Ireland celebrates Che Guevara's Irish roots with a stamp, despite opposition [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

PRI's The World
October 13, 2017 · 3:15 PM EDT
By Christopher Woolf

The Republic of Ireland marked the 50th anniversary of the death of Che Guevara, on Oct. 9, with a commemorative postage stamp. It’s become hugely popular, but it’s also causing quite a stink.

Ernesto “Che” Guevara helped lead the communist revolution in Cuba, in the 1950s, but was later captured and executed for trying to launch a revolution in Bolivia.

He was chosen for the stamp, because — to quote the Irish postal service — Che is the “quintessential left-wing revolutionary.” He’s also of partial Irish descent.

That’s right. Irish. His great-great-great-great-grandfather, Patrick Lynch, was born in Galway, in western Ireland, in 1715 into a family that had lost its property in the religious wars. So young Lynch did what so many ambitious Catholic Irishmen of the time did, which was travel to the Catholic countries of mainland Europe to find new opportunities.

More:
https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-10-13/ireland-celebrates-che-guevaras-irish-roots-stamp-despite-opposition