Gaelic Language greeting from Ireland's President Eamon DeValera is Published in Boston Media on December 1, 1963

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 esteem the traits of the language of your forebears."

DeValera had been to Boston many times, starting in 1919, and was familiar with the strong Irish community here.

Boston had long been recognized as a bastion of Irish language and culture, dating back to the 19th century. In 1873, the Philo-Celtic Society was created by Irish immigrants who were native speakers.

Lawrence native Fred Norris Robinson taught the first Gaelic course at Harvard in 1896. In 1940, Henry Lee Shuttuck funded Harvard's expanded Celtic Languages and Literatures Department, which still thrives.

Today, the Irish language remains popular thanks to Cumann na Gaeilge I mBoston, an Irish language society that teaches classes and holds immersion events to practice speaking skills.

To learn more about Boston's Irish history, visit IrishHeritageTrail.com.

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