Aseries of art pieces portraying the struggle for survival aboard the “coffin ships” on which 1.5 million Irish escaped the Great Hunger are now on display at the Knights of Columbus Museum in New Haven, Connecticut. The exhibit, Fleeing Famine: Irish Immigration to North America, 1845-1860, includes six oil paintings of the harrowing, often-deadly conditions on such vessels, … [Read more...] about Connecticut’s Coffin Ship Art Exhibit
History
Californian Student Discovers Cork Link
A Californian student attending University College Cork had a prominent role in the centenary commemoration of the first time the U.S. Navy ever landed in Ireland, after making the discovery that her great-grandfather commanded the flotilla that arrived in Cork Harbor. Lizzie Helmer, a 20-year-old journalism student of Chico State University, was informed by her uncle just one … [Read more...] about Californian Student Discovers Cork Link
Meagher’s Memorial, Late, But Not Forgotten
When General Thomas Francis Meagher died, he never received a formal memorial. An Irish revolutionary turned exile, U.S. Army general, and acting governor of the Montana Territory, Meagher drowned in the Missouri River near Fort Benton, Montana in 1867, more than 2,000 miles from Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery, where his wife, Elizabeth Townsend Meagher, would be buried. His … [Read more...] about Meagher’s Memorial, Late, But Not Forgotten
IRB Leader and Civil War Vet Remembered
The 150th anniversary commemoration of Colonel Thomas J. Kelly and the Manchester Martyrs was celebrated at the Historic Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx in April. The event included a procession to the graveside, color guard, pipes and drum, a Civil War re-enactment, and spoken word poetry. A Galway-born veteran of the American Civil War, Kelly was deeply involved with New … [Read more...] about IRB Leader and Civil War Vet Remembered
Window on the Past:
The Georgia Healys
In antebellum Georgia, the Healy children, born legal slaves to an Irish immigrant father and his black common-law wife, had to be smuggled out of the state to avoid being sold into slavery. Several would go on to become some of the first mixed-race high-ranking members of the Catholic Church.
Nineteenth century Georgia saw a remarkable phenomenon called the Healy family. The … [Read more...] about Window on the Past:
The Georgia Healys