History Commons^™

The Shanachie, Volume 33, Number 3, Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society

The Shanachie (CTIAHS)

In this issue: Theater presents musical on career of ace softball pitcher Joan Joyce -- The railroad era and an Irish family -- Lyons family immigrated to Connecticut by way of Quebec -- Plumber with Leitrim roots linked to New Haven Fenians -- Collection of Irish railroad wife's writings preserved at UConn.

The Shanachie, Volume 33, Number 2, Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society

The Shanachie (CTIAHS)

In this issue: Pandemic squelches parades, but spirit of St. Patrick lives on --Hartford: First church bought in 1829, St. Patrick's built in 1849 -- Enfield: Irish priests, nuns and laypersons -- Litchfield County: St. Patrick's, St. Bridget's, St. Columcille's -- New London County: St. Patrick's Cathedral -- Mystic: High Street became Irish Hill -- Fairfield County: St. Augustine and St. Patrick team up; The little church on the Redding Ridge since 1880 -- Hartford County: Collinsville began with a snowstorm -- Middlesex County: St. Patrick and St. Bridget of Kildare -- Farmington: St. Patrick's parish prepares for a second …

The Shanachie, Volume 33, Number 1, Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society

The Shanachie (CTIAHS)

In this issue: Irish wolfhounds among New England’s earliest settlers -- Please join us for yet another year of Irish history and culture (SHU Digital Commons) -- An Irish actor, his playwright son and a Connecticut landmark -- Civil rights champion for Cape Cod Indians.

A Brief History Of The Irish And Social Mobility In Buffalo, New York From The 1830s To The 1860s, Evan B. Kennedy

History Theses

The focus of this thesis is to contribute and expand upon the historiography of Irish American history in Buffalo, New York. Throughout the 1830s and into the 1860s, the Irish in Buffalo were able to become socially mobile and establish themselves as a powerful group for change in the city. It is important to acknowledge that the process to become socially mobile was not easy for the Irish migrants and their later descendants. There were countless hardships and struggles the Irish faced prior to their journey to the United States and after their arrival and settlement in Buffalo. The time …

The Shanachie, Volume 32, Number 4, Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society

The Shanachie (CTIAHS)

In this issue: A tale of two Thanksgivings; Irish Christmas; Tales of Thanksgivings in Plymouth and in Bridgeport; Christmas on a farm in Ireland in the 1940s; Family of 13 immigrated at holiday time; Irish recipes from a Belfast grandmother; Irish Santa Claus spread cheer for 40 years; Memories of a Christmas spent in occupied Germany.

The Shanachie, Volume 32, Number 1, Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society

The Shanachie (CTIAHS)

In this issue: Tolland County - Many Irish footprints then & now; Irish roots deep and plentiful in Tolland County; Scots-Irish were founders of the town of Union; Irish studies programs blossom on UConn campuses; Dodd Research Center focuses on human rights; Rockville is home of extraordinary Civil War museum; From Ireland to Connecticut to Pennsylvania by 1900.

The Shanachie, Volume 32, Number 2, Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society

The Shanachie (CTIAHS)

In this issue: The 1918 Influeza Pandemic; Think what it must have been like in 1918; War-weary world beset by even more deadly illness; Military camps were breeding places of influenza; Connecticut toll; Plague entered state through seaport of New London; Hopelessly in the grip; School becomes hospital; Shortage of coal, cars, phone operators. Editor's note: This issue of The Shanachie is devoted entirely to recollections of Connecticut in 1918-1919 when Americans dealt with two huge tragedies: World War I and the misnamed “Spanish” Flu Epidemic. They were able to deal with that by declaring and meaning, “we are all …

Handing Down The Heritage: Preserving Irish Diasporic Identities In The Festival City Of Montana, Margaret Mary Walsh

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Butte, Montana is a tough, historic industrial town in western Montana known for its mining, its Irish, and strangely, its festivals. The city boasts countless parades and community events each year for a variety of holidays as well as for showcases of traditions and ethnic pride. Three celebrations in particular, St. Patrick’s Day, Fourth of July, and An Rí Rá, attract visitors from all over the country – and world – who seek to experience the enthusiasm and splendor of these celebrations. So, what can these popular celebrations in Montana’s Festival City, Butte, reveal about the Irish community living there? …

The Shanachie, Volume 31, Number 2, Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society

The Shanachie (CTIAHS)

Connecticut and the Irish Great Hunger of 1845-1850 --Puritan humanitarian & priest aided Connecticut relief effort --Tidal wave of emigrants fled to Land of Steady Habits --Irish provided manpower for state’s industrial revolution --Irish women in demand as domestic servants --Refugees brought Catholic faith with them --Families shattered in headlong flight from starvation.

The Shanachie, Volume 31, Number 3, Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society

The Shanachie (CTIAHS)

New website set up during 2019 by the Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society https://www.ctirishheritage.org/. The immediate pupose of the website is to provide online an easily accessible album of more than 100 sites of Irish footsteps across Connecticut --Irish firsts in state history --Scots-Irish colony in Windham County blossomed in the 1720s --First woman patentee was of Ulster descent --Irish-born governor John N. Dempsey flourished in the 1960s.

The Shanachie, Volume 31, Number 1, Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society

The Shanachie (CTIAHS)

The future of the Great Hunger Museum at Quinnipiac University in Hamden --In the 1650s a group of English Puritan colonists were invited to leave New Haven and to take over - lock, stock and barrel the city of Galway on the west coast of Ireland.

The Shanachie, Volume 30, Number 4, Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society

The Shanachie (CTIAHS)

This 16-page issue of our newsletter commemorates the 100th anniversary of the armistice which ended World War I just 100 years ago.

Contents: Connecticut's Irish in World War I --Hartford Red Cross nurse served amid bombardments --Sgt. Stubby and Cpl. Conroy went off to war --With roots in Canada, Lafferty got into the fight early --Picketing White House in wartime: patriotic or treason? --Ansonia native among nation’s first female sailors --Medals and monument honor Fair Haven Irish lads --Daring young men in their flying machines --Knights of Columbus offered soup and solace for friend and foe alike --Sailor from Roscommon …

The Shanachie, Volume 30, Number 1, Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society

The Shanachie (CTIAHS)

Irish Yale prof James W. Toumey led 10-year fight that saved Sleeping Giant --When Katie O’Neill Regan of Hamden got involved in planning a family reunion, the end result was the renting of six houses in County Kerry, and a weeklong shindig of more than 40 kinfolk from the United States, Ireland and England --Connecticut Irishtown: Hamden --Four hundred men from Hamden served in the United States military during World War I. At least 75 of them were of Irish ancestry or natives of Ireland.

The Shanachie, Volume 30, Number 2, Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society

The Shanachie (CTIAHS)

Meriden: A Connecticut Irishtown: In 1836, Paddies laid rail tracks to future industrial city --Irish population multiplied as Meriden factories prospered --Meriden’s support for Ireland’s freedom --Republican & Democrat made great team in U.S. Senate, Francis T. Maloney and John A. Danaher --Mother’s love of books inspired (Tomie) dePaola --Irish customs live on --Professor Kelly taught dancing --Anna Murphy Gibson became cemetery caretaker --Meriden was an all-star Irish baseball community --Joan Joyce led Meriden Falcons to four world titles.

The Shanachie, Volume 30, Number 3, Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society

The Shanachie (CTIAHS)

Coventry sculptor David Hayes created rich legacy of artwork --Michael Carver's sacrifice in the Civil War provided a pension for his widowed mother in Norwich --Clare man Thomas Donnellan "Tom the ferryman" was a legend on the Connecticut River.

The Shanachie, Volume 29, Number 4, Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society

The Shanachie (CTIAHS)

On Saturday, July 29, several dozen Irish currach rowers, turned the clock back to the 6th century on the waterfront at New London, a major New England seaport since the 17th century --The first Irishman fascinated by the Connecticut shoreline seems to have been Sir William Johnson, one of colonial America’s most influential, productive and flamboyant characters, who came to New London 250 years ago to recuperate --In August 1892, New London was chosen to host a three-week summer educational program that drew an estimated 600 Catholics, most of them Irish --Billiards skills brought fame and fortune to Long Neck …

The Shanachie, Volume 29. Number 3, Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society

The Shanachie (CTIAHS)

New Haven's Grove Street Cemetery has Irish roots ... and Mory's Temple Bar probably does too.

The Shanachie, Volume 29, Number 1, Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society

The Shanachie (CTIAHS)

A Sampler of 333 years of Irish Footprints in Milford:

Organized just 10 years ago, the Irish Heritage Society of Milford has a large and growing membership, a home, an annual festival and a busy schedule of events. Its latest goal is to publish a book about Irish people who have played roles in the shore town’s long history. Hopefully, this all-Milford issue of The Shanachie will make a wee contribution to that project. To learn more about Milford’s own exciting “Celtic Tiger,” go to www.milfordirish.org.

The Shanachie, Volume 29, Number 2, Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society

The Shanachie (CTIAHS)

A little bit of Ireland on the Connecticut River: Collinsville in the town of Canton --'Walk New Haven' books highlight historic sites in city's neighborhoods --Barnwell family settles in Stratford via Dublin and western N.Y. (by Paul R. Keroack).

The Shanachie, Volume 28, Number 2, Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society

The Shanachie (CTIAHS)

Neil Hogan and Patrick J. Mahoney have co-authored a book that commemorates the role of Connecticut in Ireland’s long struggle for independence: ‘From a land beyond the wave,’ Connecticut’s Irish Rebels, 1798-1916.’

Also in this issue a couple of fascinating family trees: Traceys, an Irish doctor's dynasty in Norwalk and The Fords: 85 descendants rediscover clan roots.

The Shanachie, Volume 28, Number 1, Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society

The Shanachie (CTIAHS)

This issue is titled Ireland, Connecticut and the Easter Rising.

The Rise And Fall Of The Friends Of Irish Freedom: How America Shaped Irish American Nationalism In The Twentieth Century, Shanon Delia Douglass

Honors Theses

The Friends of Irish Freedom were an Irish American nationalist organization that consisted of prominent leaders and members from other nationalist groups that also attracted more moderate Irish Americans. This thesis focuses exclusively on the leaders and activities of the Friends between 1916 and 1921. During these years, membership both skyrocketed and plummeted within a matter of months. Contributing to both their rise and fall was American public sentiment, the onset and conclusion of WWI, and interactions with nationalist leaders in Ireland. My Thesis shows how despite their seemingly radical nationalist activities and beliefs, it was the gradual Americanization of …

The Shanachie, Volume 26, Number 3, Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society

The Shanachie (CTIAHS)

Contents: Museum in the Streets program planned for New Haven (Ethnic Heritage Center Project) -- Irish immigrants’ stories preserved for posterity (Sacred Heart University-CIAHS collaboration) -- An Irish link to the Hartford Courant’s 250th birthday ... but shame on the Courant for the job it did on the Irish

The Shanachie, Volume 26, Number 2, Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society

The Shanachie (CTIAHS)

Contents: You can blame an Irishman from Limerick for all the uproar on the Connecticut shoreline in 1814 -- Folksy paper portrayed Waterbury’s Irish in the 1890s: Sketches and profiles are unusual, but valuable, historical records.

The Shanachie, Volume 26, Number 4, Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society

The Shanachie (CTIAHS)

For more than 300 years, the most compelling reason that caused Irish people of all origins and religions to come in large numbers to the American colonies and the United States was economic opportunity. More simply: jobs. While the Irish are usually labeled as canal builders and domestic servants, a more accurate reading is that they were Jacks and Jills of all trades. In a young nation that was expanding geographically and economically, there was a constant need for workers. The Irish were able and willing. This issue of The Shanachie demonstrates the kind of fascinating information that is available …

Zoomorphic Penannular Brooches In 6th And 7th Century Ireland, Esther G. Ward

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

In this thesis the author examines the evolution, manufacture, and societal significance of zoomorphic penannular brooches, a type of metal dress fastener used in early medieval Ireland that is often decorated. The brooches examined are dated to the 6^th and 7^th centuries, during which the Irish underwent a process of religious conversion from Celtic paganism to Christianity, and social rank was paramount. It is in this social context that the brooches are examined. Despite the significance of this time of social change, brooches from this period tend to be overlooked by scholarship in favor of the more ornate …

An Undergraduate Seminar On Irish Musical Culture In Ireland And The Irish Diaspora In America, Including The Influence Of Irish Music On Appalachian Folk Music Culture, Frieda Eakins

Masters Theses

The following project establishes a concise, yet multifaceted design for a seminar on Irish musical culture. While it was initially developed as a course for its author to teach in the undergraduate, on-ground classroom, this project provides a framework adaptable enough for use by other instructors and/or for additional music seminars. This project is unique in its two-fold purpose in that the design and resources are directed to assist the instructor with streamlining course curriculum preparation, while the course content specific to the project when utilized offers students in the undergraduate college classroom a better understanding of Irish musical culture …

Ligia Grischa: A Successful Swiss Colony On The Dakota Territory Frontier, Todd Quinn, Karl Benedict, Jeff Dickey

Great Plains Quarterly

In 1877 a small group of Swiss immigrants from the Graubunden canton formed a cooperative with another Swiss group in Stillwater, Minnesota, to begin a colony in eastern South Dakota. These settlers founded the Badus Swiss colony on the open prairie in Lake County, Dakota Territory {later South Dakota}, based on cooperative rules written in Switzerland in 1424. This settlement was one of the last Swiss colonies created in the United States during the great nineteenth-century European migration, and one of the westernmost Swiss settlements in the United States.

There were two major factors that contributed to the Badus Swiss …

The Shanachie, Volume 24, Number 3, Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society

The Shanachie (CTIAHS)

This issue of The Shanachie is dedicated to the contributions of some of the many Irish pace-setters, ground-breakers and radicals who have enriched 350 years of Connecticut history.

.

The Morrígan: A Trinity United, Olivia L. Blessing

Olivia L Blessing

The eeriness of Poe’s words has echoed down throughout the years to enthrall generation after generation with the verses’ sense of dismay, desperation, and fatality. Yet many have forgotten that, centuries earlier, the Celts were telling their own tales of shadowy ravens and tragic futures foretold. Many remain in the form of legends about their goddess of war—Morrígan. This goddess was a complex, triune character; comprehending the entirety of her power and importance in the Celtic myths requires an in-depth examination of her appearances in the old legends and the impact those tales had on the Celts.