History & Heritage
Clockwise from top left: Sculpture by Margaret Foley; Poet Louise Guiney; Teacher Annie Sullivan, Labor Leader Margaret Foley, Matriarch Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, Labor Leader Mary Kenny O’Sullivan; Special Olympics Founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver; and Teacher/Astronaut Christa Corrigan McAuliffe March is Irish Heritage Month and also Women’s History Month in Massachusetts. In honor of both, here…
In 1977, a Celtic Cross was placed in O’Connell Park on Merrimack Street across from Lowell City Hall, as part of America’s Bicentennial Celebration. The granite monument was carved by local artisan Adian Luz. The text on the back of the monument reads: The Irish community of Lowell was the first ethnic group to inhabit…
Photo Courtesy of Boston National Park Service Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), the famous 19th century writer of short stories and novels, was born in Boston on January 19, 1809, to parents who were actors at the Federal Street Theatre in Boston. On his father’s side, “The poet’s ancestors were of the same Scotch-Irish stock that…
David I. Walsh, the first Irish Catholic elected as Governor of Massachusetts, received the largest plurality ever for a Democratic candidate for the office, winning by over 53,000 votes, getting 180,000+ votes. He defeated three other candidates: Charles S. Bird, Augustus Gardner and Eugene Foss. Walsh had to plan a larger inaugural reception than originally…
Twin Curley statues at Union Park on Congress Street, Boston James Michael Curley, the larger-than-life political figure who dominated Boston and Massachusetts politics for half a century, died on November 12, 1958. Over 100,000 people passed by his coffin at the Hall of Flags in the Massachusetts State House, according to a story in The Boston Globe….
Boxing champion John L. Sullivan was born on October 12, 1858, on East Concord Street in Boston’s Roxbury/South End. His father, Mike Sullivan, emigrated from County Kerry around 1850 and married Katherine Kelly, whose family had immigrated from Athlone in 1853. They married on November 6, 1856. Most Irish boys during this time seemed to…
Illustration by Leonard Everett Fisher A passenger ship called Brig St. John sank off the coast of Cohasset on the morning of Sunday, October 7, 1849, pushed to the brink by a severe nor’easter that rocked the boat for hours before it sank. On board the ship were 127 passengers from Ireland, along with sixteen…
On Sunday, September 20, 2020, the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) joined with Scituate Selectman John Sullivan and other local leaders in Scituate, Massachusetts to unveil a monument to Ireland’s Easter Rising of 1916. The monument, which is located at the band gazebo on Cole Parkway in Scituate, features the Proclamation of the Irish Republic,…
On Wednesday, July 23, 1997, Ireland’s President Mary Robinson officially helped dedicate the Cambridge Irish Famine Memorial in Cambridge Common, a tribute to the 150th anniversary of Ireland’s Great Hunger, known as An Gorta Mor. Nearly 4,000+ people attended the ceremony in the iconic Cambridge Common near Harvard Square, which also includes the Cambridge Civil War Monument…
America’s first great portrait artist, John Singleton Copley (1737-1815) was born in Boston on July 3, 1738. He was the son of Irish immigrants who emigrated to Boston in the 1730s. John’s parents, Richard Copley and Mary Singleton from County Clare, were married in County Limerick before emigrating to Boston. Right after their son John…
Photo by Peter H. Dreyer, Boston City Archives Bunker Hill Day is celebrated in Boston each June 17 to mark the famous Battle of Bunker Hill, which took place on June 17, 1775 between American colonists and British troops. The Bunker Hill Monument was built to recognize the sacrifice of the colonists fighting against British rule. The British…
March 5, 2020 Ceremony at the Boston Massacre Grave Site March 5, 2020, Boston marks the 250th anniversary of the Boston Massacre, a transformative event in history that launched the road to revolution in the American colonies. The Massacre took place on a wintry Monday night on March 5, 1770, when British troops fired into a…
Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy (1890-1995), who held the Kennedy family together through tragedy and triumph for much of the 20th century, is permanently enshrined along Boston’s waterfront, with the Rose Kennedy Garden and the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway. The Rose Kennedy Garden is the first stop on Boston’s Irish Heritage Trail, a walking tour of twenty landmarks that tell three centuries of Boston Irish…
One of Boston’s most interesting sculptures, Bacchante and Infant Faun, is displayed in the courtyard of the Boston Public Library in Copley Square, Back Bay. The masterpiece was created in 1893 by American-born sculptor Frederick MacMonnies, a disciple of Augustus Saint-Gaudens. MacMonnies gave the original casting to his friend, architect Charles Follen McKim, whose own masterpiece, the Boston Public Library, was being…
Patriot, poet, orator and editor John Boyle O’Reilly was a leading figure in Boston between 1870 and 1890. Born on June 28, 1844 in Dowth Castle in County Meath, O’Reilly was conscripted into the British Army as a young man, later charged with sedition against the British Crown and sentenced to life imprisonment in an…
An exhibit entitled The Irish and Boston: An Immigrant Saga is running at the Massachusetts State House from June 10-17, 2019. Developed by the City of Boston Archives under the leadership of Director Dr. John McColgan, the acclaimed exhibit was first unveiled at the annual St. Patrick’s Breakfast hosted by South Boston’s State Senator Nick Collins in March. The…
A memorial commemorating Irish immigrants who were buried on Deer Island in the 1840s was unveiled on Saturday, May 25, 2019 on the island. Guests included Boston Archbishop Cardinal Seán O’Malley and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh. Master of Ceremonies was Eugene O’Flaherty, City of Boston’s Chief Archivist John McColgan gave the historical remarks, and Máirín…
Grand Union Flag used by George Washington at his Cambridge Headquarters in 1776 Here is an interesting summary of the variety of flags in the colonies at the start of the American Revolution, as reprinted in Irish American Almanac in 1876. The original source, according to the Almanac, was Appleton’s American Cyclopaedia. “In the beginning…
It began as a friendly $10 bet between Jack Bailey and one of his employees about whether Jack could organize a St. Patrick’s Day parade in Abington, Massachusetts, a town of 16,000 people located 20 miles southeast of Boston. Jack, who with his father Eddie ran Bailey’s Garage at the corner of Orange and Washington…
One hundred and thirty years ago, on November 14, 1888, state and city officials unveiled the Boston Massacre Memorial on Tremont Street on Boston Common. Among the guest speakers were Governor Oliver Ames, Mayor Hugh O’Brien and State Representative Julius Caesar Chappelle, an African-American leader who advocated for civil rights, voter registration and political participation.The sculptor was Robert Kraus, a German…
Maurice Tobin and his wife Helen Photo Courtesy of Harry S. Truman Presidential Library This Labor Day, the Boston Irish Tourism Association pays tribute to Boston native Maurice Tobin (1901-53), who served as mayor of Boston and governor of Massachusetts before being named US Secretary of Labor by President Harry S. Truman. Born in Roxbury’s…
Massport recently joined local elected officials, friends and family of Tom Butler to officially unveil the Thomas J. Butler Memorial Park in South Boston. Joining Massport CEO Tom Glynn at the event were Governor Charlie Baker, Congressman Stephen Lynch, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, state Senator Linda Dorcena Forry, state Representative Nick Collins, City Councilors Michael Flaherty…
This essay appeared in The Boston Globe, October 25, 2002By Michael Quinlin Robert Frost would appreciate knowing that the road less traveled leads to Lawrence, which is where Ireland’s esteemed poet Seamus Heaney plans to read tomorrow evening. Frost, New England’s favorite poet, spent his formative years in this industrial city, where he got his education, worked in a…
Lawrence native William J. Sullivan is a leader of the vibrant Irish-American community in Lawrence and the Merrimack Valley. An educator in the Lawrence Public Schools, Bill served for 35 years as a Teacher, Assistant Principal, Principal and District Administrator until his retirement in 2009. Bill has also been a member of Lawrence’s Rev. James…
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