I was recently interviewed by one of Ireland’s main online news
websites, the Journal.ie, about the Irish in the American Civil
War. You can read the published piece here. The main thrust of
the article followed one of my recent posts, Ireland’s Forgotten
Famine Generation, which discusses how those in Ireland do not
realise the extent to which the American Civil War affected
Irish people, given that there were 1.6 million Irish people
living there in 1860. It also touched on the lack of a national
memorial to the Irish who experienced the war, and the general
lack of recognition they receive from the Irish State despite
our pride in the global Irish diaspora. By far the most
interesting aspect of the Journal’s piece were the comments it
provoked among some of its readers. Although many of the
comments were positive, there were others who raised interesting
questions, particularly regarding the propriety of a memorial in
Ireland to those affected by the war. Some of the most thought-
provoking are below: - ‘Wh