DNA results to confirm if remains of Limerick war hero Patrick Sarsfield have been found
Part of the Sarsfield Homecoming Project's team with (left to right), Dr Gerard Riordan, Frank Coyne, Dr Caroline Laforest, and Dr Loïc Guyon. Picture: Mary Immaculate College
A Limerick-based academic has “high hopes” that human remains found at the site of an ancient church in Belgium are those of Irish war hero Patrick Sarsfield.
Sarsfield is best known for his defence of Limerick against the forces of William of Orange back in 1690, an event now known as the Siege of Limerick.
Sarsfield also helped negotiate the famous Treaty of Limerick, which ended the Williamite War in Ireland, and from which Limerick gets its nickname as the ‘Treaty City’.
After signing the Treaty in 1691, Sarsfield then emigrated to France, with thousands of his soldiers, and enrolled in the army of the King of France, Louis XIV, to continue the fight against William of Orange and his allies.
It was while fighting in the service of France that he was fatally wounded at the Battle of Landen in July 1693. Conflicting versions of the circumstances of his death meant that the location of his burial had remained a mystery up until recently.
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Dr Loïc Guyon, who is the head of the department of French studies at Mary Immaculate College (MIC) in Limerick, has spent years following the story of the Limerick war hero.
In December 2020, he launched the Sarsfield Homecoming Project, which has one main objective: to locate, identify, and bring back to Ireland the remains of Patrick Sarsfield.
In 2022, after nearly two years of research, Dr Guyon and a team of specialists were able to determine, based on historical records, that Sarsfield was most likely one of the two anonymous French officers who were buried, in August 1693, in the church of Saint-Martin d'Outre-Meuse in Huy, Belgium, some 35kms south of Landen.
In December 2023, the team began conducting archaeological excavations on the Belgian site where the ancient church used to stand, and which is now a derelict townhouse built in the early 20th century.
They partnered with Aegis Archaeology Ltd, an Irish company led by archaeologist Frank Coyne, and gathered a team of scientists, including Dr Caroline Laforest, a French forensic anthropologist based in Belgium, and geneticists, Professor Maarten Larmuseau, and his PhD student Noah Gaens from the University of Leuven.
Dr Guyon’s team are now awaiting results from DNA and radiocarbon testing to confirm whether they have finally located Sarsfield’s remains.
Commenting on the project, Dr Guyon said: “While the first aim of the Sarsfield Homecoming Project is to find and repatriate the remains of Patrick Sarsfield, a secondary aim has always been to bring Sarsfield back into the spotlight and educate, in particular the younger generations, about that important part of Limerick’s history, Ireland’s history, and the history of the ties between France and Ireland.”
The project has been entirely funded by private funds thanks to a fundraising campaign launched by Dr Guyon in May 2023.
