Irish Boston - Softcover

Quinlin, Michael P.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0762729015 ISBN 13: 9780762729012

Publisher: Globe Pequot Pr, 2004

Synopsis

The fascinating story of the Irish in Boston unfolds in this engagingly written history-cum-guidebook. Full of heroism and romance, politics and brawls, it tells the stories behind the well-known history and vividly portrays what life was like for the Harrigans, Gallaghers, Kelleys, Finnegans and others who made their home in Boston over the past three centuries. From the days of "No Irish Need Apply" in the 1850s to the inauguration in 1960 of the first Irish Catholic president, the Boston Irish have molded the history of the city--and the nation--in all areas of culture and society, and their spirited tale is told in these pages.

The cast of characters includes such larger-than-life personalities as
*Hugh O'Brien, Boston's first Irish Catholic mayor (1885)
*John Singleton Copley, America's first great portrait painter
*Louis Sullivan, the father of American Architecture, born in Boston's South End in 1856,
*Brendan Connolly, the first top medalist in the modern Olympic Games (1896)
*John L. Sullivan, world heavyweight boxing champion
*Patrick Kennedy and Bridget Murphy, progenitors of the Kennedy political dynasty

Those who want to do more than just read about the saga of the Irish in Boston will also find information on dozens of Irish-related historic and cultural sites, such as the Irish Famine Memorial, the Civil War Monument, St. Augustine's Cemetery, the Irish Cultural Centre, the JFK Library, and the pub where Seamus Heaney and his buddies frequently enjoyed a pint. Also included is a directory of Irish gift shops, annual events, genealogical resources, Irish organizations, and Irish-related academic courses. This one-of-a-kind guide is a complete source for the total Irish experience, both past and present.

About this title

About the Author

Michael P. Quinlin is the founder of the Boston Irish Tourism Association and creator of the Boston Irish Heritage Trail. He is the author of Guide to the New England Irish, and his many articles and op ed pieces have appeared in the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald, and the Irish Echo. He lives in Milton, Massachusetts.

From the Back Cover

The history of the Irish in Boston is a fascinating one filled with tragedy, triumph, romance, heartbreak, and heroism. Irish Boston tells this spirited tale in vivid detail and portrays what life was like for Irish Americans who made their home in Boston over the past three centuries. From the Irish patriots of the American Revolution to the first Irish Catholic president of the United States, Boston s Irish have shaped the history of the city - and the nation - in all areas of culture and society, not to mention politics.

The cast of characters includes such larger-than-life personalities as Hugh O Brien, Boston s first Irish Catholic mayor; John Singleton Copley, America s first great portrait painter; Louis Sullivan, considered the father of American architecture; James Brendan Connolly, the first top medalist in the modern Olympic Games; and Patrick Kennedy and Bridge Murphy, progenitors of the Kennedy political dynasty.

More than just an engaging history, Irish Boston also includes a visitor s directory with information on all things Irish in and around Boston, from the Irish Famine Memorial to the Boston College Irish Film Series. Use this one-of-a-kind guide as your complete source for the total Irish experience in Boston.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The very first day on her job as a live-in maid, Irish immigrant Catherine Murphy stole an expensive silk dress from her employer's wardrobe and disappeared into the night.

It was May 4, 1853. That morning Murphy, a fresh-faced, red-haired teenager from County Cork, had been hired to clean house in the Fort Hill neighborhood. Murphy worked a full day in the house, dusting the furniture and putting away clothes, then retired to her new room for the night. At some point she crept into the dressing room of her new mistress and ran off with a brand new silk dress.

The theft was discovered, and the aggrieved lady and her husband marched down the narrow streets of Boston, searching the Irish neighborhoods along the waterfront. They passed people begging on the streets or coming home from work, muddy and tired from digging trenches for the new water lines. They saw children running barefoot and someone playing bagpipe on a street corner for spare change. Eventually they found young Catherine in one of the notorious dance cellars on Wharf Street. There was the girl, wrote the Boston Herald, "with the striped silk on her back, dancing merrily with the boys...in a dark place, in which about one hundred boys and girls were dancing to the music of a single fiddle." She was arrested.

Catherine Murphy was a teenager who yearned for nice things she couldn't afford. In normal times, her crime would have been viewed as a petty misdemeanor. But the 1850s in Boston were not normal times. To Bostonians, the teenager's action appeared to verify what many believed: The Irish could not be trusted. They didn't belong in this country. They shouldn't be taking jobs away from real Americans. They should go back to Ireland.

The suspicious, unforgiving nature of Bostonians was not new. It stretched back to the city's Puritan founders, whose unique brand of self-righteousness excluded most others, particularly Catholics. But that suspicious nature reached an ugly nadir in the 1850s, as hundreds of thousands of immigrants streamed into their city, overwhelming the population. Discrimination and disdain, political opposition and occasionally mob violence rained upon the Irish. After enduring one of the most dismal decades in their history, the Irish were about to be confronted by a new brand of discrimination 2,000 miles away from their tiny villages and farmlands.

The five-year potato blight had ended in 1849, but people of Ireland were still reeling from its aftereffects. Boston continued to be a favored destination for the Irish. In 1850 46,000 Irish living in Boston comprised a third of the total population of 138,000; by 1860 a quarter of the city was Irish. It was not uncommon to see articles in local papers presenting grim news with headlines like "More Foreign Paupers":
One hundred and sixty-two foreign paupers arrived in Boston yesterday on the Worcester, Fall River and Boston and Maine Railroads. Of this number 71 were entirely destitute and 18 children from one poor house in Ireland were barefooted. A more miserable looking gang of human beings never were seen. They should be sent back at once to those who so unmercifully cast them away. In addition about 300 Irish immigrants arrived in vessels at Quarantine Wednesday.

Edition details

• Publisher: Globe Pequot Pr
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0762729015
• ISBN 13: 9780762729012
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 221