New Irish in the American Civil War Podcast on an Irish Widow's Predicament as She Faced the Loss of Her Pension WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH

Pat Young

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Featured Book Reviewer
Joined
Jan 7, 2013
Location
Long Island, NY
Our friend Damian Shiels has begun making occasional podcasts on Irish immigrants during the Civil War. In this podcast he examines an affidavit written by a widow in support of her retention of her widow's pension. Her husband had died in Andersonville and she had received a widow's pension. The Democrats had passed legislation depriving widows of pensions if their husbands had not been United States citizens at the time of their service. The story is a sad one for a widow to go through.

https://irishamericancivilwar.com/2019/02/25/podcast-short-the-elderly-donegal-womans-predicament/

BONUS: You get to hear Damian's brogue.
 
What do you think of the attempt to deprive the widows of non-citizens of their pensions?
Not much, if their husbands have fought and died in the Civil War. If citizenship wasn't a requirement for becoming a soldier, and obviously it wasn't, then citizenship should not have been a requirement in terms of receiving a pension after the war.

Just curious, Pat, on two counts. What was the process for Naturalization or Citizenship at the time and how long did it take? Also, would there not have been records available to check on her husband's citizenship? Was the fault of not being able to prove it only in the fact she could not remember where this might have taken place?

It was hard for me to understand the Irish gentleman speaking just catch a word here & there
:smile: I was pleasantly surprised to find Damien's accent not as strong as some from Cork, and probably to a trained ear it's also much easier to understand. Nothing beats that lovely lilting accent for me ...
 
Pat,thanks for posting. I had no problem with his brouge. Especially during March when all is Irish.
Like all thing bureaucratic, it goes without saying. Anyman who had been here 20 odd years and gave his life in service of his country should have been entitled to it's due benefit. The fact that his widow did not have the papers to reapply is bull krap. Back then, there was no mass effort to defraud as we have today.
 
My fiancee and I are fans of the show Derry Girls set in Northern Ireland. She turns on the closed captions when we watch it!
LOL. My daughter tried to get me to watch that one and I also couldn't understand half of what was said! Those accents are very thick and I lived in N.I. for a while, but in Belfast, so the Derry accent is a bit more peculiar to my ear. To be honest, the show just annoyed me and I couldn't get past the first episode :eek: Each to their own as they say.
 
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