The American Civil War, 1861–1865, with roots reaching back to the 1848 Young Ireland rebellion and an epilogue reaching forward into the post-war Indian Wars (1860s–1880s).

With Dr. Damian Shiels — founder of Irish in the American Civil War (2010), co-host of the Transatlantic podcast, and author of The Irish in the American Civil War (2014), The Forgotten Irish (2017), and Green and Blue: Irish Americans in the Union Military, 1861–1865 (LSU Press). He holds a Ph.D. in history from Northumbria University, where his research recovered the voices of Irish American soldiers through their own correspondence.

Historian Damian Shiels reads the letters Irish soldiers sent home from the Civil War's bloodiest battlefields.

"I'm tired of the fighting and the killing of men, but I suppose we have to continue because that's what we need to do."

— Barney Carr, Irish soldier, in his last letter home from Kennesaw Mountain, June 1864

The conversation centers on the Great Irish Famine of the 1840s and its transatlantic aftermath, with a particular focus on how the famine became the world's first large-scale international relief campaign — and how the famine influx reshaped New York's public health institutions. Shrout traces donations from Indian Territory and the enslaved South, and the rise of Bellevue's hospitals, poorhouses, and jails.

With Dr. Anelise Hanson Shrout, an Associate Professor of Digital and Computational Studies and History at Bates College, cross-appointed in American Studies.

Historian Dr. Anelise Shrout traces how the Great Irish Famine became one of the nineteenth century's first transnational humanitarian campaigns — drawing aid from the Cherokee, the Choctaw, and enslaved people in the American South, while Irish arrivals reshaped New York's hospitals, poorhouses, and jails.

"He had said, 'Will you give up one meal a day to aid the starving Irish?' … The enslaved people go away and they talk, and they come back and they say, 'We're not going to do that. We will, however, give you fifty dollars.'" — Dr. Anelise Shrout

Inside New York’s Most Notorious Slum

The conversation centers on Five Points and Irish New York from the 1820s through the Civil War era, with a particular focus on the Great Famine influx of the 1840s–1850s and the neighborhood's politics, labor, and lore. Anbinder traces the slum's origins on a filled-in lake, the migration routes that brought the Irish there, the myth-busting reality of who could afford to come, and Lincoln's 1860 visit.

With Dr. Tyler Anbinder, a Professor Emeritus of History at George Washington University, where he taught the history of American immigration and the Civil War era.

Historian Dr. Tyler Anbinder takes us inside Five Points, nineteenth-century New York's most infamous immigrant neighborhood — revealing that the Irish who settled there were not simply the poorest of the poor, but workers, artisans, servants, and voters who reshaped the city's labor, politics, and streets.

"Poor people can't afford to emigrate to the United States… the ship's not giving you any food. Zero. Nothing. And no water. You have to bring your water, you have to bring your food — five weeks' worth." — Dr. Tyler Anbinder

Irish Arrival and American Prejudice

Irish diaspora to the U.S. 1700-1900 in phases, the colonial-era Protestant/Presbyterian (Scots-Irish) wave of the 1700s; the shift to Catholic migration from the 1820s; the famine decade (1845–1855) — one million dead, two million gone; and the relentless post-famine exodus through the end of the century.

With Dr. Kevin Kenny, a Professor of History and Glucksman Professor in Irish Studies at New York University, where he also directs Glucksman Ireland House.

Historian Dr. Kevin Kenny traces the Irish diaspora beyond the familiar famine story — revealing an Irish America that was Protestant before it was Catholic, and shaped by land hunger, labor, religion, and slavery's shadow.

"You could sum up the whole story of mass emigration with that image — the replacement of human beings by animals on the soil." — Dr. Kevin Kenny

Pre-Famine and Famine era Irish emigration to North America, roughly 1710s-1850s

With Dr. Cian T. McMahon, author of three books and over a dozen scholarly articles on Irish and American history including The Coffin Ship: Life and Death at Sea during the Great Irish Famine (NYU Press, 2021) and The Routledge History of Irish America (2024).

Historian Dr. Cian McMahon takes us below deck on Ireland's famine-era "coffin ships," where survival depended not on luck alone, but on family, friendship, and the networks emigrants built before they ever reached America.

"You see these 'information wanted' ads where people say, 'I arrived on this ship, with this captain. I was supposed to meet my husband. If anybody knows where he is, please tell him that his family is here.'" — Dr. Cian McMahon