Irish Boston History & Heritage

A new weekly Irish publication called the Irish Miscellan y was launched in Boston on February 18, 1858 by publisher and proprietor Thomas O'Neill, located at 16 Franklin Street in Boston. The price was four cents per issue or $2 per year. The newspaper described itself as being "devoted to the interest and vindication of the Irish people throughout the world. The Miscellany republishes each week our whole number of the old Dublin Penny Journal with original and selected essays reviews poetry, etc by Irishman of first rate ability. It also contains beautiful pictorial illustrations of Irish scenery and other objects of Interest, among which may be enumerated engravings of the ancient castles and round towers, the ruins of old churches, the plundered monasteries, convents and abbeys of Ireland. "It will also contain correct pictorial representations of works of art executed by Irishmen of the present day, as well as former times, in this country and throughout Europe....

Mike King Kelly , one of the premier baseball players of the late 19th century, signed a deal to play for the  Boston Beaneaters  on February 14, 1887 for a record $10,000, the highest price paid for a professional athlete up to that time.   The Boston Globe reported that Kelly left the Chicago White Stockings in a deal negotiated on Valentine's Day in Poughkeepsie, NY between Kelly and Beaneater treasurer J.B. Billings. "Diamonds cannot be bought with shoestrings," Kelly said as "he toyed with a diminutive cane and puffed at a Sweet Caporal cigarette," according to the Globe.  Kelly had three great years with the Beaneaters, then went on to coach and play for the Boston Reds in the short-lived Players League.  Described as a larger-than-life character, Kelly was as notorious off the field as on.  A great base runner, he had his own song,  Slide Kelly Slide , a popular ditty written by J.W. Kelly and sung by Maggie Kline.  Along with Boston Globe ...

Photograph of George W. Russell (AE) at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts Ireland's famous mystic, poet, painter, essayist, economist and agricultural reformist George W. Russell visited Massachusetts on February 10, 1928, part of a six week tour of America. Born in Lurgan, County Armagh, Russell moved to Dublin as a child and played an important role in Ireland's evolution in the early 20th century, as a writer, activist and thinker. He wrote under the pen name AE.   The Boston Globe  story of February 11 called Russell "the most brilliant and versatile genius (Ireland) has produced in this generation....The shambling six footer, who has just turned 61, with a great flowing grey beard, ambled into the lobby of the Statler Hotel yesterday afternoon, smiled shyly at reporters from behind his spectacles....talking with reporters for half an hour and impressing them with the flash of his wit and the power of his  intellect. Russell then traveled across the river t...

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 ...