Irish Boston History & Heritage

  Treescape at the JFK Arboretum in Wexford, Ireland  On May 29, 1968, Ireland's President Eamon de Valera officially opened the 460 acre  John F. Kennedy Park and Arboretum  in County Wexford, not far from the Kennedy family's ancestral home in the village of Dunganstown in New Ross.  The ceremony took place on what would have been JFK's 51st birthday. Joining President de Valera were President Kennedy's sister Eunice Shriver and her daughter Mat, and Joan Kennedy, wife of Senator Edward M. Kennedy.  Among the 500 invited guests at the opening were Kennedy relatives the Ryans of New Ross, as well as Ireland's Prime Minister Jack Lynch.   From the United States, Irish-American officials included Sean Keating, representing the Irish American Societies,  John O'Connor, president of the Irish Institute in New York and Michael Flannery, former president of the New York Gaelic Athletic Association and a director of the Irish Institute Irish Hillside JF...

  John Fitzgerald Kennedy , 35th president of the United States, was born at about three o'clock in the afternoon on May 29, 1917 at 83 Beale Street in Brookline, Massachusetts.  John was the second son of  Patrick Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy , named in honor of his maternal grandfather,  John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald .    In the book,  Rose Kennedy's Family Album ,  published in 2013, Rose Kennedy writes: "When a mother holds her first baby in her arms, what awe-inspiring thoughts go fleeting through her mind and fill her heart.  A child has been bestowed upon her to mold and to influence - what a challenge, what a joy! ...On her judgement he relies, and her words will influence him, not for a day or a month or a year, but for time and for eternity - and perhaps for future generations.  A grandmother, an aunt, a teacher may guide the child temporarily, but when the mother enters the room, it is to her he turns for the final judge...

On Sunday, May 24, 2009, Ireland's President Mary McAleese was the commencement speaker to the 172nd graduating class at Mt. Holyoke College in Holyoke, a small women's college in western Massachusetts. She spoke to 570 women graduates and an audience of 4,000 people. Tus maith is Leath na hoibre , she told the graduates in Irish, meaning: a good start is half the work.  "Here at Mount Holyoke College you’ve got a good start. You’ve given your very best here. You’ve been tested. You've been challenged. You know yourself a lot better now.”  The Daily Hampshire Gazette reported, "she said there is plenty of work ahead — especially in the advancement of women who in most parts of the world are still regarded as second class and second best." The announcement of President McAleese to address the graduating class was made by US Congressman Richard Neal , a trustee of the college and by Mount Holyoke College President Joanne Creighton, who said, “We are honored...

A number of Irish immigrants and Irish-American sculptors created some of the most distinctive Civil War Monuments of the 19th Century. Here are three of their monuments in Boston and Cambridge worth visiting: The Shaw Memorial , atop Boston Common and facing the Massachusetts State House, was officially unveiled on May 31, 1897, a homage to the 54th Black Infantry Regiment of Boston. It is considered one of America’s most significant Civil War memorials, and was the first public monument to accurately depict black soldiers in military uniform. The memorial was created by Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907), who was born in Dublin Ireland on March 1, 1848, to a French father and Irish mother. They landed in Boston in September 1848, fleeing the Irish famine, and later moved to New York. It took Augustus 14 years to complete the monument.  The Twin Lions  in the foyer of the Boston Public Library in Boston's Back Bay were unveiled in 1891, a tribute to two Massachusetts Volunte...

Bust of MA Senator Charles Sumner by Martin Milmore Massachusetts State House Charles Sumner, the U.S. Senator from Massachusetts from 1851 to 1874, was famous as a leading advocate for abolishing slavery during his distinguished career.    Sumner was one of the first subjects for the rising young sculptor, Martin Milmore , who was born in County Sligo, Ireland in 1844 and emigrated to Boston with his widowed mother in 1851. Milmore's artistic genius was recognized early on as a student at the Martin Brimmer School and later at Boston Latin School.  According to the US Capital Historical Society , "Sumner sat (for) Milmore in 1863, after which the two became friends and maintained a lengthy correspondence, living, as they were mostly, in different cities." The original bust was presented to the Massachusetts State House on April 27, 1869 by A.A. Lawrence, according to the book, Massachusetts State House by Ellen Mudge Burrill, published in 1905. "The tribute was pr...

Tom Flatley , business leader, philanthropist, devout Catholic, family man and champion of people in need, was chairman of the  Boston Irish Famine Memorial  committee, which was formed to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Ireland's devastating famines in the 1840s.  He died on May 17, 2008. The Irish Famine Memorial, created by sculptor  Robert Shure , was unveiled on June 28, 1998 before 7,000+ people.  A  Commemorative Book  was issued on the day of the unveiling, with text from the eight commemorative plaques encircling the twin statues.  Read about the 25th anniversary commemoration at the Irish Famine Memorial on June 28, 2023. As part of  Boston's Irish Heritage Trail , the Irish Famine Memorial continues to be a destination for visitors and residents who pass the park each year and stop to reflect on the story of the Irish and other immigrants who cross oceans and desserts to come here.  Since 1998, the famine ...

  Image Courtesy of Skylight Studios  The  Rhode Island Irish Famine Memorial  is a permanent memorial in the capital city of Providence that commemorates the victims and survivors of Ireland's famine years in the mid-19th century. The memorial occupies a prominent location at Dyer's Landing along the River Walk in Providence. Created by sculptor Robert Shure of Skylight Studios, the Memorial was dedicated on November 17, 2007, and attended by dignitaries, elected officials, famine memorial committee members and leaders from the Irish-American community.  The memorial is described by its organizers as a larger-than-life statue of three Irish figures sitting on a round stone base, bordered by a walkway that incorporates the donor-bricks and flagstones. The walkway leads to a commemorative wall that  narrates the history  of the famine amid the Irish immigration. The sidewalk beneath the wall incorporates an outline map depicting the coasts of America an...

On Saturday, May 30, 1914, Massachusetts Governor David I. Walsh joined officials from the Ancient Order of Hibernians and the Ladies Auxiliary to unveil a granite Celtic Cross in memory of Irish immigrants who perished during a storm off the Massachusetts coastline in 1849. 7000 Hibernians from all over Massachusetts attended the ceremony, according to a story in the Boston Globe . Teresa St. John, a relative of the only survivor of the wreck, was chosen to unveil the Cross. "The words "St John" occupy an oddly prominent place in the story of this memorial," wrote the Boston Globe, "for it was the brig St John, bound for St John, New Brunswick, which was wrecked; one of the survivors, a woman, married Mr St John of Cohasset, and it is their descendant, Terea St. John, who unveiled the monument." Michael Sweeney was credited with starting the movement for the memorial, wrote the Globe. "He took up the work because his father's dying injunction co...

Agnes O’Reilly Hocking, the third of four daughters born to famous poet John Boyle O’Reilly of Ireland and writer Mary Murphy O'Reilly of Charlestown, died on May 15, 1955, in Madison, NH at age 78. Born on May 19, 1877, Agnes was just 13 when her father passed away suddenly in August, 1890. All four daughters attended the ceremony when the O’Reilly monument was unveiled in the Fens on June 21, 1896, attended by thousands of people, including U.S. Vice-President Adlai Stevenson. They sat in a group in the front row on the stage.   A year later, her mother Mary died in November 1897 when Agnes was 20. Agnes became an educator, and was mentioned in local papers as being a permanent substitute teacher in Charlestown. In June 1904, she and her sisters Elizabeth and Blanid sailed for Europe for six months, where they spent time in Rome and the Alps.  On June 28, 1905, Agnes married famed philosopher William Earnest Hocking , professor at Harvard College, Yale University and Phil...

  Courtesy of Skylight Studios Molly (Page) Stark (1737-1814), whose husband General John Stark was a hero in the American Revolution, has been honored for her own role in the war.  On June 26, 2004, officials, historians and members of the Stark family unveiled the Elizabeth Page Molly Stark statue in Wilmington, as part of Vermont's Molly Stark Trail , a 40-mile scenic byway on Route 9 between Bennington and Brattleboro. The statue depicts Molly Stark mid-stride, holding a child on one arm, against her hip and a musket in the other arm. It was sculpted by artist Robert Shure of Skylight Studios Shure, who also created a sculpture of General Stark . Molly was the wife and the mother of 11 children, and was said to be an inspiration to her husband and his regiment of New Hampshire men who fought during the American Revolution. She served as a nurse when many of the soldiers developed smallpox and opened up their home as an infirmary. When General Stark was preparing to lea...

In May, 1949, state legislators in Massachusetts sent a resolution to the U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson to "increase the status of the representative to the Irish Republic to that of an Ambassador."  The request came in the wake of Ireland being "formally proclaimed a Free, Independent and Sovereign Republic on the Historic Day of Easter Monday" on April 18, 1949. The petition was made by three Massachusetts legislators: Senator William J.Keenan, a native of Ireland,  Representative Bernard M. Lally of Boston, and Representative John  Pierce Lynch of Springfield. They asked Secretary Acheson "to accord the proper recognition to the new Irish Republic, increase the present status of the United States representative from that of a Minister to an Ambassador." The petition was also sent to U.S. President Harry S. Truman, to Senate Majority Leader William H. White, U.S. House Speaker Sam Rayburn, and to the Massachusetts congressional delegation.  Severa...