Irish Boston History & Heritage

John E. Kerrigan, a career politician who was called upon twice to serve as Acting Mayor of Boston, was born on October 1, 1908 in South Boston.  Kerrigan attended St. Augustine Grade School and South Boston High School and lived on West Eighth Street in South Boston all of his life.  In addition to serving as Acting Mayor, Kerrigan was elected one term as a State Senator. But it was in the Boston City Council that Kerrigan made his mark.   He served 15 terms, non-consecutively, and was the City Council President three times.  In 1951, Kerrigan won 11 consecutive terms, serving 22 consecutive years Kerrigan's mayoral duties both came when he was City Council President.  In 1938, when then-Mayor Maurice Tobin  was attending the American Legion Conference in Los Angeles, a sudden hurricane hit Boston.  Kerrigan temporarily stepped into the role of mayor and officially declared a State of Emergency.  He quickly engaged the Department of Public W...

Photo courtesy of the Burns Library at Boston College Irish poet and playwright  William Butler Yeats  addressed an audience at the Plymouth Theatre in Boston on Thursday, September 28, 1911 on the subject, History of the Irish National Theatre and its Purposes. As managing director of Dublin's  Abbey Theatre , Yeats was in the United States to introduce a new literary movement taking place in Ireland that he hoped would be "the awakening of the mind of Ireland." The  Plymouth Theatre , located at Eliot Street (now Stuart) and Tremont Street, was a brand new playhouse, described as "a cozy, compact and home like-arrangement, with the seats in all parts of the house as near the stage as possible."  The Abbey players christened the new theatre with their productions. The Irish plays on opening night included The Shadow of the Glenn by John M. Synge, Birthright by T.C. Murray, and Hyacinth Halvey by Lady Gregory Yeats was introduced to the audience by  George ...

Tom Burke of Boston's West End set a new world record in the 600 yard dash on September 20, 1896 at the prestigious Knickerbocker Athletic Club track & field meet in New York City. Burke, representing the Boston Athletic Association (BAA), won the race in 1 minute, 11 seconds, beating the old record by 4/10s of a second, held by Lon Myers (1882) and Billy Downs (1890). The New York Times described Burke as "a slight, graceful, wiry, swift-moving boy from Boston." He can be "described by no other word than marvelous." By this time, Thomas Edmund Burke (1875- 1929) was already a household name in track and field and certainly in Boston running circles.   The previous April, he 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 handil...