<div><strong>Help us bring Patrick Sarsfield back to Ireland!</strong>
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<div>In 1691, after having fought bravely against the army of William of Orange, Patrick Sarsfield negotiated the Treaty of Limerick and left Ireland, with thousands of Irish Jacobite soldiers who became known as the Wild Geese. Most of these soldiers, including Sarsfield himself, joined the army of the King of France, Louis XIV, and continued the fight against William of Orange and his allies on the continent. It is there, in what is nowadays Belgium, that Patrick Sarsfield died in the service of France in 1693.
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<div>In October 2020, Dr Loïc Guyon (Honorary Consul of France, Associate Professor &amp; Head of the Department of French Studies at MIC, Limerick) decided to launch the Sarsfield Homecoming Project with one objective: to try to locate, identify and bring back to Ireland the remains of Irish national hero Patrick Sarsfield. After nearly 2.5 years of intensive research, Dr Guyon believes that he managed to locate the site where Sarsfield was buried. His research was published in the form of a long academic article in French, in the <em>Annales du Cercle Hutois des Sciences &amp; Beaux-Arts</em>, in July 2022, and in English, <a href="https://dspace.mic.ul.ie/handle/10395/3312" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">in the North Munster Antiquarian Journal</a>, in July 2023. The site identified by Dr Guyon is located in the city of Huy, in Belgium and, by an extraordinary combination of circumstances, was purchased in 2022 by the city council of Huy. In February 2023, Dr Guyon recruited <a href="https://aegisarchaeology.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Aegis Archaeology Ltd</a>, a Limerick-based company with 20 years of experience in conducting archaeological works, to carry out an excavation of the site. Mr Frank Coyne, Director of Aegis Archaeology Ltd, estimated the total cost of the archaeological excavation at approx. EUR90,000. The necessity to hire a local building company to remove 200 tons of soil from the site and consolidate the only remaining wall of the church, as well as the large number of scientific tests needed to date and identified the many remains found on site have brought the total amount needed to <strong>approx. €195,000</strong> (as of September 2026).
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<div>The project has so far been able to rely on the generosity of Limerick-based American company <a href="https://www.carelonglobal.ie/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Carelon Global Solutions Ireland</a> and the Michael Guinee Charitable Foundation, but <strong>we now need your support</strong> in raising the necessary funding to bring the project to completion and, hopefully, find and repatriate Patrick Sarsfield's remains to Ireland. Alliance Française Limerick, one of the city's oldest not-for-profit organisations (registered charity number 20037222) and the co-organiser of the annual <a href="https://france-in-midwest-ireland.org/activites/the-limerick-bastille-day-wild-geese-festival/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Limerick Wild Geese Festival</a>, has now partnered with Dr Loïc Guyon for this exceptional fundraising initiative. All of the funding raised will go towards the implementation and promotion of the Sarsfield Homecoming Project and, in particular, towards the archaeological works. Unspent funds (if there are any), once the archaeological works are fully completed (hopefully by the end of 2026), will notably go towards supporting the work done by Alliance Française Limerick in promoting Limerick's Wild Geese heritage and the historical links between Ireland and France.
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<div>The latest updates on the Sarsfield Homecoming Project can be found on the project's [email redacted]y.social or on Dr Loïc Guyon's social media accounts (@francemidwest on BlueSky and @france_midwest on Instagram or on Dr Guyon's <a href="https://www.facebook.com/loic.guyon.52" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Facebook page</a> or <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-loic-guyon/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">LinkedIn account</a> ) and will be shared on Alliance Française Limerick's social media accounts (@aflimerick.bsky.social on BlueSky and Instagram or on Alliance Française Limerick's <a href="https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057077573672" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Facebook page</a>).
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<div>To find out more about Dr Loïc Guyon, click <a href="https://www.mic.ul.ie/staff/284-loic-guyon" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a> or <a href="https://france-in-midwest-ireland.org/activites/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
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<div>To find out more about Alliance Française Limerick, click <a href="https://aflimerick.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.
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<div><strong>In memoriam</strong>
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<div><em>Alexandria Fitzgerald (2005 - 2024)</em>
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<div>The Sarsfield Homecoming project is dedicated to the memory of Alexandria (Alex) Fitzgerald, a student of Salesian Secondary School, Pallaskenry, Co. Limerick who sadly passed away on 10 April 2024 at the age of 19 and who had a passion for history and a keen interest for this project. In March 2024, Alex and some of her classmates raised over €1,000 in support of the project. Her friends and family have since contributed thousands more to the project in her memory.
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<div><strong>Funding received so far</strong>
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<div>In addition to the funds collected on this Go Fund Me Page, the following people or organisatons (listed by alphabetical order) have generously given a total of <strong>€158,447</strong> for the project in direct donations to Alliance Française Limerick as of June 2026:
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<div>Adhesives Research
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<div>AMOPA Irlande
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<div>Analog Devices
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<div>Anonymous donor (x 2)
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<div>Askeaton Civic Trust
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<div>Belonging Mental Health event (in memory of Alex Fitzgerald)
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<div>BMWA club members
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<div>Carelon Global Solutions Ireland
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<div>Cllr Tommy Hartigan GMA fund donation
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<div>Cremona Heritage
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<div>Fitzgerald family quiz night (in memory of Alex Fitzgerald
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<div>John Dundon/Mullock &amp; Sons
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<div>Mary Immaculate College
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<div>Michael Guinee Charitable Foundation
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<div>Patrick O'Sullivan
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<div>Patrick Sarsfield branch of the ONE
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<div>Salesian Secondary School Fundraising (in memory of Alex Fitzgerald)
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<div>We wish to thank wholeheartedly all of our donors without whom the Sarsfield Homecoming Project could not have made the significant progress it has made to this day.
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cait ni cheallachain

Blake Sarsfield

Eoin Martin

Robert Houlihan

Hugh Cronin

marcus Beresford

Kay Caball

Anonymous

Vincent Ireton

Geoffrey Keating

Michael Moynihan

Tom Hourigan

Pamela Skaufel

Brendan Wallace

Gearoid Costelloe

dermot collopy

Cormac Neeson

Martin Nutty

Siobhan Armstrong

Yves de Saint Jacob

Help us bring back Patrick Sarsfield to Ireland!

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