Irish Boston History & Heritage

French Minister of Culture André Malraux’s visit to the White House was attended by the nation’s leading artists, writers and musicians.  Photo Credit JFK Library   "John F. Kennedy’s optimism and resolve was emblematic of the American mind of the twentieth century, but he also brought a new level of sophistication to public life. Louis M. Lyons wrote, “The elevation of the tone of the national life may be John Kennedy’s most enduring contribution to his country.”  Poet Robert Frost Speaking with First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy "Along with his beautiful, stylish wife, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, JFK brought a  savoir faire  to the White House and created a magical mood that later moved Jacqueline to use the word “Camelot” to refer to her husband’s presidency. Both the president and his wife were lovers of the arts, and they surrounded themselves with singers, poets, dramatists, artists, and dancers. In a well-deserved nod to the power of poetry, Kennedy invited New England poet

Photo courtesy of the Knox Museu m Henry Knox, one of the prominent heroes of the American Revolution, died on October 25, 1806 at his home in Thomaston, ME.   A notice in the Boston Gazette read:  “It is with the deepest regret, I have now to inform you, that the great and good Gen. Knox, departed this life yesterday morning. He was confined about six days. It is supposed that the cause of his death was his swallowing a sharp chicken bone which perforated his bowels, and produced a mortification. The event was very sudden, and unexpected by his physicians till a very short time before his death. It has covered us all with the deepest gloom. The funeral will be tomorrow, when every testimony of respect will be paid by all classes of people." His funeral three days later was attended by 2,000 people who traveled there to pay their final respects. The Wiscasset Repertory Newspaper in Maine reported, "The sorrow discovered by his neighbors and townsmen, (as well as by own fam

On October 15, 1995, Seamus Heaney won the Nobel Prize for Literature, “for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past.” He accepted the award on December 7, 1995 in Stockholm, Sweden. Read his Nobel lecture here . Heaney became the fourth Irish writer to receive the coveted Nobel Prize, following William Butler Yeats , George Bernard Shaw , and Samuel Beckett . Born in the village of Bellaghy, County Derry in 1939, Heaney’s family was engaged in farming and selling cattle. He was a pupil at the acclaimed St. Columb's Secondary School in Derry, attended by other literary figures including Brian Friel and Seamus Deane and by musicians Phil Coulter and Paul Brady. He studied at Queen’s University in Belfast and lectured there after graduating. In describing his work, the Nobel Committee wrote, “Seamus Heaney’s poetry is often down-to-earth. For Heaney, poetry was like the earth—something that must be plowed and turned. Often, he pa

Kindred Spirits in County Cork,  Photo courtesy of  Gavin Sheridan 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 Irish and Native Americans as similar episodes of colonialism and exploitation. Native land had been stolen in both Ireland and America by the British, and O'Reilly's  sympathies were always with the oppressed and dispossessed.  Like everyone in Boston's Irish community, O'Reilly was aware of the extraordinary act of kindness that happened in 1847, when the Choctaw people raised more than $170 ($5000 today) to send to the people of Midleton, County Cork, during the height of the Irish Famine, a five-year potato crop failure that devastated the island. The Choctaws th

The  Color Bearer Civil War Monument in Pittsfield, MA 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 as Martin Milmore, Thompson had a remarkable natural talent for drawing and visualization, which was noticed early when he was working in the office of an anatomy professor. "He was endowed with an intuitive grasp of the sculptural side of things, and with an artistic conscience," wrote Lorado Taft in his influential book, The History of American Sculpture. Thompson received several Civil War commissions, including The Color Bearer, which honors the fallen soldiers of Pittsfield, Massachusetts.   The 10.25' high bronze sculpture of a Civil War color sergeant is standing upr

The fountain today, Photo Credit:  Fairmont Park Horticultural Cente r 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 Longfellow to Senator Charles Sumner and Julia Ward Howe. She was born in Dorset, Vermont to a working class family and lived in the town of Vergennes near Middlebury College. Her father was a farm hand, and she worked as a maid, then taught art at a local grammar school. At age 14, she moved to Lowell, Massachusetts to work in the spinning mills, where she continued carving cameos. According to a story in the Boston Evening Transcript, "One day the overseer, Walter Wright, discovered her whittling an acorn out of chalk. He stopped and asked where her model was. "In m