The 71st Annual Galway International Oyster + Seafood Festival returns September 26-28, 2025

September 8, 2025

 The 71st Galway International Oyster and Seafood Festival returns September 26-28, 2025 with a vibrant new citywide format. This year, the festival brings Galway’s world-famous oyster celebrations together with Galway Docklands Festival – a dedicated maritime zone showcasing the city’s seafaring traditions, family fun, and waterfront experiences. From the Latin Quarter to the Docklands, Galway…

Read More

The Original Boston Celtics

September 8, 2025
Major General John Sullivan

In the early 18th century, Irish and Scottish settlers began infiltrating Boston’s solidly Puritan stock, coming by the boatload as congregations, or as stragglers wandering up from New York or down from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Long before basketball was invented, these were the original Boston Celtics! The wave of immigration from the island of Ireland…

Read More

Cillian Murphy’s New Film, Steve, Premiers at ‘Sounds from a Safe Harbor’ Festival in Cork City, September 11-14

August 25, 2025

Sounds from a Safe Harbor, a biennial festival of music, dance, art, theatre and conversation, takes place on September 11-14, 2025 in Cork City, Ireland.   The festival was co-founded by Irish movie actor Cillian Murphy, who recently portrayed the “father of the atomic bomb” in the hit film Oppenheimer.  In addition to his acting talents, Murphy is also…

Read More

Boston Irish in the American Revolution

August 13, 2025

During the American Revolution, Irish and Scots-Irish immigrants from New England played a pivotal role in helping to win the Revolutionary War. The Boston Irish Heritage Trail gives a glimpse of these Revolutionary Irish heroes through landmarks on Boston Common, the Massachusetts State House, Granary Burying Ground, Copley Square Park, Bunker Hill Monument and Dorchester…

Read More

Nativist Boston Mob Burns Down Ursuline Convent in Charlestown on August 11, 1834

August 11, 2025

On August 11, 1834, the Ursuline Convent in Charlestown, Massachusetts, a Catholic-run boarding school for girls of all denominations, was set afire by workmen furious about the growing presence of Irish Catholics in the town.  About a dozen frightened nuns and some 57 young female boarding students, still in their nightclothes, rushed from their beds…

Read More

John Boyle O’Reilly, Boston’s Beloved Irish Immigrant

August 10, 2025

John Boyle O’Reilly, the famous Irish rebel who lived in Boston from 1870 until his death, died suddenly at his home in Hull, Massachusetts on August 10, 1890, from an accidental overdose of medication.  He left behind his wife Mary (Murphy), four daughters, Mary, Elizabeth, Agnes and Blainid, and legions of friends, colleagues and admirers around the world. He was 46. His…

Read More

Massport – Going Above and Beyond

August 5, 2025
Cruiseship in port at Flynn Cruiseport Boston

“Going Above and Beyond” is the credo at Boston’s Logan International Airport, says Massport CEO Rich Davey, who adds that this continual quest for excellence applies across all of Massport’s properties. With a revenue of over $1.25 billion, Massport’s mission is to connect Massachusetts and New England to the world and further the Commonwealth’s economic, transportation…

Read More

The Revolutionary Irish and Scots-Irish in New England

August 1, 2025

When the American Revolution erupted in June, 1775, the Irish and Scots-Irish living in New England quickly joined the colonial side to fight for American independence. After all, they knew sometime about revolution, and about meeting the British in battle. Here are a few of their names.  Major General John Sullivan was the son of…

Read More

Immigrant Patrick Keely, Pioneering Architect of American Cathedrals

August 1, 2025

Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, Photo by Elkus Manfredi Patrick C. Keely (1816-1896), regarded as one of the great neo-Gothic church architects of the 19th century, designed more than 600 churches and 16 cathedrals throughout the United States between 1846-1896.  Born in Thurles, County Tipperary on August 9, 1816, Keely was the son…

Read More

Ireland Gets Spooky

July 31, 2025
ireland, puca festival

Did you know that Halloween began in Ireland? The annual tradition originated centuries ago, when  Ireland’s ancient Celts celebrated October 31 as Samhain, when spirits could visit the real world. The tradition eventually turned into Halloween, which is now celebrated throughout Europe and North America. DERRY HALLOWEENOctober 28-31 Derry Halloween is a dazzling street celebration…

Read More

America250 is Bringing “Our American Story” to Boston this Fall

July 29, 2025
America 250 Logo

America 250’s newly launched Our American Story, is coming to Boston this fall to celebrate the 250th Anniversary of the Founding of the U.S. Navy at Charlestown Navy Yard on October 13, followed by the 252nd Anniversary of the Boston Tea Party on December 16, 2025. Described as a groundbreaking oral and visual storytelling project, Our…

Read More

Barry and Lafayette – Irish and French Heroes of the American Revolution

July 14, 2025

Commodore John Barry and Marquis de Lafayette, Catholic military heroes of the American Revolution, are memorialized side by side on Boston Common, in homage to their enormous contributions during the Revolutionary War. Born in September 6, 1757, Lafayette was a French nobleman who volunteered to serve in the Continental Army and soon became a close…

Read More

Glasgow Lands Scottish Festival Celebrates 30 Years on July 19 in Northampton, MA

July 13, 2025
Glasgow Lands Scottish Festival

What began in 1994 as a one-time event to raise funds for an historic church in western Massachusetts is still going strong some three decades later.   On July 19, 2025,  the beloved Glasgow Lands Scottish Festival celebrates its 30th anniversary.  The milestone offers a moment to reflect on why Glasgow is readily hailed as one of the most…

Read More

Who is Boston’s Logan Airport Named After?

July 6, 2025

Boston’s Edward L. Logan International Airport was named for General Edward L. Logan (1875-1939), a first generation Irish-American military leader, civic leader and municipal judge with family roots in Ballygar, Galway and South Boston. Edward was the oldest of nine children of Lawrence and Catherine (O’Connor), according to the late Michael Cummings of Milton, an expert on…

Read More

Greater Merrimack Valley CVB is Renamed Revolutionary Valley

July 4, 2025
Revolutionary Valley

The Greater Merrimack Valley Convention and Visitor’s (GMV CVB) Bureau, one of the 16 designated tourism districts in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, recently announced a new name for the organization and new branding in June, 2025. The Greater Merrimack Valley CVB is henceforth known as ‘Revolutionary Valley.’ GMV CVB was first formed in 1992 in…

Read More