Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #IrishDiaspora
Most recents (7)
This is one of the very best images of Irish troops from the American Civil War. Surprisingly, it's not very well known, despite Thomas Francis Meagher's presence. Taken in the summer of 1861, it contains lots of fascinating details. A short🧵on some of them👇#IrishDiaspora 
This is Meagher before he was a General, taken only a short time before he and the men around him - Zouaves attached to the 69th New York State Militia as Company K - would see action for the first time at the Battle of Bull Run on 21 July 1861.
The image offers incredible detail of some of the men. Many would have been born in Ireland, and many, if not most, would have been Famine emigrants. The “69” on their caps is clearly visible, as is a white Havelock (left), which some of the 69th NYSM wore at Bull Run.
The Irish and the start of the American Civil War-A Short Thread. The conflict began today in 1861, when Confederates opened fire on Fort Sumter, Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. Within the Fort's walls, there were more Irish-born than American-born soldiers. 1/9 #IrishDiaspora
Within the Fort, Captain Abner Doubleday is regarded as the man who gave the command to return fire- the first U.S. shot of the war. Galwegian Private James Gibbons (below) may well have served that gun. Years later he would claim to be the man who physically fired that shot. 2/9
The Confederates had opened fire due to the imminent arrival at Fort Sumter of provisioning U.S. vessels. Many of those ship crews were also Irish-born. Dubliner Stephen Rowan held a key role during the operation, as Commander of the sloop-of-war USS Pawnee. 3/9
Multiple #Oscars winner and #Hollywood studio executive , Cedric Gibbons (1890 - 1960) was born 121 years ago #OnThisDay.
There is some dispute as to whether he was born in #Ireland or in #Brooklyn
#GlobalIrishNation #IrishDiaspora #OTD #BOTD
There is some dispute as to whether he was born in #Ireland or in #Brooklyn
#GlobalIrishNation #IrishDiaspora #OTD #BOTD
2) Gibbons started out his career in the #movies in the art department of the #NYC based Edison Studios where his architect father Austin was employed. After serving in the @USNavy in #WWI. Gibbons, followed the migration of the film business to #Hollywood
3) Gibbons had a career of more than 30 years at @mgmstudios. He would become a founding member of @TheAcademy and design the famous #artdeco #Oscars statuette
🗣Day 4 of Leeds Lit Fest 📚
⛪️13:00 // Poet Theologian in Lockdown
🤝19.00 // Why Can't We All Just Get Along - Ian Dale
🌉 20.00 // Bridges - David Oluwale & Leeds Irish
Tickets are free / payf. Registration closes 2 hrs before.
🎫leedslitfest.co.uk
#LLF21
⛪️13:00 // Poet Theologian in Lockdown
🤝19.00 // Why Can't We All Just Get Along - Ian Dale
🌉 20.00 // Bridges - David Oluwale & Leeds Irish
Tickets are free / payf. Registration closes 2 hrs before.
🎫leedslitfest.co.uk
#LLF21
Not long until Hannah Stone speaks about her experience in virtual residence as poet theologian for @LCILeeds, documenting the impact of lockdown on the Leeds community. Registrations are now closed but check out the project and Hannah's book...⛪️ lcileeds.org/reflections-po…
There's still time to register for @IainDale at #LLF21 to hear him speak about his new book 'Why Can't We All Just Get Along' - part memoir, part polemic about the state of public discourse in Britain. Want an end to divisive politics? Check it out! 🤝 bit.ly/3rMI65a
1863 commission of #Cork emigrant Roger Warner as a First Lieutenant in the 53rd Illinois Infantry. The 29-year-old father of four was never mustered at the rank- he drowned when the steamer he was on was burned by a Rebel agent in September 1863. #ForgottenIrish #IrishDiaspora
A carpenter in Ottawa, LaSalle County, Roger had left Ireland as a teenager, sailing on the "Yeoman" which was bound for Philadelphia from Cork in 1851. He travelled with his mother, brother and sister. Their father had gone ahead to pave the way.
Roger married fellow Irish emigrant Ellen Fenlon in 1853. They lived in New York's 22nd Ward until the late 1850s, probably moving West to pursue employement opportunities. When war came, Roger joined with Captain Michael Leahy's strongly Irish American company in his new state.
How Peter Keefe in Kilkenny Came to Lose His Leg– A Story of American Coastal Raids, Escape Tunnels & Prison Breaks: irishamericancivilwar.com/2020/01/11/how… #IrishDiaspora #ForgottenIrish
I think this is an amazing story, and one I have been researching on and off for a number of years.
@irishhistory you might be interested in this one, seeing as he is a fellow Kilkenny man and came home– he definitely had a story to tell!
"Christmas Remittances to the Old Country." Sending money home for Christmas, Irish Citizen Advertisement, New York, 21 December 1867. #IrishDiaspora
This ad also demonstrates how many of the Irish American diaspora had been step-migrants through Britain, and were looking to send money to the Irish community there. I frequently encounter British-born Irish Americans in the Civil War pension files.
For a prime example of how important remittances were for Irish families, and how emigrants continued to send them across decades, here is the story of Irish Domestic Johanna Barry from Dunmanway, #Cork: irishamericancivilwar.com/2017/07/14/joh…
