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Memorial to Patrick A. Collins, Boston Mayor, US Congressman, US Ambassador and Ireland Advocate, Unveiled on November 2, 1908


A monument in memory of Mayor Patrick A. Collins (1844-1905) was unveiled in Boston's Back Bay on November 2, 1908 by public officials, church leaders, family and friends, and by thousands of citizens who admired Collins during his illustrious life in Boston. 

The monument was revealed to the assembled crowd by Paul Collins, son of the Mayor, who had difficulty pulling off the protective cloth because of unusually high winds and severe weather.  

Boston's Catholic Archbishop O'Connell said the opening prayer and Mayor George A. Hibbard officially accepted the monument from Jerome Jones, president of the Collins Memorial Committee.

Because of the severe weather that day, the speaking portion of the event was then moved indoors to the nearby Hotel Somerset. 

Inside the hotel, former Governor of Massachusetts John D. Long gave a powerful oration, saying in part, "It is not the discharge of a perfunctory duty, but a labor of love, to take my part in this tribute to Patrick Andrew Collins. With you, who knew him well and to whom he is still a warm, living personality, I delight to join you in putting in permanent place the heart of the city which honored him and which he honored. With you I vividly recall his generous eloquence, his sparkling and kindly wit, his magnanimous spirit, his embodied integrity of mind and heart."

Created by Henry Hudson Kitson and Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson, the monument is a granite shaft fifteen feet high, surmounted by a bust of Mr. Collins. On the west side of the shaft is a massive figure of Erin resting on a harp, symbolizing Ireland, where Collins was born. On the opposite side, facing the east, is the allegorical figure of Columbia, representing the United States. 

Born in 1844 in Ballinafauna, a townland outside of Fermoy, County Cork, Collins emigrated to Boston in March 1848, with his widowed mother, part of the mass exodus from Ireland due to the Irish Famine.  

After working in upholstry and coal mines in Ohio, Collins went to Harvard University, where he got a law degree.  In 1868-69, he was elected state representative from South Boston, and  then elected state senator in 1870-71. From there be was elected as US Congressman (1883-85), becoming the  first Irish Catholic to Congress.  He campaigned for President Grover Cleveland and was appointed as Consul General in London from 1893-97.


When Collins became mayor of Boston in 1902, he was praised for mastering the business of the city, and noted for his protection of historical Boston spaces such as Boston Common, Faneuil Hall, Old South Meeting House, and Old Granary and Copps Hill Burying Grounds.

The memorial to Collins was initally placed at the corner of Commonwealth Ave and Charlesgate West in 1908, and in 1966 it was moved, due to construction of the overhead pass at Kenmore Square.   The memorial was positioned further down the Avenue on Commonwealth Mall, between Clarendon and Dartmouth Streets.  

The ceremony in 1966 was presided over by Boston Major John F. Collins, who called Patrick Collins "determined, energetic and dedicated, embodying all the high ideals of the immigrant who comes to our shores to seek refuge and a new way of life."



The Patrick A. Collins Monument is part of Boston's Irish Heritage Trail.

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