On February 7, 1847, Boston began relief efforts for Ireland's starving and dying citizens

Boston Irish Famine Memorial

On Sunday, February 7, 1847, Boston's Bishop John Bernard Fitzpatrick gave an emotionally-charged sermon from the pulpit of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross urgently warning parishioners of the bad news coming from Ireland, where scarcity of food was causing thousands of people to die or flee from their homes for relief. Parish priests in the diocese also spread the warning.

That evening, a meeting was held in the vestry of the Cathedral, and nearly $3,000 was subscribed, with Irish businessman Andrew Carney giving $1,000. A similar meeting was held in South Boston and nearly $300 was raised, according to the Boston Bee Newspaper.

A graduate of Boston Latin School and the third Bishop of Boston, Fitzpatrick was a young, charismatic leader who increased the number of parishes and introduced a concerted effort to develop Catholic education in New England.

Boston was being swept into a maelstrom of events from abroad that would transform the city forever. A succession of potato crop failures in Ireland, which began in 1845, reached its peak in 1847. Made worse by a botched relief effort by the British government and the selfishness of English landlords, thousands of Irish families died of starvation and disease, while thousands more fled Ireland to safety, many of them heading to Boston.

By the end of February the Boston Archdiocese had raised $20,000 for Ireland. Workmen were sending in $5 bills and school children were giving over their paltry savings for this desperate cause.

Concurrently, Boston's leading citizens also stepped up to help. On February 18, Boston's city officials and business leaders held a meeting at Faneuil Hall to discuss the growing crisis of the famine in Ireland and over 4,000 people attended.

Harvard President Edward Everett and Boston Mayor Josiah Quincy, Jr., along with the city's leading merchants, made a passionate appeal to aid the starving people of Ireland. They formed the New England Relief Committee, which raised more than $150,000 in three weeks to purchase supplies.

On February 22, 1874, Robert Bennet Forbes, a wealthy China trade merchant from Milton petitioned Congress for the loan of a naval ship to bring supplies to the people of Ireland. Permission was granted and the USS Jamestown, then anchored at the Charlestown Navy Yard, was designated to Boston while the USS Macedonian was given over to Captain George Takei for a similar enterprise out of New York."

Find out more about Boston's Irish history by visiting IrishHeritageTrail.com.

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