Napoleon Bonaparte and the ‘bonny Irish’ who played a big part in his story

Two villages in Cork have fought a long battle maintaining it was in their areas that Napoleon's famous white horse Marengo was bred.

Many people may be aware of claims that Napoleon's famous white horse, Marengo, was bred in North Cork, but few would know that two of his doctors were Corkmen or that one of his generals at the Battle of Waterloo drowned off the Cork coast and is buried in Kinsale.

Cormac O’Brien, Vice President of the Irish Napoleonic Society, said Napoleon's impact on Cork, and that of the French in general, was immense from 1796 until his final exile on the tiny South Atlantic island of St Helena following his defeat at the famous Battle of Waterloo where he died on May 5, 1821.