Irish Boston History & Heritage

In fall 1926,  Ellen O'Byrne DeWitt (1875-1926), an Irish immigrant who ran a successful Irish music store and record company in New York City,  opened a new store called E. O'Bryne Dewitt's Sons: House of Irish Music, at 51 Warren Street in Roxbury.  Located right in the heart of Dudley Square, the new shop  was run by her son  Justus O'Byrne DeWitt (1899-1983). The Boston store was an extension of a successful Irish music company in New York City that had flourished for a quarter century.  It was run by Ellen and her husband, Dutch immigrant Justus DeWitt.  Together they had run  a small travel company for several years before Ellen decided to open the small Irish music shop at 1398 Third Avenue near 79th Street.   With the swift rise of the recording industry in the early 20th century, Ellen was among the first to recognize that the burgeoning Irish immigrant population would always be looking out for music from back home, and she co...

Hugh O'Brien of County Cork, the first Irish-born person to be elected as mayor of the city of Boston, died on August 1, 1895 in Somerville after a brief illness.   His funeral was held at  Holy Cross Cathedral , and "thousands of people thronged the cathedral to pay their last tribute of love and respect" to O'Brien, a local newspaper wrote. The Charitable Irish Society sent a five-foot high Irish harp, made of roses, orchards and lilys. "The largest and most conspicuous delegation was that from the St. Vincent's Orphan Asylum, 200 little children dressed alike, who sat immediately behind the family," Republic Newspaper reported. Born in Ireland on July 13, 1827, O'Brien emigrated with his family to Boston in 1832 when he was five years old. He attended a public school in Boston’s Fort Hill neighborhood, and at age 12 joined the Boston Courier newspaper as an apprentice. By the age of 15, he had become foreman of a printing office, before starting h...