In the later 19th century, the United States pushed westwards across the American continent

and its expansion brought devastating violence to Native Americans.

Dispossessed of their lands they were forced onto reservations.

Resistance met with brutal treatment in a history that's marked

by atrocities, including the notorious massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890. Although separated by

thousands of miles, these campaigns are interlinked to poverty back in Ireland because Irish

immigrants in America enlisted in the US military in large numbers and were present and involved in some of these dark chapters in US history.

Now this could be a difficult and challenging history.

People who were pushed from their own homes by poverty took part in pushing Native Americans from their homes and took part in massacres.

Now, to understand this more, I'm joined by Damien Shields to discuss his project on US military pensions

that were claimed in Ireland in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

These include United States veterans from numerous wars and provide an

extraordinary insight not only into US history, but also working class Irish life and how the

two are connected. I wanted to focus our conversation specifically on the wars against Native

Americans because these raise so many challenging and uncomfortable questions.

It's a complex but intriguing history.

Hello and welcome to the Irish History podcast. My name is Finn DeWar.

Now my guest today, Damien Shields, needs little introduction to regular listeners.

He's been on the show many times and he's also my co-host on Transatlantic, our podcast on

Irish American history.

Damien has spent years researching Irish history in the US and has written two books on

Irish involvement in the US Civil War.

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