In this episode, Fin and Damian trace the Irish legacy scattered across the American map through the placenames they left behind. The journey takes them from Brooklyn’s Vinegar Hill, named for a Wexford battlefield in hopes of attracting Irish immigrants, to Menlo Park, California, the major tech hub with roots in a Galway inspired ranch. They uncover how Irish immigrants, Irish Americans and Irish politicians and miners left their mark — through places like Glendalough State Park (in Minnesota, not Wicklow!), Roscommon and the "Irish" counties of Michigan, and the Texas ghost town in Texas that came to be called “Ireland.” From Avoca, Nebraska to "Dublin Gulch" in the California desert, we pick some of our favourite American Irish placenames to explore.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the early 1880s, crates of California dynamite found their way to London — not for trade, but for terror. Irish revolutionaries in the United States were plotting bombings in the heart of the British Empire, and San Francisco, with its deep Irish roots, became a key outpost in the transatlantic campaign.

In this episode, we speak with renowned author and historian Dr Myles Dungan about his new historical novel The Red Branch, set in 1883 San Francisco and inspired by these real-life dynamiters, secret societies, and British spies. We explore the real history and real characters behind the fiction--along the way charting the story and experience of Irish immigrants in the City by the Bay.

Sound by Kate Dunlea.

Shownotes

Myles Dungan. The Red Branch (Etruscan Press, 2025)

The History Show RTÉ Radio One

Myles Dungan Website

Myles Dungan Publications

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1878, one of the most infamous crimes in Gilded Age America stunned and captivated the nation: the corpse of Alexander Turney Stewart — an Irish immigrant turned millionaire merchant — was stolen from its grave in Manhattan and held for ransom.

What followed was a drawn out saga that dragged another Irishman into the spotlight: Patrick Henry Jones — a Civil War general, lawyer, and public servant — who found himself forced to act as reluctant go-between for the body snatchers and Stewart’s grieving widow. This is a story of grave robbing, coded newspaper ads, and the high-stakes politics of class, loyalty, and legacy in 19th-century New York. And at the centre of it all were two Irishmen — one dead, one in danger of losing everything.

We’re joined by historian Mark Dunkelman, biographer of Patrick Henry Jones and expert on the Stewart body snatching case, to dig into the truth behind the scandal that rocked Gilded Age America.

AT Stewart Dictionary of Irish Biography

Mark Dunkelman's Website: The Hardtack Regiment

Mark Dunkelman. Patrick Henry Jones- Irish American, Civil War General, and Gilded Age Politician (LUS Press, 2015).

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.