Irish Boston History & Heritage

Thomas White (1739-1820), a native of Kilkenny, Ireland who emigrated to the American colonies in 1760, was one of 100+ Boston Tea Party colonial raiders who boarded ships in the middle of the night and dumped tea into Boston Harbor.  The incident became yet another flash point in the escalation of tensions between the colonialists and British that led to the American Revolution.   According to Ancestry , White was born on March 19, 1739 in Kilkenny , County Kilkenny, and emigrated to Boston around 1760, at age 21.  He moved down to Maryland around 1770 and married Elizabeth Jones in Philadelphia in 1871. By 1773 he was back in Boston and had joined one of the local militia groups.   The Boston Tea Party, as it eventually came to be called, was led by the Sons of Liberty,  a secret society of Bostonians who were frustrated by the increasing taxes being levied upon the 13 colonies by the British Government to pay for its wars. Disguised as Native Americ...

Image Courtesy of AOH Irish republican and agrarian activist Michael Davitt spoke at the Boston Theatre on December 5, 1886 before a sold-out standing-room-only audience.  The son of parents who were evicted from their home, Davitt was introduced by Boston Irish leader and U.S. Congressman Patrick Collins , who praised Davitt, creator of the Land League, for "turning his own misfortune into glory." Davitt described his efforts “to band together tenant farmers of Ireland in the Land League to defend their homes and earnings from the rapacity of an idle and non-producing landlord class."  He spoke of Irish farmers, who "cling with tenacity to their land, for the reason that they have no other means of livelihood." He described how the land league issue had turned around public perception of the Ireland-England struggle, saying:   “A few years ago the Irish question was involved in obscurity: today the whole world is discussing its merits.  A few years...

Chuck Connors, Boston Celtic Player in 1946-47 Many people wonder why the  Boston Celtics  wear shamrocks on their green uniforms and have a giant leprechaun smoking a cigar as their team logo. And why the team mascot is a guy named Lucky who looks like he stepped out of a box of Lucky Charms? According to the Boston Celtic’s official web site, the name came about in 1946 when owner Walter Brown started the team. He and his public relations guy, Howie McHugh, were throwing out potential nicknames, including the Whirlwinds, Unicorns and Olympics. It was Brown who had the epiphany, saying, “Wait, I’ve got it – the Celtics. The name has a great basketball tradition from the old Original Celtics in New York (1920s). And Boston is full of Irishman. We’ll put them in green uniforms and call them the Boston Celtics.”  In fact, one of the early stars of the 1946-47 Boston Celtics team was  Chuck Connors , who played in 53 games over two seasons, and later went on play b...

  On Sunday, December 1, 1963, Boston's popular television station WHDH-TV 5 advertised a special greeting from Ireland President Eamon DeValera in The Boston Globe. The advertisement was touting the station's "Dateline Boston" series, which was entering its seventh year as a local, educational program produced in association with the Mass Department of Education. The newest Dateline Boston program being announced was "The Green Roots," a five-part series that explored "Ireland today - its people - its customs - its hopes for the future - and the warm personal ties that exist between Ireland and countless New England families." According to the description, the show was "filmed in color on location in Ireland," and included a greeting in the Irish language by President De Valera.  The greeting, translated into English as a footnote, read, "To you, then, speakers of Irish; may God grant you happiness and prosperity; and may you e...