Irish Boston History & Heritage

Hugh O'Brien of County Cork, the first Irish-born person to be elected as mayor of the city of Boston, died on August 1, 1895 in Somerville after a brief illness.   His funeral was held at  Holy Cross Cathedral , and "thousands of people thronged the cathedral to pay their last tribute of love and respect" to O'Brien, a local newspaper wrote. The Charitable Irish Society sent a five-foot high Irish harp, made of roses, orchards and lilys. "The largest and most conspicuous delegation was that from the St. Vincent's Orphan Asylum, 200 little children dressed alike, who sat immediately behind the family," Republic Newspaper reported. Born in Ireland on July 13, 1827, O'Brien emigrated with his family to Boston in 1832 when he was five years old. He attended a public school in Boston’s Fort Hill neighborhood, and at age 12 joined the Boston Courier newspaper as an apprentice. By the age of 15, he had become foreman of a printing office, before starting h...

  Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy was born on July 28, 1929 in Southampton, NY, the daughter of John and Janet.  She was an accomplished rider as a child, and attended Vassar College, University of Grenoble before transferring to George Washington University, where she earned a degree in French literature in 1951.  While working as a roving photo journalist for the Washington Times-Herald , she met her husband, John F. Kennedy, when he was a U.S. Congressman, soon to be U.S. Senator, according to the John F. Kennedy Library .  On September 12, 1953, Jackie and Jack married at St. Mary's Church in Newport, RI. She became First Lady at age 31 on January 20, 1961, when her husband took the oath of office to become the nation's 35th president. "With her gracious personal style and her passion for history and the arts, she worked hard to be worthy of her new role," notes the JFK Library. While she had a deep sense of obligation to her country, her first priorities were ...

On July 4, 1892, a massive hurling match took place on Boston Common, between the Shamrock hurling club of Boston and the William O'Brien club of Cambridge.  The winner received a $100 purse. Estimates varied from 10,000 to 20,00 spectators, according to Boston newspapers.  A detail of 100 patrolmen , including a lieutenant and four sergeants, were on-site for crowd control and to keep the pitch clear.  The game was set to begin at 7 a.m. but did not get underway until 8:15 a.m. Prior to the game, the William O'Brien Club entered a protest saying there were several ringers from Lynn playing for the Shamrocks.  In the end, the William O'Briens defeated the Shamrocks by a score of 2-1.   A few days after the match, on July 7, The Boston Globe   reported , "The members of the Shamrock Hurling Club still believe they superior players to the William O' Briens, who defeated them on the Common on July 4. and they challenge them or any hurling club in Massachusetts...

On the Charles River Esplanade running alongside Beacon Hill and Back Bay along the Boston side of the river is the famous Hatch Memorial Shell, the site of the free annual Boston Pops Concert & Fireworks Spectacular held each year on July 4, Independence Day.  The Boston Pops is led by maestro Keith Lockhart. There are two statues in front of the Hatch Shell that pay tribute to Boston Irish politicians in the 20th century who each made notable contributions to Massachusetts.  David I. Walsh  (1872-1947) was the first Irish Catholic elected as Governor of Massachusetts, where he served from 1914-1916.  Prior to that, he was Lieutenant Governor in1913-14.  A native of Clinton, Walsh was best known as an “ardent supporter of women’s suffrage and fought hard for a voting-rights amendment to the state constitution,” according to historian Thomas H. O’Connor.  In 1918 Walsh won a Senate seat, becoming the state's first Irish Catholic to win, as well as...

Matthew Arbuckle One of Scotland's most famous musicians of the 19th century was Matthew Arbuckle, who made his name in America as an exceptional cornetist.  He was also a composer and bandleader as well as an accomplished violinist, bagpiper and drum major. Coliseum of the World Peace Jubilee in Boston He performed at the National Peace Jubilee in Boston in June 1869 for U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant, and again at the World Peace Jubilee in June 1872, which was the largest music festival ever assembled and included 2,000 musicians and 20,000 singers.   At the 1872 festival, Arbuckle conducted Handel's famous "Let the Bright Seraphim," leading the opening fanfare of fifty trumpeters and playing the trumpet obbligato part with vocalist Madame Ermina Ruggersdorf.  After the Jubilee ended, Arbuckle participated in a special concert for Austria's visiting composer Johann Strauss, perfuming a cornet solo that demanded an encore. Born in Lochside, Scotland, on March 2...

  On June 17, 1776, two British Navy transports, the George and Annabella, sailed into Boston Harbor, unaware that the British had been driven out of Boston two months earlier, on March 17, 1776, Evacuation Day. The two ships were carrying 185 Scottish Highlanders of the 71st British Regiment of Foot, newly formed by General Simon Fraser. Sir Archibald Campbell In command of the Regiment was Sir Archibald Campbell KB (21 August 1739 – 31 March 1791) a British officer.  Historian J. L. Bell reports that Campbell later wrote a letter to General Howe, saying that he had been at sea for seven weeks, "during the course of which we had not an opportunity of speaking to a single vessel that could give us the smallest information of the British troops having evacuated Boston." A story in The Boston Globe , dated June 17, 1926, wrote, "They approached the coast, expecting to find General Howe still comfortably fixed at Boston. They found instead a fleet of hornets awaiting them ...