Running Legend Johnny Kelley Finished the Boston Marathon 58 Times
Photo Credit: Lorianne DiSabato
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Irish Rebel John Boyle O’Reilly Helped Establish the Boston Athletic Association in 1887
The famous Boston Athletic Association (BAA) was founded in the late19th century by an unlikely coalition of leading Boston Brahmins and a famous Irish rebel, John Boyle O’Reilly (1844-90). The BAA was created at a time when amateur sports were increasingly popular across the United States. There were many collegiate teams in greater Boston and numerous small associations, but the…
Read MoreUSS Jamestown Rescues Irish Famine Victims in April 1847
Forbes House Museum in Milton
Read MoreIrish Poet + Land League Leader Fannie Parnell is Buried at Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge MA
On April 11, 2001, the Parnell Society of Dublin placed a granite marker at the grave site of Ms. Fanny Parnell at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, honoring her role as a patriot and poet of Ireland. The ceremony was led by Ireland’s ambassador to the United States Sean O hUuiginn, Irish government official Frank Murray and members…
Read MoreJohn Barry, Naval Hero of the American Revolution, was born on March 25, 1745 in Wexford, Ireland
John Barry, a naval hero in the American Revolution, was born on March 25, 1745 in County Wexford, Ireland. His parents were James Patrick john Barry and Mary Ellen Cullen. Barry was “born in the townland of Ballysampson and lived his boyhood in the townland of Rostoonstown, both in the parish of Tacumshane,” according to…
Read MoreNine Irish Women Writers of Distinction in Boston
The post-Famine generation of Irish women in Boston and New England were typically relegated to jobs as domestic servants, nursemaids and mill workers, before eventually being accepted as shop clerks, nurses and teachers. This work was often in addition to their primary role running households as wives and mothers. The young Irish girls of the Famine…
Read MoreIrish and Scottish Fiddlers Arrive in Boston for the World Championship Fiddling Contest
On March 21, 1926, two top traditional fiddlers from the British Isles and Ireland, 82 year old James Scott Skinner of Aberdeen, Scotland and 76 year old John Wiseman of Bantry, County Cork, arrived in Boston Harbor aboard the Cunard liner Carolina. They were here to compete in the World’s Old Fiddlers Contest, taking place April…
Read MoreBoston’s Fenway Park –An Irish-American Landmark
Fenway Park – home of the Boston Red Sox – is the nation’s enduring symbol of baseball, America’s favorite pastime. Officially opened on April 20, 1912, the park has outlasted all other major league baseball parks, becoming a shrine for baseball lovers everywhere. Writing in the New Yorker Magazine in 1960, John Updike described Fenway Park as…
Read MoreBoston Celtics – the Green Team
Many people wonder why the Celtics wear shamrocks on their green uniforms and have a giant leprechaun smoking a cigar as their team logo. And why the team mascot is a guy named Lucky who looks like he stepped out of a box of Lucky Charms? According to the Boston Celtic’s official web site, the…
Read MoreLandmarks Honoring Legendary Massachusetts Politician Thomas ‘Tip’ O’Neill in Boston, Cambridge, Cape Cod and Donegal
Tip O’Neill Bust in Buncrana, photo courtesy of Visit Donegal Legendary politician Thomas P. ‘Tip’ O’Neill, one of the most impactful politicians of American politics in the 20th century, died on January 5, 1994 at his home in Harwichport, Cape Cod. He was 81. Born in North Cambridge on December 9, 1912, he was the son…
Read MoreNotes on Irish-American Sculptor Louis St. Gaudens, Creator of the Marble Twin Lions at Boston Public Library
Portrait of Louis St. Gaudens, photo courtesy of Saint Gaudens National Historical Park Louis St. Gaudens (1854-1913), whose iconic sculptures grace the American landscape today, was born in New York City on January 8, 1854. He was the son of Bernard Saint-Gaudens from France and Mary McGuinness from Ireland, and the brother and protégé of his…
Read MoreOn December 9, 1884, Boston Elected Corkman Hugh O’Brien as its First Irish-Born Mayor
A new era in city government took hold on Monday, January 5, 1885, when Hugh O’Brien became Boston’s first Irish-born mayor. O’Brien’s victory at the polls in December finally broke the hegemony of old-line Yankees who had run local government since Boston was incorporated as a city in 1822. O’Brien defeated incumbent mayor Augustus Pearl Martin by 3, 124…
Read MoreLocal Black and Irish Leaders Unveil the Boston Massacre Memorial on Boston Common, November 14, 1888
On November 14, 1888, state and city officials and citizens from greater Boston officially unveiled the Boston Massacre Memorial on the Tremont Street Mall on Boston Common. The memorial commemorates the infamous episode in which five men were shot and killed by British soldiers in Boston on March 5, 1770, an event that helped launch the…
Read MoreJohn Boyle O’Reilly and Captain Jack, Chief of the Modoc People
Irish rebel John Boyle O’Reilly arrived in Boston in January 1870, and almost immediately he became a powerful voice for the oppressed, including his own people of Ireland who were trying to break free of Britain, but also in the United States, Blacks, Chinese immigrants and Native Americans. O’Reilly saw the British conquest of the…
Read MoreIrish-Born Sculptor Launt Thompson Created Iconic Civil War and Classical Statues in America
Irish-born Launt Thompson (1833-1894) was a consequential American sculptor of the 19th century whose monuments of the Civil War and classical themes were hailed during his lifetime. Born in Abbeyleix, County Laois, Ireland in 1833, he emigrated in 1847 with his widowed mother and settled near Albany, New York. Like the other Irish sculptors such…
Read MoreVermont Sculptor Margaret Foley Created Marble Children’s Fountain for the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia
Margaret F. Foley (1827-1877) was a highly-praised 19th century cameo artist and sculptor, who lived in Vermont, Lowell and Boston, Massachusetts before moving to Rome, Italy where she spent the final 17 years of her life. She was widely known for her exquisite and intricate cameos of leading personages from singer Jenny Lind and poet Henry…
Read MoreIrish-Born Sculptor Stephen J.O’Kelly Created Myles Standish Memorial In Duxbury and Civil War Monuments in Nashua and Gettysburg
Dublin-born sculptor Stephen J. O’Kelly (1850-98) was a successful artist in late 19th century United States, creating several important memorials that still stand today. Born in Dublin, he studied art in Paris and opened a studio in London before immigrating to Boston, where he lived for much of his adult life. He had Roscommon roots, and his brother,…
Read MoreThe Moakley Courthouse in Seaport District Honors a True South Boston Hero
Located along the Seaport District on Fan Pier and situated along Boston Harborwalk, the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse is a tribute to South Boston native Joe Moakley, who represented his neighborhood and district as a state representative, state senator, Boston City Councilor and U.S. Congressman for 48 years. The Moakley Courthouse is part of Boston’s Irish Heritage Trail, an…
Read MoreCommodore John Barry, Naval Hero In the American Revolution, Dies on September 13, 1803
American naval hero of the Revolutionary War, Commodore John Barry died on September 13, 1803. He is buried at Old Saint Mary’s Cemetery in Philadelphia, PA. Considered one of the true military heroes of the American Revolution, Barry was born in Tacumshane, County Wexford on March 25, 1745. At age 15, he emigrated to Philadelphia in 1760, and…
Read MoreIrish-American Sculptor John Donoghue (1853-1903) Dies Tragically after his Masterpiece is Destroyed on Brooklyn Docks
One of the most gifted 19th century Irish-American sculptors, according to art historians, was John Talbott Donoghue (1853-1903) , a Chicago native who lived in Boston in the 1880s and whose life and career ended tragically when he took his own life. Donoghue was discovered as a struggling artist by Oscar Wilde during the famous…
Read MoreAmerican Revolution War Hero Henry Knox, Born in Boston on July 25, 1750
Henry Knox, a first-hand witness to American history and a hero in the American Revolution, was born in Boston on July 25, 1750, the seventh of ten children. His parents, William Knox and Mary (née Campbell), were Ulster Scots immigrants who came to Boston from Derry in 1729, part of a large exodus of Ulster-Irish Presbyterians who…
Read MoreBoston Painter John S. Copley, Caught Between the Tories and the Rebels During the American Revolution
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…
Read MoreThe Revolutionary Irish Trail
The American Revolution is taking center stage across the United States this year, as preparations get underway to officially celebrate the 250 th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the birth of our nation in 2026. The effort is being led nationally by America 250, “a nonpartisan initiative working to engage…
Read MoreVisit these Public Memorials to John Boyle O’Reilly throughout Massachusetts
Born 180 years ago on June 28, 1844, John Boyle O’Reilly helped shape the history or Ireland and America in the late 19th century in powerful ways. Today, O’Reilly’s stature as a seminal figure in Irish and Irish-American history is particularly evident in his beloved birthplace of Dowth, County Meath; in Freemantle, Australia where he…
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