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A guide to Boston's Irish Heritage Trail
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Five new stops will be added to the trail this summer.
The Boston Irish Heritage Trail, where visitors can celebrate more than 300 years of Irish history in Boston, is expanding this summer.
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The 2.8-mile trail, created in 1994, is comprised of 20 stops that stretch from the waterfront to Fenway Park and features parks, statues, cemeteries, and more.
“A city like Boston just has layers of history and generations and centuries of change, so in that sense it’s always good to look back at history and see how the city evolved,” said Michael Quinlin, co-founder of the Boston Irish Tourism Association (BITA), which maintains the trail, along with wife and co-founder Colette Quinlin.
Five new sites will be added, two of them dedicated to three Boston women.
“One thing we noticed is that there was a need for us to add more women to the site and that’s one of the things we have been researching,” Quinlin said.
Therefore, the trail will soon include the Kip Tiernan memorial in Back Bay and plaques for Ann Glover and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy in the North End.
Other newcomers to the trail will be the Edgar Allen Poe statue at the corner of Boylston and Charles streets, G.P.A. Healy‘s painting of Daniel Webster at Faneuil Hall, and Boston’s famous Swan Boats, which open for the season on April 19.
“We were delighted to discover that the boats, which are so iconic, were actually created by an immigrant couple in 1877 named Paget,” Quinlin said.
Quinlin said the five additions are mainly along the path of the existing trail.
The self-guided tour is available year round, but the association will again offer seasonal scheduled tours this fall after a pause during the COVID pandemic, Quinlin said. Tour maps can be found at the visitor information center at Boston Common where the tours begin, he said, as well as in the association’s free Travel & Culture magazine, published three times a year, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston City Hall, and various retail shops around Greater Boston.
As an added bonus, “you get to see a lot of Boston and a lot of the city’s beauty and architectural highlights along the way,” Quinlin said about the trail.
Ahead, Quinlin shares a little bit about each stop on the trail, as well as information about the five new stops.
The Rose Kennedy Garden
The Rose Kennedy Garden is located along the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, a 17-acre public park that welcomes millions of visitors annually. Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy was the daughter of Boston Mayor John F. Fitzgerald and the mother of President John F. Kennedy.
“The Rose Kennedy Garden is a great place to start because, in the Boston Irish lexicon, the Kennedy family is paramount,” said Quinlin. “They made such an impact on the city, on the nation, on the world.”
The Rose Kennedy Garden, in Christopher Columbus Park, was dedicated to Kennedy in 1987.
“She was born just a few steps from where the Rose Kennedy Garden is,” said Quinlin. “It’s such a beautiful place, especially in the spring.”
Kevin White, Boston’s 45th mayor, was one of the city’s “most beloved and influential mayors of the 20th century,” according to the BITA. He served as mayor from 1968-1984.
“One of his great accomplishments as mayor was to bring back downtown Boston and, specifically, the Faneuil Hall area,” said Quinlin. “He was credited as sort of a visionary of urban renewal.”
The statue, located outside of Faneuil Hall, was unveiled and dedicated to the Irish politician in 2006.
James Curley statues
James Michael Curley served in elected office in Massachusetts for nearly half a century, from 1900-1949.
“He was the mayor four times, he was the governor, and he was a congressman. And he also did a portion of time in jail while he was in office,” Quinlin said. “He was quite the character, a larger-than-life character, and he dominated city politics and Irish politics for half a century.”
The twin statues were unveiled along Congress Street in 1980.
Boston City Hall
The 20th century was dominated by Irish American politicians, Quinlin said.
“Between 1930 and 1994, continuously, there was an Irish American mayor in office,” he said. “It was an incredible 64 year run.”
Visitors will find a mural of Mayor John F. Collins, the city’s mayor from 1960-1968, on the side of the building.
Boston Irish Famine Memorial
The Boston Irish Famine Memorial, at the corner of Washington and School streets, was erected to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Irish potato famine, which brought many Irish refugees to Boston between 1845 and 1849.
“It killed a million people and sent another 2 million people fleeing Ireland,” said Quinlin about the famine. “A lot of them ended up in Boston and that’s one of the reasons why Boston became known as an Irish city.”
The memorial, which includes twin sculptures and information about the history of the famine, was unveiled in 1998.
Granary Burying Ground
Among the most notable Irish residents buried in the Granary Burying Ground are John Hancock, Governor James Sullivan, and Boston Massacre victim Patrick Carr.
“It gives the perspective of the way Irish immigrants were having a role way back in the 18th century and during the colonial and revolutionary war period,” Quinlin said.
Robert Gould Shaw Memorial
The Shaw Memorial, located near the State House, depicts the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, a regiment of African-American soldiers that fought in the Civil War and the colonel who led them. The sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1848.
The Saint-Gaudens family fled the Irish famine when Augustus was a baby and he became one of America’s prominent American sculptors during that time period, Quinlin said.
“This was one of Augustus’ most prized sculptures because it was so important and rich and it gave a glimpse into civil war during that period of time,” Quinlin said.
Massachusetts State House
Many items of Irish significance can be found in and around the Massachusetts State House.
Among the items of note are an Irish flag in the Hall of Flags, said Quinlin, as well a plaque for Jeremiah O’Brien, who captured a British ship in the first naval battle of the Revolutionary War; a plaque for labor union leader Mary Kenney O’Sullivan; and an 8-foot statue of President John F. Kennedy on the lawn. The latter was unveiled in 1990 by the Kennedy family.
Soldiers and Sailors Monument
Unveiled on the Boston Common in 1877, this monument was erected in memory of foot soldiers and sailors who were killed during the Civil War.
The monument was created by Irish-born sculptors and brothers Martin, James, and Joseph Milmore. They came to Boston as boys, fleeing the famine, and became notable sculptors, Quinlin said.
“It’s one of their best pieces of work. It’s a beautiful depiction of the sacrifices that Bostonians made during that war,” he said.
Boston Massacre Memorial
This monument was created in remembrance of the five victims of the Boston Massacre, one of which was Patrick Carr, was an Irish-American. Initially, some Bostonians were against the idea of a memorial for the victims, Quinlin said.
A coalition comprised of Black and Irish Bostonians insisted that the memorial go up, said Quinlin, while the Brahmin establishment considered the victims “rabblerousers and not worthy of a memorial.”
“Obviously, the Irish and the Black prevailed,” he said. “In the massacre, the first man shot was a Black man named Crispus Attucks and the last man shot was the Irish immigrant Patrick Carr. It is an interesting look at Boston’s racial history, in a sense.”
Commodore John Barry plaque
Born in Ireland in 1745, Commodore John Barry “was probably the most prominent naval hero of the American Revolution along with John Paul Jones, who was from Wales,” Quinlin said.
“He captured a lot of British ships, and he was made the first secretary of the American navy by George Washington,” he said.
The plaque along Tremont Street on the Boston Common, unveiled in 1949, was Mayor Curley’s last public act, he said.
Central Burying Ground
The Central Burying Ground, on Boylston Street near Tremont Street, was created in 1756 to alleviate overcrowding of the other cemeteries in the area at the time.
American patriots from the Boston Tea Party and the Battle of Bunker Hill, British soldiers who died during the Revolutionary War, and Irish and other immigrants who died in colonial Boston are all buried there.
“It’s one of the few historic burying grounds in Boston where you can see Celtic crosses,” Quinlin said.
Colonel Thomas Cass Statue
Thomas Cass was an Irish-born businessman who was put in charge of forming the Ninth Irish Regiment during the Civil War.
“He was heroic. He led a group of men, he was shot in battle in 1862, brought back to Boston and he died of his wound. I believe he was the first individual Irish immigrant who got a statue in the city of Boston,” Quinlin said.
The original memorial of Cass was unveiled in 1889 but Bostonians didn’t like the statue so the current statue in the Public Garden was unveiled in 1899, Quinlin said.
David I. Walsh Statue
The statue of David I. Walsh, unveiled in 1954, is near the Hatch Shell on the Esplanade.
Walsh was the first Irish Catholic governor of Massachusetts, who served from 1914-16, and the first Catholic senator from Massachusetts between 1926 to 1946, Quinlin noted.
“It obviously gets a lot of traffic because so many people go down to the Hatch Shell and love to walk the Esplanade,” he said about the scenic spot.
Maurice Tobin Statue
Maurice Tobin is yet another Irish-American politician in Boston’s history.
Tobin was born in Roxbury to an Irish immigrant family, Quinlin said, and went on to become the youngest state representative at age 25, mayor, and the first Massachusetts secretary of labor from 1948 to 1953.
“So he had a very illustrious political career as mayor, as governor, and as secretary of labor,” Quinlin said.
Patrick Collins Memorial
Patrick Collins, another Irish immigrant success story, came to Boston after fleeing the famine in 1848 and became mayor in 1902, Quinlin said.
He was the first Catholic congressman from Massachusetts, became mayor in 1902, and also served as the U.S. ambassador to London. The memorial on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall was unveiled in 1908.
“He had a very distinguished political, public service career,” he said.
John Singleton Copley Statue
American portrait artist John Singleton Copley was the son of Irish parents who emigrated to Boston in the 1730s.
“He became one of the preeminent artists of the 18th century and just did a lot of paintings, of George Washington, John Hancock, Same Adams, Paul Revere,” Quinlin said. “A lot of his work is in the MFA and other places around the world.”
His statue is in Copley Square, which is also named after the colonial artist.
Boston Public Library
The Boston Public Library, established in 1848, has more than 13,000 Irish items.
“It has grown into one of the main repositories in the country for valuable Irish collection,” Quinlin said.
Guests will find material on the Irish Free State and the Abby Theater, Irish sheet music, rare Civil War images taken by photographer Matthew Brady, a bust of Hugh O’Brien, Boston’s first Irish mayor, a bust of writer Edger Allan Poe, and twin lion statues in the foyer created by Louis Saint-Gaudens.
John Boyle O’Reilly Memorial
Before he arrived in Boston in 1870, John Boyle O’Reilly was arrested and imprisoned for his crimes against Britain as part of the Irish Republican Brotherhood.
“He’s known sort of as the great reconciler between the Boston Irish immigrants and the Yankee establishment,” Quinlin said. “He was the guy who kind of figured out how to connect the two groups to make them talk to each other and appreciate each other. He was a poet, he was an orator, he was the publisher of The Boston Pilot.”
The bronze statue of O’Reilly on Boylston Street was dedicated in 1896.
Fenway Park
Fenway Park, one of Boston’s most famous landmarks and home of the Boston Red Sox, was built in 1912 by Irish immigrant Charles E. Logue.
Logue was building a lot of churches and schools and municipal buildings before he was asked to build Fenway Park, Quinlin said.
“He literally did it in less than a year,” he said. “And it has stood the test of time.”
More about the five new stops being added this summer
The Kip Tiernan Memorial on Dartmouth Street near the Boston Public Library, honors “a beloved homeless and hunger advocate in the city of Boston for many many years, almost half a century,” Quinlin said.
In the North End, trail goers will learn more about two more women at the plaques for Rose Kennedy and Ann Glover.
“Rose has various landmarks and plaques and memorials throughout Boston and for good reason. She was the matriarch of a great political family. She has a really nice plaque on the side of St. Stephen’s Church in the North End because she was very religious and attended mass there.”
Below Kennedy’s plaque is a plaque dedicated to Ann Glover.
“She was an Irish immigrant who was hanged as a witch in Boston in 1688,” he said, noting that she spoke Gaelic in the courtroom. “It is an important part of the city’s history and also the Boston Irish history because it speaks a little to how immigrants were treated when they first arrived in Boston.”
The Swan Boats in the Public Garden were built by Irish immigrants and “interestingly, almost 150 years later, it’s still iconic,” said Quinlin.
The statue of Edgar Allan Poe, the famous 19th century writer, outside the city’s transportation building.
“Poe was born in Boston not far from where the statue is and his father’s family came from the north of Ireland,” Quinlin said.
Finally, about Irish artist G.P.A. Healy’s painting of Daniel Webster at Faneuil Hall, Quinlin said, “Webster’s painting is so iconic and, again, it speaks to some of the beauty of what a lot of immigrants — in this case Irish immigrants and their offspring — created in Boston.”
