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...
A number of previous posts have explored the impact of loss during the American Civil War on ordinary people in Europe (See Mapping Mainland Europe’s American Civil War Widows). Many of them had never–and would never–set foot in the United...
The new Forgotten Irish Podcast is now live. It is a story that may be familiar to some of you, that of Catherine Garvin and her son Con, which also features as the first chapter of my latest book. In late 1863, details...
I recently attended the excellent 2018 Famine Summer School held at the National Famine Museum at Strokestown Park House in Co. Roscommon. I was speaking on what pension files can reveal about the remittance of money from America to Ireland, and the...
On 25 May last I delivered a lecture to the Waterford Archaeological & Historical Society at St. Patrick’s Gateway Centre in Waterford City. The topic was the exploration of the impact of the American Civil War on Irish families. As...
When the American Civil War broke out in April 1861, Ireland’s Nation newspaper predicted that the lives of Irish emigrants would be “offered in thousands. Many a mother’s heart in Ireland, long cheered by the affectionate and dutiful letter and the generous...
Patrick Quilligan from Co. Clare was a 22-year-old tailor when he first took the decision to join the United States Army. The 5 foot 10 1/2 inch Irishman was described as having grey eyes, dark hair and a ruddy complexion...
The Immigration and Ethnic History Society aims to promote the study of the history of immigration to the United States and Canada. Founded in 1965, the Society produces the Journal of American Ethnic History. I have just had a post published...
New Yorker Marshall Bailey’s moment in the sun came late in life. The summer of 1910 found the elderly American Civil War veteran in dire straits, consigned to life as a pauper far from the country of his birth. His...
As regular readers are aware, my research over the last number of years has focused on identifying and analysing the correspondence of Union Irish soldiers in the American Civil War. Over the course of my work I have read hundreds...
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