Boston Massachusetts Launches Irish Bond Drive to Support the Irish Republic in February 1920

Irish organizations in Boston and across Massachusetts geared up for an Irish Bond drive that would raise money to create an Irish Republic.

Organized by the Friends of Irish Freedom, the drive aspired to raise one million dollars in Massachusetts, of which the Boston goal was half a million dollars, out of a total goal of $10 million across the United States.

The denominations of the bonds ranged from $10 to $10,000, according to state chairman Thomas Walsh, who said he was counting on "some rich Bostonians of Irish sympathy" to buy the $10,000 bonds, though the success of the drive depended upon the number of $10 bonds sold, reported The Boston Globe.

Among the local groups involved in the drive were the County Galway Men's Association and the Gaelic School.

In Charlestown, six year old Ann Bonner was the first person to purchase bonds there. Other large turnouts took place in South Boston, East Boston, Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, Lynn, Salem and Quincy.

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