Irish Boston History & Heritage

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In May 1949, Massachusetts Calls on US State Department to Send an Ambassador to the Newly Created Republic of Ireland

In May, 1949, state legislators in Massachusetts sent a resolution to the U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson to "increase the status of the representative to the Irish Republic to that of an Ambassador." The request came in the wake of Ireland being "formally proclaimed a Free, Independent and Sovereign Republic on the Historic Day of Easter Monday" on April 18, 1949. The petition was made by three Massachusetts legislators: Senator William J.Keenan, a native of Ireland, Representative Bernard M. Lally of Boston, and Representative John Pierce Lynch of Springfield. They asked Secretary Acheson "to accord the proper recognition to the new Irish Republic, increase the present status of the United States representative from that of a Minister to an Ambassador." The petition was also sent to U.S. President Harry S. Truman, to Senate Majority Leader William H. White, U.S. House Speaker Sam Rayburn, and to the Massachusetts congressional delegation. Severa

Jewish + Irish Cemeteries Were Discouraged by 19th Century Boston Puritans

Photo courtesy of Mass Moments 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 , a daily history log published by Mass Humanities , on April 29, 1844, a Jewish congregation in Boston "petitioned city officials to set aside a corner of an East Boston cemetery for their use. When the city refused, the 40 congregants of Ohabei Shalom contributed five dollars each to purchase their own burial ground. "Eight years later, they dedicated Boston's first synagogue. Located on Warren Avenue in the South End, it originally served the city's 125 Jewish families, almost all of whom hailed from German-speaking central Europe. "In the late nineteenth century, large numbe

Irish Philosopher Edmund Burke Predicted the American Colonies Would Rebel Against British Sovereignty

Statue of Edmund Burke in Washington, DC On April 19, 1774, a full year before the Battle of Concord and Lexington erupted, Irish MP Edmund Burke of Dublin (1729–97) made a compelling speech in the British House of Commons in London, supporting a motion to repeal the Townsend Revenue Act, which taxed tea in the American colonies. Burke warned his colleagues that taxing the American colonies ‘three pence per pound weight upon tea, payable in all his Majesty’s dominions in America,’ was a recipe for rebellion from the colonists. This type of taxation called into question the very concept of liberty the Americans cherished, and made the British appear as tyrants. “Your scheme yields no revenue; it yields nothing but discontent, disorder, disobedience,” he said, asking his colleagues to “reflect how you are to govern a people, who think they ought to be free, and think they are not. “When you drive him hard, the boar will surely turn upon the hunters," Burke said. "If that so

Bernadette Devlin Gives her Maiden Speech in British Parliament on April 22, 1969, Decries British Oppression in Northern Ireland

Bernadette Devlin of Cookstown, Country Tyrone, was elected as the Mid Ulster MP to Westminster Parliament in 1969, and gave her maiden speech there on April 22, 1969. She was 21 years old. Her opening words set the tone of the speech and also of her political career: "I understand that in making my maiden speech on the day of my arrival in Parliament and in making it on a controversial issue I flaunt the unwritten traditions of the House, but I think that the situation of my people merits the flaunting of such traditions," she said. Read her entire speech here . Devlin criticized the political corruption and hypocrisy of the political establishment in Northern Ireland and Great Britain. She criticized "the society of landlords who, by ancient charter of Charles II, still hold the rights of the ordinary people of Northern Ireland over such things as fishing and as paying the most ridiculous and exorbitant rents, although families have lived for generations on their l

General John Stark of New Hampshire, Scots-Irish Hero in the American Revolution, Coined the Phrase Live Free or Die

State Capitol Building, Concord, New Hampshire, Photo, Michael Quinlin 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 and Windham. It was Stark who coined the famous phrase, Live Free or Die, which is the motto of the state of New Hampshire. Accordingly, New Hampshire formally celebrates John Stark Day each year on the second Monday in April. See recent Governor's proclamation . John’s father Archibald Stark was born at Glasgow, Scotland, in 1697. His family moved to the Ulster province of Ireland, where Archibald met and married Eleanor Nichols of Londonderry, according to Memoir and official correspondence of Gen. John Stark , published in 1860 by his son Caleb Stark. John’

In April 1861, Irish Volunteers from greater Boston Enlisted in the 9th Massachusetts Regiment to Help Preserve the Union

Photo courtesy of Harvard Libraries 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 Boston and the nearby towns of Salem, Milford, Marlboro and Stoughton. A total of 1,727 men enlisted. The Irish volunteers encamped on Long Island in Boston Harbor through May to train and organize. On June 11, 1861, the Ninth Massachusetts Regiment was mustered into service. The 9th Regiment enjoyed an emotional send-off on June 25, 1861 , when the troops made their way from Long Island to Long Wharf in Boston, then marched to Boston Common, where Governor John Andrew welcomed them and thanked the two commanders, Colonel Cass and Lieutenant