Club Deportivo O'Higgins

[TheOwl]

Just come across the name of this team playing in the Chile league - any idea on how they got the name? Must be an Irish connection? Wikipedia tells me nothing!

[SolitudeRed]

wasn't he some sort of guy with an Irish connection who helped them gain independence from spain!

just checked there aye apparnetly he had connections with Sligo!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernardo_O%27Higgins

well I presume thats who they are named after!

Interestingly there is also a Chilean team called FC Palestino who were set up by refugees from Palestine!

[TheOwl]

Superb - was thinking of following them until I saw the Sligo connection! Think I'll follow the Palestine team instead - especially as the ex is Israeli! :D

[SolitudeRed]

Hes not the only south American revolutionary with Irish connections check this guy William Brown out, he was from county Mayo!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Brown_%28admiral%29

And didn't Che Guevara have some sort of connection with Galway!

[SolitudeRed]

Superb - was thinking of following them until I saw the Sligo connection! Think I'll follow the Palestine team instead - especially as the ex is Israeli! :D

Israeli eh? I suppose any time you got mail addressed to the occupier you presumed it was for her If you catch my drift:) (sorry I know its a terrible joke but I couldn't resist it!)

[superfrank]

And didn't Che Guevara have some sort of connection with Galway!
Great-great-grandfather or other on his mother's side was from Galway.

If you have fluent Spanish (don't mean to brag), the O'Higgins entry in the Spanish Wikipedia gives more details. They are based in Rancagua, the capital of a region known as (rough translation) "the region of Bernardo O'Higgins the Liberator". They were founded on the 7th of April, 1955 as an amalgamation of two clubs: América and O'Higgins Braden.

So there's no real Irish connection. Just named after Chile's liberator who was an Irish-Chilean, Bernardo O'Higgins.

[TheOwl]

Israeli eh? I suppose any time you got mail addressed to the occupier you presumed it was for her If you catch my drift:) (sorry I know its a terrible joke but I couldn't resist it!)

No way was I ever gone to live with her :D - she is actually only half-Israeli (her mother is from Tel-Aviv) - her surname is Smith!

And London of course is a lot more "Israel friendly" than home (until they beat them at football of course)

[pineapple stu]

O'Higgins is a very common place name in parts of South America - check out Michael Palin's Full Circle (I think) for more info.

[Dodge]

I think there's a statue of O'Higgins in Sligo

[sligoman]

I think there's a statue of O'Higgins in SligoYep, there is

[red bellied]

Yep, there is

Its down by the Garavogue, erected in 1994!