by Mike McCormack, AOH NY State Historian Emeritus

Some ‘historians’ ignore facts in order to downsize their presentation. What is most egregious is when the contributions of the Irish are thus ‘written out’ as inconsequential. Take Washington’s Christmas crossing of the Delaware for example. The Irish around Trenton, like Paddy Colvin, who ran a Delaware River ferry; Paddy Lamb, who lived near a Bridge on Assunpink Creek and John Honeyman, a retired British…

by Mike McCormack

Across the racing current of the Shannon river stands many a bridge, but few as notable as the 13-arch bridge that connects the towns of Ballina, Co. Tipperary and Killaloe, Co. Clare. It was built in the early 1800s at a spot on the Shannon near Brian Boru’s ford. The ford was a shallow spot in the river where a man on horseback or a cart could easily wade across the river. It is called Brian Boru’s ford since High King Brian situated his royal palace of Kincora at…

Many Irish who contributed significantly to this nation have been undeservedly excluded from the pages of our school’s history books and their stories remain untold. One such is John Patton. Born in 1745 in County Sligo, John immigrated to Philadelphia about 1765. He met and married Jane Davis on 7 March…

In September 1862, two Irish-born men were about to put their lives on the line for their adopted American nation.  One was Dennis Heenan from Borrisokane, County Tipperary who arrived in Philadelphia in 1839.  He joined one of the many Irish militias defending Irish neighborhoods from the bigoted…