Boston
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…
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…
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, and friends and family of Tom Butler to officially unveil the Thomas J. Butler Memorial Park in South Boston. The park is named to honor the South Boston resident, who was beloved for his many decades of community service and charitable deeds. As Director of External Relations for Massport,…
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…
Travelers at Boston’s Logan International Airport have a new reason to linger in the airport between flights. Passing through the new Walkway between International Terminal E and JetBlue Terminal C, passengers can stop to view a fascinating new permanent exhibit entitled Four Centuries of Innovation. Unveiled last summer by Massport CEO Thomas P. Glynn and…
By the time Irish immigrant John Boyle O’Reilly arrived in Boston in 1870, at age 26, he had already come face to face -in the most urgent manner- with issues of freedom, liberty and justice. As a child, born in 1844, he survived that terrible Irish Famine decade which killed one million Irish and sent…
They came to sing the praises of Tom McNaught. Political leaders, historians, friends and family journeyed from across the country and across the city to the JFK Library in Boston recently to personally thank the congenial, effective and popular administrator who is retiring after a 17 ½ year career at the JFK Library Foundation. Those…
Photo courtesy of Stephen O’Neill “On May 19, 1832, Boston’s Catholic Bishop, Benedict Fenwick attempted to bury two Boston children, three-year-old Florence Driscoll, who died from teething, and three-month-old James Kinsley, who died from infantile disease, at the recently opened Bunker Hill Catholic Cemetery in the town of Charlestown, Massachusetts, right across the bridge from Boston. “The obligation to…
Michael Quinlin Globe Pequot Press is proud to announce the release of 2nd Edition of IRISH BOSTON: A Lively Look at Boston’s Colorful Irish Past (978-0-7627-8834-7; October, 2013; $18.95 paperback). This new edition updates the illustrious story of the Boston Irish, from the 1700s to 2013, with updates on how Boston’s Irish community has been…
Toll Gate Cemetery Photo Courtesy of Remember Jamaica Plain? The Boston chapter of the Ancient Order of Hibernians is paying tribute to the fallen Civil War soldiers from Massachusetts’ Irish regiments with a ceremony at Toll Gate Cemetery in Jamaica Plain, Boston, on Saturday, September 1, 2012 at 11:00 a.m. The event is free and open to…
Fenway Park – it’s as American as apple pie and, well, baseball. The “lyrical little bandbox of a ballpark,” as local writer John Updike described it, is a national treasure, one of the few remaining ballparks to survive a century of wear and tear, heart ache and exultation. Fenway has a distinctive Irish tint over the…
Scotland’s poet and bard Robert Burns (January 25, 1759 – July 21,1796) is honored in Boston with a statue at Winthrop Square in Boston’s Financial District. Best known for composing the unofficial anthem to New Year’s Eve, Auld Lang Syne, Burns was a prolific poet who wrote over 300 poems, as well as various epistles and ballads. He was prolific in…
The 150th anniversary of the American Civil War (1861-65) starts in 2011, and organizers across the country hope it will help shape a national consensus – or at least a sincere dialogue – on American values and aspirations. The anniversary can also be a reminder of how society turns to art to explore grief, conflict…
In the early 1700s, Irish and Scottish settlers began infiltrating Boston’s solidly Puritan stock, coming by the boatload or as stragglers wandering up from New York of down from Halifax. They were indentured servants and small town merchants, sailors and mercenaries, farmers and preachers. Before basketball was invented, these were the original Boston Celtics! Many…
Boston’s 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 Galway and South Boston. Edward was the oldest of nine children of Lawrence and Catherine (O’Connor), according to Michael Cummings of Milton, an expert on the Logan Family. …
One of Boston’s most beloved and influential mayors of the 20th century got his just due on November 1, 2006 as the City of Boston unveiled the Mayor Kevin Hagan White Statue along Congress Street at Faneuil Hall. The official unveiling of the statue took place on Wednesday, November 1st. It was a glorious fall…
The Boston Public Library has awarded its biennial Alicia Monti Research Fellowship this year to Michael P. Quinlin who will use the time to create an annotated bibliography for the Library’s extensive collection of 19th century Irish music. Quinlin’s research at the Library will cover the works of important Irish musicians and composers like Michael…
HON. JOHN JOSEPH MOAKLEYof massachusettsin the house of representativesWednesday, March 17, 1999CONGRESSIOAL RECORDMr. MOAKLEY. Mr. Speaker, it is fitting that on the feast on St. Patrick I rise to pay tribute to the Irish community of Boston and Massachusetts for building a poignant memorial to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Irish Famine. The Boston…
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