Irish Boston History & Heritage

On September 29, 1845, fugitive slave Frederick Douglass + Irish liberator Daniel O’Connell met in Dublin, when Douglass was on a 4-month speaking tour of Ireland.  Both men were duly impressed by one another, and though it was the only time they met, they formed an alliance based on their utter advocacy for freedom and liberty. In a letter Douglas wrote from Dublin to William Lloyd Garrison on September 29, 1845 Douglass reported, "I have but just returned from a great Repeal meeting now at Conciliation Hall. It was a very large meeting, much larger than usual, I was told, on account of the presence of Mr O'Connell, who has just returned from his residence in Derryname, where he had been spending the summer, recruiting for an energetic agitation of repeal during the present autumn.  "At the close of this business, Mr O'Connell rose and delivered a speech about an hour and a quarter long. It was a great speech, skillfully delivered, powerful in its logic, majestic in

Sheet Music, When Johnny Comes Marching Home  The classic war anthem, " When Johnny Comes Marching Home ," was first performed at Tremont Temple in Boston on Saturday, September 26, 1863 by Patrick S. Gilmore and his Orchestra. Gilmore originally published the song - also known as the "Soldiers Return March" - under the pseudonym Louis Lambert for reasons unknown, but later acknowledged that he authored the piece. The song appeared during the height of the American Civil War, and was meant as an optimistic tribute "dedicated to the Army and Navy of the Union." Henry Tolman & Company of Boston was the publisher. The late Gilmore historian Michael Cummings , founder of the Patrick S. Gilmore Society, wrote that Gilmore took the song for an earlier Irish marching song called "Johnie I Hardly Knew Ye," which was apparently sung by Irish regiments fighting for the British in Ceylon in the early 19th century. According to Cummings, Gilmore neve

On September 26, 1738, Bostonian William Young took out an advertisement in the New England Journal, alerting the readers of an escape from Boston's Bridewell Prison of nine prisoners on the previous night.   According to the descriptions, the prisoners consisted of five Irishmen, an Englishman, a woman, an  Indian and a Negro.  "Whoever shall apprehend the said absconded prisoners, and bring them to the said prison, shall have three pounds reward for each or either of them, paid by me," Young declared at the bottom of the ad.  The names and ages of the escapees:  Thomas Dwyer, 25; John Maccarthy, 30; Andrew Hair, 28; Alexander Maccarty, 20; ___Hambleton, 30, all described as Irishmen;  Thomas Manning, 40, described as an Englishman;  Elizabeth Decofler, 30, described as a woman;   John Baker, an Indian who has but one arm (no age); and   Joco, 20, a Negro and servant to Captain Signourney.  Detail of 1743 map of Boston by William Price, showing the prison (off Queen St.)

The official groundbreaking for the construction of Boston's new baseball stadium at Fenway Park took place on Monday, September 25, 1911.  The park was built by  Charles E. Logue , (1858-1919) an Irish immigrant from Derry, Northern Ireland, who arrived in Boston in 1881 and headed up numerous construction projects, including a number of churches and campus buildings for the Boston Archdioces. The chief architect was James E. McLaughlin, who also designed the  South Boston District Courthouse . Boston Latin School and the  Endicott School  near Franklin Park. Charles E. Logue at Fenway Park, April 20, 2012 (courtesy of the Logue Family) The notion of having the park finished by April 1912, in time for the start of the Boston Red Sox season, seems ambitious, looking back, since a lot of the construction work had to be completed during the New England winter. A progress report in The Boston Globe , dated January 28, 1912, states, "Work has been rushed all winter, and not u

Flag of the 28th Irish Massachusetts Regiment, courtesy of the 28th Irish Regiment Rejectors The famous brigade of Irish immigrants that fought valiantly in the American Civil War,  the 28th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, was officially authorized by Massachusetts Governor  John A. Andrew  on September 24, 1861. Colonel Thomas Murphy, formerly of the Montgomery Guards, New York, was the commander.  The regiment's motto was "FAUGH BEALACHS" (Clear the Road).  On October 6, 1861, the Boston Pilot, published by Patrick Donoahoe, ran this advertisement announcing the newly formed regiment, which was known as the Second Irish Regiment, the Ninth Irish Regiment being the first, and invited "Irishmen and Sons of Irishmen" to "rally forth for your country's good, at your country's call, now that authority has been granted by Governor Andrew to raise another regiment." According to State House Flag Historian Stephen Hill, the 28th Massachu

To mark the 150th anniversary of the first permanent Irish Catholic settlement in  Worcester ,  Massachusetts , the city's Irish-American community erected a Celtic Cross on  Worcester Common  on September 18, 1977. The 15 foot high memorial, weighing over 13,000 pounds and made of Barre  Vermont  granite, was designed by  Joseph Calcagni .  It features patriotic, religious and family symbols pertinent to  Worcester , America and Ireland . At the Celtic Cross unveiling, Thomas J. Early, Mayor of Worcester presided, along with Daniel F. Herlighy, chairman of the Irish Memorial Committee, and members of the  Ancient Order of Hibernians , especially from  Division 36 in Worcester .  AOH Ceremony at Celtic Cross, Easter 2010 On May 25, 2009,  Ireland  President  Mary McAleese  laid a wreath at the Celtic Cross commemorating the arrival of the Irish in  Worcester . Prior to the Irish Catholic settlement, Irish Presbyterians from Ulster had arrived at Boston Harbor in the summe

  Lithograph by C. Frank King On Monday, September 17, 1877, the city of Boston unveiled its Army and Navy Monument, also known as the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, upon Flagstaff Hill  on Boston Common.  More than 100,000 spectators attended the event, including 25,429 veterans who marched along a 6 1/2 mile route through the city and up to Flagstaff Hill.  Leslie's Weekly Illustrated "All nationalities, all colors and conditions of men were represented," reported the New York Times . "The Irish, Scotch, English, Portuguese and others were out in large numbers and carried the blood-stained flags under which they fought. The colored men also turned out in large numbers and stepped as proudly to the strains of martial music as the men who had so enthusiastically take up the case which led to their freedom." According to specifications published in 1876, the shaft of the monument, made of white granite from Hallowell, Maine, is seventy feet tall, and has the shap

  Martin Milmore Sculptor Martin Milmore of Boston (1844-1883), admired for his Civil War sculptures and for his classical statuary and busts of famous men throughout New England, was born in Kilmorgan, County Sligo on September 14, 1844, the youngest of five sons of parents Martin and Sarah Milmoe (nee Hart).  When the father died in 1851, Sarah emigrated with her five sons to Boston, where they settled in Warren Street, right off of Tremont Street near Boston Common. During this time, Irish refugees had poured into Boston, stimulating the anti-Irish, anti-Catholic sentiments of Bostonians that stretched back to the days of the 17th century Puritans. In Boston the family changed the spelling of its name from Milmoe to Milmore, possibly to align with a popular Irishman at the time, Patrick S. Gilmore , a talented cornet player and band leader.  The older boys became apprentices in carpentry and stonecutting, while Martin attended the nearby Martin Brimmer Grammar School on Common Stree

Memorial to Patrick A. Collins on Commonwealth Avenue, Boston    Patrick  A. Collins (1844-1905), the city's second Irish-born Mayor, died suddenly while on vacation at Hot Springs , VA , on September 13, 1905. The cause of death was acute gastritis, an ailment he had endured for some time.  His son Paul was at the bedside with him when he died. His sudden death shocked Boston 's political establishment and its residents, as well as the Irish-American community, because Collins was considered one of the city's great statesmen. Born in 1844 in Ballinafauna, a townland outside of Fermoy,  Cork , Collins came to  Boston  in March 1848, with his widowed mother, part of the mass exodus from  Ireland  due to the  Irish Famine .   The Collins family settled in  Chelsea , where the anti-Irish Know Nothing movement was fully blown in the 1850s.  As a ten year old boy, Collins witnessed the Catholic Church in Chelsea being burned to the ground in 1854.  Patrick began w