying years here.
"He never asked me directly to bring him but I knew he wanted to come, so myself and Marie, my wife, and dad moved here and we set up a little guest house.
"Dad had three years here before he passed and I was delighted he was able to do that.
"Our son, Elliot Sarsfield, is now living in Killaloe, coincidentally the scene of one of Patrick Sarsfield’s most famous exploits so we’re really surrounded by our heritage."
"Patrick belongs here in Ireland"
Tim said he is full of admiration for Dr. Guyon, who first contacted him in 2021.
"He is very passionate about the whole project. I asked him, 'Why are you doing this?' And he said: 'Because we need to bring him home.'
"And he’s right; Patrick must come home. Patrick belongs here in Ireland. He fought to free Limerick; he was a hero. He needs to come home now."
Dr. Guyon said Tim is pivotal to the whole operation to bring the legendary Wild Geese hero home to Ireland.
"Ultimately, of course, only DNA will enable us to know for sure," he told the Mail on Sunday.
"We’ll be comparing the DNA of the remains, in particular the Y-DNA, to that of Tim, a living descendant of the Cork branch of the Sarsfields of Ireland, who gave us a DNA sample in 2021.
"Tim has a huge interest because his late father did a lot of work to try to trace their genealogy and he was very much interested in the whole story of the Wild Geese, so this makes it even better."
All the work to track down Sarsfield’s remains has been entirely funded by private funds, thanks to a fundraising campaign launched by the academic, who is from Provence.
He said he undertook the research to strengthen the ties between the south west of Ireland and France.
During their latest trip to Huy in January, Dr. Guyon’s team made an exciting discovery when they finally uncovered the remains of the man they believe to be Sarsfield.
DNA
After the DNA is compared, the team comprising archaeologist Frank Coyne, Dr. Caroline Laforest a French forensic anthropologist, and geneticists Professor Maarten Larmuseau and his PhD student, Noah Gaens from the University of Leuven, will attempt a facial reconstruction.
"We hope that the skeletal remains and the DNA can give a picture of how his face actually looked and what colour his eyes and hair were," Dr. Goyen said.
"Then we can see if he really looks like his portrait."
If the remains are proved to be that of Sarsfield, Dr. Guyon plans to give the Wild Geese hero quite an entrance when he finally returns home.
"Realistically, it will be in summer 2026 I think, and since Patrick died in the service of the French army, I think symbolically it would be very good if his remains were brought back to Ireland on a French navy ship and handed over to the Irish Defence Forces for a reburial," he said.
"That is something that I discussed with the French embassy here and also the French military, and while nothing is decided, this is something that we would very much like to see happen.
"It wouldn’t be for us to decide where he might be reinterred, it would be for Limerick City and County Council to decide but it could be the Treaty Stone in Limerick or King John’s Castle.
"There is also a statue of Patrick Sarsfield, and he could possibly be reinterred there.
"The most important thing is that he comes home."
*This article was first published on Extra.ie.