"In the year 2000 I visited The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg and came across a portrait of the General of the Russian army by the name of Joseph O'Rourke. In the same Hermitage I obtained some documents that helped me to trace the careers of the members of this princely Irish family in Russia.
The O'Rourkes were one of the most celebrated clans in Irish history. The surname came from Ruarc, or Ruadhrac, the King of Breifne in the 9th century.
His descendants, the O'Rourkes, were Princes of Breifne. Some of them were elected Kings of Connacht.
From the 13th to the 16th centuries, the O'Rourkes were amongst those chieftains who resisted the English incursion. They were valiant Irish leaders in the course of the Elizabethan wars; nevertheless they managed to retain their properties.
After 1649 Cromwell confiscated much of their lands and many of the O'Rourkes, like members of all great gaelic families, fled to the continent. Several of them became important churchmen, statesmen and in particular military leaders in European countries…."
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Amicalement
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