"formally The Irish Brigade Home Service Battalion"
With the advent of American Civil War re-enactors in Northern Ireland, and more recently the Irish Republic, it seemed only logical that some would join regiments which had formed part of the 'Irish Brigade' within the Federal Army of the Potomac. However we have changed our name to "The Minstrel Boys" as a 'mess' name to honour those Irish who fought with Southern cause as well as the North.
The regiments which formed the Federal 'Irish Brigade' during the war between the states were;
These pages tell of the activities of the only re-enactment group, comprising a number members of various re-enactment regiments who live in the old 'Home Country'; the island of Ireland. With this mix of members, the uniforms also depict this variety; Army of the Potomac and the Cumberland are seen side by side with the Army of Northern Virginia and the Tennessee etc. Currently "The Minstrel Boys" members depict;
We are also joined on occasions by the Company 'C', 69th New York, based in Dublin.
We are particularly fortunate in that we regularly use the Ulster-American Folk Park, outside Omagh, County Tyrone. The Folk Park records the journey of Ulster men and women from their homes to a new life in America during the 18th and 19th centuries. The Folk Park has a number of 'exhibits' in its grounds which represent the various types of buildings encountered in the rural Ulster countryside of the period. The visitors then enter a typical street scene (based on the City of Londonderry) before boarding the Brig 'Union' for the journey to the New World. Disembarking the visitor enters another typical street scene, this time similar to Boston or New York, before exploring a Pennsylvanian farmstead.
It is this environment of a Pennsylvanian farmstead with its surrounding fields and fences that the 'The Minstrel Boys' exercises the manual of arms and fights skirmish actions.
Ulster Campaign - Omagh, 1998.
'The Minstrel Boy' - the song.
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