The men were recruited throughout Ireland to defend the pope's temporal authority (in other words the Papal States), which was being threatened by troops of King Victor Emmanuel who wanted to unify Italy.
It sounds strange these days, but from around the 8th century CE, the pope was the ruler of a vast stretch of land in central Italy, known as the Papal States. It ceased to exist in 1870 when Italy was unified. The Risorgimento, which was led by men such as Giuseppe Mazzini, Count Cavour, Giuseppe Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel, saw Italy transformed from several small states into one Kingdom of Italy.
The Irish and the other papal army volunteers from France, Switzerland, Austria and Belgium were not welcomed by the inhabitants of the Papal States, who saw the men as an invading force supporting a bad government.
It may seem ironic that while some Irishmen were fighting for freedom from Britain at home in Ireland, other Irishmen would go to Italy and support another big power that was oppressing people, but the religious dimension undoubtedly blinded the Irishmen who fought for the pope to what was actually going on. They simply felt justified in fighting for the pope.
FURTHER READING
If you are interested in finding out more about this topic, I would recommend that you have a look at the following sources:
- G.F.-H. Berkeley, The Irish Battalion in the Papal Army of 1860 (Dublin: Talbot Press, 1929).
- Robert Doyle, 'The pope's Irish battalion, 1860', History Ireland, Vol. 18, 2010. Available to view here.
- Ian Kenneally, Courage and Conflict: Forgotten Stories of the Irish at War (Cork: The Collins Press, 2009).
- Des Ryan, 'The Pope's Emigrants', The Old Limerick Journal, Vol. 39, 2003. Available to view here.
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