27. The Red Branch: Dynamite, Death & Diaspora in 1880s San Francisco
Transatlantic: An Irish American History PodcastShow Notes
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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from Transatlantic: An Irish American History Podcast
The story of Irish emigration to New York did not end with the great migrations of the nineteenth century. In this episode of Transatlantic Damian and Fin explore two later waves: the Irish who left for New York in the 1950s and those who followed in the 1980s.
During the 1820s the Peter Robinson Emigration Scheme saw large numbers of families leave Munster the begin new lives in Upper Canada. Two hundred years later, the headstones these families left behind in Peterborough County, Ontario and in Cork, Limerick and Tipperary are helping to tell their stories in a unique, innovative and intrguing way. Fin and Damian are joined by Dr John Tierney, Director of the Historic Graves Project and Patrick Leahy of the Douro Heritage Group in Ontario to discuss their incredible transatlantic Carved in Stone community heritage project, which is using archaeology and history to explore the graveyards that linked these people across the Atlantic.
Irish America's relationship with African Americans in the mid-19th century has long been a focus for historians, particularly those trying to understand racism and Irish opposition to emancipation. But what if part of the answer lies not in New York or Boston, but in Ireland itself? In this episode, Fin and Damian are joined by Dr Ian Delahanty, Associate Professor of History at Springfield College, Massachusetts. Ian's award-winning work has shed new light on some of the origins of Irish attitudes towards slavery, abolition and emancipation, and how they changed over time. As he explains, if we want to better understand them, we have to begin not in the United States, but in Ireland.
Maine may not be the first place we think of when it comes to large Irish communities, but in the years after the Great Famine, the port city of Portland became home to a significant Irish population. The communities they developed began a strong connection between the city and Ireland that endures to this day, especially with the place most connected with its immigrants— Galway. In this episode, Fin and Damian are joined by historian, genealogist and author Matthew Jude Barker, the expert on the Portland Irish, to explore their story.
Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, tens of thousands Irish women worked as domestics. The "Irish Bridget" is one of the most recognisable stereotypes of Irish America, but what was life really like for these women, who were the subject of such extensive cariacture and discrimination?