DAMIAN SHIELS – MANAGING EDITOR

Damian founded Irish in the American Civil War in 2010, running the site as primary author and sole editor until 2021. He has published two books on the Irish experience of the conflict, The Irish in the American Civil War (History Press, 2014) and The Forgotten Irish: Irish Emigrant Experiences in America (History Press, 2017). Damian has lectured and led tours in Ireland, Britain and the United States relating to the American Civil War. He holds a PhD in history from Northumbria University, where his research focused on the correspondence of Irish Americans in Union service. In addition to historical work, he has extensive expertise both as a conflict archaeologist and exhibition curator. You can find out more about his career and output at shielsheritage.com.

CATHERINE BATESON – ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Dr. Catherine Bateson is an Associate Lecturer in American History at the University of Kent in the UK, where she teaches a wide variety of eighteenth and nineteenth century subjects, including aspects of American slavery, Native American tribal heritage, African American studies, Civil War history, and social/political/cultural topics. She has previously lectured and tutored at the universities of Edinburgh, Durham, Gloucestershire, Wolverhampton and Sussex in the UK, again specializing in American history and American Studies, alongside British race relations history. She gained her PhD in 2018 from the University of Edinburgh, where she worked on the culture and sentiments of Irish American Civil War songs and music, and is currently finishing a manuscript about this topic. As well as an expert on the context of Irish American cultural outputs and song productions during the conflict, she is also a passionate scholar of General Michael Corcoran and his role as a symbol of Irish American loyalty to the Union. She has written numerous blog posts on many aspects of her research and interests, and has published articles about Irish American transnational identity in the Civil War, the concept of ‘home’ in wartime song lyrics, and the wider history of music in military studies. Catherine is the former Vice-Chair of the Scottish Association for the Study of America (SASA) and co-founder for the War Through Other Stuff Society (both organizations are active on Twitter). You can follow her @catbateson.

BRENDAN HAMILTON – ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Brendan Hamilton is an independent researcher, writer, and lifelong student of the American Civil War. He holds an MFA in Writing and Poetics from Naropa University’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics. In addition to contributing numerous articles to Irish in the American Civil War, his work has appeared in Emerging Civil War and The Western Theater in the Civil War. He is the author of a collection of poetry entitled Jerusalem Plank Road and is currently working on a nonfiction project about reformatory inmates who served in the military during the Civil War. He lives in Indianapolis, Indiana with his wife Kris and three boys. You can find him on Twitter @revoltedstates.