Irish in the American Civil War celebrated its 11th birthday in May. This past decade of running the site has represented both a lot of work and a lot of reward, and I am grateful to everyone who has helped to develop the community over those years and contributed towards the site’s mission. Over the past 18 months or so I have been putting a lot of thought into the future direction of Irish in the American Civil War, and settled on the decision to fundamentally restructure both how the site is run and the type and range of content that is delivered. To that end, from this month I am delighted to announce that Irish in the American Civil War is no longer a solo endeavour. I am welcoming onto the team two Associate Editors who will work with me to develop and grow the website, and expand on the range of topics we discuss. 

Both of the new management team are long-term friends and contributors to the site, and promise to add greatly to its future direction. They are Dr Catherine Bateson, an accomplished historian of the Irish in American Civil War who has conducted important research into Irish songs from the conflict, and Brendan Hamilton, the site’s most prolific guest poster who most recently has been carrying out groundbreaking research into the recruitment of boys from Houses of Industry. You can read more about them on our About page here. As well as continuing to produce content you have become familiar with, together we will be working to develop a range of other offerings, particularly through the encouragement of regular contributors and guest authors. To that end we are currently preparing submission guidelines that will detail the procedure by which anyone can seek to contribute. I am extremely excited about where this will take the site. I hope to continue a concentration on digital projects and the widow’s files, as well as further developing the resources. Both Catherine and Brendan also have a vision for where they would like to see additional content, and lots of exciting ideas about future developments. We hope in the coming months to grow the team, and thereby help to build on what we hope will be a dynamic, varied and wide-reaching future for Irish in the American Civil War. Stay tuned for more soon!