Patrick Coffey was a labourer in his 30s when he went to war. In the summer of 1861, he marched off to Virginia as part of Company D, the “Fitzgerald Guard” of the famed 69th New York State Militia. Like...
Owen Moloney was 26-years-old when he was mustered into Company C of the 6th New Jersey Infantry on 7th November 1861. Over the years that followed, the young Co. Clare emigrant saw his fair share of war. He was there...
This week Ireland’s state broadcaster RTÉ (Raidió Teilifís Éireann) dedicated an episode of its show Nationwide to the Irish experience of the American Civil War. Over the years there has been a disappointing lack of Irish programming looking at emigrants to...
We hope all our readers are having a good December and getting ready for Christmas! This month we are launching a new initiative here at Irish in the American Civil War. In the months ahead we will be recording video...
It was a busy November for the Irish in the American Civil War team with not one but two online talks for the Irish American Heritage Museum! Both of the talks are now available on the Museum’s YouTube page, but...
The next series of Andersonville Irish Spotlight posts will share some of the results from work we carried out during the Andersonville Irish Project trip to the National Historic Site. It was a visit facilitated by grant funding from the Andersonville...
A while back I (Damian) did an interview with Dr Tom Thorpe for his Combat Morale Podcast, which explores why combatants in different wars enlist, fight and serve. I managed to miss it when it was released, but if you...
Although American Civil War Roundtables are widespread in the United States, they are much thinner on the ground across the Atlantic. Somewhat surprisingly, despite the scale of Irish involvement in the conflict, there is no dedicated group in Ireland that...
As readers will be aware, later last year I (Damian) had the opportunity to undertake some research for the Andersonville Irish Project at the National Historic Site in Georgia. During my time there I conducted a tour of some of...
This latest Andersonville Irish Spotlight post is the first to contain some of the information gleaned from my recent research trip to Andersonville National Historic Site. The trip was facilitated by grant funding from the Andersonville POW Research Grant Program,...