Damian Shiels, PhD is a historian, archaeologist and curator. He is currently a Research Fellow on the AHRC-funded “Civil War Bluejackets” Project aimed at exploring the lives of common sailors in the American Civil War. He specialises in digital humanities, public history and Irish immigrants to the United States during the Civil War era. His latest book is “Green and Blue: Irish Americans in the Union Military, 1861-1865” (LSU Press, 2025).

Among his previous roles was at the National Museum of Ireland, where he was one of the curators who devised and created the award-winning “Soldiers & Chiefs” military history galleries. He also pioneered the field of conflict archaeology in the Republic of Ireland, leading numerous research projects and aiding in the development of State management of Irish military and conflict sites dating from the medieval period through to the Irish Civil War.