Irish Boston History & Heritage

  Photo (l-r) Front Row: Timothy Hurley, Patrick Houlihan, Timothy Driscoll.  Back Row: John J. O’Neill, Patrick Wallace, Patrick J. Gordan. The Gaelic Athletic Association's Boston chapter held its 3 rd annual ball and concert at Hibernian Hall in Roxbury on October 26, 1926.   Players on the hurling and football clubs were present.   Among the teams that were presented awards were the Wolf Tones  Hurling Club of South Boston and Erin ’s Own Hurling Club of Brighton. Two orchestras provided the music for both “modern and Gaelic dancing,” and an American-Irish vaudeville show was presented at intermission, according to The Boston Globe . For more about Boston's Irish community, visit IrishBoston.org . 

Sixty years ago this month, Ireland's airlines,  Aer Lingus , launched its Boston to Shannon air service on Sunday, October 5, 1958, ushering in a new era of travel between New England and Ireland. A 2003 story in the  Boston Business Journal  by  Michael Quinlin  reports the following: "Aer Lingus' entry into the Boston market carried a symbolic significance. TWA and Pan Am were already flying the Boston-Ireland route, but the arrival of Ireland's national airlines captured the imagination of the city's large Irish-American population, which accounted for nearly a third of all residents. Most had never been to Ireland, and Aer Lingus, with its distinctive green shamrock logo on every plane, inspired them to make the journey, which took about 12 hours, twice as long as today's flights. "Four days after leaving Boston, St. Brendan (the airplane, not the monk) returned in tow with Irish dignitaries such as Dublin mayor Robert Briscoe and Sean Lemass,

The New England Council’s Annual Dinner is taking place on Thursday, October 11 at the Seaport Boston Hotel.   President & CEO James Brett will present “New Englander of the Year” awards to four prestigious recipients for their commitment and contributions in their fields of work, as well as their leadership and impact on the New England region’s quality of life and economy.  General Joseph F. Dunford Jr., Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Jeffrey Leiden, M.D., Ph.D., Chairman, President and CEO, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Staff Sergeant (ret) Travis Mills, Army Veteran and Founder, Travis Mills Foundation The Honorable Niki Tsongas , U.S. House of Representatives   In addition, the popular Boston Police Gaelic Column of Pipes & Drums will perform.

Irish poet William Butler Yeats was feted at a luncheon in  Boston  on October 6, 1911 by local literary and Irish leaders.  The luncheon hosted by the John Boyle O’Reilly Club and covered by The Boston Globe.    This was part of an American tour in fall 2011 to promote the Abbey Theatre , Ireland’s new national theatre.  The  Boston  visit included presentations of J.M. Synge’s plays, including the controversial Playboy of the Western World. During Yeats’ remarks, he paid special tribute to O’Reilly, saying in part: “I never met Boyle O’Reilly, but, as far as I can remember, the first poem of mine that was ever paid for appeared in the Boston Pilot under is editorship.  I don’t remember how I came to send my poems to him, but rumor used to come back to  Ireland  of his romantic and gallant personality and we all knew of his adventurous life.  Probably it was old John O’Leary, the Fenian, who got me to send them, for he had told me much of O’Reilly.” Regardi