Irish American History
EP1/15
Within the space of a few years following the Great Hunger, hundreds of thousands of Irish emigrants settled in New York quickly becoming one of the largest communities in the city.
EP2/15
In this episode, I am joined by New York Times Senior Editor Mark Bulik. During the interview, Mark shares the intriguing story of Patrick 'Cruxie' O'Connor and why he was hunted by the IRA in 1920s New York.
EP3/15
This podcast explores why this was the case. The answer is the complexities of Irish identity, our relationship with Catholicism and scandals surrounding the 19th century Mormon practice of polygamy.
EP4/15
New York, Boston, and Chicago dominate the history of Irish migration to the United States. However by 1900 one of the most Irish cities in the US was Butte Montana. Situated high in the Rocky mountains, Butte was just one of hundreds of Irish communities dotted across the American West.
EP5/15
This sleepy corner of Georgia gained notoriety in the later stages of the US Civil War when the Confederacy opened a prison camp there. Nearly one third of all prisoners who entered Andersonville never left.
EP6/15
Over the last few years The Bad Bridget Project in Queens University Belfast by Dr Elaine Farrell and Dr Leanne McCormick has focused on criminal and deviant Irish women in North America. Now an award winning podcast and book, Leanne and Elaine join me in this episode share the stories they have uncovered.
EP7/15
In this episode, I interview historian Dr Aoife Bhreatnach about a Cork woman called Bridget Kent who married a British Army soldier. Aoife gives great insights into the life of Bridget who was born in Fermoy in 1859 but after her marriage to a soldier her life changed dramatically.
EP8/15
The history of Belfast has been dominated by the Troubles of the late 20th century and the longer history of sectarian conflict in the city. However Belfast holds a lesser-known yet significant chapter in its past—it's connections to the slave trade.
EP9/15
In this podcast, I look at the events in Ireland in 1972 and how it has come to pass that 42 years later one of the Ireland’s most prominent politicians arrested. What was in this historical archive? What are the rights of historians to record history vs. the rights of families of victims who may want to read private archives looking of answers?
EP10/15
This podcast tells the story of Irish-Americans who have been forgotten by history. These were the revolutionaries, feminists, socialists, and trade union organisers in the early 20th century . Often dubbed as unamerican, they strenuously rejected this notion.
EP11/15
In April 1894 Cincinnati's Irish Amercian community was rocked by a shocking and brutal murder. It was so scandalous that many newspapers in Ireland refused to even mention it, even though both the victim and the perpetrator were both Irish.
EP12/15
From the 1790s onwards, numerous Black anti-slavery activists visited Ireland to build support for the abolition of the slave trade and slavery itself. This would see some of the most famous African Americans in history including Frederick Douglas visit Ireland.
EP13/15
In this podcast, I look at how Irish emigrants survived on the Great Plains in the 1870s and 1880s. Their accounts are fascinating - from sleeping in tents in brutal winters to an Irish American man who sold something called 'The Great Remedy' that could cure anything!
EP14/15
Between 1840 and 1860, the population of New York almost trebled growing from 300,000 to 800,000. This influx of migrants from Europe gave birth to modern Manhattan. At the heart of this story were the 250,000 Irish people who made the city their home in the aftermath of the Great Hunger.
EP15/15
The Great Hunger is not something we associate with war and certainly not wars in other countries. However the Famine is inextricably linked to the story of the American Civil War (1861-1865).