Irish Boston History & Heritage

Many people wonder why the Boston Celtics wear shamrocks on their green uniforms and have a giant leprechaun smoking a cigar as their team logo. And why is the team mascot a guy named Lucky who looks like he stepped out of a box of Lucky Charms? According to the Boston Celtics official web site, the name came about in 1946 when owner Walter Brown started the team. He and his public relations guy, Howie McHugh, were throwing out potential nicknames, including the Whirlwinds, Unicorns and Olympics. It was Brown who had the epiphany, saying, “Wait, I’ve got it – the Celtics. The name has a great basketball tradition from the old Original Celtics in New York (1920s). And Boston is full of Irishman. We’ll put them in green uniforms and call them the Boston Celtics.” Red Auerbach , the now legendary coach of the early Celtics, then commissioned his brother Zang, a graphic designer in the newspaper business, to come up with the famous Celtics logo in the early 1950s. The logo manages to incl

  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 Revolutionary War.  The five martyrs were Crispus Attucks, Samuel Gray, Jonas Caldwell, Samuel Maverick and Patrick Carr.  Carr was an Irishman and the last to die from his wounds.  Read more about the  Irish connections to the Boston Massacre. Governor Oliver Ames attended, along with  Mayor Hugh O'Brien , the city's first Irish-born mayor of Boston.  The chairman of the memorial committee was  William H. Dupree , a former slave who fought in the American Civil War with the 55th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, an offshoot of the famed 54th Regiment of Black soldiers.  Also on the committee was Irish immigrant John Boyle O’Reilly, who

Boston's Louise Imogen Guiney was a leading Catholic poet and essayist of her day, publishing several volumes of poetry a book on Irish hero Robert Emmet.   Born in Roxbury in 1861, Louise was the only daughter of Irish immigrants. Her father, General Patrick Guiney of the Massachusetts Irish Ninth Regiment, was a war hero in the American Civil War. As a child, Louise traveled with her mother to Virginia, where her father was stationed.  In 1881, at age 20, Guiney began publishing poems in the  Boston Pilot . Initially she published under the initials P.O.L. with references to Latin, Greek and Medieval poetry, and readers assumed she was ‘a bright Harvard boy.’ By year's end she was publishing under her full name.  She published a number of books, including  Songs at the Start  (1883),  Goose-Quill Papers  and  The White Sail . Her final work was entitled  Happy Endings .  In 1894, Guiney and her mother moved just outside Boston to "a pretty cottage in Aburndale, shaded by

Goodwife Ann Glover plaque in Boston's North End  The next time you are exploring landmarks along the Boston Irish Heritage Trail , visit the Goodwife Ann Glover plaque at St. Stephen's Church, located at 401 Hanover Street, in Boston's North End.   The plaque honors an Irish Catholic immigrant who was falsely accused of being a witch in Boston, part of a mass hysteria taking place in the Puritan community during that era.  Glover was found guilty and hung by the town elders, led by Minister Cotton Mather, on November 16, 1688.  According to 18th century accounts, Glover was an Irish indentured servant who had been sent to Barbados in the 1650s after the Cromwell invasion of Ireland. Her husband went with her, and when he died on the island, Ann and her daughter came to Boston where she worked in the Goodwin household as a servant.   The Goodwins 13-year-old daughter Martha swore she got sick shortly after discovering Goody's daughter stealing laundry. Based on that f

  James Brendan Connolly Olympian and writer James Brendan Connolly was born on October 28, 1868 at 23 Bolton Street in South Boston, one of 12 children born to John and Ann (nee O'Donnell) Connolly, immigrants from the Aran Islands in County Galway, Ireland. Connolly's early claim to fame came in 1896, when he became the first athlete to win a first-place medal at the Modern Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. He won the triple jump, and also placed second in the high jump and third in the long jump. Then in 1900, Connolly went to Paris, France for the second Olympic Games, taking second place in the triple jump. James B. Connolly at the 1896 Olympics After his illustrious sports career, Connolly retired from competition at age 32, but stayed involved in the Olympic movement, writing astute articles especially on the 1908 Olympic Games in London. During this time, Connolly was also developing as a writer. He covered the Spanish-American War in 1898, sending dispatches from Hav

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