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On February 4, 1993, the Boston Celtics Retire Larry Bird's Jersey at Boston Garden

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  Image Courtesy of Mass Moments Thursday, February 4, 1993 was Larry Bird Night at the old Boston Garden, when the Boston Celtics officially retired Larry Bird '33 jersey and hoisted it to the rafters. It was an event for the ages, with Larry's former teammates and coaches returning en masse to honor one of the most consequential basketball players in NBA history, and certainly one of the Celtics' most legendary players.  During his 13 year career with the Boston Celtics Bird led the team to NBA championships in 1981, 1984, and 1986. He is also the only person in NBA history to win MVP, Coach of the Year, and Executive of the Year.  At the Larry Bird Night, Magic Johnson was there, and so were teammates Cedric Maxwell, Rick Robey and M.L.Carr, along with Kevin McHale and Robert Parish. Bird's wife Dinah and son Connor were on the parquet, along with Bird's mother Georgia, his sister Linda and brothers, Mike, Mark, Jeff and Eddie.  The Garden itself was packed to...

Some Irish Connections of Maine Poet Louise Bogan (1897-1970), America's First Female Poet Laureate

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  Louise Bogan photo, courtesy of Library of Congress Acclaimed American poet Louise Bogan (1897-1970) was born in Livermore Falls, Maine on August 11, 1897, the daughter of Irish Catholic parents whose own parents had emigrated from Donegal and Derry in the 19th century.  A story in the Livermore Advertiser in September 2023 reveals more about her ancestry. “Bogan was the granddaughter of a sea captain who emigrated from Ireland to Portland, Maine, before the potato famine of the 1840s. The couple had 12 children and built a home on Captain’s Hill in Portland. The eldest, Daniel Bogan, was Louise Bogan’s father, who married Mary Murphy Shields in 1882. ” Because her father worked in paper mills and bottling plants, the family moved around often, in Maine, New Hampshire and finally to Andover, Massachusetts.  Image courtesy of Beltway Poetry Louise began writing poetry at age 14, attending both the Girls Latin School in Boston and then Boston University for one year. ...

Vaudeville Star Jeremiah Cohan, Father of Broadway Legend George M. Cohan, Born in Boston in 1848

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Jeremiah Cohan, circa 1915 Jeremiah Cohan, a traveling minstrel who toured the country with his wife and two children in the late 19th century until they became vaudeville stars on Broadway, was born on Blackstone Street in Boston's North End on January 31, 1848.   He was one of 10 children born to Michael Keohane and Jane Scott, both emigrants from Bantry Bay, County Cork who had moved to Boston in the 1840s. Michael worked as a tailor and died when Jeremiah was 11.  At the time, the North End was a heavily Irish neighborhood due to the number of immigrants who came here to escape the Irish Famine between 1945-49. As a boy, Jeremiah worked as a saddle and harness maker and became a Surgeon orderly during the Civl War, before turning to music, dancing and acting.  "From a boy he was an expert dancer," wrote the New Britain Herald.  "It is said that he had inherited some talent for the stage from an Irish minstrel among his forebears."  He married Nellie Cos...

Henry Knox Delivers the Noble Train of Artillery to George Washington in Cambridge on January 24, 1776

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On January 24, 1776, Bostonian Henry Knox (1750-1806) arrived at General George Washington's Colonial Army headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with news that some 60 tons of weapons, including 58 cannons and assorted artillery, had been successfully transported from Fort Ticonderoga in New York to the outskirts of Boston.  The weapons were being used to fortify American defenses against the British occupying forces during the Siege of Boston. Historian J.L. Bell suggests that the bulk of the weaponry may have been held at Framingham, MA, and that Knox was simply reporting to General Washington about the successful mission on January 24. Knox was the mastermind and commander of what became known as the Noble Train of Artillery, a 300 mile trek across a frozen landscape in the dead of winter. Knox and his men dragged the arsenal across hills and mountains, frozen lakes and fields, on boats and sleds, with horse and oxen, through dozens of small villages in eastern New York and...

Landmarks Honoring Legendary Massachusetts Politician Thomas 'Tip' O'Neill in Boston, Cambridge, Cape Cod and Donegal

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  Tip O'Neill Bust in Buncrana, photo courtesy of Visit Donegal Legendary politician Thomas P. 'Tip' O’Neill, one of the most impactful politicians of American politics in the 20th century, died on January 5, 1994 at his home in Harwichport, Cape Cod.  He was 81. Born in North Cambridge on December 9, 1912, he was the son of Thomas Philip O'Neill, Sr. and Rose Ann Tolan. His grandfather, from Mallow, County Cork, had emigrated to Massachusetts in the 1840s during the Irish Famine.  O’Neill based his entire political career on the mantra, ‘All Politics is Local,’ a phrase that bespoke the need for politicians to communicate directly with constituents and to serve the people rather than oneself.  He entered the Massachusetts state Legislature in 1936 and in 1952 was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, winning the seat held by John F. Kennedy. He became the 47th Speaker of the House in 1977 and held the post until 1987 when he retired.  In the 1970s throu...

Notes on Irish-American Sculptor Louis St. Gaudens, Creator of the Marble Twin Lions at Boston Public Library

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Portrait of Louis St. Gaudens,  photo courtesy of Saint Gaudens National Historical Park  Louis St. Gaudens (1854-1913), whose iconic sculptures grace the American landscape today, was born in New York City on January 8, 1854. He was the son of Bernard Saint-Gaudens from France and Mary McGuinness from Ireland, and the brother and protégé of his older brother Augustus, considered the preeminent American sculptor of his generation.   The family had emigrated from Dublin to Boston in September 1848, fleeing the Irish Famine.  They stayed in Boston for about six months before moving to New York City, where they settled. Among the most revered works of Louis are the twin lion statues in the foyer of the Boston Public Library; a statue of Greek poet Homer in the Main Reading Room Rotunda of the Library of Congress; six allegorical figures encircling Union Station in Washington, DC, and 46 Roman legionnaire statues inside the station. Louis was schooled in the art of scul...

Irish Gun Runners Erskine Childers and Molly Alden Osgood Wed at Trinity Church in Boston on January 5, 1904

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Trinity Church, Boston, 1890, courtesy of Boston Public Library English-born Irish rebel Robert Erskine Childers married Mary (Molly) Alden Osgood at Trinity Church in Boston on Tuesday, January 5, 1904. They met at a state dinner hosted by the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company at Faneuil Hall and were married after a three-week courtship. Both were idealists from upper class families whose passions turned toward Ireland. The Boston Globe called the wedding "One of the most interesting events of the social season in Boston....In the distinguished gathering which filled the auditorium of the church was quite a delegation of Londoners, all friends of Mr. Childers, who is clerk of the house of commons and a personal friend of Lord Denbigh." Childers was a gifted writer whose book,  Riddle of the Sands , published in 1903, is considered the first spy-novel thriller. In 1911 Childers published his book,  TheFramework of Home Rule , in which he decried British abuse of f...