South Shore Irish Heritage Trail
DISCOVER THE SOUTH SHORE IRISH HERITAGE TRAIL
TRAVEL & CULTURE MAGAZINE
MARCH 2023
An exciting new attraction celebrating local Irish history, heritage, and pride, while welcoming visitors to the area, has taken shape just south of Boston.
The South Shore Irish Heritage Trail, unveiled in June 2021, offers a novel new way to enjoy one of Massachusetts’ most beautiful scenic drives while also learning about its rich ethnic heritage. It traverses nine cities and towns running along the coastline, and covers a variety of famous Irish residents, local landmarks, cultural institutions, and episodes that tell the fascinating story of how the Irish settled on the South Shore, largely starting in the 1840s, when Ireland’s Famine drove so many Irish refugees to America.
Brenda O’Connor, president of the Irish Trail, says the idea was first conceived in 2018, when a group of friends, volunteers and local historians began brainstorming about how to represent their vision in a meaningful and educational way.
Scituate-Light by Ted Curtin
Irish Trail Treasurer Siobhán Hunter praised the Irish Government and See Plymouth, the official tourism agency for Plymouth County, as well as elected officials, and local businesses and cultural institutions for their support in moving this project forward.
The group decided to model the Irish trail after Ireland’s own Wild Atlantic Way, a popular tourism initiative that guides visitors along Ireland’s magnificent west coast. “The South Shore Irish Trail,” O’Connor says, “runs along the coast (also called the Irish Riviera) from Weymouth to Plymouth, an area with the largest concentration of Irish Americans in the United States.”
Indeed, Plymouth County has the second-highest percentage of Irish descendants in the country, at 30.1%, according to the U.S. Census. Scituate and Marshfield consistently rank as among the most Irish towns in America, so as a result, there was an abundance of people and places to include on the trail.
Lawson Tower, Scituate
In all, there are 33 landmarks spread across the nine cities and towns. O’Connor mentions just a few of them: the 1916 Easter Rising Monument in Scituate Harbor; the Hull Library, once the summer home of Irish patriot and poet John Boyle O’Reilly; the Brig St. John monument in Cohasset, commemorating Irish immigrants who died during a storm off the coast in 1849; the Scituate Irish Mossing Museum; and so many others.
Each of the nine municipalities has its own brochure, which visitors can pick up at local visitor centers for self-guided tours. And all the information is available at ssirishtrail.org. A teacher for nearly 40 years before retiring, O’Connor sees the Irish trail as a perfect visitor destination. Additionally, it is a way to educate the next generation of children about their ethnic heritage as well as about the history of these nine communities.
Part of the task relates to the Irish immigrants who came before, “to honor their memories and to marvel at the courage it took to leave their beloved homes and families, not by choice, and make their way in a foreign land. The immigrant spirit we honor in the South Shore Irish Heritage Trail still burns brightly,” O’Connor says. “May it always be so.”