Celebrating 25 Years

In 2025, Boston Irish Tourism Association (BITA) celebrates its 25th anniversary as a distinctive cultural tourism organization that promotes culture and travel year round. To mark our quarter century, here are some exciting projects underway in the months ahead. We are grateful to the thousands of partners, members, advertisers and friends who have joined us over this past quarter century, we are delighted to share this journey with you!

Brand New Website

In spring 2025 we unveil our brand new website, irishboston.org, a complete makeover of our existing site, which has served us well since 2008! Our new site offers attractive new design and graphics, friendlier usability, function and SEO reach, digital advertising and web forms for connecting with us directly. Our new site has dedicated pages for Ireland and for New England Destinations. You’ll find expanded feature stories, including articles on travel to Ireland and airlines, a monthly Calendar of Events that lists parades, festivals and signature events in the Irish community, plus profiles of interesting people, places, trends and milestones in Ireland and New England.

Free Concert Tickets

One of our most popular features on irishboston.org is our Win Tix page, which offers our followers a chance to win a free pair of tickets to some of the greatest concerts, dance shows, comedy acts and live theater productions in greater Boston. In 2024 we offered free tickets to 30 shows, and we plan to offer even more opportunities in 2025 and beyond. Even if you don’t want to enter the contest, this page is a great resource for learning about upcoming cultural performances in greater Boston, including Riverdance, Celtic Woman, Clannad, Lunasa, Gaelic Storm, and an increasing number of comedians — Tommy Tiernan, Dara Ó Briain, David Nihill, Jarlath Regan and more.

Travel & Culture Magazine

We published our very first issue of Travel & Culture Magazine in 2005, so this year marks our 20th anniversary of producing this prime resource for learning about cultural events and travel to Ireland. We publish three issues a year, in March, June and November, and have expanded the size to our current 48 pages. We’ve introduced a new section called New England Destinations, where we share the hidden treasures of New England localities, a dedicated section to Ireland, plus profiles of interesting people. Travel & Culture is distributed free to museums, cultural groups, visitor centers and gift shops throughout New England.

Irish Heritage Trail

BITA’s longest-running project is the Irish Heritage Trail, created in 1994 as a way to share Boston’s illustrious Irish history through its public landmarks. In 2025 we are adding new locations to downtown Boston and neighborhood sites and also building a Greater Boston version that includes Cambridge, Brookline, Quincy, Milton and other towns. Leading up to 2026, we plan to expand the Irish Heritage Trail all across Massachusetts as a way of recognizing the enormous contributions the Irish have made. We are developing new maps and brochures and updating our website, irishheritagetrail.com. The Trail map with descriptions are included in every issue of Travel & Culture.

Awards

Top 100 Irish-American Business Awards, Irish America Magazine

Irish Famine Memorial Proclamation, Congressman Stephen Lynch

Golden Bridges Award for cultural tourism, Irish Echo Newspaper

National Finalist, Bushmills Twin Cities Competition

Alicia Monti Music Fellowship, Boston Public Library

Edward Riley Award, Ancient Order of Hibernians

Top Boston Irish Leaders, Irish Voice Newspaper

Top 50 Business Leaders (multiple years), Irish Echo Newspaper

Top 100 Irish-Americans of the Year Award, Irish America Magazine

Best Events Management Award, Mass Office of Travel & Tourism

Millennium Award to Irish Heritage Trail, The White House