Michael Phelan, born in Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny, rose to prominence as one of America's most gifted billiards player and showmen. In New York he encountered Hugh Collender, from Cappoquin, Co. Waterford, an exiled Irish nationalist who decided to turn his talents to business after the failed rising of 1848.

Phelan’s flair and Collender’s enterprise combined into one of the great economic successes of 19th century Irish America. Together they built Phelan & Collender, a company that revolutionised billiard-table manufacture and helped define an American leisure industry. This episode traces how two Irishmen, shaped by different beginnings but united by drive and ingenuity--and eventually by close family ties--carved out a partnership and business empire that became a household name in Gilded Age America.

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Wisconsin isn't the first state that springs to mind when it comes to the Irish American Diaspora. But though often more associated with Germans (and German beer!), Wisconsin had a notable Irish presence. Today, Milwaukee is even home to Irish Fest, the largest Irish festival in the United States.

In this episode, we’re joined by Professor Tim McMahon of Marquette University to uncover the fascinating history of the Irish communities who made Wisconsin their home.

We chart their stroy from the early arrivals of the nineteenth century to their lasting influence in the twentieth, tracing how Irish immigrants shaped places like Milwaukee — building neighborhoods, parishes, and a distinct Irish-American identity in the heart of the Midwest.

We explore dramatic moments like the tragic Lady Elgin disaster- a maritime catastrophe for both Wisconsin and the Milwaukee Irish- and the later political and cultural connections maintained with Ireland. Tim also discusses Éamon de Valera’s visit, and the story behind that iconic photograph of De Valera in a Native American headdress.

Dr Tim McMahon: https://www.marquette.edu/history/directory/timothy-mcmahon.php

Milwaukee Irish Fest: https://irishfest.com/

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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.

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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

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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).

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When most people think of American heiresses marrying into the British or Irish aristocracy, they might picture Cora Crawley from Downton Abbey—the wealthy American who brought her fortune (and a bit of drama) to an English estate. But Cora’s story wasn’t entirely fiction. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, scores of American women crossed the Atlantic, bringing their wealth to some of Ireland’s most iconic estates.

In this episode, Fin and Damian explore the real-life stories behind these transatlantic marriages, as the elite of the Gilded Age wed into Victorian Ireland in its twilight years. We focus on three remarkable families who made their homes in mansions along the Wild Atlantic Way: Glenveagh Castle in Donegal, Kylemore House in Galway and Muckross House in Kerry.

Sound by Kate Dunlea.

Shownotes

Further Reading

Ita M. Murphy. Ladies of the Country House: Irish Aristocratic Women, 1870-1918.

Muckross House & Gardens

Kylemore Abbey

Glenveagh Castle

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One of the most famous Irish American organisations is the Fenians. In this episode, Damian and Fin are joined by Brennan MacDonald to explore the history of this enigmatic group. Brennan reveals how the Fenians harnessed the military experience gained in the US Civil War to challenge British rule in Ireland, and how their transatlantic networks shaped the struggle for Irish independence.

Further reading and source

John O'Mahony: Dictionary of Irish Biography

James Stephens: Dictionary of Irish Biography

Thomas Sweeny: Dictionary of Irish Biography

John O'Neill: Dictionary of Irish Biography

Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa: Dictionary of Irish Biography

Patrick Egan: Dictionary of Irish Biography

1867 Fenian Proclamation

Book Chapter: Caleb Richardson: "'The Failure of the Men to Come Up": The Reinvention of Irish AMerican Nationalism" in David Prior (ed.) Reconstruction in a Globalizing World

Book: Brian Jenkins: Fenians and Anglo-American Relations During Reconstruction

Book: Jack Morgan: Through American and Irish Wars: The Life and Times of General Thomas Sweeny

Article: Michae Kane: “American Soldiers in Ireland, 1865–1867.” The Irish Sword 23 (Summer. 2002)

Book: Jermiah O'Donovan Rossa: Rossa's Recollections on archive.org

Book: David Brundage: Irish Nationalists in America: The Politics of Exile, 1798-1998

Book: Susannah Ural: The Harp and the Eagle: Irish American Volunteers and the Union Army, 1861-1865

Book: Lucy Salyer: Under the Starry Flag: How a Band of Irish Americans Joined the Fenian Revolt and Sparked a Crisis in American Citizenship

Book: Francis Carroll: America and the Making of an Independent Ireland

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