Boston Mayor John F. Fitzgerald, grandfather of President Kennedy, was born in the North End on February 11, 1863

Photo Courtesy of the Boston Public Library

John Fitzgerald, the grandfather of U.S. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was born on February 11, 1863 in Boston's North End, one of 12 children born to Irish immigrant Thomas Fitzgerald of Limerick and Mary Josephine Hannon of Acton, MA.

Fitzgerald was an audacious, colorful politician whose melodious singing voice earned him the nickname Honey Fitz. His political career took shape quickly. He worked his way up from the Boston Common Council in 1892 to state senate in 1893. In the congressional primary held in September 1894, Fitzgerald beat sitting Congressman Joseph H. O'Neill, a popular Democrat who had held the seat since 1889. In the final election, Fitzgerald beat Republican challenger, Boston Alderman Jesse Morse Gove, winning by a mere 1,916 votes.

His daughter, Rose Fitzgerald, married Joseph P. Kennedy from East Boston, spawning the Kennedy political dynasty that dominated Boston for most of the 20th century.

Fitzgerald was also the publisher of a weekly Boston newspaper, the Republic, described on the masthead as "an Irish-American Family journal," and was also involved in real estate and insurance.

When Mayor Patrick Collins died suddenly in 1905, Fitzgerald became mayor of Boston, and served terms in 1906-7 and 1910-13. One of his great rivals during this time was James Michael Curley, a fellow Irish-American politician who was ascending into politics during the same era.

Photo courtesy of Michael Quinlin

A plaque in Honey Fitz's honor was erected in 1958 along the John F. Fitzgerald Expressway; the highway was later dismantled to make way for the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway. The plaque was reset and now sits along the John F. Fitzgerald Surface Road at the edge of the North End.

Read more about John F. Fitzgerald at the John F. Kennedy National Historic Site in Brookline, MA.

Find more information about Boston Irish history by visiting IrishHeritageTrail.com.

Research + Text, Michael Quinlin

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