Irish Volunteer Paddy "Bug" Callaghan and his two comrades stared up the road to the east as the cool, crisp air of February 2, 1921, caused their breath to fog the air around them. The three members of the North Longford Battalion of the Irish Volunteers were tasked with the most critical job of…

She stands

On the shore

Watching

Her ship burn

Her two horses

In the water

Stand

Like two pillars

Strong

The promise

Of swift

Departure

The mountain

Unmoved

Like a giants

Table

Covered…

Edward Hand was born in Clyduff, County Offaly, Ireland, on 31 December 1744 and was baptized in Shinrone.  His father was John Hand, a descendant of the Mag Fhlaithimh family which translates: Hand.  Edward completed his schooling with a medical certificate from Trinity College,…

Seán Connolly and Leo Carter pushed a table into the corner of the upstairs bedroom of the Lloyd family in Ballymahon, Co. Longford. Carter, who stood 6’ 3”, jumped on the table and began to hack at the roof with an ax. It was just past midnight in the early morning hours of August 20,…

Seán Culhane stood across the street from the Cork & County Club Hotel, an Anglo-Irish social club in Cork City. Culhane, the Intelligence Officer, Cork 1 Brigade of the Irish Volunteers, was watching the door, waiting for a sign from his informer, waiter Ned “Bally” Fitzgerald. It was a…

On this day, February 24, 1841, we remember with pride the birth of a unique Irishman, a man whose fertile mind far surpassed the greatest minds…

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…

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…

Slowly marching back and forth through the still night air in Ballneety, Co. Limerick, the Williamite sentry standing guard over King Williams siege train blinked and rubbed his sleepy eyes, hoping his relief would be there soon. King William’s army had Limerick under siege, and the eight heavy…

After Cromwell’s conquest of Ireland, more than 40,000 Irish were relocated west of the River Shannon by the end of 1654. Those who weren’t were press-ganged into the British Navy or sold as indentured servants to the colonies. There was one group, however, who refused either. They eluded capture in the…

John C. Mitchel arrived in the USA in 1853 with his father, also, John. The elder Mitchel went on to become a, fiercely, pro Southern newspaper editor while John C. enlisted in the Confederate States army on the outbreak of America's Civil War, after initially working as an engineer on the railroads.…

Sgt. Henry Gallagher of B Company, 2nd Battalion, 24^th (2^nd Warwickshire) Regiment of Foot, who was from Thurles, County Tipperary, paced up and down behind the red-clad soldiers looking over the mealie bag fortifications at Rorke’s Drift. He lifted…

Downloadable below is a document I drew up back in 2011 in relation to the Irish that served in June 1876 with George Armstrong Custer.

Custer's…

To our readers and fellow members of TheWildGeese.irish community:

We are as a community startled, enraged and greatly saddened by the death May 25 of African-American George Floyd at the hands of a Minnesota police officer. As we reexamine race…

On May 3rd 1863 , General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, having crossed the Rappahanock River, was readying to fight again.

Earlier that morning, Lee ordered one of his two corps commanders, Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, to get around and…

Reverend Peter Cooney, CSC

Irish Volunteer Seán Hogan gazed out the window of the train toward the distant Galtee Mountains to the south. It was early evening on May 13, 1919. The train had just pulled out of Emly, County Tipperary, headed toward the small town of…

My Grandfather Tom left Westport, Mayo, and farm life in Aughagower, I assume around 1923.  As one of the "Lost Legion" of Irish republicans, disgruntled by the affairs of the state, he decided to emigrate. Accompanied by his best friend "Ton" Malone, he set out one evening from a…

On the day following Christmas 1849, the barque “Bridgetown” finally docked in New Orleans and its 258 passengers disembarked. One of the cabin passengers was a 21-year-old Irishman who was destined to become the recipient of great admiration, devotion and loyalty especially during the last…