THE COMMON IRISH - A SELECT CHRONOLOGY OF IRISH EVENTS ON BOSTON COMMON

Along the Boston Irish Heritage Trail, one of the most popular stops 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. Here is a select chronology of historical events that pertain to the Boston Irish, from the 17th to early 20th centuries.

• In the early days of the colony, the town's Bridewell House of Corrections was at the top of Boston Common, and the Puritans were not shy about imprisoning numerous Irish indigents and runaway indentured servants.
• The Common has the inauspicious honor of publicly hanging the last witch from the public gallows in 1688.  That was Ann 'Goody' Glover, an Irish-speaking servant, who was mistakenly accused of being a witch by Minister Cotton Mather.  After frantic trials and local hysteria, Goody was ceremoniously hanged on the public gallows on Boston Common, seemingly near the great elm tree. 
• In the 18^th century, as Scots-Irish parishes began emigrating from Ulster to New England, women from Londonderry, Northern Ireland began setting up spinning wheels on the Common in 1730. They "showed great skill in the machine which was worked by the foot,” according to Samuel Barber’s book Boston Common. “Spinning wheels were brought into the Common and worked by the females of the town, all vying with each other to attain the greatest speed.”
• In 1787, John Sheehan, a native of Cork, was executed on the common for committing burglary. His behavior at the last was calm and he met his end with composure. He was a Roman Catholic, 24 years old, reported the Centinel, adding, "except for the burglary for which he suffered, he does not appear by his life, to have been guilty of many atrocious offenses."  
• During the famine years of the 1840s, large groups of Irish refugees fleeing Ireland’s famine often arrived in Boston penniless and unprepared.  In 1847, The Boston Bee reported that 50 refugees were camped out on the Common, with nowhere else to go.
• In July, 1849, Ireland’s temperance priest Father Mathew visited the city and spoke to a large audience on Boston Common. 
• In the 1850s, Irish immigrants formed a marching militia called the Montgomery Guards, named after Irish-born Revolutionary War hero Richard Montgomery. When they tried to practice on the Common, nativists militias walked off in protest, playing Yankee Doodle on their fifes and drums.  Later, as the Montgomery Guards returned to their barracks near Faneuil Hall, they were attacked with sticks and stones, according to Jack Tager’s book, Boston Riots.
• Musician, Band Leader and impresario Patrick S. Gilmore, an immigrant from Ballinasloe, Galway, held many giant concerts on Boston Common during this time, including the city’s Independence Day concert on July 4. 
• By the 1860s, Irish immigrants were quick to volunteer to fight in the Civil War. Two Irish regiments, the 9^th and 28^th, quickly heeded the call by Governor John Andrew in 1861 and mustered to fight in the war, heading south and seeing action almost immediately. 
• In 1862, and before it moved to South Boston, the original Boston St. Patrick’s Day parade started on Boston Common and proceed through every single Boston neighborhood as well as crossing the bridge to East Cambridge and back to the Common.
• On September 17, 1877, Sligo immigrants Martin and Joseph Milmore unveiled their  Soldiers and Sailors Monument atop Flagstaff Hill on Boston Common.  They were criticized in some quarters for modeling the statues after local Irish folks.
• Starting in the 1880s, the Irish held regular hurling matches on Boston Common. The July 4, 1885 match pitted the William O’Briens of Cambridge against the Shamrocks of Boston.  In the final scrimmage, “Michael Reagan got a good crack at it and sent it between the goal tender’s legs, securing the second and winning goal for the William O’Briens,” wrote The Boston Globe.
• In 1888, a monument to the Boston Massacre was placed on Boston Common.  The effort was led by Black and Irish leaders in the city, including John Boyle O'Reilly and Hugh O'Brien.
• In the 20^th century, monster rallies were held on the Common during the Easter 1916 Uprising. The Friends of Irish Freedom held protests where thousands furious Bostonians rallied there, led by Mayor James Michael Curley. 
• Eamonn deValera spoke at the Boston Common Bandstand on April 30, 1926, before thousands of Irish-Americans who were “clutching at his coat and struggling with each other to shake him by the hand.”

 Read about the Boston Master Plan from the Boston Parks and Recreation Department. 

 

Michael Quinlin is author of Irish Boston and creator of the Boston Irish Heritage Trail in 1994. This story appeared in the Irish Echo, March 15, 2023.