IPC + AOH Present Annual Irish Famine Memorial Mass on Deer Island

On Saturday, June 7 at 11 a.m., greater Boston’s Irish community will gather for a Memorial Mass at The Great Hunger Memorial on Deer Island in Boston Harbor.  The annual mass remembers the Irish refugees who died there in the 1840s and are buried on the island.

In the late 1840s, the City of Boston erected a hospital on the island to quarantine thousands of Irish immigrants who were arriving here after fleeing Ireland’s famine. Approximately 850 people died on the island between 1847 and 1850 and were buried in a mass grave.Their bodies were discovered in 1990 during construction work to build a regional sewage plant on the island.

The 16-foot Celtic Cross memorial was created by local Irish-American activists, and championed by Massachusetts Water Resources Authority and other local officials.  The initiative was spearheaded by Mark Porter and Mike Carney, John Flaherty, Peter O’Malley, Bernard Callaghan, and earlier, by the late William and Rita O’Connell. The  Celtic cross was cut and engraved by Flynn Stone Design and Fabrication, a stone supplier and fabricator in Lakewood, Pennsylvania, and erected with the help of Feeney Brothers of Boston and Local 25 of the Teamsters Union.

The monument was formally dedicated on May 25, 2019 in a ceremony attended by  hundreds, including Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and Cardinal Sean O’Malley.  Boston City Archivist John J. McColgan was the keynote speaker.