The morning of November 23, 1867, was cold and damp in Manchester. Three young Irishmen stood on a scaffold outside Salford Gaol before a crowd of ten thousand. William Philip Allen was nineteen, a carpenter. Michael Larkin, thirty-two, a tailor with a wife and five children waiting at home. Michael O'Brien, a shop assistant and U.S. citizen who had fought in America's Civil … [Read more...] about The Manchester Martyrs: “God Save Ireland”

Even today, our school children are told the story of the American Revolution as one of New England Puritan Yankees and "Scots-Irish riflemen" on the frontier fighting for freedom. Over time, this portrayal has hardened into a historical dogma. Even in an age of revisionism that rightly seeks to recover the voices of women, African Americans, and Native peoples, the Ulster … [Read more...] about The Patriots They Erased: Ireland’s Sons in Washington’s Army 

Jeremiah O'Brien was born in 1744 in Kittery, in the district of Massachusetts that would later form the state of Maine, the eldest of six sons of Morris and Mary O'Brien—Irish Catholic immigrants from County Cork. In 1765, the family moved to Machias, a frontier settlement on the Maine coast. There, the O'Briens established a sawmill operation along the Machias River. There, … [Read more...] about Before the U.S. Navy, There Was O’Brien

Among the more persistent and insulting myths of the "Great Hunger" is the claim that the Irish "starved while surrounded by fish" because they were too ignorant or too stubborn to help themselves.  It's a narrative repeated in history books, classrooms, and casual conversation—a defaming simplification that distorts the truth of what our ancestors endured. Let's be clear: … [Read more...] about Starving in a Sea of Plenty: The Fish Story That Whitewashes the Irish Famine

Christmas is a time of tradition.  Every year, millions of Americans enact a tradition that few realize has its origins in Ireland and the mists of time: "the Laden Table." In pre-Christian Celtic Ireland, hospitality was more than just good manners; it was actually written into the law.  Under Brehon Law, all households were obliged to provide some measure of … [Read more...] about The Laden Table, an Irish Christmas Tradition