Irish Boston History & Heritage

The Boston City Hospital Nurses Club held a special memorial event for Miss Rosa McCormick, a nurse who had been connected with BCH from the time its doors first opened in 1864 to the date of her death July 31, 1897. The memorial event took place on November 2, 1897.  Rosa was an assistant nurse with the first patients who were admitted to Boston City Hospital in June 1864.  Here is an account of her career from Trained Nurse magazine: "For two years she devoted herself to their care, working early and late in their behalf and showing an interest and zeal that could be accounted for only on the score of her love for humanity, since it was previous to the days of training schools and the time when nursing began to be considered a profession. Having been faithful in that which is least she was given charge of a ward and became a head nurse in 1866 in which capacity she continued to serve the hospital.  "When the School of Nursing was opened in June 1878, Rosa became one of

  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, including Padraic P

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 and busts of famous peop