As regular readers are aware, I am consistently pointing out that for many Irish counties the American Civil War saw more men fight and die than any other conflict in modern history, including the First World War. One county for...
In 1917 more than 6,000 American sailors arrived in Ireland, the first United States troops deployed to front line service during the First World War. From a social perspective, all was not plain sailing. This podcast tells the story of...
I recently came across a series of 1861 letters written between three notable members of nineteenth century Irish America. The authors were the Archbishop of New York, “Dagger” John Hughes; Father Bernard O’Reilly, who had served as the 69th New...
Millions of people in the modern-day United States have some degree of Irish ancestry. The surnames they bear or are connected to display a staggering array of spelling variance–some of which seem very far removed from their Transatlantic origins. While...
My primary area of research relates to wartime letters written home by soldiers and sailors, and which widow’s and dependents parted with in order to provide the Bureau of Pensions with evidence to support their claim. However, letters were not...
Popular perceptions of 19th century Irish emigration imagine a tearful farewell from home, as emigrants departed never to be heard from again. But in reality those who left usually maintained close ties with their home communities– ties of obligation and...
Although proportionately very few Irish veterans of the American Civil War returned to Ireland after their service, hundreds did choose to do so. Up and down the island in the late 19th and early 20th centuries those who had served...
The new post shares another of the brief podcasts that was originally prepared for Irish Community Level Patrons. Here we hear the first-person affidavit of Donegal woman Mary Doherty, who emigrated from Carndonagh, Co. Donegal to Boston in the 1840s....
A brand new resource has been added to the website, and can be found in the Resources section or by clicking here. It deals with letters from America that were published in Irish newspapers during the course of the American...
I am fascinating by the physical remnants of the past that survive in the contemporary landscape. When we think of landscapes of the American Civil War, the images conjured in our minds are often of vast battlefields, such as the...