Irish Boston History & Heritage

Image courtesy of City of Boston Archives Miss Rosa McCormick, who became one of first nurses hired by Boston City Hospital when it opened its doors in 1864, was an accomplished heath care worker whose compassion and skills on behalf of her patients was legendary.   She was born in Ireland around 1840, the daughter of Michael and Mary (nee) McGowan. The family settled in Roxbury and Mission Hill, and Rosa later moved to Harrison Avenue near the hospital. "Rosa was an assistant nurse with the first patients who were admitted to Boston City Hospital in June, 1864. She was also the first candidate admitted to the Boston City Hospital Nursing School in 1878, graduated 1879. (She) started working at BCH the day it opened, June 1, 1864, and was on active duty until February 1892," according to records at the City of Boston Archives .  When an illness incapacitated her, McCormick was transferred "on duty at the Convalescent Home from February, 1892 to February,1897. She died at...

  Tombstone of Patrick and Catherine Hagerty, St. Michael's Cemetery A graveside event honoring Gaelic poet Patrick F. Hagerty (1870-1936), was held at St. Michael's Cemetery in Springfield MA on Sunday, June 20, 1953, by members of Clan Na Gael and IRA Veterans of America, according to a story in The Boston Globe.  Hagerty, whose Irish name was Pádraig Ó hÉigeartaigh, played a pivotal role in the Irish community of Springfield and western Massachusetts throughout his life.  He was a founder of the Springfield Gaelic School, which offered classes in the Gaelic language in Massachusetts and Connecticut. He helped organize an annual Feis in Springfield, under the auspices of the United Irish Society, that ran for many years.  The first Feis attracted 400+ delegates from Springfield, Worcester, Boston, Hartford and Holyoke, according to the Holyoke Daily Transcript, November 1, 1904.  Hagerty's Gaelic poetry  was praised by many scholars and Irish leaders, in...

Boston sculptor Martin Milmore died at his home on Hammond Street in Roxbury on Saturday, July 21, 1883 at age 39.  His funeral mass was held on Monday at nearby Holy Cross Cathedral.  Among the pallbearers were sculptor Thomas Ball, who was Milmore's mentor, Boston Pilot Publisher Patrick Donahoe, Mayor Albert Palmer and abolitionist Wendell Phillips.   He was buried at Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain. Milmore was born in Sligo in 1844,  and immigrated to Boston along with his three brothers with their widowed mother in 1851, when he was seven years old. Best know for his Civil War monuments to the Union dead, Milmore created the iconic Soldiers and Sailors Memorial on Boston Common and the distinctive Sphinx at Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, as well as dozens of statues of Civil War infantrymen in places such as at Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain,  Winthrop Square, Charlestown, Woburn and Framingham. Milmore also created dozens of statues...