Irish Boston History & Heritage

(BOSTON) -- The Boston Irish Tourism Association (BITA) has released its winter 2019/20 issue of Travel & Culture, a compendium of Irish concerts, culinary, cultural and literary activities taking place in Massachusetts and throughout New England. The magazine is distributed free at visitor kiosks and cultural venues throughout Massachusetts and is available in digital format online on BITA’s home page. This issue has feature stories about Christmas music in New England, including Boston Holiday Pops, A Christmas Celtic Sojourn, and holiday shows at the Irish Cultural Centre, Blackstone River Theatre and other cultural venues. Among the artists profiled are fiddler Liz Carroll and vocalists Chloë Agnew and Niamh Farrell. Additionally, winter and St. Patrick’s Day activities leading up to March 2020 are included, from parades and concerts to cultural events and commemorations. The “Ireland” section has stories about Dublin, one of the world’s great literary capital...

A newly formed and undefeated Boston Chinese soccer team , comprised of collegiate players from Massachusetts colleges, met its first defeat on November 30, 1918 by the local Irish-American Soccer team.   The final score was 2-0. At the time, soccer was a popular workingman’s sport and was popular in immigrant cities like New Bedford, Fall River, Lawrence, Quincy, Pawtucket, RI and Bridgeport, CT. The Chinese Soccer team was formed in fall 1917, consisting of players from MIT, Boston University, Harvard and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, according to the Chinese Students Monthly in 1918. Leading up to the match, local sports writers were predicting a tough battle that would favor the Chinese. “Irish-Americans have their work cut out for them tomorrow when they tackle the Chinese soccer team.   The Irish-Americans will get the surprise of their lives if they expect to win easily,” warned Boston Globe sports reporter George M. Collins in his column ...

On November 16, 1988  Boston City Council  proclaimed Goody Glover Day, in tribute to Goodwife Ann Glover, an Irish women accused of being a witch by Cotton Mather and other Boston Puritan leaders.   Raymond L. Flynn was mayor . An editorial in The Boston Globe, dated November 17, 1988, noted that a group of academics and a businessman "have formed a committee to erect a memorial on Boston Common or at the State House, where statues commemorate Anne Hutchinson and Mary Dyer, who were also victims of religious intolerance.   A memorial to Glover would be a reaffirmation by today's citizens that bigotry in any form is intolerable. The efforts deserve support." Glover was an Irish captive sent to Barbados by Oliver Cromwell in the 1650s.  Her husband died there, and by 1680 she and her daughter were living in Boston, employed as housekeepers by John Goodwin.  In summer 1688 four of the five Goodwin children fell ill.  The doctor conclu...

The wandering bard has finally returned home.   The bronze statue of Scotland's poet  Robert Burns  (January 25, 1759 – July 21,1796) was returned to The Back Bay Fens in Boston in a ceremony on October 30, with local Scottish leaders, open space advocates and consular officials.  Scottish vocalist Maureen McMullan and friends provided the music for the event.  The Burns statue was originally unveiled in the Fens on January 1, 1920, near the Westland Avenue entrance, in a full-fledged ceremony that included Governor Calvin Coolidge, Boston Mayor Peters, and a regiment of Highland bagpipers.      Then, inexplicably, the statue was moved in 1975 to the newly opened  Winthrop Square  in Boston's Financial District.  Apparently the developer requested a statue of John Winthrop, and because one wasn't available, the city's Fine Arts Commission offered up the Burns statue instead.  ...