Irish Boston History & Heritage

The Boston Celtics might have well been called the Boston Yankees, according to newspaper stories detailing the team's origins. When the new Basket Ball Association of American was formed in June 1946, the Boston franchise was owned by Walter Brown , who managed the Boston Garden and was later owner of the Boston Bruins . In an interview with Boston Globe sports reporter Harold Kaese on July 17, 1946, Brown predicted that basketball would soon be more popular than hockey in Beantown. "There are more basket ball players and fans around here than hockey players and fans.  Hockey was the big game after the last war; basket ball game will be the big game after this one," Brown is quoted as saying. Later in the article, Kaese reports: " NICKNAME - Brown is looking for one.  He welcomes suggestions, may run a contest.  The first nickname offered was Boston Yankees, an extremely bright suggestion." But Brown apparently had an epiphany to name the te...

The Kennedys in New Ross ( courtesy of JFK Library )  A month before President John F. Kennedy's famous visit to Ireland in June 1963, a dispute broke out between the people of New Ross, County Wexford, and Dublin government officials over where President Kennedy would visit, according to a UPI story that ran in the Boston Globe on May 27, 1963. "Townspeople in President Kennedy's ancestral birthplace Sunday charged civil servants with 'hijacking' their famous guest away from his Irish relatives," the UPI reported.  "We feel the President is being hijacked all over the country," a town spokesman said...."President Kennedy would prefer to stay longer with his kith and kin in the New Ross area instead of attending banquets and garden parties in Dublin." The story continued, "New Ross is the home of President Kennedy's forefathers and should be accorded precedence over any other part of Ireland, including Dublin, (said a town...

As part of the Boston Police raids on Ann Street in Boston's North End in April 1851, the Boston Herald reported that "an old man named Michael Lacy was one of the persons arrested" in the sweep of dance cellars, gambling dens and brothels of that notorious section of town. Ann Street, today called North Street in Boston's North End, was the city's original Combat Zone. Lacy explained to the court "an interesting history of the art of ancient ministrelsy and of the early history of instruments called fiddles.  He also spoke of hand-organs and tamborines and of music at musters and other public assemblies." The court ruled that "Those who fiddle at theatres and concerts are not amenable to the law, but those who fiddle for rogues to dance, violate the statute, and are to be punished." Lacy was ordered to pay a fine of $3 and costs, the Herald concluded. For more on the history and heritage of the Boston Irish, visit IrishHeritageTra...

Photo of Mayor John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald (waving hat), courtesy of JFK Library Boston Mayor John Fitzgerald threw out the first pitch at Fenway Park at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday afternoon, April 20, 1912 before a hometown crowd of 24,000 people, thus christening the opening of one of America's most famous baseball parks.   The Boston Red Sox beat the New York Highlanders (later called the New York Yankees)  in an 11-inning game, by the score of 7-6.  John J. "Buck" O'Brien from Brockton was the starting pitching for the Sox and he was relieved by Charley Hall in the fifth inning. The park was built by Charles E. Logue , a renowned builder who immigrated from County Derry, Ireland to Boston in 1881 at the age of 23.  He founded a successful company that built many of the city's schools, hospitals and college campuses over the next four decades. His company, now called Logue Engineering ,  is still in operation five generations later. The architect w...

On April 15, 1861 , three days after the attack on Ft. Sumter, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation seeking 75,000 volunteers to join the Union Army. In Boston, Massachusetts, Irishman Thomas Cass began recruiting Irish immigrants to form the Massachusetts 9th regiment.  The volunteers came largely from Boston and the nearby towns of Salem, Milford, Marlboro and Stoughton. A total of 1,727 men enlisted. The Irish volunteers encamped on Long Island in Boston Harbor through May, and on June 11 the Regiment was mustered into service. The 9th enjoyed a big send-off on J une 25, 1861 , when the troops made their way from Long Island to Long Wharf in Boston, then marched to Boston Common, where Governor John Andrew welcomed them and thanked the two commanders, Colonel Thomas Cass and Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Guiney.  Governor Andrew presented them with flags of the United States and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the regiment was also permitted to car...

  Photo by Bill Brett, Boston Globe John Adelbert  Kelley may well be the best athlete to ever run the Boston Marathon , the internationally acclaimed foot race that draws thousands of runners to vie for the coveted gold medal. The Boston Marathon was initiated in 1897, inspired by the first modern Olympic Games held the previous year in Athens, Greece. It was sponsored by the Boston Athletic Association , and won by Irish-American John J. McDermott of New York, who ran the course in two hours, fifty-five minutes and ten seconds, beating a field of fifteen runners. Thomas E. Burke , who won first place in the 100 and 440 yard races at the Athens Olympics in 1896, was the official starter of the race. Kelley was born in 1907 in West Medford, outside of Boston, and traces his ancestry to County Wexford.  "My father's people left to go to Australia," he told The Boston Globe in 1981, when he was preparing for his 50 th race.  "The boat stopped in Boston and they...

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick is appearing at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston on Thursday, April 14, 2011, to discuss his new memoir, A Reason to Believe: Lessons from an Improbable Life . The event runs from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. and the moderator is Bob Oakes , host of Morning Edition on WBUR . For a full schedule of upcoming events at the JFK Library, click here . For year round details on cultural and literary activities throughout Massachusetts, visit IrishMassachusetts.com . For tourist information, visit MassVacation.com or  BostonUSA.com .

Imelda May , the rising rockabilly star from Dublin, is performing at the Brighton Music Hall in Boston this summer, on July 30, 2011. She has been touring over the past year with guitar legend Jeff Bec k, and has performed on the Grammy Awards, in a tribute to guitar innovator Les Paul , and most recently appeared on the Jay Leno Show on Friday, April 8. May fell in love with American music as a young girl in the Liberties section of Dubliln, listing to Elvis Presley  and Gene Vincent, then switching up to blues legend Elmore James and jazz great Billie Holiday. While performing on the burlesque circuit for many years, she has perfected her own brand of country, R&B and pop, melding it into a unique brand of Irish rockabilly. Located at 158 Brighton Street in Boston's Allston neighborhood, Brighton Music Hall is the site of the former blues club Harper's Ferry. For year round details on Irish music in greater Boston, visit IrishBoston.org .

Thomas Edmund Burke (1875- 1929) became the first athlete in the Modern Olympic Games to win two races, the 100 yard dash and the 440 yard run. Burke, just 20 years old at the time, was one of six Boston athletes who made the trip to Athens, Greece in April 1896 to participate in the revival of the Olympics. He handily won both races. The New York Times reported, "At the pistol shot Burke of the BAA bounded ahead, followed closely by the German Hofmann, who was beaten by two meters by Burke at the finish, with the other runners bunched closely as far behind....Amid cheers, the American flag went up."  Olympians from Boston, 1896 Burke was born in Boston's West End; his father was an undertaker at St. Joseph's Church, and later attended English High School in Boston.  He competed for the Suffolk Athletic Club in South Boston and the Boston Athletic Association (BAA) .  When he won the Olympic medals Burke was a second year law student at Boston University . ...

Charles E. Logue at Fenway Park, April 20, 2012 (courtesy of the Logue Family) Fenway Park , approaching its 100th birthday in April 2012, is one of the landmarks along Boston's Irish Heritage Trail . The iconic park, described by writer John Updike as "a lyric little bandbox of a park," was built by an Irish immigrant from County Derry named Charles E. Logue.  You can read the full story on on Mr. Logue and Fenway here. According to the book Fenway , by Boston Globe reporters Dan Shaughnessy and Stan Grossfeld, officials broke ground on the new ballpark on September 25, 1911 and the first game was played there on April 20, 1912. Mr. Logue built many of the city's Catholic Churches and part of the Boston College campus.  His descendants have carried on the family business with their firm, Logue Engineering , located in Hingham, Massachusetts. .  Fenway Park is the final stop on the 20-site Irish Heritage Trail , which starts at the Rose Kennedy Garden alo...

Congratulations to history professor and Irish scholar Rob Savage of Boston College , whose book, A Loss of Innocence?: Television and Irish Society, 1960-72 , won the prestigious James S. Donnelly Sr. prize for 'Best History or Social Science Book' awarded by the American Conference for Irish Studies . The book, published by Manchester University Press , examines the evolution of Ireland's national television service in the 1960s and examines how the new medium helped to change the conservative nature of Irish society. For year round details on Irish culture, history and heritage in greater Boston, visit IrishBoston.org .

The Modern Olympic Games kicked off in Athens, Greece, on April 6, 1896, rekindling the ancient sporting competition after an absence of 1,500 years.  Thirteen nations participated. Boston, Massachusetts was well-represented at the Games that year, with six athletes making the journey to Greece. Also participating was a team from Princeton University in New Jersey. The Boston athletes included Thomas E. Burke, Ellery H. Clarke, Thomas P. Curtis, Arthur Blake and W.W. Hoyt of the Boston Athletic Association (BAA) , accompanied by their manager John Graham, as well as James Brendan Connolly of the Suffolk Athletic Association of South Boston, accompanied by manager Thomas J. Barry. According to the book, Irish Boston , Connolly was one of twelve children (including eight boys in a row) born in South Boston to immigrant parents John and Ann (O'Donnell) from Inis More, Aran Islands, off the coast of County Galway, Ireland. The American team left New York on March 20, 1896 o...

Enter the Haggis - the Toronto-based Celtic-Rock band, is performing at the Blue Ocean Music Hall in Salisbury, Massachusetts, on Friday, April 8, 2011 at 8:00 p.m. Tickets to the show are available for $15 and $20 and can be ordered online or at the door.   For a full schedule of concerts at Blue Ocean Music Hall, click here . For year round Irish music in Massachusetts and the New England region, visit IrishMassachusetts.com .  For tourist information, visit MassVacation.com .

Legendary sports writer George Kimball - - is giving a reading from his new books, At the Fights, and Manly Art, at the Four Green Fields Pub & Restaurant in downtown Boston on Monday, April 4, 2011. Kimball - who wrote a column for the Boston Herald for 25 years - is considered one of the foremost boxing writers in journalism. He currently writes a weekly column for the Irish Times newspaper in Dublin. For a full schedule of upcoming events at Four Green Fields, click here . For year round Irish cultural, literary, history and heritage and special events in greater Boston, visit IrishBoston.org .