Rhode man, Danny Leavy and Edenderry’s Kevin Guing have put their site live, documenting the contributions of over 540 people from Offaly who fought in a brutal fight that determined the long term future of the USA when the north based Union prevailed over the southern Confederacy.
The Civil War took place from 1861 to 1865 and erupted after Abraham Lincoln became USA president in 1860. Lincoln was opposed to slavery and with the USA continuing its westward expansion to the Pacific Ocean, there was building angst over whether these states should be allowed to have slavery or prohibited from doing so. After Lincoln’s election, seven southern slave states seceded from the Union, trying to establish their own Confederacy.
Several fierce bloody battles were fought during the war before the Confederacy collapsed and slave owning declared illegal – Lincoln was assassinated at the end of the war.
Thousands of Irish fought in the Civil War, the vast majority on the Union side. The Civil War erupted after a wave of mass emigration to the USA following the 1840s famine in Ireland. Many of those emigrants headed to New York, Boston and other big cities the Union states in the north and on the Eastern seaboard.
Many of them lived in horrific conditions of poverty and then, healthy males were conscripted or enlisted to fight in the Civil War.
Former Rhode footballer, Danny Leavy emigrated to New York in the 1990s and in recent years, he has developed a huge passion in researching and documenting the lives of Offaly exiles who fought in the Civil War, often travelling to viewing their graves. Leavy played minor and U-21 for Offaly, as well as a few senior games, before departing to Yonkers in New York. Now living in Manhattan, he was elected on to the board of the New York based American Irish Historical Society last year and is also researching and writing a book on Cornelius Heeney, a Meath born man who spent much of his childhood in Edenderry, before emigrating to New York in the 1780s – he became a successful business man and also made a great contribution to the Catholic Church and charitable causes there.
Guing was a key member of the great Edenderry team that dominated Offaly football from 1995 to 2001, winning titles in ’95, ’97, ’99 and 2001. He played several senior football games for Offaly from 1990 to 1997 and was a very solid defender. He was an Offaly senior football selector recently during John Maughan’s time in charge.
He also has a great interest in history and combined with Leavy to research this project. It is a great resource, providing details of soldiers’ family in Ireland, where they emigrated to, their war record and fate here, and when they died. It also provides a list by their home place in Offaly and details of soldiers are being uploaded to the site on an ongoing basis.
It is very much a labour of love for the two men and the site can be accessed on: https://americasoffalyheroes.com/.