Boston Common: 50 Acres of Irish History

Clockwise, Top Right: Shaw Memorial, Soldiers and Sailors Monument, Boston Common signage, Boston Massacre Memorial, Commodore John Barry Memorial

Anywhere you travel in Boston, you’ll find evidence of deep-rooted Irish connections dating back to the 17th century. To appreciate the Irish and Irish-American contribution, we created the Irish Heritage Trail in 1994 to chronicle the illustrious history of the Boston Irish. It includes 20 downtown and Back Bay sites, and an additional 20 sites in the city’s neighborhoods.

 
One of the most popular sections of the Trail is Boston Common, the nation’s oldest public park, created by English Puritans in 1634 as a training ground and grazing field for cattle. The 50 acre park has been a staging ground for rallies, protests, marches, speeches, concerts, celebrations and commemorations for nearly 400 years. 

The Common has five public landmarks with Irish connections, from an early burying ground meant for Catholics, foreigners and outsiders, to heroes from the Revolutionary and Civil wars, and two significant memorials made by Irish immigrant sculptors in the 19th century. 

You can get a free copy of the Trail at the Boston Common Visitor Information Center and take a self-guided walk at your leisure. For more information, visit irishheritagetrail.com.

Central Burying Grounds

Boston Common along Boylston Street

Established in 1756, Central Burying Ground was Boston's fourth burial ground, set aside for a  variety of foreigners, strangers, indigents and soldiers, including Catholics, Freemasons and British soldiers who died during the Revolutionary War. This is the city's only historical burying ground with Celtic crosses carved into the slate headstones, notes the Boston Parks Department. Among the Irish immigrants are George Vaughn, native of Ireland (1801), Thomas Sheridan of Dublin (1806), John Quinn of Wexford (1808) and James Landrigan of Tipperary (1807).  

The cemetery is locked to protect it, but visitors can readily see the tombstones and grounds through the wrought-iron fencing.  

Boston Massacre Memorial

Boston Common along Tremont Street

This monument to the five victims killed by British soldiers on March 5, 1770 was created by sculptor Robert Kraus and unveiled on November 14, 1888.  Elite Bostonians opposed the memorial, considering the massacre victims as rabble rousers.  But local citizens, led by former slave William H. Dupree and Irish leader John Boyle O'Reilly led the memorial effort. O’Reilly recited his poem to the first massacre victim to be killed, Crispus Attucks, at the dedication. Mayor Hugh O’Brien of Cork, Boston’s first Irish-born mayor, presided over the ceremony. 

The five victims, including Irishman Patrick Carr, are interred at the nearby Old Granary Burying Ground.  

Commodore John Barry Plaque

Boston Common, along Tremont Street

Born in County Wexford, John Barry (1745-1803) was a naval hero in the Revolutionary War, winning the first and last battle of the war against the British. George Washington named him to create the first US Navy, and Barry is widely considered the Father of the American Navy.

The memorial by sculptor John Paramino was unveiled by Mayor James M. Curley in 1949. Vandals stole the bronze plaque in the 1970's and it was replaced by a granite stone.  The original plaque was later retrieved by members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians and is now at the Charlestown Navy Yard.

Colonel Robert Shaw Memorial

Beacon Hill at Park Street, Boston Common

Boston's most prized work of public art was created by Augustus Saint Gaudens and unveiled on May 31, 1897. It depicts the state's 54th Black Infantry Regiment, composed of 1,000 Black volunteers who fought valiantly in the Civil War with Colonel Robert Gould Shaw.  Saint Gaudens  spent 14 years completing this masterpiece. 

Born on March 1, 1848 in Dublin, Ireland to a French father and Irish mother, Mary McGuinness of County Longford, the family sailed for Boston when Augustus was six months old, fleeing the Irish Famine. The Shaw Memorial was recently refurbished, and a National Rededication Ceremony took place on June 1, 2022.

 

Soldiers and Sailors Monument

Flagstaff Hill, Boston Common

Dedicated to "the men of Boston who died in the Civil War," Soldiers and Sailors Monument was unveiled on September 17, 1877 before 25,000 people, many of them veterans. 

The memorial was created by Martin Milmore (1844-83), who emigrated from County Sligo to Boston with his widowed mother and brothers in 1851. Unlike other war memorials that praised generals and admirals, Milmore's work focused on foot soldiers and sailors.   The monument is made of white Maine granite, with four bronze figures representing Peace, History, Army and Navy.  Atop the statue is a woman representing America. 

This story originally appeared in the Irish Echo Newspaper in New York on March 15, 2023.