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Getting outside in summer is a pre-requisite in New England, especially after a dreary winter! Check out our schedule of…
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Ireland’s traditional music is one of the world’s most vibrant and enduring folk traditions, stretching back to the ancient bards…
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A number of Irish immigrants and Irish-American sculptors created some of the most distinctive Civil War Monuments of the 19th Century. Here are three of their monuments in Boston and Cambridge worth visiting: 1. The Shaw Memorial, atop Boston Common and facing the Massachusetts State House, was officially unveiled on May 31, 1897, a homage to…
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Neal Thompson Readers are always eager for a new book on the Kennedys, especially one that chronicles the family’s journey from impoverished immigrants to the pinnacle of power, wealth and achievement, exemplified by the presidency of John F. Kennedy. Neal Thompson’s book The First Kennedys delivers a well-written, lively account of Patrick Kennedy and his…
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As part of Ireland’s annual National Famine Commemoration taking place in Edgeworthstown, Co. Longford on Sunday, May 19, 2024, the Boston Irish Tourism Association has compiled information on ten Irish Famine Memorials throughout New England. These memorials were erected between 1914 and 2019 and built by local Irish communities to commemorate the Irish Famine of the 19th century, which…
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The Rhode Island Irish Famine Memorial is a permanent memorial in the capital city of Providence that commemorates the victims and survivors of Ireland’s famine years in the mid-19th century. The memorial occupies a prominent location at Dyer’s Landing along the River Walk in Providence. Created by sculptor Robert Shure of Skylight Studios, the Memorial was dedicated…
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On Saturday, May 30, 1914, Massachusetts Governor David I. Walsh joined officials from the Ancient Order of Hibernians and the Ladies Auxiliary to unveil a granite Celtic Cross in memory of Irish immigrants who perished during a storm off the Massachusetts coastline in 1849. 7000 Hibernians from all over Massachusetts attended the ceremony, according to a story…
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Damien Murray The evolving identity of the Boston Irish during the first quarter of the 20th century provides a fascinating backdrop for Damien Murray’s book on Irish nationalism. Murray, an Associate Professor of History at Elms College in Chicopee, examines how Boston Irish identity was shaped by seismic events in Ireland like the 1916 Easter…
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Molly (Page) Stark (1737-1814), whose husband General John Stark was a hero in the American Revolution, has been honored for her own role in the war. On June 26, 2004, officials, historians and members of the Stark family unveiled the Elizabeth Page Molly Stark statue in Wilmington, as part of Vermont’s Molly Stark Trail, a 40-mile scenic byway on Route…
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Today, Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) joined elected officials and community stakeholders to celebrate the start of the 2024 cruise season at Flynn Cruiseport Boston, which runs through November. Read full press release. Building upon the success of last year, Massport expects to welcome 169 vessels from 25 cruise lines, an increase of 15% over 2023. The Norwegian…
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Ancestors of the early Puritans in the Massachusetts Bay Colony discouraged Jews and Irish Catholics from burying their congregations in local cemeteries the first half of the 19th century. Boston had long been known as a place where outsiders were considered with suspicion and hatred, due to their religion or ethnic backgrounds. According to Mass Moments,…
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Dan Milner Dan Milner’s new book, The Unstoppable Irish traces the ascension of Irish Catholics in New York City through music over a full century, from post-Revolutionary War to post-Civil War. Folk songs, broadsides, songsters and sheet music form the thread for this evolution and lend insight into how the Irish were perceived and how…
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One of New England’s true military heroes of the American Revolution was General John Stark (1728-1822), the son of Scots-Irish parents who emigrated to the American colonies in 1720 and settled in the Scots-Irish colony of Nutfield, NH, where John and his brothers were raised. Today, the former settlement is comprised of the towns Londonderry, Derry…
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The family of President John F. Kennedy has deep roots in Massachusetts, dating to 1848, when all eight of JFK’s eight great-grandparents arrived in Boston, escaping the Irish Famine that was devastating Ireland. From Boston, Cambridge and Brookline to beautiful Cape Cod and the cities of Springfield and Holyoke in western Massachusetts, the Kennedy legacy…
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Days before President Abraham Lincoln’s April 15, 1861 proclamation seeking 75,000 volunteers to join the Union Army, men from Boston’s Irish community met on April 10 to “express unflinching devotion to the Federal Government.” Irishman Thomas Cass of Boston’s North End immediately began recruiting Irish immigrants to form the Massachusetts 9th regiment. The volunteers came largely from…
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The Titanic Memorial in Washington, DC, an iconic depiction of one of the major maritime tragedies of the 20th century, was carved in Quincy, Massachusetts by local sculptor John Horrigan, who used a 20-ton slab of granite to complete the masterpiece. The pedestal, designed by Henry Bacon, used granite from the quarries in Waverly, RI. Gertrude Vanderbilt…
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Hidetaka Hirota The hordes of Irish immigrants who came to North America in the 19th century were more often paupers, traumatized by famine, disease, war and social injustice. Their transatlantic migration to eastern seaboard cities like Montreal, Boston, New York and Philadelphia is well documented. Less understood is how rampant anti-Irish nativism toward these immigrants…
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In 1729, Scots–Irish Presbyterian Reverene John Moorhead, formerly of Newtonards, County Down, established the Church of the Presbyterian Strangers, initially with a congregation of thirty parishioners,. They built an Irish Meeting House in a converted barn at the corner of Berry Street and Long Lane (now Channing and Federal Street). As church historian Harriett E….
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On Monday, April 6, 1896, James Brendan Connolly of South Boston became the first medalist in the modern Olympic Games when he won the triple jump on the opening day of the Games in Athens, Greece. Connolly won the event – back then it was called the Hop, Skip and Jump – by jumping 44 ‘ 9…
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On March 28, 1770, following the now famous Boston Massacre that occurred on March 5, local engraver Paul Revere released a depiction of the event that was quickly printed and distributed widely in the colonies, helping to fan the flames of rebellion. Revere, famous for the midnight ride to Lexington and Concord in 1775, was a…
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The Garden of Remembrance commemorating Ireland’s uprising of 1916 was officially unveiled at Forest Park in Springfield, MA on Sunday, May 15, 2016. It was the first memorial in the United States to recognize the 100th anniversary of Ireland’s Easter Rising of April, 1916, where Irish rebels attempted to overthrow British forces occupying Ireland. Congressman Richard…
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In February, 1924, the Irish National War Memorial Committee in Dublin donated eight beautifully decorated folio volumes, containing information on Irishmen who died in World War I to the Boston Public Library central branch in Copley Square. Published in 1923 by the Committee of the Irish National War Memorial, the the massive project was undertaken…
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Musician and singer Kevin McElroy of Maine is well regarded around New England for his skill as an instrumentalist and singer, his knowledge of Irish traditional music, and his work as a restorer of antique instruments, particularly the violin. His latest CD, Better Late than Never: Irish + Traditional Songs, will further cement his reputation and…
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Michael Coffey Author Michael Coffey has published a new book called Samuel Beckett is Closed. Written according to a sequence laid out by Beckett in his notes to the unpublished manuscript, “Long Observations of the Ray,” Coffey’s book is a mediation that shifts through numerous themes that range from a NY Mets Baseball game in…
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Foreword: Caroline Kennedy Think of this exquisite coffee-table book literally as a family album, with photos, snippets from letters, humorous asides and personal reflections. But it’s a family album that chronicles one of America’s most famous families. The 300 plus photographs, overwhelmingly black & white, were lovingly saved and preserved by Rose, who in many…
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Peter Behrens Canadian author Peter Behrens has written an epic tale of a sprawling Irish family in 20th century America that starts in Quebec and ends in California. Along the way family ambition, betrayal, madness and violence are all examined by beautiful prose and great insight. Publishers Weekly called The O’Briens a work of ‘rough…
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