Irish Boston History & Heritage

James M.Curley with wife Gertrude  On April 13, 1950, former Boston Mayor James Michael Curley took his family on a seven week vacation to Europe for "relaxation, recreation and study." The previous fall, he had lost his mayoral bid for re-election to fellow Democrat John B. Hynes in November 1949, effectively ending Curley's political career of 50 years.  Then in February, 1950, the Curley family suffered a terrible loss when two of their children, Mary Curley Donnelly, 41, and Leo, 34, died  a few hours apart of cerebral hemorrhages.  The European vacation included stops in France, Switzerland, Italy, Portugal, England and Ireland, visiting Paris, Lisbon, Rome, Naples, London and Dublin.  Before he left Boston, Curley told reporters he was taking with him a replica of the Boston Common plaque in honor of Commodore John Barry, Revolutionary War naval hero, which he planned to present to the French Ministry of Defense. He was also carrying a letter to the F...

Educator Anne Sullivan, known in her lifetime as the Miracle Worker for her work with the blind,  was born on April 14, 1866 in Feeding Hills, Agawam, Massachusetts.  The daughter of impoverished Irish immigrants, Anne contracted trachoma, an eye disease caused by bacteria when she was five years old,  which caused her to become partially blind.  After her mother died in 1874, eight year old Anne and her brother Jimmie were sent to the Tewksbury Almshouse, known as the Poor House for indigent people. Conditions were horrible, and her brother Jimmie died shortly after arriving.   When state officials arrived to conduct an investigation of the almshouse, Annie convinced the commissioners to send her to the Perkins Institute for the Blind  in South Boston, which taught blind children to read, write and spell. Annie entered the school in October 1880. After graduation, Anne was sent to Tuscumbia Alabama to teach a six year old blind child named Helen Keller....

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 generation who benefited the most were the ones who took advantage of education and learning in both public and parochial schools, giving them an unparalleled opportunity to distinguish themselves as individuals, artists and professionals.   By the 1870s, a new generation of Irish and Irish-American women were establishing themselves as poets, children's book authors, novelists, essayists and travel writers.  These women took up writing as a way of earning a living but also as a creative response to their own lives and the lives of their families. Here is a sketch of nine Irish women writers who bec...

This week, Shawn Moran explored Boston's Irish history, taking a walk on Boston's Irish Heritage Trail and dropping in at the Green Dragon Tavern. Learn more about the Irish Heritage Trail . To enjoy Irish cultural activities in greater Boston throughout the year visit IrishBoston.org .

St. Stephen's Church, image courtesy of Digital Commonwealth The next time you are exploring landmarks along the Boston Irish Heritage Trail , take a walk over to the North End and visit Saint Stephen's Church, 401 Hanover Street, in the heart of the city's Italian neighborhood. Originally designed in 1802 as a Congregational Church by famed architect Charles Bulfinch, St. Stephen’s became a Catholic Church in 1862, after Bishop John Fitzpatrick purchased the church to accommodate growing numbers of Irish immigrants settling Boston and this neighborhood in particular. Like nearby St. John the Baptist Church, which St Stephen's replaced, this "would not simply be another parish church, it would be a free church without pew rents," according to Boston Archdiocese archivist Thomas Lester . On the walls outside of St. Stephen's Church are two plaques that speak to a range of experience of Irish women in Boston over two centuries.  The first plaque honors ...

      Patrick Carr was the last man shot at the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770, the last to die on March 14, and the last to be buried at the Old Granary Burying Ground on St. Patrick's Day, March 17.  The other four victims were Crispus Attucks, Samuel Maverick, James Caldwell and Samuel Gray. Carr was also the only Irish Catholic immigrant among the five victims. His very presence in Boston had to have been circumspect, because of the longstanding prejudice that Bostonians had against Catholics that dated back to the first Puritans who arrived here in 1630.  Religious liberty was not a strong suit of 18th century Massachusetts, and Catholics were despised more than any other religious group.   There are several anti-Catholic themes in the Boston Massacre and subsequent trial. Attorney John Adams , who defended the accused soldiers of firing into the crowd at the famous trial, characterized the Bostonians that night as a mob, stating in court,...