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To read about the horse named Erin Go Bragh, see Hideaway's Erin Go Bragh.

Erin Go Bragh (also commonly spelled Erin Go Braugh) is the Anglicization of a Gaelic phrase Éire go Bráth used to express allegiance to Ireland. It is most often translated as "Ireland Forever", and pronounced /ˈɛrɪn gə brɔː/.

Emigrant nationalism

However the phrase became Anglicized, it was already in use as "Erin Go Bragh" by 1847. In that year, a group of Irishmen serving in the United States Army during the U.S. - Mexican War deserted and joined the Mexican side. These soldiers, known as Los San Patricios, or Saint Patrick's Battalion, flew as their standard a green flag with a harp on it, with the motto "Erin Go Bragh" underneath it. Variations on this flag design have been used ever since to express Irish nationalism.

By 1862 there was an emigrant ship operated by the Black Ball Line called the Erin go Bragh, which had the dubious honour of making the longest trip from Britain to Moreton Bay, Australia. She suffered many dead on the voyage, according to an unpublished contemporary account (in this contributor's possession) and, ironically, arrived in the same week that Black Ball's Young Australia completed the fastest crossing.

External links

• "Erin-go-Bragh" (19th century Scottish song)
• Abby Bender, The Cultural "Hybridity" of the San Patricio Battalion Flag

• Irish culture
• Phrases