The Hennessy origin story is one of the wildest founder stories in the history of luxury — because it starts not with grapes or distilleries, but with a Catholic Irish exile fleeing religious persecution and landing on a French battlefield with nothing but his name and a sword. Richard Hennessy left everything behind in County Cork, fought for a foreign king, nearly died at the Battle of Fontenoy, and somehow ended up settling in the Cognac region of France — where he built a trading empire that would become the world’s largest cognac producer, now selling over 100 million bottles a year. This is the story of how an outsider with no money, no business training, and no connection to France turned his exile into the most recognized cognac brand on earth — and why the Irish roots of Hennessy are one of the best-kept secrets in the spirits world. How did one Irishman’s desperation become a dynasty that outlasted empires? Subscribe for more incredible stories of the entrepreneurs who built the world’s greatest brands.
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Remember Fontenoy 🇮🇪
The Brits talk about Waterloo but never about the Battle of Fontenoy, a battle in which Irish troops saved the day for France against Britian, a hundred years before Waterloo.
and Wellington saved the day at Waterloo 🇮🇪
The bass sound on the video is very annoying.
I’m Irish and of course knew of the Wild Geese but not Hennessy’s extraordinary story, a story worthy of a Hollywood epic. This was excellent; thanks for posting and keep up the good work❤🎉
Another brilliant irishman from the land of saints and scholars
Get Rid of the Muslims. They don’t make “Mikk’s like they used to. With all do “Respect”
What an incredible journey
A few years after the Treaty of Limerick was signed the Penal laws were introduced into Ireland. Catholics were banned from getting an education from owning homes, horses, guns, swords etc. They started in 1695 and ended in 1829. It was an evil that was designed to wipe the Irish from the history books, It failed.
The beautiful song Siúil a Rúin (also spelled Shule Aroon or Siubhail, a Rúin) is a traditional Irish folk song featuring macaronic lyrics, which alternate between English verses and an Irish language chorus. The title translates to “go, my love” or “walk, my love,” with the chorus serving as a lament from a woman addressing a lover who has departed for a military career.
The song’s historical context is often linked to the “Wild Geese,” Irish soldiers who served in continental European armies (particularly France, Spain, and Austria) during the 17th and 18th centuries. The narrative describes the woman’s sorrow and her willingness to sell her possessions to buy her love armour or a sword of steel, while acknowledging the slim chance of his return.
Remember Limerick and Saxon perfidy
I knew he was one of the Wild Geese, but I was under the impression that he’d married into the
Martel family. This is much more impressive.
BS. Richard Hennessy came from an old aristocratic Gaelic family, the hAonghusa, with its seat at Killavulen, County Cork. He was educated by private tutors and spoke Latin, Gaelic, and French as well as basic English. Born in 1720, and just like the indigenous dispossessed Gaelic population of Ireland at that time, he grew up in an Ireland persecuted by Penal Laws imposed by Britain to subdue and cleanse the island of its native people. Under the Penal Laws, land owned for millennia by the indigenous Gaelic aristocratic families was confiscated by British brute force. Under the Penal Laws the Gaelic indigenous population was blocked from education of any kind, prohibited from the professions, prohibited from religious freedom and speaking Gaelige (Irish language), and prohibited from owning farm animals worth more than £5. The agenda was clear, soft genocide until impoverishment and famine “cleansed” Ireland of its native Gaelic population, an aspiration that came close to happening during the man-made famines of the mid-18th century. Hennessy joined the Jacobite Army to restore Irish rule and expel Britain from Ireland the 1740s. In defeat, Hennessy joined Theobald 7th Viscount Dillon’s Irish Brigade of the French Royal Army and served as an officer in the service of Louis XV from 1745. Wounded in battle, he settled in Cognac where his legend begins with the opening of what became the world renowned distillery that still bears his illustrious name.
He was more importantly from Cork.
Ya, who are All.Ireland champions…………Tipperary 😂😂😂😂😂.Ye thought ‘twas only a matter of turning up in Cooke park last year😂😂😂😂😂back in your box Pal😂😂😂😂😂😂
This story should be taught in Irish schools
He wasnt from a poor background and he wasnt a mercenary.