Irish Boston History & Heritage

Boston's 2nd Annual Irish Writers Series in March 1994 featured a number of top writers from Ireland and the United States.  The event was created by the Boston Parks Department and was a spin-off to the department's Boston Book Fair in Copley Square.  The reading events, lectures and panel discussion took place across the city, at Park Plaza Hotel, Waterstone's Bookstore in Back Bay, the Old South Meeting House, Agassiz Theater in Harvard Square, Stonehill College and UMass Boston.  Several Irish pubs also held events, including Brendan Behan's in Jamaica Plain and Mr. Dooley's Pub in downtown Boston. Among the featured speakers: novelists J.P. Donleavy, James Carroll, Thomas Flanagan, John McGahern, Chet Raymo and Peter Quinn; poets Derek Mahon, John Montague, Paula Meehan and Seamus Heaney; authors Angela Bourke, Marie Jackson and Liz Shannon and Marie Heaney; and playwrights, storytellers and filmmakers including Maggie Pierce, Marie Jackson and the cast Sugan T...

General John Sullivan, a hero in the War for Independence and a key figure in ending the Siege of Boston, was born in Somersworth, NH on February 17, 1740.    Sullivan was the third of five sons born to Owen Sullivan of Limerick and Margery Browne of Cork, both indentured servants from Ireland. He and his brothers were home-schooled by their father, who had been a teacher in Ireland.  His brother  James Sullivan  was governor of Massachusetts and his brothers Daniel and Ebenezer also fought in the American Revolution.  John became a lawyer, served in the New Hampshire legislature, and was chosen as a member of the First Continental Congress in 1774 and the Second Continental Congress in 1775.  As the Revolutionary War escalated, Sullivan was selected as one of General George Washington’s eight Brigadier Generals in the Colonial Army.  "Sullivan developed also as a military engineer and for a considerable Washington entrusted to Sullivan the c...

(l-r) State Representative Michael Flaherty, Sr., State Senator William M. Bulger and Massachusetts Governor Ed King, with house band in back, circa 19892. © Boston Irish Tourism Association  

Established in 1837 as the nation’s first public botanical garden, Boston’s Public Garden is one of the city’s most cherished open spaces, with majestic swan boats gliding across a lagoon, seasonal flower arrangements delighting visitors, statues of important Bostonians and the iconic Make Way for Ducklings statues that delight children of all ages.  The 24-acre park is maintained year-round by the Boston Parks and Recreation Department with support from the Friends of the Public Garden .  The Public Garden is a stop along the Boston Irish Heritage Trail, a collection of landmarks from the waterfront to Fenway Park that takes you on a 300+ year journey through the city's illustrious history.  In 2026-27 we are adding new stops on our original trail, including these landmarks in the Public Garden. Swan Boats  Public Garden Lagoon  The majestic swan boats in the Public Garden lagoon were created in 1877 by Irish immigrants, Robert Paget and his wife Julia (Coffe...

Illustration of Henry Knox by Alonzo Chapel Henry Knox, a  first-hand witness to American history and a hero in the American Revolution, is possibly the greatest Irish-American to ever come out of Boston, a city with a plethora of Irish legends over the centuries.  Born on July 25, 1750 along Boston's waterfront near the southwest corner of Atlantic Avenue and Essex Street, Knox was the seventh of ten children.  His parents, William Knox and Mary (née Campbell), were Ulster Scots immigrants who came to Boston from Derry in 1729, part of a large exodus of Ulster-Irish Presbyterians who were emigrating to New England beginning around 1717-1718. As a boy, Knox attended the  Boston Latin School , then at age 12, he went to work as an apprentice and clerk at Wharton & Bowes Booksellers at the corner of State and Cornhill (now Washington Street). The bookstore was right next to where the  Boston Massacre  occurred on March 5, 1770, and Knox came upon the imp...

Lambert Hollis (1840-1923) was an Irish immigrant who flourished as an illustrator and painter in Boston for half a century, creating an opus of art that has been forgotten over time.  Hollis was born in County Monaghan in 1840 and his family emigrated to Boston in the mid-1850s.   Hollis drew 'The Evacuation of Boston,' featuring General George Washington and his troops watching the British fleet leave Boston Harbor.  The illustration was expressly for the book, Lives of the Presidents of the United States of America, from Washington to the Present Time , edited by John S. C. Abbott, and Russell Conwell and published in 1881 by H. Hallett and company in Portland, ME. The Hollis illustration is part of the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection at the New York Public Library . Hollis was best known for an iconic illustratration he drew of President Abraham Lincoln on his visit to Richmond Virginia on April 3, 1865, just...