Ian Delahanty (Springfield College) will deliver the 2026 Hibernian Lecture, “The New York City Draft Riots and the Remaking of Irish America.”
In both academic scholarship and popular culture, the New York City Draft Riots feature prominently as the defining moment of Irish Americans’ involvement in the American Civil War. Outraged by what they viewed as a “rich man’s war, poor man’s fight” and incensed over the prospect of being conscripted into a war for emancipation, Irish immigrants lashed out against military authorities, abolitionists, and most of all Black New Yorkers.
Ian Delahanty’s lecture will argue for a new narrative of Irish America and the New York City draft riots, one that not only reinterprets Irish immigrants’ conspicuous participation in these events but also brings to light new evidence and stories of Irish-American support for the Union war effort and emancipation. Drawn from his award-winning book, Embracing Emancipation: A Transatlantic History of Irish Americans, Slavery, and the American Union, 1840–1865 (Fordham, 2024), Delahanty’s talk will show that the New York City draft riots crystallized a growing divide within Irish America over both the future of slavery and Irish Americans’ place in the American Union.
The 2026 Hibernian Lecture is cosponsored by the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies.
About the speaker
Ian Delahanty is associate professor of history at Springfield College, where he teaches broadly in American history, including courses on immigration history, public history, African American history, and the history of the Civil War era. His research and writing have focused on international and transnational dimensions of the American Civil War. His current project examines the role of New England cotton gin manufacturers in the global cotton economy of the 19th century.
Embracing Emancipation received the 2024 Lawrence J. McCaffrey Prize for best book in Irish American history from the American Conference for Irish Studies. Research for the book was supported by a Hibernian Research Award from the Cushwa Center.
In 1978, the Ancient Order of Hibernians and Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians undertook a campaign to establish an endowment at the University of Notre Dame for illuminating the Irish heritage in America. Thanks to their support, since then the Cushwa Center has administered a variety of programs—including the Hibernian Research Award—supporting the study of the Irish experience in Ireland and America. Each year, the center invites a distinguished scholar or author to deliver the Hibernian Lecture at Notre Dame on some aspect of the Irish experience.
Originally published at cushwa.nd.edu.