This time last year I had the opportunity to speak at the Ulster-American Heritage Symposium in Athens, Georgia. It was the second element of what was a two-part conference held in 2014 (the first part having taken place in Quinnipiac University, Connecticut) to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the biennial symposium, which explores Ulster’s connections with the United States. Quinnipiac University is home to Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute, and they took the decision to publish proceedings from the two events. The resultant book was launched at Quinnipiac last week, and I am delighted to have had an opportunity to contribute a paper to it. My effort focuses on what the American Civil War pension files might tell us about the Ulster experience of emigration in the 19th century. This is the first of a couple of upcoming academic papers on my pension file research that should be published this year, hopefully presaging my book on Irish stories from the files, the manuscript for which is currently nearing completion.

Irish Hunger and Migration: Myth, Memory and Memorialization is edited by Dr. Patrick Fitzgerald (Mellon Centre for Migration Studies), Professor Christine Kinealy (Director of Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute, Quinnipiac University) and Dr. Gerard Moran (European School, Lacken, Brussels). The volume covers a range of topics, including a number of relevance to those interested in the Irish experience of the American Civil War. The full Table of Contents is below, and if you are interested in picking up a copy  you can do so here.

Irish Hunger and Migration: Myth, Memory and Memorialization

Leaving for St. Christopher: Early Irish Migration to the New World 1630-60

Nini Rodgers (Honorary Senior Research Fellow, School of History and Anthropology, Queen’s Univeristy, Belfast, Northern Ireland)

Irish Hunger, Migration and Denomination, 1550-1850

Patrick Fitzgerald (Lecturer and Development Officer, Mellon Centre for Migration Studies, Ulster-American Folk Park, Omagh, Northern Ireland)

Famine and Place Names in Ireland

Kay Muhr (Senior Researcher of the Northern Ireland Place-Name Project, 1987-2010)

“This Great Agony of the Empire”: The Great Famine in Ulster

Christine Kinealy (Director of Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute, Quinnipiac University, Connecticut)

A Tale of Two Famines: Famine Memory in Nova Scotia, Canada

Mark G. McGowan (Professor of History, University of Toronto)

The Wreck of the Brig St. john and Its Commemoration, 1849-2014

Catherine B. Shannon (Professor Emerita of History, Westfield State University, Massachusetts)

Memories of the Great Famine in Irish North-American Fiction, 1855-70

Marguerite Corporaal (Associate Professor of English Literature, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands)

French-Canadian and Irish Memories of Montreal’s Famine Migration in 1847

Jason King (Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Researcher, Moore Institute, National University of Ireland, Galway)

The Society of Friends and Famine Relief in Ireland and Finland, c. 1845-57

Andrew G. Newby (Senior Visiting Research Fellow, Modern European History Research Centre, University of Oxford, England)

From Great Famine to Forgotten Famine: The Crisis of 1879-81

Gerard Moran (Coordinator of History, European School, Lacken, Brussels, Belgium)

“Remember that your Blood is Pure Scotch-Irish”: Ulster Americans and the Confederate States of America

David T. Gleeson (Professor of American History, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, England)

The Long Arm of War: Exploring the 19th-Century Ulster Emigrant Experience through American Civil War Pension Files

Damian Shiels

The Irish Hunger Memorial at Battery Park City: Mayo as Metaphor

Maureen Murphy (Professor of Teacher Education, Hofstra University, New York)

“Dealing with the Past” in Northern Ireland: Famine, Diaspora and the Influence of A.T.Q. Stewart

Brian Lambkin (Founding Director, Mellon Centre for Migration Studies, Ulster-American Folk Park, Omagh, Northern Ireland)