Balfour letter on failed 1796 French invasion at Bantry estimated to fetch up to €300

An eyewitness account of the failed French invasion at Bantry dated December 31, 1796, comes up at Whyte’s Eclectic Collector sale in Dublin on January 21.

A three-page letter written by Colonel Thomas Balfour of the North Lowland Fencibles to his wife in Orkney reads: “We have been marched here in consequence of an alarm spread by a French fleet appearing off Bantry Bay ... one officer and four seamen ... landed and have been made prisoners”.

“Expedition d’Irlande” was a 15,000 strong invasion force gathered by the French Directory for landing in Ireland in December 1796.