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...
The latest in the Document Focus series see us return to the Aran Islands, off the west coast of Co. Galway. It looks at another emigrant family who experienced loss in the American Civil War, and how one of the...
I was delighted to be interviewed recently by the Civil War Times magazine regarding my work on the Irish in the American Civil War. The piece was published in their most recent issue, and has now been made freely available online on...
Regular readers will be familiar with my use of the Widows and Dependents Pension Files housed in the National Archives as the main building-block for the stories on this site. I contend that these files likely represent the most important source...
As regular readers will be aware, I occasionally take the opportunity to explore some non-Irish emigrant stories on the site. On this occasion I have been researching the experiences of the Kermeens, a family who made their home on the...
I was very honoured recently to be asked to provide a guest post for the blog of the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum in Washington D.C. The request gave me an opportunity to explore a topic on which I have wanted...
This is the second instalment of the ongoing mapping project detailing every widow and dependent parent in the world outside of the United States receiving a pension in 1883, and concentrates on Britain (you can see the first, looking at Mainland Europe,...
On 2nd June 1864 Hubert McNamara of the 155th New York Infantry, Corcoran’s Irish Legion, prepared a letter for his wife. He was aware that the following morning he would be going into action; he was among the men of...
Over recent months I have been working on a major new resource for those interested in the emigrant experience of the American Civil War. It seeks to provide information on all the widows and dependents receiving American pensions outside the...
The first publicity for my new book The Forgotten Irish came recently on the RTE Radio 1’s The History Show. The programme featured extracts from four of the stories, with actors reading from a number of the letters. It is always great...