In the Shelter of Each Other: The Irish and America’s Medal of Honor
Speaker: Patrick Downes MRHistS, Writer in Residence, Princess Grace Irish Library; Chair, The Lucas Foundation
Date and time: Thursday, 12 November 2026, 7.00pm
Venue: Princess Grace Irish Library, 9 rue Princesse Marie-de-Lorraine, Monaco-Ville, Monaco
Format: In person

Admission: Free; advance booking required
Booking: https://www.pgil.mc/lectures/current

In the 250th anniversary year of the American Declaration of Independence, this lecture examines the Irish-born recipients of the United States Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest decoration for valour.
More men born on the island of Ireland received the Medal of Honor than were born in any other country outside the United States. Drawing on his forthcoming book, For Valour and Heritage: The Irish Story of America’s Medal of Honor, Patrick Downes reconstructs their stories from the Civil War to Vietnam. He asks who these men were, how they came to serve in American uniform and what became of them afterwards—in the police and fire services, public life and civic institutions of the great American cities.
The lecture places the Medal of Honor within the wider history of Irish migration, belonging and citizenship in the United States. It also examines the difficult work of historical verification: altered names, uncertain birthplaces, competing claims of descent and the distinction between the archival record and later commemorative tradition.
The story reaches from the foundations of the American republic—through figures such as Wexford-born Commodore John Barry—to the long military and civic contribution of successive Irish-American generations. It is ultimately a lecture about courage, memory and the ways in which a diaspora made itself at home in a new country.