Transatlantic: An Irish American History Podcast

During the 1880s U.S. based Irish nationalists orchestrated a bombing campaign in England, known to history as the Dynamite Campaign. But what if the world’s most famous fictional detective had been sent across the Atlantic by the British Government to investigate? In this episode, Fin and Damian are joined by Dr Terry Golway, the author of numerous factual history books on this period, to dicuss just such a scenario, from his new historical novel Terror from America: A Sherlock Holmes Adventure. As well as discussing the history that underpins the novel, we explore some of the American an...

The story of Irish emigration to New York did not end with the great migrations of the nineteenth century. In this episode of Transatlantic Damian and Fin explore two later waves: the Irish who left for New York in the 1950s and those who followed in the 1980s.

What drove them to leave and how did they make new lives in a dramatically different society? We also explored the reason why they left Ireland in the tens of thousands; poverty at home and opportunity in New York, the impact of the Catholic Church on life in...

During the 1820s the Peter Robinson Emigration Scheme saw large numbers of families leave Munster the begin new lives in Upper Canada. Two hundred years later, the headstones these families left behind in Peterborough County, Ontario and in Cork, Limerick and Tipperary are helping to tell their stories in a unique, innovative and intrguing way. Fin and Damian are joined by Dr John Tierney, Director of the Historic Graves Project and Patrick Leahy of the Douro Heritage Group in Ontario to discuss their incredible transatlantic Carved in Stone community heritage project, which is using archaeology and history to explore...

Irish America's relationship with African Americans in the mid-19th century has long been a focus for historians, particularly those trying to understand racism and Irish opposition to emancipation. But what if part of the answer lies not in New York or Boston, but in Ireland itself? In this episode, Fin and Damian are joined by Dr Ian Delahanty, Associate Professor of History at Springfield College, Massachusetts. Ian's award-winning work has shed new light on some of the origins of Irish attitudes towards slavery, abolition and emancipation, and how they changed over time. As he explains, if we want...

Maine may not be the first place we think of when it comes to large Irish communities, but in the years after the Great Famine, the port city of Portland became home to a significant Irish population. The communities they developed began a strong connection between the city and Ireland that endures to this day, especially with the place most connected with its immigrants— Galway. In this episode, Fin and Damian are joined by historian, genealogist and author Matthew Jude Barker, the expert on the Portland Irish, to explore their story.

As well as discussing what br...

Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, tens of thousands Irish women worked as domestics. The "Irish Bridget" is one of the most recognisable stereotypes of Irish America, but what was life really like for these women, who were the subject of such extensive cariacture and discrimination?

In this episode, Fin and Damian are joined by Dr Catherine Healy, Historian-in-Residence at EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum and an expert on Irish domestic service. In the show we explore the reality of their hard working lives, and try and recover something of their lived experiences, both positive...

Damian and Fin return after the summer break to talk over their summer and whats coming in Transatlantic in the coming months.

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It is little known that the term United States of America may have been coined by the Irishman, Stephen Moylan. Although a little klnown figure in Ireland, he played a key role in the American revolution. His life story is remarkable. Born into a Catholic family in Cork his experiences in Ireland would form his transformational impact he on US history.

In this episode, Fin & Damian speak with historian Victoria Pearson a PhD researcher in Ulster University. The Moylan family is her particular area of expertise and she explains Stephen Moylan’s remarkable journey, his formative ea...

The individual experiences of ordinary Irish emigrant women in the late 19th and early 20th century can be difficult to reach, with many spending years working long hours in domestic service or on factory floors. But there is a group of these women who left a greater mark in the written record and--sometimes--even left behind their own words. They were the "radical" activists--Irish American women who took the decision to raise their heads above the parapet in an overwhelmingly patriarchal world to fight for the causes they believed in.

In this episode, Fin and Damian are...

George Galphin was a married man in his late 20s when he left Armagh for a new life on the American Frontier in 1737. Across the four decades that followed Galphin built an extraordinary personal empire on the frontiers of colonial South Carolina and Georgia. At the heart of his success were his connections with the indigenous Muscogee (Creek) people, amongst whom he lived. In this episode, Fin and Damian are joined by Dr Bryan C. Rindfleisch--an expert on Galphin's life--to discuss this fascinating Ulster Scot emigrant, the people that surrounded him, and the world he inhabited.

Br...

The Gaelic Athletic Association is one of the defining organisations in modern Irish history. Founded in 1884, it became the bedrock of community life across Ireland and played a significant role in the country’s political and cultural story. Its importance was starkly illustrated on Bloody Sunday in 1920, when Crown forces attacked spectators at a match in Dublin.

In this episode, we turn to the history of the GAA in the United States. Bennett Burke, Public Relations Officer of the United States Gaelic Athletic Association, joins Fin and Damian. Their conversation traces the story of Gaelic games in...

Today a little over 2,500 people live in Leadville, Colorado. But in the late 19th century tens of thousands of people flocked here, trying to eke out a living during the great silver mining boom. A huge number of those people were Irish. Nicknamed "Cloud City" because of its incredible altitude--over 10,000 feet up in the Rockies--there were few more difficult places to live. The harsh climate, shanty accommodation and terrible working conditions sent many to an early grave, with the least fortunate consigned to an unmarked pauper's burial ground. In this episode, Fin and Damian are joined by Professor Jim...

The coastal area of South Carolina and Georgia, known as the "Lowcountry", may not be the first place that springs to mind when it comes to Irish America. But the historic cities of Savannah and Charleston have long, rich histories of Irish immigration that have forged connections which endure to this day. In the case of Savannah, that immigration was so large it saw the Irish population reach a percentage of the city's total white population that was comparable to New York. In this episode Professor David Gleeson makes a return to Transatlantic to discuss Charleston and Savannah's story...

The U.S. entry into World War II in 1941 led to the deployment of tens of thousands of American troops to Ireland, just as it had during World War I. But this time they were concentrated only in Northern Ireland, which had remained part of the United Kingdom. The American arrival led to an unparalleled explosion in Northern Ireland's population. In this episode we are joined by Dr James O'Neill to discuss the U.S. military's return to the island. We cover the who, when and why of their presence, and move beyond the military to explore their social imp...

The St. Patrick's Day Parade is the centrepiece of celebrations of Ireland's patron saint the world over. But how did it start--and just who started it? In this episode Fin and Damian are joined by noted historian of the Irish aboard, Dr Cian McMahon, who is currently working on a new history of the Parade. In a far-reaching episode we discuss the Parade's origins, influences and legacy down to contemporary times. Among the nuggets Cian discusses are the misconceptions that ihe Parade's origins are as a Catholic Irish American event, and the idea that Dublin's Parade has been increasingly "Am...

As the Irish communities prepare to celebrate St Patrick’s Day, Fin and Damian look at who he was and what we know about his life. From his early days in the late Roman Empire to his time in Ireland as a slave and his role in conversion Ireland to Christianity.

Terry O’Hagan’s Vox Hiberionacum https://voxhib.com

St Patrick Dictionary of Irish Biography Entry

 https://www.dib.ie/biography/patrick-patricius-patraic-padraig-a7225

Flechner, R. (2019) Saint Patrick Retold: The Legend of Ireland's Patron Saint

Pilgrimage in Medieval Ireland Website...

The beginnings of the Catholic Irish story in New York City are usually associated with the mid-nineteenth century. But in the immediate wake of the Revolution, a small, vibrant community had already begun to establish itself, quickly making an impact on the religious, political and social life of New York. In this episode we will hear about the wealthy Irish Catholic merchants who helped create Manhattan's first Catholic parish and who sought to reshape New York politics. We also discuss the growth of the City's Catholic Irish working-class, and the early nativist tensions--and sometimes violent clashes--their growing numbers created. 

Irish folklore often recalls an ancient past. However, in this episode Fin and Damian explore how America and the experiences of Irish emigrants had already become part of folklore by the early twentieth century. Set down almost 100 years ago, among the stories you will hear tales of ghosts that reflect a sense of loss and remembrance of emigrants, examples of how returned emigrants were sometimes seen as "other", and even find out about how Irish children had already become fascinated by the American West and Native Americans.

Folklore Archive www.duchas.ie

The American Civil War was a defining moment for Irish Americans in the 1860s. Over 250,000 Irish Americans many of them Famine emigrants served in the Union army. Over the course of the war they played a key role in the defeat of the Confederacy.

However their service has been dogged by stereotypes and myth for more than 160 years. 

In this episode Damian discusses his latest research published in his 2025 book Green and Blue. Fin and Damian explore the book that brings new perspectives to our understanding of the war. They examine the immense Iri...

How did Catholicism develop on America's West Coast during the 19th and 20th centuries, and how did it differ from the experience in the major Eastern cities? What role did Irish Americans Catholics, both women and men, play in the pioneering years of the Golden State's gold rush and the development of California's state capital over the century that followed? These are just some of the questions we explore in our latest episode of Transatlantic: An Irish American History Podcast, taking as our lens the Irish men and women who helped to build, develop and sustain the city of Sa...

In this episode of Transatlantic: An Irish American History Podcast, we’re joined by noted historian Dr. Terry Golway to explore the story of Tammany Hall, the famed New York political machine so long associated with Irish America. In this show you will hear about Tammany's origins, how and when it became a powerful force for Irish immigrants, and how the famed machine operated through its long existence.               

Today, even the word "Tammany" is seen as a byword for corruption and excess. But is there more to Tammany’s story than scandal? Terry helps us to explore this, revea...

In 1771 Benjamin Franklin spent more than six weeks traveling through Ireland at a moment when tensions between Britain and her colonies were rising. In this episode Damian and Fin trace his route from Dublin through the Irish countryside and explore the people he met and the conditions he witnessed. Despite being laid low with food poisoning on his first day he quickly became absorbed in what he saw. The poverty of rural Ireland the restrictions placed on Irish trade and the political frustrations of the Protestant elite all left a deep impression on him. These experiences helped shape the...

One of the most enduring stereotypes of early US history is the Mountain Man. This figure often appears as the tough and resourceful frontiersman familiar from films like The Revenant. The stereotype is rooted in fact and in recent months Damian has been researching the Irish men who found themselves in the American West during the early nineteenth century. Fin and Damian explore this history along with who these men were and what brought them into the Rocky Mountains. They also look at how they interacted with Native American tribes in the region.

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What can a micro-history of emigration, the story of a single townland, or even a single family, reveal about the wider Irish emigrant experience? In this episode, we trace the remarkable journey of the Clune family of Tyredagh Upper, Co. Clare, whose multigenerational migration to Norwalk, Connecticut offers insight into how local origins shaped settlement patterns in America.

We’re joined by Dr. Jane Halloran, historian, genealogist, and founder of Dalcassian Origins, to discuss her research on this chain migration and the powerful community networks that carried families like the Clunes across the Atlantic. Through their st...

Michael Phelan, born in Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny, rose to prominence as one of America's most gifted billiards player and showmen. In New York he encountered Hugh Collender, from Cappoquin, Co. Waterford, an exiled Irish nationalist who decided to turn his talents to business after the failed rising of 1848.

Phelan’s flair and Collender’s enterprise combined into one of the great economic successes of 19th century Irish America. Together they built Phelan & Collender, a company that revolutionised billiard-table manufacture and helped define an American leisure industry. This episode traces how two Irishmen, shaped by different beginnings but...

Wisconsin isn't the first state that springs to mind when it comes to the Irish American Diaspora. But though often more associated with Germans (and German beer!), Wisconsin had a notable Irish presence. Today, Milwaukee is even home to Irish Fest, the largest Irish festival in the United States.

In this episode, we’re joined by Professor Tim McMahon of Marquette University to uncover the fascinating history of the Irish communities who made Wisconsin their home.

We chart their stroy from the early arrivals of the nineteenth century to their lasting influence in th...

In this episode, Fin and Damian trace the Irish legacy scattered across the American map through the placenames they left behind. The journey takes them from Brooklyn’s Vinegar Hill, named for a Wexford battlefield in hopes of attracting Irish immigrants, to Menlo Park, California, the major tech hub with roots in a Galway inspired ranch. They uncover how Irish immigrants, Irish Americans and Irish politicians and miners left their mark — through places like Glendalough State Park (in Minnesota, not Wicklow!), Roscommon and the "Irish" counties of Michigan, and the Texas ghost town in Texas that came to be call...

In the early 1880s, crates of California dynamite found their way to London — not for trade, but for terror. Irish revolutionaries in the United States were plotting bombings in the heart of the British Empire, and San Francisco, with its deep Irish roots, became a key outpost in the transatlantic campaign.

In this episode, we speak with renowned author and historian Dr Myles Dungan about his new historical novel The Red Branch, set in 1883 San Francisco and inspired by these real-life dynamiters, secret societies, and British spies. We explore the real history and real characters behind the...

In 1878, one of the most infamous crimes in Gilded Age America stunned and captivated the nation: the corpse of Alexander Turney Stewart — an Irish immigrant turned millionaire merchant — was stolen from its grave in Manhattan and held for ransom.

What followed was a drawn out saga that dragged another Irishman into the spotlight: Patrick Henry Jones — a Civil War general, lawyer, and public servant — who found himself forced to act as reluctant go-between for the body snatchers and Stewart’s grieving widow. This is a story of grave robbing, coded newspaper ads, and the high-stakes politics of class...

When most people think of American heiresses marrying into the British or Irish aristocracy, they might picture Cora Crawley from Downton Abbey—the wealthy American who brought her fortune (and a bit of drama) to an English estate. But Cora’s story wasn’t entirely fiction. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, scores of American women crossed the Atlantic, bringing their wealth to some of Ireland’s most iconic estates.

In this episode, Fin and Damian explore the real-life stories behind these transatlantic marriages, as the elite of the Gilded Age wed into Victorian Ireland...

We had an unplanned break in the show, but we’re back with a streamlined Transatlantic, having finally unlocked the secrets of recording across several time zones. Tune in to find out what we have planned!

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One of the most famous Irish American organisations is the Fenians. In this episode, Damian and Fin are joined by Brennan MacDonald to explore the history of this enigmatic group. Brennan reveals how the Fenians harnessed the military experience gained in the US Civil War to challenge British rule in Ireland, and how their transatlantic networks shaped the struggle for Irish independence.

Further reading and source

John O'Mahony: Dictionary of Irish Biography

James Stephens: Dictionary of Irish Biography

Thomas Sweeny: Dictionary of Irish Biography

John O'Neill: Dictionary of...

Over the course of the 19th century, hundreds of thousands of Irish people moved to New York, leaving a lasting impact on the city. In this episode, Damian and Fin are joined by Dr. Elizabeth Stack and Danny Leavy to explore the legacy of these immigrants in the streets of NYC today. Danny and Elizabeth are historians and Irish immigrants living in New York, and they share unique insights into the city’s Irish past from the notorious Five Points to St. Peter's Church.

You can virtually follow along to the stops we feature in this ep...

Gettysburg stands as one of the most iconic battles in American history, with thousands of Irish men fighting on both sides of the conflict. In this episode, Fin and Damian are joined by historian Harry Smeltzer to delve into the dramatic three days of the battle. Together, they uncover the pivotal roles played by Irish soldiers, share gripping stories from the front lines, and paint a vivid picture of what life was like on a Civil War battlefield.

Follow the story around the battlefield with this map (Click the arrow beside "Locations Mentioned" and "Monuments Mentioned"...

In 1881, Isabella Nugent wrote, “If having sexual intercourse made us man and wife, we were married.” Intimate, candid insights like this into the private lives of Irish people—both at home and abroad—are rare gems from the 19th century. Yet the private sex lives of our ancestors are just one of the many fascinating topics revealed in US Military Pension Files from that era.

After 15 years of research, Damian shares how you can unlock these invaluable resources to uncover the hidden stories of the past. From personal relationships to everyday struggles, these files offer a unique w...

Ordinary people's letters provide the most immediate and intimate window into the lives of past Irish emigrants. In them are preserved their hopes, their fears and their stories. Now a new database brings thousands of these letters, written across four centuries, to our fingertips for the first time. In this episode, Damian chats with Breándán Mac Suibhne and Daniel Carey from the University of Galway's Imirce Project, discussing how it came about, how you can explore it, and what these letters reveal about the epic story of Irish migration.

Imirce Project Website

...

The American Revolution had a profound and lasting impact on Ireland. While thousands of Irish people fought in the conflict and Cork Harbour served as a vital British logistics hub, the repercussions were felt far beyond the battlefield. The ideals and upheavals of the war helped radicalise Irish society, pushing it towards its own age of revolution. In this episode, Damian and Fin explore how the tensions unleashed by the American Revolution set Ireland on a path toward rebellion, and reveal the unexpected ways the conflict influenced the Catholic Church in Ireland.

Sound by Kate Dunlea<...

This is a short story of an Irish man in America, a broken mic and lots of great Irish American History to come.

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The Irish woman Annie Moore was the first person processed at the famous Ellis Island immigration station after it opened in 1892. Over the following 62 years nearly 12 million emigrants were processed there but Annie embodied this immigrant experience but who was this Irish woman?

In this episode, Fin and Damian interview Megan Smolenyak, a genealogist who has written a book titled The Quest for Annie Moore of Ellis Island: Uncovering the True Story of the First Immigrant to Arrive at America's Isle of Hope. The podcast explores Annie's life in Ireland, how she rose to fame as...

Irish nuns are one of the enduring stereotypes of Irish emigrant communities. Thousands of Irish women joined these religious communities often erving as educators and nurses. In these roles they embedded themselves deeply in the communities they served leaving a lasting memory. In this episode, Damian and Fin interview Dr. Sophie Cooper of Queen’s University Belfast, an expert on the subject. We look at who these women were, why they joined and what life was like inside the convents where they lived

The discussion focuses on the fascinating case of Molly Dwyer, Fin’s grandaunt, who...