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The larger-than-life bronze statue of legendary quarterback Tom Brady is being added to the Irish Heritage Trail, a collection of…
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Did you know that Halloween began in Ireland? The annual tradition originated centuries ago, when Ireland’s ancient Celts celebrated October…
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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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Patrick L. Kennedy and Lawrence W. Kennedy Foreword by Bill Rogers. The Boston Marathon is filled with iconic characters like John J. McDermott, who won the first contest in 1897, and Johnny Kelley, who finished the race 58 times. Equally notable is “Bricklayer Bill” Kennedy, a working class Irish-American who was part of the amateur…
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Worcester’s proud Irish community is front and center for Irish Heritage Month in March, as annual St. Patrick’s Day celebrations bring out the marching bands, bagpipers and step dancers, along with live music and dance performances, community theater, dining specials and plenty of conviviality! Monique Joseph, the president of Discover Central Massachusetts, describes the region…
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The Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce unveiled its new tourism brand to local and regional hospitality leaders and partners on February 28, 2024 at the Pelham House Resort in Dennis Port. The Chamber is the official destination marketing organization for Cape Cod. Chamber CEO Paul Niedzwiecki said the new initiative marks the first substantial branding update…
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For nearly a quarter century, Patti Lloyd has been the go-to person for travel professionals all across the America, whose job it is to book trips to beautiful Cape Cod. As senior VP of sales at Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce since 2000, Patti pitches the Cape to meetings and tour groups, weddings and motorcoaches. She plans everything…
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Blacks and Irish have often, though not always, faced similar experiences in how they were depicted, considered and treated in New England over the past four centuries. When the Puritans settled in Boston in 1630, they believed fervently that they were the chosen ones, destined to build “a city upon a hill, with the eyes…
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Cóilín Parsons Literature and history are inextricably linked in Ireland. Wandering bards and minstrels, then novelists, essayists and poets, measured every inch of the Irish experience on this tiny island. Cóilín Parsons, English professor at Georgetown, examines ways in which Irish writers viewed the Ordnance Survey of Ireland, a massive 22 year public works project…
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New England is the Capital of Irish America – Irish cultural festivities in New England and travel ideas for visiting Ireland are the twin themes of Travel & Culture magazine’s spring 2024 issue, released today by Boston Irish Tourism Association (BITA). The major event on the Irish calendar is the annual St. Patrick’s Day parades,…
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