The Guide to the New England Irish Published in Time for St. Patrick's Day, 1987

On March 16, 1987, the Associated Press wrote the following review of the "Guide to the New England Irish," published by Quinlin Campbell Publishers of Boston.

"While the Cabots and Lowells were speaking only to each other Boston's Irish were taking to the streets en masse to celebrate their heritage, according to a book that has hit the streets in time for St Patrick's Day. But “The Guide to the New England Irish" turns from the myth of the hard-drinking two-fisted Irishman and focuses on how the “Sons of Erin” worked to preserve their heritage in the six-state New England region.

"The book, an expanded version of the 1985 “Guide to the Boston Irish,” includes essays by local writers who give a historical look at Irish life.

"A 1986 address by Massachusetts Senate President William M BuIger to the Irish American Heritage Society takes up “Ireland's Gift to America." Bulger, a student of history who holds one of the most raucous political gatherings on St Patrick’s Day, said the gift of the Irish of mid-19th century America was their ability to withstand some of the harshest anti-ethnic activities of so-called nativists. “Had they bowed before this violence” Bulger said, “no other ethnic group would-have been safe in this country."

"In a piece called ‘‘Ethnic Politics Comes to Boston," Professor Thomas H O’Connor of Boston College said Irish immigrants started from nothing to build a powerful political base that produced such leaders as John F “Honey Fitz” FitzGerald, “Smiling Jim" Donovan, Joe Corbett, Pat Kennedy and Joe O’Connell.

"In exchange for their backing, these powerful ward bosses made sure their people were fed, housed and clothed. From this tradition emerged John Kennedy and James Michael Curley.

"The effect of the "Irish wave” on the waterfront in Portland, Maine, is noted in "Portland’s Irish Longshoremen" by Michael Connolly.

"Musician Tom Garvey remembers the days of dance halls and revelry on Dudley Street in Boston's Roxbury section. He recalls hopping times at the Crystal Ballroom of Intercolonial Hall, the Dudley Street Opera House, Winslow Hall and Rose Croix Hall.

"A profile section "From Famine to Fame” offers biographies of such noted Irishmen as Patrick S Gilmore, father of the American concert band and "the greatest band master of the 19th century;” Daniel Tobin, founder of the Teamsters Union, who came to the United States from Ireland in 1889 when he was 14; poet and patriot John Boyle O’Reilly, who was active in an attempt to oust England from Ireland in the 1860s and eventually escaped from an Australian penal colony and settled in Massachusetts.

"Other sections of the guide offer listings on food, musicians, dancing classes, artists, Irish publications in New England, social clubs and the region’s Irish pubs."

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