Irish Boston History & Heritage

Maud Gonne , rebel, activist and poetic muse, came to the United States in February 1900, to tell Americans about the atrocities of the British in South Africa's Boer War.  She spoke forcefully about British refugee camps filled with women and children, and of efforts by Irish and Irish-Americans to fight alongside the Boers.   Gonne's husband,  Major John MacBride , led the  Irish Transvaal Brigade  on the side of the Boers during the war.  They were married in 1903 and divorced in 1905. Already renowned for her beauty and fiery disposition, she was described by  The Boston Globe  as "pictuesque in a black velvet gown with a silver girdle at the waist...her splendid voice extremely musical." Gonne spoke in Lowell on Sunday, February 11, 1900 in  Associate Hall , and later met with a group of German-Americans from Lawrence.  Then on Monday, February 12, she addressed 2,500 people in Fall River, during which eight Irish societies of 500 men and women preced

Photograph of George W. Russell (AE) at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts Ireland's famous mystic, poet, painter, essayist, economist and agricultural reformist George W. Russell visited Massachusetts on February 10, 1928, part of a six week tour of America. Born in Lurgan, County Armagh, Russell moved to Dublin as a child and played an important role in Ireland's evolution in the early 20th century, as a writer, activist and thinker. He wrote under the pen name AE. Described by The Boston Globe as "the most brilliant and versatile genius (Ireland) has produced in this generation," Russell held court at Boston's Statler Hotel upon arriving, talking with reporters for half an hour and impressing them with "the flash of his wit and the power of his  intellect." He then traveled across the river to Cambridge, where he "lectured at Harvard in the afternoon and dined with President Abbot Lawrence Lowell in the evening." AE said that