Irish Boston History & Heritage

  In one of his final acts as mayor of Boston, James Michael Curley dedicated a bronze memorial on Boston Common to Revolutionary War hero Commodore John Barry, on Sunday, October 16, 1949. He was joined at the unveiling by Joseph Shields, Irish consul; John E. Hurley, state treasurer; Captain C. E. Kelly of the U.s.Navy; and John J. Foley, president of the Central Council of Irish County Clubs. Barry, a naval hero of the Revolutionary War, was born in Tacumshane, County Wexford in 1745, and was a long-standing favorite historical figure of Irish-Americans across the United States. The idea for the Barry memorial in Boston was first announced by the Central Council of Irish County Clubs on September 23, 1945, at the city’s annual Barry Day banquet at the Copley Plaza Hotel commemorating the bicentennary of Barry’s birth in Wexford. Four years later, at the Charitable Irish Society annual dinner on March 17, 1949, Mayor James Michael Curley vowed to build a memorial to Barry in ...

On October 14, 1869, the Town of Woburn MA dedicated its Civil War Soldiers Monument in the center of town, complete "with appropriate and imposing ceremonies," including some 1,600 school children marching in a procession, led by Governor William Clafin and other dignitaries, military heroes, town officials, fire departments and temperance associations. The bronze figure was created by 25 year old Irish-born sculptor Martin Milmore, who was quickly gaining faming as a young artist for his series of Civil War statues and monument, as well as three classical figures for the prestigious Massachusetts Horticultural Society Building on Tremont Street. Prior to the unveiling, the Boston Evening Transcript described the monument: "The statue is in bronze, and is designed and moulded be Martin Milmore. It is eight feet high, and represented a soldier standing at ease. It is considered one of the best specimens of a soldier yet cast in bronze. The granite has been elegantly ...