Tánaiste pays tribute to Corkman who helped win independence for South America

Daniel Florence O’Leary served as a top general to Simon Bolívar, the Venezuelan revolutionary that helped lead the countries of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru and more to independence from the Spanish empire

The bust of General Daniel Florence O'Leary in Fitzgerald Park, Cork. Picture: Clare Keogh

Almost immediately after his arrival in Bogotá, Colombia, Tánaiste Micheál Martin was whisked away from El Dorado Airport towards the neighbourhood of Teusaquillo, where Cork-man Daniel Florence O’Leary is memorialised.

At the centre of a small park in the neighbourhood, surrounded by flowers, lies a bust of O’Leary — who played a key role in the wars to win South American independence in the 1800s.