by Peter O’Leary

Daniel Florence O’Leary, of the South American Service, was a famous son of Cork in the 19th century. Today his name is seldom remembered in his native city, but is very much alive in Venezuela, Colombia and other states in the South American continent which he helped to their freedom from colonial rule.

Daniel was born in Cork City in January 1801, the eighth of the ten children of Jeremiah O’Leary, a butter merchant, and Catherine (née O’Leary). The family originated in Iveleary, which Daniel’s great grandfather, Tadhg-na-Post O’Leary left in c.1725. Tadhg’s son Florence was the first to move to Cork City where he established what was to become a very successful business. Jeremiah inherited this from his father, and it flourished further under his control. They bought butter from the farmers in the country districts, including Iveleary where they still had many friends and relations. Most of the butter was sold in bulk, in barrels, for supplying ships which took on stores in Cork harbour. This was good business until 1815 when the war with France finished. There immediately followed a terrible economic slump throughout Europe, with few ships coming in to Cork for provisioning, and thousands thrown out of work.

Daniel seems to have had a good education, possibly at Harringtons Academy near Cork. He was a bright boy with an aptitude for languages, and a love of literature and sciences. He was also a good horseman. At the age of 16 with the whole world in economic depression, and his father’s business in ruins, his future must have seemed bleak. But he was attracted by advertisements which appeared in the press at that time for recruits to join the war of liberation in South America, and the life of a soldier appealed to him.

The great war to liberate the Spanish Colonies from the power of Spain was being led by the famous General Bolívar, usually known as “The Liberator”. Simon Bolívar (1783-1830) was an aristocrat, born in Venezuela, and from a family of Colonial Administrators and wealthy landowners. He had led a first uprising against the Spanish which ended in defeat and exile, but by 1817 had returned to his chosen task and was leading a new army of insurgents from his base in Angostura in the mouth of the river Orinoco.The insurgents decided to appeal for help from Europe, and Luis Méndez was sent to England to recruit for five new Regiments, including the “Red Hussars of Venezuela” to serve in South America. So it was that Daniel, equipped with a grand new uniform, and with only a Spanish grammar for reading, found himself in 1817 on the vessel “Prince” under the command of Colonel Henry Wilson bound for South America as an Ensign in the Hussars. The journey took five months and Daniel spent the time learning Spanish.Many other Irishmen left their troubled country at this time to serve in the wars against Spain. They included Admiral O’Higgins in Chile, Admiral Wright in Ecuador, Admiral Brown in Argentine, Generals Sands and Burdett O’Connor with Bolívar. And of course there were many of lesser rank who served with distinction but whose names are not so well known.Daniel was not enamoured of his new companions who mostly seemed to be the dregs of the European armies, now disbanded, seeking further spoils as mercenaries. There was fighting, drunkenness, debauchery, mutinies and mass desertions in the West Indies. When he finally arrived in Angostura Daniel took the first opportunity to obtain a transfer from the Hussars to a Venezuelan Regiment, the Guards of General Anzotegui, where he came under the eye of Bolívar.This war of liberation was fought by young men with young officers. Under Anzotegui Daniel was promoted to second Lieutenant before he was 18, and became a Captain and aide-de-camp one year later. It was a hard merciless war, fought by ill equipped, ragged, and poorly fed volunteers against the cream of the Spanish Colonial Army. There were forced marches through rivers and swamps and over 13,000 ft. mountains, followed by pitched battles with no rest or respite. But although wounded at Pántano de Vargas (1819) Daniel was present at the great battle of Boyacá in the same year which freed New Granada from Spanish rule, and eight months later became aide-de-camp to Bolívar himself.Other campaigns followed. In 1820 he was with Bolívar when he signed the armistice of Trugillo with the Spanish General Morillo, and he was in action again at the battle of Carabobo (1821) when the Spanish armies in Venezuela were defeated. The following Year, 1822, it was the turn of Ecuador to be liberated when Bolívar’s army defeated the Spanish at Pichincha on the mountain slopes overlooking Quito. For his valour at this battle Daniel was promoted to lieutenant-colonel, and he was with Bolívar on the march to Guayaquil where the northern Liberator met and counseled with his southern counterpart, General José de San Martín.Now in 1823 began the final push into Peru but Daniel missed the battle of Ayacucho in 1824 because he had been sent on a special mission to Chile. He was now the principal aide-de-camp to the Liberator, a position he held until the latter’s death. By 1825 the Spanish had been beaten, and a new state of Bolivia created. It was Bolívar’s ambition to unite all the states of the North into one, New Granada, but unhappily this Union tottered precariously for five years before final disintegration. As with other Revolutions, when the main enemy, the Spanish colonial power had been defeated, the constituent countries could not agree politically amongst themselves, and eventually fell to squabbling, and even war with each other. Daniel was sent from Lima on a mission of conciliation to Bogotá and to Caracas. In 1828 he acted as Bolívar’s personal representative at the great convention of Ocana, but this did not resolve the problems. In 1829 he was campaigning in Peru and took part in the battle of Tarquí, and then was sent as Commander in Chief to suppress the revolt of General Cordova in Antioquía. In 1825 he was a Colonel, by 1829 a General de Brigada at the age of 28.But the structure which Bolívar had tried to create was crumbling, and Bolívar himself, afflicted by tuberculosis, died in Santa Marta in 1830 with only a few of his faithful Generals, including Daniel, at his bedside.It is sad to relate that Bolívar, although achieving the freedom from Spanish colonial rule of half a Continent, was unsuccessful in leaving a united and peaceful region, which to this day is broken into its constituent parts, and has had nearly two centuries of subsequent turbulent history.

There were many other soldiers of fortune who came to fight in these wars, including large numbers from Ireland. One who met O’Leary during the campaigns, was Morgan O’Connell, son of Daniel O’Connell, our own “Liberator”.

General O’Leary was married in 1828 to a lady from Caracas, Soldead Soublette. They were to have five sons and four daughters, and many of their descendants still live in Colombia and Venezuela. Four of his children were sent to Europe to be educated, and one of them, his second son Carlos, later had a son, also called Daniel Florence, who eventually settled in England, founding a family there.

Following the death of Bolívar, there was a strong anti-Bolivarian feeling in political circles in South America, and Daniel fled the country with his wife and family and went to Kingston, Jamaica. There he entered into trade, but was not successful in this venture. By 1833 the atmosphere had improved in Caracas and the family returned there, the second son, Carlos, being actually born on board the ship that took them home. They soon decided to move to Bogatá, in Colombia, which is high in the mountains, and has a mild humid climate not unlike his beloved native Cork.

Daniel now had a General’s pension to live on, but looking for a second career, decided to try to enter the British Diplomatic Service in his new homeland in the Consular office. In those early days of the Union he was of course a British citizen, but he had a hard struggle to persuade the British authorities to accept his application because he was a Catholic.

In 1838 Generals Montilla and O’Leary were invited to form a Grand Colombian Diplomatic mission to Europe which was sent to negotiate the restoration of normal relations with European countries, obtain recognition from Spain and renegotiate the terms of the loan which had been raised to fund the war. Daniel traveled extensively between London, Paris, Madrid and Rome during this period, and in 1837 was chargé d’affaires to the Vatican and Gregory XV1. This mission took five years, and he did not return to South America until 1839. During this period Daniel made one visit to Cork in 1834 to see his family, but sadly his father, Jeremiah had recently died in Cook Street. A Civic Reception in Cork was adroitly avoided, but before returning to London he visited Daniel O’Connell at Derrynane.

His visit to London bore some fruit, when he met Lord Palmerston who was Foreign Secretary and in charge of overseas appointments. In 1841 he was appointed acting Consul for the British at Caracas and Consul at Puerto Caballo later the same year. In 1843 he became chargé d’affaires and consul-general at Bogotá. In this capacity his citation stated that as a Catholic he could not read Baptism or Marriage services, but allowed him to officiate at Funerals!

It appears that the rigours of the war had taken a toll of Daniel also, and he was a sick man when he made his second visit to Europe in 1852/53. He spent part of this trip visiting various health centres and taking “cures”, including Bath and Malvern. These did not do him much good and soon after his return to Bogotá he died there of an “apoplexy” in 1854, aged 53. Probable his early youth in Cork had even more to do with his premature death, since only one of his siblings survived him, most having died in their 20s or early 30s. Cork City in those days was not a healthy place to live in.

Daniel’s other interest was in the literary field. He wrote copious diaries describing conditions during the war, many of which we still have. He also collected every scrap of paper and document concerning Bolívar with the intention of writing his biography. These papers included a large collection from Bolívar’s personal files which the great man, at his deathbed, had ordered to be destroyed. For 24 years he worked at this task, with the object of confounding those who were vilifying Bolívar’s reputation.

The result of this scholarship was the “Memorias del General O’Leary”, in 32 volumes, published eventually by his son Simon in 1888. This now constitutes the major and definitive work on the life and achievements of the “Liberator” who he so much admired.

The Memorias were republished as a limited edition by the Government of Venezuela in 1983, to commemorate the 200th Anniversary of the birth of Bolívar. One of these sets was presented to our University College of Cork as a gesture to the birthplace of Daniel Florence, and is now to be found in the Boole Library. Daniel himself was a keen Scientist, and made a lifelong collection of flora and fauna during his travels in South America. He also presented these to UCC (or Queen’s College as it was then called) during a visit to Cork in 1852, but this has since been lost.

With the passing of time, all the South American nations became conscious of the great service rendered to them, and there arose a great feeling of gratitude to the “Liberator”. In 1842 a massive basilica to his memory was erected in Caracas, modelled on the Pantheon of Napoleon in Paris, and also called the Pantheon. Here Bolívar lies buried in great state, and is much revered by modern generations.

Alongside him in the Pantheon, at the four corners of his tomb, are four of his Generals and close friends, one of them being Daniel Florence O’Leary, from Cork City.