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 Daily news from the Canaries and the islands' biggest English language newspaper on-line The Canary Islanders, proud today of their Guanche origins, have been blessed with the oldest Spanish and Catholic traditions. The man from Waterford They have also been greatly influenced by the finest examples of culture imported by foreign European merchants. As a result of that foreign presence these islands have also been widely written about since the earliest days after the Spanish conquest as in Le Canarien, a 1402 article in French, an island history in Italian by Torriani or Sabine Berthelot’s historic account of the islands. But one of the earliest descriptions of life in Tenerife in English can be found in the diaries of an Irishman by the name of Bernard Walsh, or Bernardo Valois as he was known here.  Two of his older brothers actually chose to establish themselves in the Canaries. Bernard was invited by his brother Patrick to join him in his wine exporting and shipping company based in Port Orotava, the old name for Puerto de la Cruz. His other brother, Nicholas, settled in Las Palmas. When he arrived he was only twenty-one but quickly learnt his trade by representing his brother on numerous trips to Europe. In fact it wasn’t long before Bernard founded his own flourishing business in Puerto and made an immense fortune from which his descendents still reap benefits today. The Irish Walsh clan in Tenerife cleverly established mercantile partnerships with other Irish and Scottish merchants like John Cross, the future British Consul with whom Bernard Walsh had more than one disagreement over the years, the Whites, one of whose descendents, Nicolás Blanco (White) became the fist real mayor of Port Orotava in 1771, and George Fitzgerald. George Fitzgerald was actually Bernard’s cousin and almost certainly his most important partner despite leaving for London after just eighteen years in Tenerife to set up a lucrative business importing American tobacco. He had arrived in Tenerife in 1700 and traded with Europe and America. But George was more than just a trading partner. Walsh evidently held his cousin in great esteem and felt a great personal loss when he departed for London in 1718. An example of the clan spirit amongst the Irish was Bernard’s marriage to his cousin, George’s niece. She, Francesca Fitzgerald was actually born at Nantes. This was an important French trading port which harboured so many exiled Jacobites and also where they made fortunes trading with America. Her father, Gregory, who had escaped Ireland to live in Nantes and declared his support for James II, also came to live and die in Tenerife. Bernard Walsh’s marriage to Francesca produced seven children, three of which were sons who died at an early age in Port Orotava. Proof of a deliberate search for wealth and position his remaining son and three daughters were married into prosperous and important families. His son Nicholas married Luisa Bethencourt y Castro, a family of big land-owners, and this enabled the Irish clan to integrate further into island society. His third daughter, Margaret, married Juan Cologan, another prosperous immigrant from Dublin and who took over the family business in Tenerife. Nevertheless, despite evident and commendable ambition, the diaries of Bernard Walsh betray a thoughtful, highly intelligent and cultured gentleman. He could speak a number of languages and his vast library included treasures in Spanish, French, Latin, Greek and even Dutch. He was also precise in everything he set out to do, not only in business but also in private affairs and he kept meticulous accounts of personal transactions and thoughts. He even kept records of friends and acquaintances, especially of those, in his own words, “who proved unthankful to me”. He described his personal servant, Thomas Macguire as being very ungrateful. He too was an Irish immigrant and evidently resented his role as servant to another, very successful Irishman. Walsh was ruthless about Stephen Lynch and described him as, “the most unworthy of relations, a proof of the Galway blood that runs through his veins. He is foolish and vain and destructive to himself through his vice and follies. God forgive him all and give him grace to forget that these injuries as I do forgive them for God’s sake of Christianity”. He was indeed hard but forgiving in his judgement of others. Having written that another acquaintance, Thomas Wadding, deserved to be ranked amongst the rest, “for a sewer of sedition and discord”, they were reconciled and became good friends. But his forgiveness possibly stemmed from his deep religious faith and his vitality as a ruthless businessman appeared to have been soothed by a sometimes melancholy and even humble nature. This may well have been induced by severe gout he suffered for many years. However the diaries show how greatly he could be affected by the loss of a close companion. The death of his brother Patrick coincided with his cousin George being away for a long spell in 1711 and Bernard Walsh wrote, “Your long absence consumes me. It has taken away ten years of my life. I am overcome with sadness.” However there is no doubt that, in public, Bernard Walsh showed great self confidence, took difficult decisions bravely and that his ambition allowed him to live a cosmopolitan and luxurious life, like most successful foreign merchants in the Canary Islands. His houses in Puerto de la Cruz were magnificent and tastefully styled on Canary architecture, with balconies, landings and huge internal patios. The house he built on his estate at La Paz, overlooking the Martiánez Bay, reflected and still does to this day, very high living standards. It was surrounded by vineyards and cereal crops and barns and even a windmill embellished the view towards Mount Teide. The house still belongs to Bernard Walsh’s Spanish descendents but it is now surrounded by apartments, hotels, shops and villas, many of which are also owned by his descendents. The decoration within Bernard Walsh’s houses reflected his Irish roots, taste and culture, with elegant furniture, London mirrors, mahogany desks, fine China ornaments and marble tables. Such wealth meant that his children were afforded the best education. Inevitably this implied sending them away. His son Gregory was sent to mainland Spain in 1722, in the hope that he might become a legal student or read theology. Instead the lad had more practical ideas and wanted to be a merchant too or at least a soldier or a sailor. A few years later he could be found in London learning navigation, arithmetic and fencing. Unfortunately he too died prematurely and so the name Walsh, or Valois in Tenerife discontinued when Bernard died. Perhaps what is most evident from his diaries is that Walsh was a militant Catholic. Like so many Irishmen who sought refuge in Spanish territories, he used his position as an exile escaping the protestant enemies in the British Isles to squeeze out trading licenses and favours from the local authorities. He also used it to obtain Spanish nationality and protection. He and his brother founded the chapel of St. Patrick in Puerto. It still boasts the same magnificent altar piece and it is home to the family mausoleum. He also rebuilt another chapel, still known as Our Lady of La Paz, on his estate. His vast donations to the local Catholic church perhaps lead some people to believe they responded more to his interest in gaining local credit than to his evident faith, but hardly a day in his diaries fails to include a prayer or extracts from psalms like “Love God above all things and your neighbour as yourself,” or sayings like, “Let every man mind hid own business, for curiosity is restless”. Then, as was the custom in those days, virtuous and wealthy individuals made considerable bequests to religious institutions and Walsh, who was by then known as Bernardo Valois, did not forget his beloved Ireland and included the Holy Ghost Hospital in Waterford, in his will. The original clan spirit amongst the Irish, especially those in exile in the 1700s, was regarded as a necessary and natural safety net. In his diaries Bernardo Valois refers to the union of various families with common wealth, professional and regional ties, either through marriage, godfathering, social functions or beneficiaries. This Irish solidarity was in fact in response to psychological, social and economic needs. They were a pursued people and to defend themselves they bonded together. The same bonding occurred until quite recently amongst local aristocratic families in the Canary Islands. In order to preserve the greater wealth, the family estate and prestige intact, just as Bernard Walsh did three centuries ago to prolong his family fortune, the tendency was to act like a tightly knit clan. By John Young This article appears in the print edition 570 of Island Connections
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