In 1764 the Rev. Thomas Clark gathered his congregation at the Cahans meeting house, near Ballybay Co. Monaghan. Answering "the call" from America, Clark then led some 300 men, women and children on foot to the port of Newry, and boarded ship for New York. From New York they travelled up the Hudson; first to Albany, then Stillwater before finally settling in today's Salem, Washington County NY. Their journey has become known as the "Cahans Exodus" Anthony Anderton first became aware of the "Cahans Exodus" during a 2015 visit to Ballybay - his mother's hometown. He researched the history of the Exodus, and contacted the Cahans Heritage Committee. In 2023 and 2024 he visited Ballybay and retraced the overland "Exodus" route, making photographs of sites and locations in Monaghan, Down and Louth. In early February 2026 he will visit Salem NY to continue his project research and he will include this material in the presentation to the AIHS.

POSTPONED DUE T0 INCLEMENT WEATHER.

We hope to be able to share Anthony’s lecture online soon. Please check back here regularly for updates!

Breandán Mac Suibhne is a historian of modern Ireland at the University of Galway. His publications include The End of Outrage (Oxford, 2017), which was Irish Times Irish Nonfiction Book of the Year.  Mac Suibhne is one of the directors of Imirce, a project that makes thousands of Irish emigrant letters available through an online database. He is currently completing a book on the actual people on whom characters in Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa (1990) are, more or less, based, and he is a member of an international team that has edited and annotated the correspondence (1798–1846) of the Moore family of Derry and Baltimore, Maryland, for publication by the Irish Manuscript Commission.

The great leave-takings from Ireland for North America constitute one of the largest movements of population in the modern era. In 1845–55 alone, some 2 million Irish people crossed the Atlantic, that is, almost a quarter of Ireland's 1845 population of 8.5 million. And another 4 million left for America by 1929. There were more Irish-born people living in New York in 1890 than in Dublin. In an illustrated talk, University of Galway historian Breandán Mac Suibhne gives an overview of changing patterns of emigration from Ireland, from the 1600s through the  late 1900s, and provides an update on the Imirce project that is making thousands of Irish emigrant letters publicly available through an online database.

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The American Irish Historical Society and www.IrishAmerica250.org  invite you to celebrate our national holiday Presidents Day Monday, February 16, 2026  

We seek to recognize the twenty-three American Presidents with Irish roots whose leadership gave us hope and courage throughout the last 250 years . 

To commemorate this unique occasion the distinguished Irish poet Micheal O'Siadhail will do a first reading of his new poem " Irish America 250"  and author Niall O Dowd will be talking about his new book "George Washington and the Irish".

Please Note: Event is now FULL.

In February 1926, pioneering scholar Carter G. Woodson—one of the architects of African diaspora studies in the United States—launched what would later become Black History Month. A decade earlier, he had already transformed the field by founding one of the first scholarly journals dedicated to African American history. These landmark achievements unfolded against a backdrop of political upheaval in Ireland and the cultural ferment of the Harlem Renaissance, alongside the global influence of figures such as Paul Robeson and Marcus Garvey, who both took an interest in Ireland.

This online webinar, convened by the directors of the African American Irish Diaspora Institute—Professors Christine Kinealy, Kimberly DaCosta, and Miriam Nyhan Grey—will explore the intertwined histories and shared experiences of Black and Irish Americans. The discussion will be enriched by a special performance from actor Eon Grey portraying Paul Robeson, whose extraordinary career was marked by an enduring affinity with Irish creativity, both on stage and in song. This event is presented under the auspices of the Black, Brown and Green Voices series from the African American Irish Diaspora Network, and in collaboration American Irish Historical Society.

Register for this event here

Topic: AIHS and AAIDN Zoom

Time: Feb 5, 2026 11:45 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

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10-12 New York Eastern (1500-1700 Irish Time)

This event is an extension of the National Library of Ireland’s Cooking the Books series, bringing this work to an American audience. NLI’s series (run by Archivists Nora Thornton and Joanne Carroll) involves reading of archival recipes and recreating them for a public audience. This event encourages the public to engage with archives through culinary practices. To bring this event to our audience at AIHS, we are hosting a combined virtual and physical event, presented by Dublin and New York. AIHS and NLI archivists will share versions of traditional recipes that exist in some form in both of their collections. Both will share these versions (with tastings at AIHS) and present on the differences through a shared talk. 

Food is included in ticket price.

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Tickets cost $20 for general audiences, $15 for AIHS members. Reserve at this link

Join us for a conversation through Iona University with historian Whitney Nell Stewart, the Executive Director of Coastal Georgia Historical Society on St. Simons Island, about her award-winning book This Is Our Home: Slavery and Struggle on Southern Plantations (2023).

This hybrid program will be hosted at the American Irish Historical Society, 991 5th Avenue, New York City, and a livestream will be made available via Zoom. Light refreshments will be served.

PLEASE NOTE: Iona Registration may have the wrong address listed. This event is at 991.

Click here to register to attend the event in person at the American Irish Historical Society.

Click here to register to watch the livestream via Zoom webinar.

2025 Annual Conference of the American Irish Teachers Association.

Keynote Speaker: Christine Kinealy from Quinnipiac University, on Frederick Douglass in Ireland

Music by Patty Furlong, Colin Harte (Iona Celtic Music Ensemble)

Conference hosted in partnership between Iona University, American Irish Historical Society, and the American Irish Teachers Association. Register via email at dorismeyer@aol.com. Tickets are priced $25 General Public, $20 AITA members, free Iona faculty and students.

Irish Gothic is a sub-genre of gothic fiction, beginning in the eighteenth century and spanning into modern and contemporary works. Largely inspired by the decay of the land-owning Protestant class, it focuses on themes of scandals, inheritance, and the supernatural. In this talk, Dr. Kelly Sullivan (NYU) will discuss her research in the genre. Afterwards, guests will have the opportunity to see a small exhibition related to gothic themes.

Kelly Sullivan (MA, PhD) is a professor of Irish and American Studies at New York University. Her research centers on modern literature, poetry, and visual arts. Currently, she is focused on Irish novelist Molly Keane (aka M.J. Farrell) and the study of “Big House” novels in the Irish Gothic genre.

(Starts at 6:00pm)

This event is currently fully booked
Join the waitlist here

Join us for a tour of the American Irish Historical Society’s historic 5th Avenue mansion. with its archivist, Mark Lindenburg, and curator, Aishling Connaughton Edwards.

The Society’s library houses more than 10,000 volumes, the most complete private collection of Irish and American Irish history and literature in the United States. The library features a temperature-controlled rare books room that holds another 1,000 volumes, and an unparalleled collection of newspapers and newsletters dating back to the late-18th century, and several early and mid-19th century newspapers, such as The Nation, The United Irishman, and the Dublin Penny Journal. Also housed in the library is the Society’s unique collection of letters from Patrick Pearse and Charles Stewart Parnell, the irreplaceable archives of other societies and organizations, and the personal papers of leading Irish Americans like Daniel F. Cohalan. The collection is complemented by works of art from such noted Irish artists as Nathaniel Hone, John Faulkener, George Russell (A.E.), John Butler Yeats, Aloysius O’Kelly, and Augustus St. Gaudens. The Society also holds an extensive collection of Irish music, including a taped interview with Brendan Behan that became his Confessions of a Rebel.

This is an in-person event limited to 15 A.R.T. members. Registration is non-transferable. Please note that you MUST reserve a ticket in advance online in order to attend this event.

In the occasion that the event is sold out, we highly recommend joining the waitlist. An ART staff member will reach out to you if a spot becomes available. Unless you've been given permission, please do not show up at the event without registering.

Register at A.R.T. here!

The archives of the American Irish Historical Society hold many valuable materials, both from the institution internally and from collections gathered over the years. Unfortunately, the archives have been largely neglected and are in need of repair. As a result, many valuable materials have been forgotten. Over the course of 2025 thus far, considerable work has gone into the repair and restoration of these archives. In this talk, Archivist Mark Lindenburg (MA, MSLIS) and Curator Aishling Connaughton Edwards (MA) speak about their work in preparing the archives for research and opening the doors for new exhibitions. This event will be in person and recorded for future viewing.

Registration

The American Irish Historical Society will host our 1st Annual Golf Outing on Monday July 21. The event will be held at Ardsley Country Club. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to City Harvest, to help feed families across NYC.

Golf will begin at 12:30, and dinner and entertainment will begin at 5:30 PM.
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