Hennessy was founded by an Irish exile who fought the British for France.
Richard Hennessy, a Catholic from County Cork, left Ireland in 1740 at 19 to serve Louis XV in Dillon’s Regiment of the Irish Brigade. He was wounded at Fontenoy in 1745, where the brigade took 656 casualties against a British-led army. He settled in Cognac, founded his house in 1765 and shipped his first brandies to Britain and Ireland.
Hennessy on Brandseum