168: THE IRISH IN EARLY VIRGINIA 1600-1860 Kevin Donleavy

THE IRISH IN EARLY VIRGINIA 1600-1860 by Kevin Donleavy Kevin Donleavy lectured for years on Irish cultural history at the University of Virginia and at University of Richmond. He is a researcher at Clann Mhor.org, which focuses on the 2,000 Irish who in the 1850s built the four railway tunnels through the Blue Ridge Mountains. He is a past Fellow at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. THE IRISH IN EARLY VIRGINIA 1600-1860 is his second book. We will chat about early Irish emigres who established towns in Virginia: Waterford, Kinsale, Dublin, Dungannon. They came in the thousands, some being 1798 insurgents. They settled in larger numbers in Lynchburg, Norfolk, Winchester, and Richmond. There are other places bearing Irish names: Roark's Gap, Doyle's River, Mount Erin, Callahan Creek. The book is intended for both historians and those doing family genealogy work. I'll point out, from the research, 3 discoveries which should prove surprising to Trasna na Tire followers.