Quarantined, They Died; Now, They Are Remembered

June 2019 Boston’s hometown VOL. 30 # 6 journal of Irish culture. $2.00 Worldwide at All contents copyright © 2019 bostonirish.com Boston Neighborhood News, Inc. Quarantined, they died; now, they are remembered

By Bill Brett research of historic records and Carol Beggy helped tell the story of BOSTON HARBOR the quarantine station — Some 600 people gath- on Deer Island, gave the ered on a bright Satur- keynote address at the day morning of the 2019 ceremony, a 2,500-word Memorial Day weekend recounting of the chapters to dedicate a permanent that made up the full story. marker on Deer Island He had noted earlier that to those Irish emigrants historical accounts say who some 170 years ago that in the 1670s, some left their island during 500 Native Americans who the Great Hunger (“An had been captured near Gorta Mor”) for the United modern-day Natick during States only to be too sick King Philip’s War were in- to enter the country when terned on the island where they arrived in Boston close to half of them died of Harbor. starvation and exposure. Standing at the wind- The backstory to the me- swept site, a visitor can morial dedication initia- gaze over the harbor and tive was the discovery in see city neighborhoods 1990 by a backhoe opera- where in the mid-1800s tor working to help build tens of thousands of Ire- a wastewater treatment land’s men, women, and plant for the Massachu- children who managed setts Water Resources Au- to survive the harrowing thority of some skeletons ocean journey in relatively initially believed to be the good health made new remains of those captured lives for themselves. But Native Americans two cen- not everyone made it to turies earlier. But labora- the farther shore beyond Boston Mayor Marty Walsh spoke to a gathering of some 600 at the dedication of the Deer Island Irish tory tests later confirmed the small island they em- Memorial. Photo courtesy Bill Brett they were the remains of barked upon. Quarantined al, a commemorative to the ed welcoming remarks by Irish refugees. there by civic and medi- hundreds of Irish refugees Words of Remembrance MWRA executive director For many Irish who died cal officials fearful of the who arrived at the island Fred Laskey, a bless- in those years, the burial “Deer Island has a place in this tapestry of endurance. place was mass graves at spread of deadly diseases in the years between 1845 The victims we remember today were far from home, ing by Boston’s Cardinal like typhus to the general and 1852 with cases of Seán Patrick O’Malley, Deer Island’s historic Rest but not yet attached to our immigrant community. So Haven Cemetery. Figures population in Boston, over what officials called “ship for them, it may have felt as if the “emerald thread” and remarks by Boston’s time almost 1,200 would- fever,” most likely a form Mayor Martin J. Walsh. as to how many were bur- was broken. But today, in our prayers, our education, ied in an unmarked grave be immigrants, historians of typhus. The cross and and our collective memory, through this powerful monu- The rector of Holy Cross say, never left the tiny the memorial site were Cathedral, Msgr. Kevin vary because a number ment to their hopes and their hardships, we weave their of bodies were claimed prominence that faced the built “in memory of the thread back into the pattern.” O’Leary, also participated city proper. Their fate was Irish souls who, in hope in the ceremony, and Irish- by family members and – Mayor Martin Walsh buried elsewhere in or to die waiting. of avoiding starvation, left This event speaks to “our interdependence and born vocalist Mairin Ui Those who gathered on their native land for new Cheide Keady performed around Boston. Those who our interconnectedness, how we are connected to one were unclaimed – they had May 25 near the towering lives in America, only to another and connected to the people who died on this the Irish and US national Celtic cross witnessed its perish and be interred in anthems. died alone – were laid to island and who are buried here.” rest in unmarked graves dedication as the symbol of unmarked graves.” – Cardinal Sean O’Malley City of Boston Archivist the Great Hunger Memori- The day’s events includ- John McColgan, whose (Continued on page 7) Shakeup in the sessions scene: ‘Slán’ to the iconic Green Briar, ‘Fáilte’ to the Burren’s new gig By Sean Smith Briar’s closing – the pub ann chapter, who was not Special to the BIR itself, not just the session only the session organizer April was a cruel month it had hosted for 29 years for so many years but its indeed for Boston’s Irish – in particular shocked public face and ambas- music community, as and saddened musicians sador. word circulated that three and non-musicians alike. “A sad loss.” … “So area Irish sessions were Tributes cited not just the many amazing memories, coming to an end, includ- Briar session’s longevity, both of the music and the ing, arguably, the most but also the quality of its people who made it.” … iconic of them all, the music and, most of all, the “Never would’ve been a Monday gathering at fellowship it inspired and musician if not for the the Green Briar Pub in the valuable resource it Briar.” Comments like Brighton. provided as a place for less these were spread far and Also on the list were experienced musicians to wide via social media and Harrington’s in Wakefield learn the ropes. personal conversation. The penultimate Green Briar “late” session in progress. While many notable and the monthly session at There was also fervent The grief was partly Irish musicians dropped by over the years, said co-organizer Tommy Sheridan the Canadian American praise for the late Larry tempered when organiz- (playing accordion at rear left in the photo), “you know who really makes the Club in Watertown. Reynolds, head of Boston’s ers for the Briar session session? It’s those people who come every week, or every two weeks, or once But news of the Green Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éire- (Continued on page 15) a month – whenever they can.” Sean Smith photo

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The Irish Cultural Centre Pub Great Menu • Great Music Come for the food, stay for the music Fridays at the Pub Music: open music session led by John Kearney 7-11 p.m. Food & Drink: Pub service starts at 6 p.m. Saturdays at the Pub Music: open music session led by Billy O’Neill 5-8 p.m. Food & Drink: Pub service starts at 5 p.m. Irish beers on tap – Peaty Single malts and other old favorites

FUNCTION ROOMS AVAILABLE Did you know our Function Rooms & Marquee Tent are available to rent for private functions? Communions, Christenings, Private Parties and Weddings - all welcome. In house catering and full bar available. Call Sophie to book at 781 821 8291 x111 ICCNE – 200 New Boston Drive, Canton, MA 781-821-8291 www.irishculture.org bostonirish.com June 2019 BOSTON IRISH Reporter Page 3 BIR NOTEBOOK Apollo 11’s Michael Collins, Jeff Bezos will participate in JFK Space Summit Introducing Laoise Moore, In celebration of the In addition to Bezos lites have revolutionized 50th anniversary of the and Collins, the full day our understanding of Boston’s new consul general Moon landing and Presi- JFK Space Summit pro- Planet Earth. dent Kennedy’s vision gram will feature: • Scientists Maria Zu- Quinlan now Irish ambassador to Turkey that launched the effort, • A panel of interna- ber, MIT vice president of The Irish community is the Implementation of the the John F. Kennedy Pres- tional astronauts from research, Laurie Leshin, welcoming a new Consul Good Friday Agreement, idential Library and Mu- the United States, Ja- president, Worcester General, Laoise Moore, and the British-Irish seum will host Apollo 11 pan, Italy, and Russia to Polytechnic Institute, who arrived in late May Parliamentary Assembly. Lunar Command Module discuss the international and Sara Seager, MIT to the Consulate offices Previous postings include pilot Michael Collins and cooperation that has been Professor of Planetary in Copley Square, “I’m the Irish Embassy in Blue Origin Founder Jeff essential to so many of Science and Physics, to delighted to be taking up Malaysia and the Irish Laoise Moore Bezos as they take part in the scientific and tech- discuss scientific discov- my new post,” Moore told Consulate General in Ensconced in Boston a daylong symposium on nological breakthroughs eries that have changed the BIR in an email. “I’ll Edinburgh.” June 19 at the Library. resulting from human our understanding of the be accompanied by my Among the first tasks served here for almost four The JFK Space Summit space exploration. universe beyond Planet husband Michael and our for CG Moore (first name years, has been promoted will highlight the history • Former NASA ad- Earth, and questions that daughter Anna, and we’re is pronounced “Lee-sha”) to Ireland’s Ambassador that led to the first Moon ministrator Charles remain unanswered. really looking forward in her new post was to Kenya, and was to be- landing, current scientific Bolden, former director • A special preview to the next few years in hosting Ireland‘s Higher gin the new assignment and technological space of the Johnson Space of National Geograph- Boston. Education Minister, Mary this month in the Kenya initiatives, and the future Center Ellen Ochoa, and ic’s latest documenta- “Prior to this posting Mitchell O’Connor, at a capital city of Nairobi. of space exploration. former NASA deputy ry, “Apollo: Missions to I worked in the Political May 30 reception. Quinlan, who made many “We are thrilled to administrator Dava New- the Moon,” airing in July Division of the Depart- In another staff change, friends all across the bring together such an man to discuss NASA’s 2019. ment of Foreign Affairs Vice Consul Aoife Budd Boston community, was extraordinary group of past and future with Visit jfklibrary.org/ and Trade in Dublin. Be- will leave in July and feted at several events last people to celebrate one of National Air and Space spacesummit for the full fore this I worked at the return to a Department month in Boston, includ- the greatest achievements Museum director Ellen schedule and to register. Houses of the Oireachtas of Foreign Affairs position ing a May 14 Union Club in human history,” said Stofan. Seats are no longer avail- (Irish Parliament) with in Dublin. reception hosted by the Ambassador Caroline • Dennis Muilenburg, able to the public for the the Foreign Affairs Com- Moore takes the post as Charitable Irish and Eire Kennedy, honorary Presi- chairman, president and evening program with mittee, the Committee on Fionnuala Quinlan, who societies. dent of the John F. Ken- CEO of The Boeing Com- Michael Collins and Jeff nedy Library Foundation. pany, to discuss Boeing’s Bezos. The event with “I hope that this program role in the Apollo program Dennis Muilenburg is by inspires new generations and in space travel today invitation only. Seats are to come together, set am- and in the future. available free of charge bitious goals, and renew · Former NASA Earth for the remainder of the our civic commitment to Science Division Direc- day’s events. Registration solving the problems of tor Michael Freilich to is recommended. our time.” examine how space satel- Ireland’s voters give a resounding ‘yes’ to change in divorce laws Associated Press with new legislation to Culture Minister Jose- Irish voters have over- govern divorce. The coun- pha Madigan told RTE whelmingly endorsed a try’s Fine Gael party-led News that voters had plan to liberalize the coun- government has proposed shown compassion by try’s constitution to make halving the separation “humanizing the system. I it easier for couples to period to two years. think it’s an emphatic, un- divorce, election officials Divorce was banned in the equivocal result, and even said on Sunday. largely Roman Catholic though we have a very low ICCNE names Burke as executive director Just over 82 percent of country until 1995. Ire- marital breakdown in Ire- Steve Burke was re- velopment executive at voters endorsed remov- land has seen rapid social land, it just demonstrates cently named executive di- international law firms ing a requirement that change in recent years. In the amount of people who rector of the Irish Cultural Proskauer Rose, Mintz couples be separated for 2015 the country voted to stand in solidarity with Centre of New England Levin and Ropes & Gray, four of the previous five legalize same-sex mar- them,” she said. perece (ICCNE). He will direct Director of Urban Youth years before they can riage, and last year, voters Voter turnout for the ref- the ICC’s fundraising and Sports at Northeastern divorce. opted by a two-to-one mar- erendum was just over 50 membership campaigns, University’s Center for It will fall to Ireland’s gin to end a constitutional percent. as well as oversee the utili- the Study of Sport in Parliament to come up ban on abortion. zation of the 46-acre cam- Society, past president of pus’s four athletic fields, the Massachusetts Sports artistic performance spac- Partnership and co-found- es, banquet hall, library er of the S.C.O.R.E Boston and genealogy center, inner-city youth hockey traditional Irish cottage program. He is also an and on-site restaurant active member of the and pub. The ICC is home Boston Irish Business to GAA Boston and Irish Association and Irish Net- Boston Irish Honors 2019 -- Call for Sports Youth League foot- Steve Burke work Boston, and serves ball and hurling, Boston on the boards of the Ded- Irish Wolfhounds rugby, nance and fundraising ham Community House Nominations Cumann na Gaeilge i experience to the role. He and City Year Boston. A founded and still directs mBoston Irish language graduate of the College Society, and Tree Top the Boston to Belfast of the Holy Cross and the The Boston Irish Reporter- The region's leading chronicler of all things Irish-American, is a family-owned and operated Adventures zip line and Youth Empowerment New England School of media publication, a unique and independent source for news and information. Each month we report on the Irish people Program, an outgrowth of and events here in Boston as well as stories focused on the Irish diaspora. At the end of this year the BIR will complete high ropes course. Law, he lives in Dedham three full decades-30 years-of telling “The stories of Boston's Irish." Burke brings a wealth Mayor Walsh’s sister city with his wife, Sandra of corporate business agreement with Belfast, Lopez Burke, and their Save the Date- The Boston Irish Reporter will host the 10th “Boston Irish Honors 2019” celebratory luncheon on Northern Ireland. He is Friday, October 18, 2019 at the Boston World Trade Center / Seaport Hotel. At this inspiring event, we recognize and development, marketing, daughter Julia. celebrate exemplary individuals and families who share our culture and traditions- by telling the stories of their special and non-profit gover- a former business de- achievements in public service, business, philanthropy and community leadership. Our annual BIH luncheon is the season’s premier celebration of Irish-American achievement in Massachusetts.

Irish Ambassador to the US Daniel Telling the stories- Our honorees represent the best qualities of the Irish- devotion to our fellow Bostonians; a sense of Mulhall was in Boston for two days compassion for all people no matter their place of birth or station in life; and a deep connection to our common ancestral last month, and made a presentation Irish homeland. In their personal and professional lives, BIH honorees inspire us and our fellow citizens with their dedication to our country to our Commonwealth and to the neediest among us. at the Edward M Kennedy Institute for the US Senate to speak about Call for nominations- Our annual Boston Irish Honors luncheon celebrates the contributions of families and individuals Brexit and its possible effects on who brought honor and distinction to our city and region over many decades. We earnestly seek your suggestions of potential honorees for the 2019 honoree luncheon. Nominations will be accepted until Thursday, May 30, 2019. Please Ireland. He was greeted by Congress- send your nominations to us at [email protected] man Joseph Kennedy (Photo from Twitter courtesy @danmulhall) Past Boston Irish Honorees:

2018- Trevor McGill M.D., Rev. Richard “Doc” Conway, Bob Scannell and Mary (Kinsella) Scannell – 2017- Tom Tinlin, Kevin Cullen, Anne Marie, Nora & Bill Kennedy family 2016 - Jim & Mary (Cahill) Judge, Senator Paul G Kirk Jr, Kevin & Joe Leary & family Brett reappointed to Disability Council post 2015 - Margaret Stapleton, Mike Sheehan, BPD Commissioner William Evans family 2014 - Katherine Craven, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, the Burke family of South Boston Jim Brett, at left, presi- the quality of life for all 2013 - Senate President Therese Murray, Gerry & Bob Mulligan family, John P. Driscoll Jr.(posthumous) dent and CEO of the Americans with disabili- 2012 - Congressman Richard Neal, Brendan & Greg Feeney, family of Mary & Bob Muse 2011 - Kathleen O'Toole, Senator Tom Kennedy, & families of Joseph Corcoran, James Hunt, & Mark & Tom Mulvoy New England Council, ties and their families 2010 - US Rep. Ed Markey, John Donohue, and families of Jim Brett, Tom & Peg Geraghty, & Mayor John B. Hynes has been reappointed by and to promote equal Speaker Nancy Pelosi opportunity. Brett is also to the National Council the chairman of both the You are invited to send nominations and suggestions to us by on Disability, an inde- Governor’s Commission email to: [email protected] pendent federal agency on Intellectual Disability or by US Postal mail to: making recommenda- and the Disabled Persons Boston Irish Honors, 150 Mt Vernon St, Ste 560, Dorchester MA tions to the president Protection Commission. and Congress to enhance 02125 Page 4 June 2019 BOSTON IRISH Reporter bostonirish.com Editor’s Notebook Eire Society Gold Medal honoree O’Toole gives thanks to ‘incredible family, friends’

By Ed Forry it has to be.’ But that was an easy one for me because It was a grand night on April 27 at Boston’s Seaport they’re just great, great guys. Hotel as several hundred guests applauded Kathy “We’ve shared wonderful times together on both O’Toole, the recipient of the Eire Society of Boston’s sides of the Atlantic, and you know, sometimes, they 2019 Gold Medal Award. say what happens in A native of Pittsfield, she was born Kathleen Horton, Dublin should stay in and moved in her teens with her family to Marblehead, Dublin, but I can’t resist and later to Boston. A graduate of telling this one story and Boston College and New England I don’t want to embarrass School of Law, she has been mar- anybody- but I think it’s ried for 37 years to a now-retired priceless: Boston police officer, Dan O’Toole, “So this one night, and they make their home in Father John and Father South Boston. Their daughter Sean were in Dublin Meghan lives in Seattle. with us and we’re all Kathy began her career in law heading out to dinner on enforcement as a Boston cop, a Saturday night. But I and has served in a number of hadn’t the good sense to police command roles, including make a reservation. You Secretary of Public Safety in know, it was a really busy Massachusetts, and terms as police commissioner in night in Dublin, so we both Boston and Seattle. In 1998 she was appointed were in close proximity to a member of the Patten Commission to reform polic- Shanahan’s, a beautiful ing in Northern Ireland, and later served in Ireland Kathy O’Toole recalls the restaurant on Stephen’s as Chief Inspector of the Irish police force, the Garda night she was on the prowl Green. And I said, ‘Oh, Inspectorate. for a prime dinner table are you kidding me? You The Eire Society event in the hotel’s Lighthouse spot at a popular Dublin restaurant and left it to know, we’ll never get in ballroom was filled with many current and former there.’ police officials, including current BPD Commissioner Reverends Sean Connor, above, and John Connolly “And I love Shanahan’s Willie Gross, retired Commissioner Bill Evans, and to nail the down the as- downstairs. They had State Police head Col. Kerry Gilpin. Boston Globe signment. this great bar, very posh, columnist Kevin Cullen was MC. it’s called the Oval Of- In her remarks, O’Toole said, “I appreciate the fice and is dedicated to kind introduction first of all. Thanks, Kevin Cullen. all US presidents with “Thank you” time for Kathleen O’Toole I often say that Kevin and I rose through the ranks Irish ancestry. In fact, out the wallet and quickly flash it and close it. But just together. I was a young beat cop when he was a young they have JFK’s rock- for an instant, I could see his Boston police chaplains’s beat reporter at the Boston Globe and our paths have ing chair in a case to badge. And then he said, ‘US Secret Service. Any continued to cross. We continued to pass on both sides the back of the bar, his chance we can get a table, possibly downstairs?’ And of the Atlantic. Ever since Kevin has dubbed me the original rocking chair. he pointed to Dan as the alleged president. ‘Nun with the Gun.’ So I thought, ‘Now we’re “Obviously the Polish hostess was not a student of “I was introduced to the Eire Society years ago by the never going to get in American history. I couldn’t imagine which president distinguished scholar and my friend Catherine Shan- here, you know, this is she thought Dan was. But for the rest of the night, non and attended these events previously, but never ridiculous.’ we were treated regally. In fact, one of them actually imagined I’d be a recipient. So from the bottom of my “Father Sean said to curtsied when she took our order. heart, very sincere thanks to Dr. Richard Finnegan me, ‘No worries. Follow So I just want to thank Father John and Father John and the board for this honor.” me. Let me speak to the for being dedicated priests who live in the real world. O’Toole was mostly light-hearted in reflecting on her hostess.’ So I followed “As I said at first, tonight isn’t about me. It’s about career. “I’ve served in a few high profile positions, but him inside. And next all of us here and in some ways, all of you who have honestly I don’t like being the center of attention. So I thing I knew, I saw him touched my life. And that’s why I wanted my com- do find comfort in being surrounded by incredible fam- taking his wallet out ments to focus entirely on you. So thank you for your ily and friends. You know, everyone in this room has and I said, I can’t believe love. Thank you for your support. Thank you for your touched me in some way, either directly or indirectly, it. He’s going to like duke the hostess with a twenty to incredible friendship and for paving the way for me to and provided friendship and support along the way. get into this place. Nope, not at all. So I saw him pull receive this honor.” This event is my opportunity to thank you, all of you, so if you don’t mind, I’m going to make a few remarks about all of you. Off the Bench “It would be impossible to acknowledge everybody and I apologize in advance for those I do neglect. I still have a cousin in Co. Roscommon who hasn’t spoken to me for ten years because I neglected to mention that Reconciling a break in key relationships he was one of my cousins during a profile piece for us, and he’s a wonderful human being. But you know, it’s takes a full measure of humility and grace like, what do they say about the Irish? All Alzheimer’s, By James W. Dolan When friends stop talking, each tends to blame the forget everything but the grudge. But my friends and other, finding it more comfortable to be the victim. Both family are certainly a wonderful cast of characters. Special to the Reporter Reconciliation. What a marvelous healing word. have been wronged and, therefore, feel no obligation to “I know I’m preaching to the believers here because bridge the gap. Pride prevents them from setting aside so many of you I know personally have been so sup- It implies humility, understanding, forgiveness, and renewal. It affirms the repairing of a breach in a rela- their feelings for a greater good, the preservation of portive to the police over the years and I appreciate the relationship. It’s not “Blessed are the peacemak- that. If you don’t mind, I’d like to take the opportunity tionship. Most meaningful relationships will fray from time to time, and some will fracture for reasons that ers except when wronged,” or “Love your neighbor as to ask all the people who have served or are serving yourself only if loved in return.” and law enforcement the stand up so that we can all may at the time seem almost irreconcilable. Friends will allow a disagree- Take the initiative and seek to reconcile with those applaud them. And thank them.” with whom you have a grievance. A powerful example She also recognized two Boston priests, John Con- ment or misunderstanding to break a bond. Hurt, angry, dis- occurred several years ago when a number of Quaker nolly and Sean Connor: “Usually it’s customary to children were murdered in their schoolhouse. When acknowledge the priests at the front, but I thought appointed, they stop talking and withdraw into their respective the perpetrator was apprehended and brought to court, I’d save the best for last. I’m so pleased that Father the Quaker elders came to offer their forgiveness. Such John and Father Sean are here tonight. These are two corners while usually blaming the other for the rupture. A examples of selfless love are few and far between. We wonderful, selfless guys who’ve helped so many of us can only marvel at such displays of grace and mercy. maintain our faith during very difficult times. They’ve mutually beneficial connection is sacrificed to anger and blame. While all marriages are not salvageable, some are. always been there for me personally and profession- The ramifications of a breakup, particularly where there ally. It was a privilege for me to appoint them as the Rejection becomes the objective manifestation of the inner pain are children involved, should be strong incentives to Boston police chaplains. Of course, it was at the orders overcome problems that threaten the union. There is of Monsignor Bill Francis who said, ‘This is the way one or both feel. Married couples are par- that greater good to be considered. Will the children James W. Dolan ticularly susceptible, given the be better off emotionally, psychologically, and finan- normal annoyances inevitable cially in the absence of a parent? Regrettably, in some Boston Irish in such a close relationship. In the absence of accom- cases, the answer is yes. To remain together requires modation skills, problems can grow and undermine sacrifices, difficult accommodations, and adjustments. the balance so important in sustaining a lasting re- While, often with some effort, one spouse can control REPORTER lationship. It’s a shifting balance that recognizes and his/her behavior, it may not be enough unless the other The Boston Irish Reporter is published every month accommodates strengths and weaknesses as the par- party is also trying. Boston Neighborhood News, Inc., ties together navigate occasionally tempestuous seas. Reconciliation ends an estrangement and restores 150 Mt. Vernon St., Suite 560, Dorchester, MA 02125 It’s easy to love people you don’t know. Love in the ab- harmony in a relationship. It can occur between indi- [email protected] www.bostonirish.com stract requires little effort. It’s loving another imperfect viduals, warring nations, and theologically (between Mary C. Forry, President (1983-2004) human being – a spouse, a parent, a sibling, or a friend sinner and deity). There is precious little reconcilia- Edward W. Forry, Publisher tion in Washington these days. Seemingly intractable Thomas F. Mulvoy Jr., Managing Editor – that requires self-control, sympathy, understanding, William P. Forry, Editor and the capacity to overlook minor grievances and to hostility, discord, and partisanship have so crippled Peter F. Stevens, Contrib. Editor forgive those who trespass against you as you would the system as to render it incapable of agreeing on Jack Conboy, Advertising Manager hope to be forgiven for your transgressions. anything controversial. News: (617) 822-3225 Ads : (617) 436-1222 Grievances large and small are inevitable. To rise Fax: (617) 825-5516 [email protected] Reaching out to someone who has offended you or whom you have offended is a noble gesture. It says above them for the common good requires humility On the Web: bostonirish.com Twitter @bostonirishrptr what we have is too important to let a disagreement and grace. The humility to accept you may be wrong Visit our Facebook page at Bostonirishreporter or misunderstanding come between us. If it’s good, it’s or have in some way contributed to the breach. And Next Issue: July , 2019 Deadline: Monday, June 17 at 12 noon worth saving. Why let pettiness and anger fracture a the grace to acknowledge that harmony is far more Published monthly in the first week of each month. relationship. Who is at fault really is not that impor- beneficial and productive than strife. The Boston Irish Reporter is not liable for errors appearing in advertisements beyond the cost of the space occupied by tant. An apology, even when you believe you are the James W. Dolan is a retired Dorchester District Court the error. The right is reserved by The Boston Irish Reporter to edit, reject, or cut any copy without notice. aggrieved party, is a small price to pay for peace of mind. who now practices law. bostonirish.com June 2019 BOSTON IRISH Reporter Page 5 Point of View Will Democrats come to and confront Trump’s blowtorch politics? Or will they self-cannibalize and cede field to imperial outrage?

By Peter F. Stevens Isle somewhat less enthusiastic than those he gets negotiable, O’Toole nonetheless assails what he sees as BIR Staff from of his numerous Irish American supporters. a pitfall of Biden’s assumed inevitability: He “seems A Hobson’s choice is loosely defined as take it or The president and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar will to have the quality that more exciting candidates are leave it. What are President Trump and his simpering meet at Shannon Airport on June 5. The Trump said to lack: electability. What lies behind this assump- Senate sycophants, the Banana Republicans offering administration denied, and the Irish government tion is an acceptance of identity politics. Trump won us as a choice? Take on their frontal assault on the downplayed, a story that a snag as to a meeting site in large part because he animated the resentments Constitution—immolating separation of executive erupted when the Trump camp insisted that the two of white voters, especially men. Therefore, the logic and legislative powers, Congressional oversight, an leaders sit down at Doonbeg, a golf club that Trump goes, the Democrats can beat him only if they have a independent judiciary, and a free press. Or leave owns. Now that the spot for the meet and greet has candidate who does not make white men angry just them alone to ensure that the Constitution is mere been set, the Irish Times (May 23, 2019) addressed because of who they are – in other words, the candi- lofty words on musty parchment and nothing more the visceral disdain may in the Republic evince toward date to beat Trump must not be black, female or gay than whatever the president and his minions say it is. the president: “The challenge facing the Taoiseach or (worse) any two of the above.” The Democrats? Their self-cannibalizing response will be to find a way to have a reasonably amicable Along with the “white voters, especially men,” offers strongly worded letters and lame subpoenas exchange with the US president while staking out a O’Toole also targets the 52 percent of white women against the GOP’s blowtorch against Constitutional firm position on issues that directly concern Ireland voters who cast their ballots for Trump in 2016 despite rights—not “norms,” a favorite, feckless term of both and the EU. his indisputable misogyny in the Access Hollywood the press and Democrats. Or one can simply leave “President Donald Trump’s visit…is probably the video and the numerous allegations of sexual assault them alone to don sackcloth and ashes, the remains of last thing the Government needs,” the paper wrote, against him. American’s grand experiment with democracy, which “but [Varadkar] did issue the invitation and must O’Toole posits that Democrats betting that it’s Biden is not to be confused with Democrats. deal with his guest as best he can. The ties that bind or bust—“even many progressives who think it appall- Because GOP members in the House and the Sen- Ireland and the United States are so important for ing that good candidates should be ruled out on the ate have collectively chosen to prostrate themselves historic, cultural, and economic reasons that Varadkar basis of race, gender, or sexual orientation”—may be before the altar of Donald Trump and because the had little option…” falling into a Trumpian trap. To quote the president, Democrats on Capitol Hill shriek that we’re in the Regarding the welcome Trump might encounter, the “We’ll see…” midst of a “Constitutional crisis” but are too divided Times asserted that his “record at home and abroad If the Democrats tear each other apart in their to muster the will or the guts to confront it, the pos- will ensure that his visit to Co. Clare will generate zeal to unseat Trump rather than to show the spine sibility that the nation stands on the dawn of an protests. This was acknowledged by Varadkar, who to somehow hold him accountable for his assault on imperial presidency -now and future - doesn’t seem remarked in his initial response to the visit that in a institutions that up till now have held the line, the so far-fetched as it once did. It does not take a Con- democracy protest ‘is allowed and is welcome.’ This party is likely finished. Conversely, if the president, stitutional expert to surmise that while the Founders statement of fact was misconstrued in some quarters Attorney General William Barr, and the GOP succeed did foresee potential presidential tyrants when they as encouragement to protest but, one way or another, in overturning the Affordable Care Act—or the word bestowed investigative and impeachment powers to big protests can be expected. And that is good….when that must not be uttered, “Obamacare”—the House the House and the Senate, Madison & Co. surely did it comes to issues like free trade, climate change and Republicans’ victory lap of June 2010 will likely end not anticipate that a political party would support the Iran nuclear deal, Varadkar will have to let the over history’s cliff in the November 2020 election. any deed of a president with a mindless, lock-step president know that this State takes a very different If the Dems really want to win, each and every obeisance. view to his… dislike for the EU and his sympathy for day between now and the election, they should ask Buttressed by a team of propagandists and water- Britain’s Brexiteers…” one question of the president, Barr, Senate majority carriers that sadly includes a great many historically On the eve of the presidential visit, the ever-con- leader Mitch McConnell, and the sycophant Sen. myopic Irish Americans named Fitzgerald, Conway, troversial and topical Irish Times columnist Fintan Lindsey Graham: Where is your plan to replace the and Mulvaney, Trump will be taking his spectacle O’Toole weighed in on Joe Biden, the Irish American ACA, preserve coverage of pre-existing conditions, on the road to the Land of a Thousand Welcomes in who he says “might” face off against the incumbent and prevent 20 million or more Americans from losing early June. According to the Irish Times and other in 2020 (May 18, 2019). For the Trump-hating le- affordable healthcare? “fake media” such as, well, just about every news gions, sit down and brace yourselves. O’Toole asks To date, have you heard an honest answer? Of outlet not in the Fox and Sinclair orbit, the president and answers, “Who can beat Trump? Not Joe Biden.” course not. Only silence, occasionally broken by might find his “thousand welcomes” in the Emerald While noting that beating him at the ballot box is a bald-faced lies. goal that all the president’s detractors deem as non-

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Exp______Call 617-436-1222 Or Fax this order form to 617-825-5516 Page 6 June 2019 BOSTON IRISH Reporter bostonirish.com ‘Like much in Irish culture, this memorial marks profound suffering with remarkable beauty’ Following are excerpts from the pre- ancestors, to whom we owe a debt. pared text for Mayor Martin Walsh’s We believe with all our hearts that remarks at the dedication of the Deer those who were lost here deserved a better Island Great Hunger Memorial: fate. Their lives had as much value and meaning as anyone’s, and should never Thank you, Gene [O’Flaherty]; Cardi- be forgotten. We indict those, across the nal [Sean] O’Malley and clergy; Ambas- ocean, who caused their suffering and sador [Ray] Flynn and Catherine; Consul who could have prevented it. General [Fionnuala] Quinlan, as well as But as we mark their loss with a symbol your predecessors, who have all been sup- of faith that transcends time, we have an portive of this work; Executive Director opportunity to act on those values and Fred Laskey and everyone at the MWRA, relieve that suffering as it appears in past and present, who helped this project our world today. along; John McColgan, our City Archivist, Echoes of the injustice that drove these for your thorough research and compel- Irish women, men, and children to our ling relation of these events; members of shores exist today, in the violence and pov- the Ancient Order of Hibernians and the erty, often with roots in colonialism, that Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians, for is forcing families to flee homes in parts Cardinal O’Malley addresses the gathering. Bill Brett photo supporting this project and traveling to of Africa, the Middle East, and Central be here today; and the Boston Currach America. So we can see the desperation of Rowing Club for your participation. the Irish mother holding a hungry baby, Cardinal compares 1847 on Deer Island I also want to acknowledge the many in the Guatemalan mother holding a sick people over the years who have raised child in her arms today. We can see the to the situation along our borders today awareness of these events. It’s too many fear and bewilderment of children held In giving his blessing at the inaugural another and connected to the people that people to mention, but the late Dr. Bill in quarantine, on our southern border ceremonies for the Great Hunger Memo- died on this island and were buried here.” O’Connell and Rita O’Connell deserve today. We can see, in the face of every rial, Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley He said he hoped the recognition of special recognition. They are smiling refugee, the humanity of the refugees compared the 19th-century Irish children those connections would open hearts, down on us today, I’m sure. we memorialize today. who arrived on “orphan ships” to “those adding, “We pray that immigrants And to those who have worked hard, Let us not be anything like those with children at the borders of our country who coming today will receive a welcome, a in recent years, to make this memorial power who ignored poverty, disease, and are fleeing oppression and hunger, and welcome from a people that have made a reality, we are grateful: Mark Porter, starvation in Ireland. Let us honor those whose parents are making a supreme that difficult journey and whose families John Flaherty, Peter O’Malley, John who died here, by seeking to prevent sacrifice to save their lives and give them have suffered, and who are open to being Foley, and Ed Forry, among many oth- those conditions wherever we can and by a new future.” brothers and sisters to those who are ers. I especially want to thank Michael welcoming with compassion those who O’Malley said that Saturday’s somber arriving from every part of this globe,” Carney, who has been such a driving force. find their way to our shores and borders. remembrance was a reminder of “our a prayer that drew applause from the ••• We are a country built not on an interdependence and our interconnect- crowd. President John F. Kennedy spoke of an identity, but an idea: the idea that life, edness, how we are connected to one “emerald thread that runs throughout the liberty, and the pursuit of happiness tapestry of [the Irish] past.” He defined are the rights of all people—no matter this thread as: “the constancy, the endur- what their religion, their ethnicity, their ance, the faith they displayed through resources, or their place of birth. These The O’Connells had a dream; endless centuries of foreign oppression are the rights that these Irish victims [as] religious and civil rights were denied were denied in their homeland. This is many hands made it a reality to them [and] their destruction by pov- the idea they heard of and they hoped erty, disease, and starvation was ignored for as they sought safe harbor here in By Ed Forry by their conquerors.” Boston. And this is the creed that the BIR Publisher Deer Island has a place in this tapestry survivors lived by, as they built up our Anyone involved in Boston Irish events of endurance. The victims we remember city and country like every immigrant over the last three decades knew Bill today were far from home, but not yet before and after them. O’Connell. The Dorchester-born podia- attached to our immigrant community. This memorial honors the hopes of trist, one of five children of Irish parents, So for them, it may have felt as if the those who died. And it calls us to our duty and his wife Rita (Layden) were beloved “emerald thread” was broken. But today, to defend those hopes, and make them volunteers in all things Irish, from the in our prayers, our education, and our a reality here, and around the world, AOH Plymouth chapter, the Corkmen collective memory, through this power- however we can. and Lady’s Association, the Knights and ful monument to their hopes and their This place also reminds us that the Ladies of St. Finbarr, the Eire Society of hardships, we weave their thread back achievement of this idea is no easy task. Boston, and the Charitable Irish. And into the pattern. The treatment of Native American people they helped found the Irish Cultural Like much in Irish culture, this me- on this very island in the 1600s is a re- Centre in Canton. morial marks profound suffering with minder. The prejudice that faced the Irish When he first learned of the famine- remarkable beauty. The truth is, it’s in our own city, at the time of the Great era Irish who had been buried in a mass unbearably sad to imagine the reality of Hunger and beyond it, is a reminder. The grave in Boston Harbor, he began raising what happened here. Children dying of enslavement of African-Americans, the fever in their mothers’ arms. Older people Civil War and injustices that followed, funds to build a Famine Memorial on ending their lives thousands of miles and every act of discrimination that oc- Deer Island. from the only homes they’d ever known. curs today, are reminders. As the 150th anniversary of Black 47 Whole families isolated, bewildered, with It takes courage to live up to our approached, well-funded famine projects no escape but to hold onto each other and principles. It takes work to put them in Cambridge and downtown Boston took hold onto their faith. into practice. It takes putting ourselves precedence, dimming the doctor’s hopes for a famine memorial. John Foley, left, with BIR publisher Their suffering was a product and an in others’ shoes, or lack of shoes, across Ed Forry. BIR photo extension of the misery being inflicted languages, across skin colors, across re- Together with stalwarts like Aisling on Ireland at the time. But it happened ligions, across time. It takes seeing our Gallery’s Maureen and John Connelly, right here on Boston Harbor, within sight common humanity and dignity, despite Margaret Stapleton, and Catherine At that point, John Foley and I set of the city that these families hoped and whatever forces would separate us. That’s Shannon, AOH and County Cork club out to publicize the idea for a memorial, prayed would be their salvation. what we do today for these innocent vic- members, and others, the O’Connells held searching for anyone who could help Most of the time, the immigration story tims, as we dedicate a worthy addition a series of small fundraisers that kept the make it happen. In 2017, Mike Carney, we tell is a story of triumph, of overcoming to our historic Harbor. dream alive. But after Rita died in late a Winthrop builder and contractor with and succeeding. We are rightly proud of I want to thank, once again, everyone 2012 and Bill passed away in January Donegal roots, called John and said “I will our parents and ancestors. But our city’s who has had a part in creating and 2014, the stalled plans seemed to have get this done.” Together with two friends, story and our country’s story is the story blessing this Memorial. May all who see become moot. Mark Porter and John Flaherty, they of those who were lost, as well. They took it remember those who were lost here, That spring, then-Consul General reached out to friends in the construction the hardest risks, under the worst con- bear witness to their hope, faith, and Michael Lonergan encouraged several and building trades, and with support ditions, and suffered the cruelest fates. endurance, and reflect on the meaning people, including attorney John Foley from Boston Mayor Walsh and his staff, All of us who are members of this Irish and value of their lives, then and now. and me, to revive the memorial project. they found a way to indeed “get it done.” immigrant and Irish-American commu- May God hold them close and may God Few records were available – no data base On Sat., May 25, 2019, Rita and Dr. nity must count them and honor them as bless all of us with their memory. or specific plans and only about $12,000, Bill O’Connell’s dream became a reality. which was placed in the custodial care For the names of the Irish buried on of the non-profit Irish Cultural Centre. Deer island, see bostonirish.com.

The Memorial was the O’Connell’s dream

At left, Dr. William O’Connell with Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny Mayor Walsh, Msgr. Kevin O’Leary and Cardinal O’Malley listen to a presen- in a 2012 Boston visit.Above, Rita tation. Bill Brett photo O’Connell. bostonirish.com June 2019 BOSTON IRISH Reporter Page 7 They came to acknowledge those who didn’t make it

John McColgan delivers the Memorial Address.

From ceremony onlookers, above and below, heartfelt remembrances. All photos courtesy of Bill Brett

Mairin Ui Cheide Keady delivers the National An- thems.

Michael Carney, a key Memorial backer reflects.

Martina Curtin, Msgr. Kevin O’Leary, Craig Curtin The Boston Currach Rowing Club dropped a wreath Quarantined, they died; now, they are remembered (Continued from page 1) the stories of people such Mike Carney of Seacoast ent, including Cardinal Said Walsh during the children who arrived on on the island at the city’s as Patrick J. McCarthy, Contractors of Winthrop, O’Malley in his invocation, ceremony: “Like much of “orphan ships,” to “those expense. who lost his mother, fa- Mark Porter, John Fla- drew parallels between Irish culture, this memo- children at the borders The event marked the ther, and six siblings on herty, stone mason Ber- the Irish refugees of 170 rial marks profound suf- of our country, who are completion of a decades- Deer Island but went on nard Callaghan, Boston years ago and immigrants fering with remarkable fleeing oppression and long effort to erect a to graduate from Harvard Sand and Gravel, Green- who come to the United beauty. The truth is, it’s hunger.” He added: “We memorial to those un- and become mayor of hills Bakery, members of States today. unbearably sad to imagine pray that immigrants fortunate immigrants Providence.” the Teamsters union, and “I was thinking this the reality of what hap- coming today will receive that will be visible from Saturday’s dedication former Irish Consul Gen- morning, as I was sitting pened right here and in a welcome, a welcome from virtually every point of took place in front of the erals Michael Lonergan, here…some of the [Irish] Boston Harbor. Children a people that have made the harbor’s edge. As first stone Celtic cross, which Breandán Ó Caollaí, and ships got turned away dying of fever in their that difficult journey and conceived by the late Dr. was cut by Rob Flynn, Fionnuala Quinlan. The from Boston Harbor,” mothers’ arms. Older whose families have suf- Bill O’Connell and his late owner of Flynn Stone in team completed the effort Mayor Walsh, the son of people ending their lives fered, and who are open to wife Rita O’Connell, the Lakewood, Pennsylvania that had been nurtured for Irish immigrants, said to thousands of miles from being brothers and sisters memorial was designed to and put into place in mid- five years by immigration reporters after the cer- the only homes that they to those who are arriving stand as a poignant and May on a promontory of attorney John Philip Foley emony. “You think about had ever known. Whole from every part of this dignified marker of what Deer Island by crews who and Boston Irish Reporter the relevance of it today. families isolated, bewil- globe.” happened on the island donated labor, materials, publisher Ed Forry, who People being turned away dered, with no escape but (A portfolio of photos some 170 years ago. As and heavy equipment. had worked together since at the border, families to hold onto each other and from the dedication cer- Rita O’Connell told the Among those who took 2014 to pick up where the being separated at the to hold onto their faith.” emony may be viewed Boston Irish Reporter: “It’s up the cause for the memo- O’Connells left off. border. It’s kind of history The cardinal compared online at billbrett.com) important we don’t forget rial over the years include: Some of those pres- repeating itself.” the 19th-century Irish Page 8 June 2019 BOSTON IRISH Reporter bostonirish.com DEER ISLAND MEMORIAL ADDRESS Presented at the Deer Island Great Hunger Memorial dedication May 25, 2019 Copyright, John McColgan An Gorta Mor, Ireland’s name was Moriarty? His great- “Great Hunger”, saw an esti- grandfather was an immigrant mated 1.5 million people die of from Tralee, who fitted out pri- starvation and disease. Another vateer vessels for Washington’s two million emigrated. Many of navy during the Revolution. Was these perished from the plagues it because of his Irish heritage they fled - thousands on the he was now on Deer Island with ocean journey, thousands more a passion to care for the people on North America’s shores, of his forebears? Is this proposi- and thousands in quarantine, tion supported by the fact that in places like Deer Island in half the names on the staff were Boston Harbor. Irish? Whether it was for the The causes of the catastrophe Irish, or for the city, or for hu- are enormously complex. But manity, Joseph Moriarty, age 37, fundamentally they reside in infected by the typhus, made the colonialism. Ireland was Eng- supreme sacrifice in December land’s first colony. Expropriation 1847, dying in the arms of his of land and wealth by an aris- wife in the Hancock Mansion tocracy alien in race and religion on Beacon Hill leaving her and bred misrule, endemic poverty, three young children behind.7 violence, and war lasting into There were others: the in- recent times. The 1801 Act of trepid sailors, Captain Ellis Union was supposed to combine and Mr. Knell, perishing from Ireland and Great Britain into a typhus contracted from patients single body politic. But Ireland in transit aboard the “Betsy remained a de facto colony, an Ransom”;8 and the most well agricultural resource run for and officers.2 their transfer up-island to Dr. fever relapse. After release from known Boston casualty of all, the benefit of English industry The spectre of what was hap- Moriarty. One of the six, Mary the island the orphans, sheltered stricken with typhus, Captain and commerce. Irish industry pening alarmed Bostonians, and Connell, age 1, would die on 3 and fed by relatives and Catholic Daniel Chandler, House of was nipped in the bud, leav- a burgeoning anti-immigrant June, the first victim of the Great charities, survived the streets of Industry Superintendent, War ing an expanding population nativism intensified. With Hunger James Turner would Boston, except younger brother of 1812 veteran, and convert to without adequate subsistence typhus crippling the House of bury on Deer Island.3 James, taken by cholera at the Catholicism on his deathbed or livelihood. Between 1815 and Industry, epidemic threaten- In the first four months the Fort Hill Hospital in 1849. Such in June 1847. These were the 1845, nearly a million people ing the city, and refugees still hospital admitted 1,779 pa- a childhood. Yet Patrick Mc- first responders of Black 47 in abandoned Ireland for North flowing in, the City Aldermen tients. 1,175 were discharged; Carthy would one day obtain a Boston. They gave their lives for America, many thousands to and Common Council formed a 214 died; thirteen were taken law degree from Harvard and others in need, and deserve to Boston. special “Joint Alien Passengers dead from ships.4 Among these be elected Mayor of Providence, be remembered. Then, in harvests from 1845 Committee” to deal with the statistics were the McCarthy Rhode Island.5 Among Boston’s Famine im- through 1851, an unknown crisis. Faced with citizen dis- family from Sligo. Patrick and We’re all familiar with the migrants themselves, mortal- fungus destroyed the only food quiet and a fiscal conundrum, Alice, in their forties, with seven cold welcome given the Irish ity was vast. As inscribed in source for millions. The Imperial the Committee enforced laws sons ranging from thirteen years by native Bostonians, the re- this powerful monument, 850 government could have deployed requiring shipmasters to post to six months, arrived August ligious and racial prejudice, innocent people died and were its massive resources to prevent indemnity bonds for support of 2nd aboard the “Iowa” out of employment discrimination, the buried on Deer Island between people from starving. Laissez foreign paupers. To address the Liverpool. Five-year-old Patrick sometimes violent confronta- 1847 and 1850. How many more faire ideology prevented it from public health emergency, it es- later in life wrote of his family’s tions. Yet a closer look at the would perish in the island’s in- doing so. It responded instead tablished a quarantine hospital harrowing and tragic experience archives reveals that the host stitutions in the years to come? with measures that were inef- on Deer Island for the care of sick emigrating to Boston. On the community was not altogether How many more escaped death fectual, wasteful, or downright indigent immigrants. eve of their departure, someone without compassion. In June in Ireland only to die in the harmful. Soup kitchens were 172 years ago today, May 25th, broke a hole in the thatch roof 1847 the president of the Com- House of Industry, or the Fort closed because free food was 1847, the committee appointed of their cottage and ran off with mon Council reminded his col- Hill cholera hospital, or in the regarded as a disincentive for Dr. Joseph Moriarty as hospital a large side of bacon meant to leagues of the virtue of caring street? Or to perish of typhus or starving people to work. Better Superintendent and Resident sustain the journey to America. for those in need regardless of dysentery in the asylums and to waste money on purposeless Physician. The hospital opened Presumably saving himself from who they were: prisons and mental hospitals? public works schemes. The bur- May 29th, the last Saturday starvation, the thief deprived “Remember,” said the Brah- Or succumb to tuberculosis or den of financing relief passed of May. Committee members the family of the sustenance min George Hillard, “that if these typhoid in the North End’s ram- from central government to met on the island to oversee that may have avoided the poor people had not thus taxed shackle tenements? Numbers local Poor Law Unions, even the launch of operations. Their deaths that robbed the boy of our benevolence they must have cease to mean anything. The though these local bodies were meeting minutes record a unani- his parents and two siblings on died. You will not, I am sure, be 850 souls on the island have bankrupt. British officials in mous decision to locate a burial Deer Island. Through the eyes weary in well-doing, or refuse become a poignant symbol of any case saw an upside to the ground “near the northwest side of his five-year-old self, Patrick to feed from the crumbs of our Famine era tribulation endured Famine: reducing Ireland’s ex- of the most northerly hill on the recalled the well-worn route of abundance the starving poor, by the unnumbered thousands cessive population would bring island.” James Turner, the new the Famine emigrant: the cattle even though they be aliens to the who suffered trauma, poverty, needed reform to its agricultural Hospital Steward, was also on boat to Liverpool - a cruel and soil. They are our brethren still. disease, and untimely death, ul- economy. Non-intervention with the island. In the eight months galling symbol, played out a They have the claims of a com- timately thanks to a government the course of famine was rein- of his employment Turner thousand times, of people and mon humanity, besides those of in London, that placed political forced by ethnic and religious would bury 365 immigrants in food exported on the same boat. urgent need. We are men before power and private profit over prejudices popular in Britain. that ground. Across the harbor, Following the stay at Liverpool we are Americans or English- poor people. Lacking a mission focused on Captain Ellis, and First Mate and the Atlantic journey, the men. They are as near to us as The Deer Island Irish Memo- saving lives, British policy had Mr. Knell, sailed the sloop family landed at Deer Island, the faint and bleeding Jew was to rial fulfils a years-long aspira- the effect of profoundly escalat- tion commemorating Boston’s 1 “Betsy Ransom”, on the first of where a large tent on the quar- the good Samaritan. The starving death and emigration. countless journeys transport- antine ground failed to shelter ing man is our neighbor and he Great Hunger fatalities. The Boston felt the impact in 1847 ing the ill from Long Wharf to them from the rain. City death that is in distress is a brother.”6 Celtic Cross, an icon of Irish when an unprecedented influx of the island hospital. Anchored records reveal his three-year It is in this spirit, I believe, heritage, has signified, since Irish immigrants landed in the off the island’s southern point old brother Philip dying of ty- that doctors and staff at Deer ancient times, a place that is city. Hundreds, destitute and were the first two Atlantic ves- phus on the island August 9th; Island struggled to save the sacred. Victims of Ireland’s sick, had nowhere to turn for sels to land passengers at Deer the infant, Peter, of a virulent lives of Irish Famine victims Great Hunger share this ground food and shelter but the House Island quarantine: the barque diarrhea on September 2nd. charged to their care. Wherever with peaceful Native Americans of Industry in South Boston. “General Greene” from Cork On September 7th Patrick and in the world there were famine starved in confinement on the Part-homeless shelter, part- with 95 passengers; the ship his brother John were walking fever hospitals in 1847, doctors island during King Philip’s hospital, the House of Industry “Clairborne” from Liverpool, about the grounds when their and medical staff were dying. War of the 1670s. This Cross was the City’s workhouse and with 259 passengers. Calvin father called to them from a On Deer Island they knew the marks as sacred the earth of asylum for the poor. In April Bailey, City Inspector of Alien window, in tears, that mother dangers, yet were willing to risk Deer Island holding remains and May, 429 arriving refugees Passengers, declared eleven was dead. “A few days after health and life for humanity. that testify against colonialism, were admitted, many carrying, from the “Clairborne” indigent this happened,” Patrick wrote, In Dr. Moriarty’s case, the mo- greed, economic exploitation and in the filthy rags they wore, lice and secured bonds from the “I noticed a large striped plaid tivation may have run deeper. political repression that have bearing the highly contagious captain indemnifying the City dress of my mother’s, hanging Moriarty was a Brahmin from inflicted - upon Ireland, Native scourge of typhus. Eighty-six of for the cost of their care. The on a line out of doors, and stood Salem married to a grandniece Americans, and many another them quickly died. The disease Port Physician, Jerome Von looking at it for a long while. A of John Hancock. He didn’t need people down to the present - the had spread easily in deplorable, Crowninshield Smith, found woman came to take it away to take this job jeopardizing tragedies of famine, war and crowded conditions aboard the two passengers from the “Gen- and I made a vigorous outcry his life, his career, the happi- forced exile. “coffin ships” that brought eral Greene” and six from the of protest and was hustled off ness of his family. Why did he John J. McColgan, Ph.D. them. The infection now spread “Clairborne” suffering from “ma- somewhere.” Six months later so earnestly seek the position? Archivist, City of Boston among the institution’s regular lignant diseases”, and ordered his father died at the hospital of a Might it have been because his 25 May 2019 inmates, nurses, attendants,

1 Published research on the Famine is vast. In this sum- 4 APC, patient registers. 6City Documents 1847, no. 26, “Resignation of Mr. mary analysis the author consulted Christine Kinealy, 5 Autobiography of Patrick J. McCarthy … Edited by Hillard as President of the Common Council”, City of Death Dealing Famine (Pluto Press, London, Chicago, his Daughter Mary Josephine Bannon (Providence Visi- Boston Archives 1997); Kevin Kenny, The American Irish: a History tors Press, Providence, RI, 1927). Photocopy of relevant 7APC. Genealogical information from George Andrews (Longman, Essex, UK, New York, 2000); Kerby Miller, chapters kindly forwarded to author by Dan O’Neil of Moriarty, “The Moriarty Family of Salem, Mass”, New Immigrants and Exiles (Oxford University Press, Oxford, the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, 10 Janu- England Historical and Genealogical Register (NEHGS, New York, etc., 1985, paperback 1988). ary 2001. Patrick states his family was booked on the Boston, 1947), courtesy Phillips Library, Peabody Essex 2 Annual Report of the Directors of the Houses of Industry “Iowa”. State Senate Documents, 1848, No.74 lists Alice Museum, and New England Historical and Genealogical and Reformation, April 1, 1848, City Document No. 17, and sons James and Philip as bonded passengers on the Society. (Eastburn Press, Boston, 1848), City of Boston Archives “Iowa”, arriving 2 August 1847. Death dates are found 8APC. 3City Council Joint Committee on Alien Passengers records in City Archives list of Deer Island burials, 1847-1850, 9Op. cit. note 3. Chandler’ conversion is described in (hereafter noted as, “APC”); “Aliens Landing” passenger compiled in 1991 from City death registers by Ed Quill, Bishop Fitzpatrick’s Diary for 11 June 1847, Boston lists, City of Boston Archives. City Archivist, 1989-1993. Archdiocesan Archives. bostonirish.com June 2019 BOSTON IRISH Reporter Page 9 BRETT’S BOSTON By Harry Brett Exclusive photos of Boston Irish people & events

The Éire Society of Boston presented the 2019 Gold Medal award to Kathleen M. O’Toole, former Massachusetts Secretary of Public Safety and Boston police commissioner, on Sat., April 27, in the Lighthouse ballroom at the Seaport Boston Hotel. The Gold Medal is awarded an- nually to a person or persons who exemplify the best of Irish culture and ideals. O’Toole was feted by some 200 guests, including two other Boston police commissioners, Bill Evans and his successor, William Gross. (BIR photos by Harry Brett and Margaret Brett Hastings).

1.) Kathleen O’Toole; 2.) Connolly Tolkiff, Brookline; Connie Koutoujian,Waltham; 3.) Ellen O’Toole, Weymouth, Margo Doyle, Weymouth; 4.) Padraig O’Malley, Cambridge; Gladwin Gilman, Washington, DC; 5.) Paul McLaughlin, Hingham; Mark O’Toole, Las Vegas; 6.) Richard and Scotti Finnigan, Chatham; 7.) Meghan O’Toole, Seattle; Ed O’Toole, So. Boston; 8.) John F. Collins, Alexandria, VA; Janet Craven, Milton; 9.) Peggy Davis Mul- len, Plymouth; Sue Donlan, W. Roxbury; Margaret Stapleton; Scituate; Neil Hurley, Somerville; 10.) Fr. Sean Connor, Boston Police Chaplain; Kate and Bill Nichtern, Hanover; 11.) Steve Burke, Dedham; Sandra Moody, Patrick King, So. Boston; 12.) Michael Sheehan, Easton; Pat Jennings, Westwood; Doc Langenderfer, Watertown; 13.) Boston Police Commissioner William Gross; Theresa and Jim Carmody, Milton. 1.

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12. 13. Page 10 June 2019 BOSTON IRISH Reporter bostonirish.com Cultural Centre hears author speak about ‘An Irish Immigrant Story’ Jack Cashman, a retired business and public service professional, stopped by the Irish Cultural Centre of New England last month to talk about his recently published book, “An Irish Im- migrant Story.” In the book, Cashman talks of the challenges experienced by an immigrant family and its members’ collective dream for independence. He notes that he drew his inspiration from personal circumstances in delivering a message of understanding the lives of foreigners seeking refuge in a faraway land, notably, in his writing, “Johanna Cashman and John McCarthy, who, along with more than a million others, immigrated to America to escape a devastating famine, leaving behind family members who faced starvation to come to a land that would give them a new opportunity for a good life.” Which they found for themselves and their family. “An Irish Immigrant Story,” issued by Page Publishing, is available at book- stores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes store, Amazon, Google Play, or Barnes and Noble. Jack Cashman talks about his book.

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Please email resume to: [email protected] www.CurtinHomeCare.com bostonirish.com June 2019 BOSTON IRISH Reporter Page 11 For the Friel Sisters, music isn’t all lessons and rehearsals; it’s also about making new friends and finding inspiration By Sean Smith So if we’re off, we know it.” Special to the BIR As they cultivated their From a purely transpor- musical lives, the Friels tational standpoint, the devoted themselves to Friel Sisters’ recent stay other vocations: dentistry in the Boston area had its for the twins, pharmacol- difficulties: They arrived ogy and biochemistry for late for their sound check Clare. “We were always at one gig, and a few days encouraged to focus on before going back home to what interested us, wheth- the UK, they learned that er it was music, or the arts, the airline on which their or science,” she said. “If return flight was booked you follow what you enjoy, had gone under. it comes together.” But pretty much ev- Not that this dual ex- erything else went swim- istence has been without mingly for the young challenges, Clare added, Glasgow-based trio, which especially when it comes has drawn acclaim for its to the job of managing the robust, wholehearted in- trio’s musical enterprises. terpretation of traditional For a while, Sheila took Irish music. The sisters time off from dentistry to – twins Sheila (uilleann handle things while Anna pipes, flute, whistle) and completed her training Anna (flute, whistle) and and Clare finished up her younger sister Clare (fid- honors degree. Then about dle) – performed at Boston three years ago, the twins College’s Gaelic Roots se- went into practice full- ries and The Burren, and time and Clare took up the appeared at a couple of mantle. Just when she was WGBH-sponsored events beginning to think about leading up to their stint going back into the sci- in this year’s “A St. Pat- ences, Clare was selected rick’s Day Celtic Sojourn” as the 2018 TG4 Young production at the Cabot in Musician of the Year. And Beverly and Harvard Uni- then there were more gigs, versity’s Sanders Theatre. and the second album to The Friels felt right at The Friel Sisters – (L-R) Anna, Sheila and Clare – during their performance earlier this year at Boston put together. Her “other” home during their time College’s Gaelic Roots series. Sean Smith photo professional plans remain in Boston, with plenty of on hold. friends, fans, and other Irish diaspora, especially notes and techniques; they “From there on, we were but we wanted to think “I absolutely love what well-wishers accumu- since we’re so close to our discovered that music meeting all these wonder- it through and be really I’m doing, though,” she lated from past visits in family’s original home. So wasn’t simply about les- ful people, who gave us all ready,” said Clare of the said. attendance at each event we would go to Donegal, sons and rehearsals, but kinds of encouragement 2014 release. “Being able With all the people who – as well as their parents, soak up all the music we also making friends and and help, along with the to do the recording at our have made a difference in who were both along for could, and bring it back finding inspiration. others who had done so in grandmother’s house in their lives, Clare said it part of the tour. Their with us. I think that’s The musicians they met, the past,” said Clare. “If Donegal was so much fun is, not surprisingly, the connection to the area made us hungrier: If we’d meanwhile, saw three you don’t catch the bug and just worked out so familial bond which has is further strengthened had the music around us youngsters who brought from that, there’s some- well. We didn’t think it had the strongest influ- through their uncle (a for- all the time, things might considerable talent and thing wrong with you.” would be any big deal, but ence. Sheila and Anna mer member of the band have been different.” enthusiasm to their play- Needless to say, the sis- we ended getting loads of have that unique closeness Simple Minds), who lives Still, the sisters’ own ing and nudged them ters caught it, continuing gigs after that. often observed in twins, in Duxbury. family ties to the mu- toward further opportu- their musical progress and “A few years later, we but Clare has never felt “Boston is such a wel- sic – especially on their nities for growth. When burnishing their resumé felt it was time to go into at a disadvantage because coming, vibrant city, and mother’s side – helped Clare was not quite 13 and as a performing group, the studio again. We had of it. is definitely special to us,” enormously at the out- the twins were 15, they appearing at the Glasgow tons more sets, and our “I’m always respectful said Clare, noting that set. As kids, they learned attended the Frankie Ken- Royal Concert Hall, the gigs were getting bigger of them being twins. They Anna had gotten engaged traditional songs like “P nedy Winter Music School Willie Clancy Summer and had so much energy, have their own world – during a previous stay Stands for Paddy” from in Donegal – named for School, Celtic Fusion, the CD didn’t match what dentistry and flutes – and in town. “There’s great their mother and “Free the late co-founder of and festivals across Eu- we were doing on stage.” that’s just understood. music here, and plenty of and Easy” through their renowned Donegal band rope, Asia and America Even with all the praise Being sisters, of course, very familiar accents. It’s great-aunt – both of which Altan and wound up – including the Catskill and appreciation for their we’ll bicker, but then it’s a place where we can feel remain in their reper- at the after-party Altan Irish Arts Week in New instrumental ability, what gone; there’s no linger- at home.” toire – and Clare fondly co-founder Ní Mhaonaigh. York. “It honestly didn’t captured the fancy of many ing hard feelings. Mom The sense of place is no recalls car rides or times A short time later, they take much out of us,” said listening ears was their always made it clear right small thing for the Friels. at home spent listening to got a call from Altan’s Clare. “Playing concerts unison singing, evoking from the start: ‘You’re all While they’ve always recordings of Planxty, The agent inviting them to was never intense, didn’t the older, traditional style sisters, and you have to called Glasgow home, they Bothy Band, De Dannan, appear with the group at make us nervous – not like in an era where harmony treat one another that also feel strongly rooted and other performers who the Celtic Connections taking exams.” has become the gold stan- way.’ I’ve never felt left in their parents’ native promoted modern innova- festival in Glasgow; also In 2014, eight years dard for Irish singers. out, and they’ve been so Donegal, the source of tion and creativity in their joining the band for the after their Celtic Con- “We were always used to kind to me. They even call much of their musical de- approach to traditional occasion were Mary Black nections debut, the Friels singing together, as well as me ‘the boss’ because of me velopment and activity, as music. and Paul Brady. formally launched their playing together, as kids,” managing the band.” is reflected by their unison It was musicians of It was all very exciting – first album, appropri- said Clare. “Not that we “The boss” and her sis- style of singing. So while that generation, contem- “We actually got a day off ately enough, at the last didn’t sing solo, like at ters have been able to relax they have taken inspira- porary-minded but keyed from school, too,” recalled Frankie Kennedy School fleadhs, but we always felt a little, even get in a trip to tion from the Irish folk into the tradition, who Clare – and the three prac- gathering. By then, the quite detached not being to Donegal, since returning revival of recent decades, helped guide and mentor ticed assiduously. But the sisters had established able sing as three. We’d lis- from the US. But summer, the Friels maintain a deep the Friels in more direct prospect of performing in themselves as a potent, ten to harmonies, and we and its various festivals awareness of, and respect ways after the sisters front of such a big audi- up-and-coming force in could certainly do them, and other events, beckons for, the tradition of their began playing the mu- ence “didn’t faze us at all; Irish music, displaying but it just felt natural to and this month they’ll be ancestral home. sic themselves, crossing we weren’t nervous,” she a talent for ensemble us to sing in unison. When on the road again. Not “For us, there’s a feeling paths with the likes of said. “I was just playing arrangements to comple- I hear unison singing, that any of the Friels are of having grown up in two Tommy Peoples, Mairéad around with some kids ment their instrumental it’s quite haunting, very complaining: Music’s done places,” Clare said. “We’ve Ní Mhaonaigh, Gabriel backstage when the call prowess – a quality they powerful.” quite a lot for them, after lived in Glasgow all our McKeon, Harry Bradley, came for us to go on.” showcased again on their Unison singing suits the all – and many would say lives – we absolutely love and Catherine McEvoy, The Friels returned the second album, “Before the sisters for another reason, the opposite is also true. it – but we’re also con- among others. Clare, following year, this time Sun,” released in 2018. Clare added: “I tend to be For more about The Friel scious of being part of the Sheila, and Anna’s educa- sharing the stage with “We’d long had the idea sharper, Anna a little flat, Sisters, see frielmusic. tion went beyond learning The Chieftains. of recording an album, and Sheila is in between. com. A Bloomsday special is set at Irish Consulate in Boston The Irish Network Gullette is Professor Consulate General of Boston will partner with Emeritus of English Ireland is located in the Consulate General of at Simmons College, Copley Square, 535 Ireland on Tues., June where he taught Mod- Boylston Street, 5th 18, from 5 p.m. to 7 ern Irish Literature for Floor Boston, MA 02116 p.m. for a special evening many years, including a This event is free and celebrating Bloomsday. James Joyce course. He open to the public, how- Scenes from Ulysses is also a poet, actor, and ever space is limited and will be brought to life by playwright, and Literary registration is required. David Gullette, showcas- Director of the Poet’s Register online at event- ing the wit and frivol- Theatre in Cambridge. brite.com/e/bloomsday- ity distinctive to Joyce’s Light refreshments 2019-tickets-623122. work. will be provided. The Page 12 June 2019 BOSTON IRISH Reporter bostonirish.com Mark Linehan is ‘Mame’s’ dashing Southern gentleman By R. J. Donovan BIR: Auntie Mame is a charismatic Special to the BIR character audiences just love? Reagle Music Theatre in Waltham A: Mame is a smart, independent, is kicking off its summer season with liberated woman . . . She has a lot of the musical “Mame,” playing June 13 love to give. I think people can particu- – June 23. larly identify with Mame. . . especially Mame Dennis, aka Auntie Mame, is recently. We’ve had the financial crisis, an effervescent, uninhibited, single New we had the college debt crisis. It’s the Yorker who lives life to the fullest. It’s story of someone living large and then the 1920s and the world is Mame’s chic, losing everything and having to rebuild bohemian playground. and maintain the connections that are However, her life is suddenly altered important to them. when she’s given the task of raising Pat- BIR: She attracts some eccentric rick, her young nephew, left orphaned characters. when his father dies suddenly. A: She creates a family based on the The beloved 1966 musical has a score people around her, whom she loves and by Broadway legend Jerry Herman and who love her. It doesn’t matter to her features both the rousing title song and what their situation is. It doesn’t mat- the hit ballad, “If He Walked Into My ter to her if they’re related to her or not. Mark Linehan is Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside in “Mame,” at Reagle Life.” Throughout life, all of us collect people Music Theatre, June 13 - 23. Scott Nobles photo Mark Linehan plays Beauregard who become part of our lives. That’s Jackson Pickett Burnside, the dashing, what a family is. A family is not a bunch the tallest people on the Freedom Trail. wanted to take a stab at Captain Hook wealthy, Southern gent who marries of last names . . . For a show written in And I wear bright green, so I’m pretty in “Peter Pan.” Absolutely over the top! Mame - played by Leigh Barrett - bring- 1966, that’s a lesson that we can still easy to spot. BIR: What was your first time on ing love to her life after the crash of 1929. afford to learn today. A family is love. BIR: You’ve played a diverse list of stage like? (Linehan and Barrett both appeared in BIR: And there’s an interesting family characters from Professor Harold Hill to A: My first year of high school I did “Anything Goes” at Reagle last summer.) coincidence to your playing Beau? Gaston and George Bailey. Any dream “Little Shop of Horrors” at Natick High The award-winning Linehan has per- A: My grandfather was stationed in roles to come? School and the bug bit me. I haven’t formed in theaters across New England Korea with the Fisheries Department A: I have been very lucky. My dream looked back since. I was originally one as an actor, dancer, and singer. He’s a from 1959 to 1961, and the Americans on was always just to work … I’d be lying if of the tinier roles in the show and then lifelong student of the saxophone and base did a community theater production I said I didn’t have a few dream roles on this kid quit and I ended up playing Mr. piano, both jazz and classical, and also of the play “Auntie Mame,” and I guess the bucket list. I’m slowly starting check Mushnick. And that’s been a repeated plays guitar and ukulele. my grandfather played Beauregard, the them off. My biggest dream role was John occurrence in my career. Many of my While he’s a favorite of audiences from role that I’m playing. Wilkes Booth in “Assassins” and I got to best roles are because someone else quit Wheelock Family Theater to Greater BIR: When you’re giving tours along play that at New Rep about five years … There’s a very good friend of mine, a Boston Stage Company and New Rep, he the Freedom Trail, do you assume a ago. Honestly, the only other role that very successful working actor, and he has also found time to appear on screen specific role? Are you required to stay intrigued me was Captain Von Trapp has a great phrase. “I don’t care if you in “Shutter Island,” starring Leonardo in character? in “Sound of Music.” There was always call me first, second or seventh as long DiCaprio, “Surrogates,” starring Bruce A: We do. We all take on the personas something about him that I wanted to as you call me last” (Laughter). Willis, and the Boston-based comedy of different characters … but we can’t be explore. People seem to think of him R. J. Donovan is editor and publisher “Ted,” starring Mark Wahlberg. completely in character, we can’t be re- as this really stiff, wooden guy with no of onstageboston.com. In addition to serving as an on-camera enactors. We’re interpreters. We walk emotions, and I actually think of him ••• historical expert for “Mysteries of the through a modern city so we can’t really as the opposite. He’s the guy who lost “Mame,” June 13 – 23, Reagle Music Museum” on The Travel Channel, he pretend its 1765 with cars whizzing by his wife. People always think of him as Theater, 617 Lexington Street, Waltham. works year round as a costumed guide … People all the time ask me questions a distant father but first and foremost Info: 781-891-5600, reaglemusictheatre. on Boston’s historic Freedom Trail. about who I really am, and I tell them. . he’s a widower . . . He’s someone who org. We spoke recently at the end of his . [You’ll see me] if you’re ever on Trem- loved his wife and lost her and it’s still very busy workday. Here’s an edited ont Street, School Street, Washington, fresh for him . . . And the other one is a look at our chat. or Congress. …[At 6-foot-4] I’m one of completely different captain. I’ve always

Fenway Park July 21, 2019 Purchase your tickets today at redsox.com/liverpoolfc bostonirish.com June 2019 BOSTON IRISH Reporter Page 13 THE BIR’s CALENDAR OF IRISH CELTIC EVENTS A look at some of this month’s Irish/ Celtic music-related doings in the area: • The first week of June offers an opportunity to see a dynamic new Celtic band with ties to the Boston area – and to support a good cause – when Fàrsan comes to the Parish Center for the Arts in Westford on June 2 at 7:30 p.m. The quartet performs instrumental and vocal music and dance from Scotland and Cape Breton, marrying the traditions embodied by fiddle, pipes and whistle, and Gaelic-language songs, to contemporary-minded accompaniment and arrangements. The members are Boston-area native Katie McNally, who has become one of the highly regarded young fiddlers in the US; Neil Pearlman, known for his innovative, enervating piano and accordion accompaniment; Elias Alexander (pipes, whistle, percussion), a member of the Celtic-Afro- Caribbean fusion band Soulsha and an occasional resident of Boston; and Màiri Britton, an Edinburgh native now living in Nova Scotia who sings in the Gaelic tradition and shares step dancing duties with Pearlman. Donations from the concert will go to the American Diabetes As- sociation. Go to facebook.com/ events/2196252383745415 for further details. • It may not officially be a Bloomsday event, but the Summer Céilí at The Milton Club does happen to take place on June 16, so perhaps you can hold a thought or two for James Joyce in your heart as you make the trek out to the festivities – the club is located at 193 Central Ave. in Milton. The céilí runs New England trio The Glory Reel will hold a CD release concert June 8 at the Canadian American Club in Watertown. from 2 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. and is hosted Anna Colliton photo by Boston area dancers Kristen Kelly, Jackie O’Riley, and Kieran Jordan, with teaching activities related to preserving live music provided by uilleann piper and passing on the music. Her two record- Joey Abarta and friends. Admission is ings showcase her wide-ranging musical $20, free for children under 12; and there interests: collaborations with British and will be a free beginner céilí dance lesson Irish jazz musicians; covers of Pee Wee at 1:30 p.m. King and Redd Stewart’s “The Tennessee •The Glory Reel, a trio of accom- Waltz,” Hank Williams’ “You Win Again” plished New England Irish musicians and George Gershwin’s “But Not for with a particular fondness for the Me”; and traditional and contemporary traditions of North Connacht and Ul- Irish songs such as “An Leanbh Si (The ster, will launch its debut album of the Fairy Child),” Sigerson Clifford’s “Boys same name at the Canadian American Of Barr Na Sráide” and “The Road from Club in Watertown on June 8 at 8 p.m. Killorglin to Cahersiveen.” The members are Will Woodson (flute, Uilleann piper and whistle player Cil- uilleann pipes), who also plays in the lian Vallely will team with Worcester trio Daymark; Chris “Junior” Stevens natives David and Patrick Doocey (piano, melodeon, button accordion), like on June 5 at 7:30 p.m. Vallely, who Woodson a resident of Portland, and a co- plays in super-group Lúnasa, has col- founder of the acclaimed Maine band The laborated with performers such as Press Gang; and Caitlin Finley (fiddle), fellow Lúnasan Kevin Crawford, Tim a mainstay of the Irish music scenes in O’Brien, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Philadelphia, New York City and now Bruce Springsteen and has recorded a Boston who has been a student of Rose solo album, “The Raven’s Rock,” which Flanagan and Brian Conway. included appearances by his brothers For more information, see facebook. Niall and Caoimhin. David Doocey, com/events/2181122168855082. winner of All-Ireland medals on both The Canadian American Club also will fiddle and concertina and the inaugu- hold a concert and dance on June 15 with ral World Fleadh fiddle championship, Cape Breton fiddle-piano duoIan Mac- has played in the band Gráda and with Dougall and Janine Randall. More Mayo accordionist David Munnelly, details at the Canadian American Club while guitar-playing brother Patrick, website [canadianamericanclub.com]. also a member of Lúnasa, has recorded • Nationally renowned Celtic rock with Crawford and fiddler Dylan Foley band Gaelic Storm comes to The as The Drunken Gaugers and toured Cabot Theatre in Beverly on June 29 at with Irish-Americana singer-songwriter 8 p.m. Although their legendary cameo Ashley Davis. appearance in the 1998 film “Titanic” Dana Lyn and Kyle Sanna bring is still recalled, the band – Steve Twig- their innovative project “The Coral Suite” Tommy Sands, writer of landmark songs like “There Were Roses,” will be at ger, Patrick Murphy, Ryan Lacey, Pete to the Backroom on June 12 at 7:30 p.m. The Burren Backroom on June 26. Purvis, and Katie Grennan – has built Fiddler-composer-arranger Lyn, who has contemporary folk songs animated by the University of Nevada for his work its success through good old-fashioned played with traditional Irish musicians three-part harmony. HighTime released as musician and ambassador for peace work, touring as much as 125 days out like Mick Moloney, Kevin Burke, and its first album, “Sunda,” last year [see and understanding. of the year to perform its crowd-rousing Martin Hayes, has a strong classical this month’s album reviews]. Information on, and links to tickets mix of Celtic, country and rock/pop. With background, and guitarist Sanna has One of Ireland’s most distinguished for, Burren events available at burren. 13 albums to its credit, Gaelic Storm has equally wide-ranging interests. “The singer-songwriters and social activ- com/music.html. regularly placed high in the Billboard Coral Suite” is a musical evocation of ists, Tommy Sands, performs in the • Fiddle music representing several World Music albums chart and appeared a coral reef and the diversity of life in Backroom on June 26 at 7:30 p.m. A traditions will be in the spotlight when on the same bill with such acts as the its ecosystem, drawing on traditional native of County Down with a rich fam- Brookline’s High Street Concert Series Zac Brown Band, the Goo Goo Dolls, and classical pieces as well as original ily legacy of music, Sands played with presents the duo of Kyra Davies and Emmylou Harris, and Lyle Lovett, and works, and complemented by light boxes siblings Ben, Colum, Eugene, and Anne Sean Smith on June 14 at 8 p.m. Widely at various events and venues including and projections featuring illustrations as The Sands Family in the late 1960s, recognized for her work in contemporary the Boston Irish Festival, the Telluride by Lyn. then began a solo career that saw him classical music, Davies (fiddle and vocals) Bluegrass Festival, and Milwaukee’s The New England Irish Harp Or- write songs decrying the violence of The has become a devotee of traditional music Summerfest. chestra appears on June 15 at 7 p.m. Troubles and expressing hope for peace from Ireland, Scotland, Shetland, and Tickets, information available at NEIHO is a multi-generational group of and fellowship, such as “There Were Cape Breton, with occasional excursions thecabot.org. harpists who play – in various combina- Roses” and “Your Daughters and Your into Breton and Galician traditions as • The Burren Backroom schedule for tions as well as a full ensemble – Irish Sons.” Praised by Nobel Poet laureate well, influenced by her years surrounded the month kicks off with South Kerry- traditional tunes, slow airs and songs, Seamus Heaney and folk music legend by the New England folk music scene. born singer Clare Horgan on June 2 at and snippets from other music genres Pete Seeger, his compositions have been Smith (guitar, bouzouki, vocals) has 4 p.m. Horgan has sung in a variety of as well. covered by Joan Baez, Kathy Mattea, The been playing traditional folk music from genres, including jazz (which she studied Making its Burren Backroom debut Dubliners, Frank Patterson, and Cara England, Ireland and Scotland since high at the University of Leeds), gospel, blue- on June 19 at 7:30 p.m. will be young Dillon, among many others, and “There school. His instrumental style reflects grass, and swing, but has never strayed Connemara trio HighTime. Ciarán Were Roses” was translated into German contemporary fashions and tastes that far from the tradition of her childhood, Bolger (vocals, guitar), Séamus Flaherty and included in the English syllabus have emerged in the past few decades and current, home. Her most recent (vocals, harp, bodhran, dance) and Conall for German secondary schools. In 1986, and taken traditional music in new and project involves delving into archival Flaherty (vocals, flute, whistle) bring Sands organized a “Citizen’s Assembly” innovative directions. recordings of traditional seán-nos sing- together diverse elements in their sound, in Belfast that included many of Ulster’s Tickets and other details at high- ing of her native Iveragh, and she has from sean-nos songs to classic tunes of top artists and literary figures. He was streetconcertseries.org. been granted funding for research and the Atlantic coast to traditional and named an honorary doctor of letters by Page 14 June 2019 BOSTON IRISH Reporter bostonirish.com Edward Islander Shelly Campbell; Jenna Reid’s “Sarah- Conall’s brother Sea- CD Reviews Jane” (a comely harp-flute duet at the outset); and, in a mus, meanwhile, played minor-key shift, Lúnasa uilleann piper Niall Vallely’s with Cherish the Ladies By Sean Smith “Nina.” In contrast to the Celtic-polyglot character two years ago at Celtic The Outside Track, “Rise Up” • The pan-Celtic, elsewhere, “The Silver Bullet” is solid Cape Breton, Connections and has intercontinental quintet is back with a new album, spotlighting Rankin’s energizing fiddle – matched been involved in other and another alteration to its lineup: Scotland’s Michael note for note by Black and powered by Ferrie – on a traveling shows. Ferrie has replaced German-Irish guitarist Cillian pair of strathspeys “Shelly Campbell’s” (by Kinnon This resumé suggests O’Dalaigh; this comes after Cork vocalist and flute/ Beaton) and “MJ’s” (Wendy MacIsaac), concluding a certain savviness to whistle player Teresa Horgan succeeded Canadian with a couple of brawny reels, the traditional “Miss HighTime’s approach, Norah Rendell on the band’s previous release, 2015’s Betty Ann Gordon” and Rosemary Poirier’s “The Sil- which brings together “Light Up the Dark.” Long-time members Ailie Rob- ver Bullet.” (Stephen Henderson’s drums and Cormac diverse elements in its ertson (harp) and Fiona Black (accordion), both of Byrne’s bodhran and other percussion are a welcome sound, from sean-nos Scotland, and fiddler Mairi Rankin – from one of Cape presence throughout the album, especially on the songs to classic tunes of the Irish Atlantic coast to Breton’s most distinguished musical families – provide instrumental sets.) traditional and contemporary folk songs animated by the continuity and institutional memory. Where “Light Up the Dark” had a decided contempo- three-part harmony. Their renditions of the capstan Whatever the changes, rary-folk quality to its songs, like the rural/blue-collar sea shanty “South Australia” and “Fiddler’s Green,” The Outside Track is as North American vibe of Nanci Griffith’s “Trouble in the by American singer-songwriter Tim O’Brien (not to exceptional as ever in ex- Fields” and Lennie Gallant’s “Peter’s Dream,” “Rise be confused with the song of the same name by John pressing, while simulta- Up” feels strongly rooted in traditional song, what with Connolly), for instance, have a jaunty, latter-day ballad- neously and seamlessly “Neillí Pluincéad (Eleanor Plunkett),” a setting of the group affect. But they achieve a different aesthetic uniting, different strains poem and tune by O’Carolan, and an Americana-tinted elsewhere, especially on “Village of Cloch Bhuí” – an of Celtic-related tradi- “Sweet Lover of Mine,” Scots singer Emily Smith’s elegantly crafted emigration song by Don Stiffe – which tions. This is particularly collation of versions of “Scarborough Fair.” Best of all Bolger’s lead vocal imbues with equal parts reminis- evident in its instrumen- are three time-honored ballads: “Banks of the Sweet cence and resolve (and not a hint of mawkishness), tal repertoire of mainly Dundee,” and its nevertheless-she-persisted storyline; and even more so on the hauntingly beautiful “An modern compositions in the super-natural “Wife of Usher’s Well”; and the Tiarna Randall,” Séamus Flaherty demonstrating his the traditional style, plus chilling “Lady Diamond,” a tour-de-force for Horgan command of the sean-nós (old style) singing tradition. several band originals. who, while cognizant of pop/modern influences, focuses Similarly, their instrumental sets – the tracks all In the “Dark Reels” medley, replete with changeling like a laser on the conjoined potency of narrative and are titled in Gaelic – include old reliables like “Maid of rhythms and accents, Robertson’s deft playing leads melody – and puts to shame the notion of trad songs Mt. Kisco,” “Monaghan Jig,” “Man of the House” and her beguiling, Balkanesque “Craigard,” with flute and being quaint, trivial affairs. [theoutsidetrack.com] “Out on the Ocean,” yet there’s no question about the fiddle slowly rising to the fore; after a transitional pas- HighTime, “Sunda” • The youthful trio of Ciarán high level of musicianship, particularly on the part of sage, Black rides in – Ferrie and Horgan right there Bolger (vocals, guitar), Séamus Flaherty (vocals, harp, the Flahertys: Séamus is in the spotlight on his own with her – to spearhead Lauren MacColl’s formidable bodhran) and Conall Flaherty (vocals, flute, whistle) “Fad Saoil” as well as the first part of “An Maolín” “And Sheep Will Eat Men” before Robertson returns comes from Ardmore in Connemara, and boasts some while Conall powers through a set of reels – featuring to guide another of her tunes, “Gaït Genouël’s Reel,” substantial performance experience: Bolger has Marcus Hernon’s vivacious “The Lively Wagtail” – on punctuated by Rankin’s outstanding break near the end. toured with the “Celtic Legends” international stage “Ifearnáin” with flute (Séamus shows his bodhran chops The endearing jig medley “Road to Rollo Bay,” with production, as has Conall Flaherty, who also appeared here) and in the latter part of “Iorras” on whistle. Bol- a lovely intro by Ferrie, is the titular tune by Prince in another extravaganza, “Rhythm of the Dance”; ger’s guitar is rock solid throughout, and rock-steady on the opening of “Iorras,” the aforementioned “Maid of Mt. Kisco.” A quibble here or there: Their cover of Richard Thomp- son’s “Beeswing” (increasingly at risk of overexposure these days) is maybe a touch too brisk, which serves COME VISIT ANY to lessen the song’s tender, reflective nature. And if you like sleeve notes, especially those that detail the contents of instrumental sets, they’re in short supply on “Sunda.” Hardly unforgivable offenses. While the harp and flute’s centrality gives HighTime a deceptively ethereal, almost cryptic demeanor, there SOMERS PUBS is nothing remote or inaccessible about their music. Quite the contrary. (You can judge for yourself if you LOCATION FOR QUALITY FOOD, catch them at The Burren Backroom series this month; see the June events round-up elsewhere.) [hightime.ie] Glenn & Ronan, “Horizon” • Former Univer- HOSPITALITY & LIVE MUSIC sity College Dublin students Glenn Murphy and Ronan Scolard have 7 NIGHTS A WEEK! reaped the rewards of the digital age. Three years ago, their video medley of songs by Adele went viral, and shortly thereafter the international singer- songwriter star invited the duo on stage with her, amplifying a media frenzy that saw them land an appearance on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and in other high-profile events. As their debut album shows, their celebrity in the 77 Broad St. 11 Marshall St. soft-pop music domain has merit: Both possess brac- Boston, MA 02109 Boston, MA 02108 ing yet tender voices that complement one another to 25 Union St. 617.338.5656 617.367.0055 perfection, all of which suits the unabashedly romantic Boston, MA 02108 mrdooleys.com greendragonboston.com content of their material. The songs on “Horizon,” half 617.742.2121 of which are Scolard or Murphy/Scolard originals, dwell hennessysboston.com a lot on the agonies and ecstasies of love and the grace of devotion: “I’ve been lost about a hundred million times/I’ve been searching for some freedom in my mind/Every day feels like a battle deep inside/Leavin’ all the love and innocence behind” (“Close My Eyes”); “I have loved and lost/Though it hurts/It’s better to have loved/And to lose it all and fall/Than to not have loved at all” (“Loved & Lost”); “When you’re scared/ When you’re broken/I will care for you/My heart is open” (“Safe & Sound”). Not exactly the stuff of Shakespearean sonnets, sure, but Murphy and Scoland deliver the songs with a health- ily restrained earnestness that sometimes achieves an 33 Union St. 108 Blackstone St. 9 Depot Ct. almost liturgical dimension (both had choir experience, Boston, MA 02108 Boston, MA 02109 Cohasset, MA 02025 after all, and were part of the Choral Scholars at UCD). 617.263.7771 617.742.2090 781.383.3366 Wisely, they avoid string sections and other facets of paddyos.com durtynellysboston.com mrdooleyscohasset.com over-production, relying largely on guitar, keyboards and drums for backing. Altogether, it’s a pleasant if not especially memorable listening experience. Perhaps in the not-too-distant future, someone will do a viral video based on Glenn & Ronan songs, and complete the circle. [facebook.com/glennandronan]

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150 Centre Street Dorchester, MA 02124 bostonirish.com June 2019 BOSTON IRISH Reporter Page 15 ‘Slán’ to the iconic Green Briar, ‘Fáilte’ to the Burren’s new gig (Continued from page 1) announced that The Bur- ren in Somerville’s Davis Square would be its new location, effective May 13 – a week after the Briar shuttered for good. Around the same time, the Boston Uilleann Pip- ers Club agreed to take the organizational reins for the Canadian Ameri- can Club’s Irish session on the first Thursday of each month beginning in August. No such good news came for the 14-year- old Harrington’s session, however; its final go-round was scheduled for May 22. Greater Boston is justi- fiably hailed for its Irish session scene, where it’s often been possible to find a different session taking place somewhere any day of the week. But the Briar/Harrington’s/ Canadian American Club news last month prompted reflection in the Irish music community on the mortality of sessions, no matter how popular and well-supported they may be. Sessions come, and then go, for any number of reasons: Disagreements between the musicians and the venue owner on details like scheduling, stipends for the session leaders, or whether par- ticipants get complimentary food or drink. The owner decides the session isn’t financially viable, or that customers want some other kind of entertainment. The sessioneers feel the space isn’t suit- able, or conclude it’s just too difficult for someone to organize and lead the Musicians of different generations were a common sight at the Green Briar session, particularly its “early” component. event on a regular basis. Sean Smith photo Even when things go 2008, “gave you the strong Besides Robinson, other from way back, tunes that tually became confident they’ll be missing.” smoothly, there is always impression of people dedi- former regulars attending everyone else didn’t mind enough to lead a set of Sheridan sounded an the possibility of the host cated to preserving and the Briar final sessions sitting and listening to.” reels. “’We’ve created a upbeat note about the pub or restaurant going sharing the music – all for included Janice Frishkopf On this night, as the monster,’” Sheridan re- session’s transition to The out of business, for what- the sheer joy of it.” of Belmont, who had often early session went on and called joking with another Burren, where the early ever reason – which in fact “I think it was the gen- dropped by in the early the room continued to fill, experienced musician as session will be held in its had happened to the Briar eral atmosphere of the 2000s. She marveled at Carter, Robinson, and the they witnessed the event. Backroom starting at 6 session before, when it place – the openness, the the session’s durability: other musicians played The Briar’s reknown p.m., the later session at was housed at the Village quality of the people –that “Now there’s a whole new a set of reels including went well beyond Boston, 8:30 p.m. in the front. He Coach House in Brookline made the session work so generation of musicians “The Wind That Shakes or Massachusetts, or New expressed appreciation to Village from the 1970s well here,” said Sheridan. who have come here.” the Barley.” Someone England – or the US, for Burren co-owner Tommy until late 1987 when the “There seemed to be a lot Bob Coleman, who started a four-part jig, that matter. Session vet- McCarthy for offering to restaurant was sold. of players who liked chal- paused occasionally while “The Lark in the Morn- erans reeled off names of take the session on, and But while it went on, the lenging one another, in a playing his bodhran to ing,” and others joined notable Irish musicians to fiddler Helena Delaney, Briar had one of the key el- positive way.” pass out red licorice to in; if you listened closely, who would stop by the who has long hosted the ements to what musicians At the penultimate friends, acquaintances, you noticed that many of Briar when their tour took pub’s Monday night ses- say helps make a suc- Briar gathering on April and strangers, recalled the musicians weren’t just the through town. sion and will continue in cessful, thriving session: 29, guitarist Elisabeth Reynolds’s willingness to playing the same notes, “A few of us started to that role. a pub/restaurant owner Carter of Waltham was try out an idea Coleman but were in agreement make a list of everyone “Tommy was very posi- who – instead of viewing among the musicians and his friends pitched about how to play them: who had dropped in at the tive, and as for Helena, to the session as a gimmick, settling in for the “early” him 18 years ago. “There which ones to emphasize, session over the years,” have the opportunity to or relatively low-cost session, aimed at those were six of us, just kind of which ones to vary, how to said Sheridan. “Trouble work with someone of that entertainment that can less experienced in Irish getting to know the music, end a phrase so as to give is, no matter how much quality is something to be arbitrarily preempted music, or who simply and we enjoyed going to the tune some lift. time you spend doing that, look forward to,” he said. or rescheduled – sees a prefer to play at a slower the Briar. But we didn’t This wasn’t happen- and no matter how long “People wondered about means of building com- tempo. know all the same tunes. stance, but an outgrowth the list gets, someone will the logistics, but a lot of munity and camaraderie. “Larry was so wel- So we went to Larry and of the “Tune of the Month” say, ‘What about so-and- them have been saying The session therefore is an coming, so warm,” she said, ‘Could we come in tutorial program early- so?’ It just never ends. ‘We’ll be there.’ So now integral part, rather than recalled. “It was very im- early, so we could go over session regulars partici- “But you know who re- it’s up to us, and I think an appendage, of the host portant to him that if you the tunes together?’ He pate in; sheet music and ally makes the session? we’ll make it work.” venue – as foundational a were new to the music, thought it was a great a recording of the tune in It’s those people who come feature as the food served or to the area, you would idea.” Thus was born question are shared so the every week, or every two Postscript: At the final or the drinks poured. feel at home. He’d invite the “slow” session, which musicians can practice weeks, or once a month – Green Briar session on “The O’Connor family you to lead a tune, if you came to be known in more at home. As Sheridan whenever they can. Their May 6, which was also was wonderful to us,” said wanted; if you didn’t that recent years as the “early” explained, learning a set contribution means so packed, a photo of Larry the accordionist and co-or- was fine, too. And if you session, starting up at 7 of common tunes together much.” Reynolds, fiddle in hand, ganizer Tommy Sheridan came back the next time, and concluding around via the same source can An O’Carolan tune, was placed on one of the of the Briar owners. “They he’d remember you.” 9, when the “late” session create a bond among the “Fanny Power,” signaled tables. The musicians were behind the session More and more musi- would begin. sessioneers while help- the end of the early ses- ended the night with a all the way; they felt it cians filtered in, and “To me, there were actu- ing them appreciate the sion, and shortly thereaf- reel in G, “The Galway was important. And they the “session room” was ally three components to subtle nuances in Irish ter the late session – tak- Rambler,” one of Reyn- trusted us to run things. It near capacity within an the Briar session,” said traditional music – like ing place in the pub’s main olds’ signature tunes. was a great arrangement.” hour. At one point, there Sheridan. “You’d have the differences between room – was in full swing, A week later, the former And having a Larry were three accordions, the early session, and the version of “Lark in a circle of some two- Briar session – both early Reynolds to run things three concertinas, five then the ‘regular’ ses- the Morning” they learn dozen musicians playing and late – had a splendid also went a long way bodhrans, a couple of sion would start up. But and others they might a considerably up-tempo Burren debut, despite to fulfilling the Briar’s guitars, a smattering of around 10:30, the crowd encounter. medley of reels. the chilly, damp weather, promise, they add. “The whistles and an ever- would get smaller, and Witnessing the develop- Coleman, still doling according to Sheridan: fact that Larry and the increasing number of we’d do stuff that was ment of formerly novice out red licorice, said he “three musicians deep” in CCE were associated with fiddles. Reminiscences a little different. We’d musicians at the Briar was “horrified” at the the later session, and good the session, and the way flowed, joyfully and lov- get ‘instrument-specific,’ has been satisfying for prospect of the Briar spirits all around. they went about running ingly, of memorable eve- focus on tunes that were Sheridan, who recounted shuttering. Taking note “If I do say so myself,” it,” said Cape Cod musi- nings and memorable more oriented to accor- how one fiddler, once too of the packed house, he he said, “the music had cian Edmund Robinson, a individuals, some of them dion, or fiddle or pipes. shy to sit in with others added, “Well, people will great flow and lift.” Briar regular from 1995- departed. People would bring tunes at the early session, even- definitely now know what Page 16 June 2019 BOSTON IRISH Reporter bostonirish.com Traveling People An Chuirt Hotel is a special place in gorgeous Gweedore, Donegal

An Chuirt Gweedore Court Hotel, in Gweedore, Co. Donegal, overlooks the Clady River, famed for its salmon fishing.E rrigal Mountain is in the distance. An Chuirt Gweedore Court Hotel in Co. Donegal. Judy Enright photos

By Judy Enright for two years. Since he ar- clients or they can rent Special to the BIR rived, he has overseen a cars at the airport. Gweedore, in northern three-month closure of the Behind the hotel - but Co. Donegal, is probably building for development also on the 100-acre estate not a location too many of the spa area, updating - is the Errigal View Pet of us American travelers of bedrooms, the restau- Farm with an interesting have discovered. Sadly, rant and dining room and assortment of animals most visitors stop their additional training of staff from raccoons to emus, northern trek in Donegal members. The work raised rabbits, and wallabies. Town and that’s a real pity standards, he said, while There is also an infant because Gweedore is in a maintaining the Irish wel- play area there and a most beautiful part of this come. And, we did feel so 9-hole pitch and putt. wild and wooly county. welcomed by all the staff An Chuirt recently The route to Gweedore at An Chuirt, from the joined a group called from the south is circu- general manager on down. Original Irish Hotels itous and winds through The hotel caters to (originalirishhotels.com), colorful towns, lush hills, some 30 wedding parties a collection of 59 locally and emerald valleys. Once per year and, Freitas run traditional and bou- you arrive in Gweedore, said, for every Friday, tique hotels, castles, man- there is much to do and Saturday, and Sunday ors, and country houses. see, thanks to its proxim- through September, it is Freitas said, “It’s a nice ity to attractions such completely booked. But if group to be part of and as Glenveagh National you happen to be in that these hotels try to help Park, Atlantic beaches area of Donegal midweek, one another.” and islands, nearby golf An Chuirt would be a great For more information courses, fishing, and more. choice for accommodation. on An Chuirt, email: A friend and I recently Bedrooms there are info@gweedorecourthotel. enjoyed a midweek stay spacious and decorated com or visit the website, Comfortable antique bed in one of the bedrooms at An Chuirt Gweedore Court at the historic An Chuirt with elegant, comfortable gweedorecourthotel.com. Hotel in Gweedore, Co. Donegal. Gweedore Court Hotel antique beds and other JOHN MOLLOY and Spa in Gweedore. furniture. A welcoming WOOLLENS This storied 4-star hotel basket of fresh fruit - or Heading south again was originally purpose- chocolates - greets the after our nice stay at built back in the 1830s by visitor. My friend likes An Chuirt, we passed Lord George Hill, a local a bathtub and I prefer a through the towns of landowner, in the style of shower. Each of our spot- Crolly, Dungloe, Maas, Scottish Highland hunt- less bedrooms was en suite and stopped in Ardara at ing lodges. The design was with modern bathrooms the John Molloy Woollen geared to attract gentry that offered a shower over Mills on the N56 road. who were visiting Donegal the tub so we were both It was so nice to see for fishing and hunting. happy. that, like An Chuirt, this The hotel stands in a stun- EXCEPTIONAL business is also family- ning location on a main CUISINE run. We were greeted by driving route, overlooking Even if there were no managing director Mi- the Clady River, noted for other reason to visit An chael Molloy, his wife and its salmon fishing, with Chuirt, the outstanding daughter, and learned Errigal Mountain in the cuisine in the dining room that the Molloy family distance. would make dinner well has been involved in the ONCE A worth a stop. I ordered textile industry since the COURTHOUSE that evening’s cod special mid-19th century. Done- An Chuirt operated and my friend had ri- gal tweed is produced as a hotel for more than sotto with sea bass – both there in the family’s fac- 25 years before the gov- were absolutely delicious, tory and the traditional ernment took over the beautifully prepared and Irish Aran Fishermen’s building and turned it presented. And, as an sweaters are still hand House beside the road to Gweedore in Co. Donegal. Judy Enright photos into a courthouse - thus aside, the bar offers 52 knit in homes across its Irish name An Chuirt, types of gin. “We are very Co. Donegal, and sold at road R2D2 highway, and 13, RDS, Dublin, ticket- (navigator). The plane or “the court.” The hotel passionate about our bev- Molloy’s. installed the appropriate master.ie; had taken off from Les- is located in a Gaeltacht, erages,” Freitas said. The store offers a vari- signage. • Bon Jovi, June 16, ter’s Field in St John’s, one of a number of Irish- Drinks are served with ety of men’s and women’s MUSIC EVENTS RDS, Dublin, ticketmas- Newfoundland, at 4:12 speaking areas primarily paper straws, a nod to the clothing, traditional and There are a number of ter.ie; p.m. (GMT) the previous on the western edge of the ecology and environment. contemporary. There is outdoor events planned • Sea Sessions, June day and arrived at Der- country but also found in “These are small things,” ample parking, free fac- for music lovers this 21-23, Bundoran, Co. rigimlagh, Clifden, at 8:40 Meath, Cork, and Water- he said referring to the tory tours, tourist infor- summer. Be sure to check Donegal, see seasessiions. a.m. (GMT) on Sun., June ford. More than half the straws, “but they have a mation, Irish crafts, tea/ ahead as many sell out com for more. 15. The distance covered staff at An Chuirt speak huge impact.” coffee, wifi, as well as the nearly overnight. Some • Kaleidoscope, June was a little less than 1,900 Irish. Freitas is currently woolen goods. of the concerts listed this 28-30 at Russborough miles and flight time was By the 1960s, the court working with Aer Lingus For more information, summer are: Estate, Co, Wicklow, see 16 hours and 28 minutes. had closed and the build- to create a midweek of- visit johnmolloy.com. • Forbidden Fruit Fes- kaleidoscopefestival.ie Events are planned ing lay vacant until local fer for customers to fly STAR WARS tival, June 1-3, Royal for more. from June 11-16, includ- resident Patrick Doherty from Dublin to Donegal Who doesn’t know at Hospital, Kilmainham, ALCOCK & BROWN ing field trips, guided and his family rescued airport for dinner at the least something about the Dublin, Irish and interna- From June 11-16, tours, talks, a boat re- the property in 1990 and hotel, an overnight stay, Star Wars films? While tional acts, non camping, Clifden, Co. Galway, will gatta, and much more. set to work restoring it spa treatment, and short they may not have been see: forbiddenfruit.ie for celebrate the centenary See: alcockandbrown100. to its former glory. This flight back to Dublin the your favorites, they surely more; of the first transatlantic com for more. summer, the Dohertys, next morning. Aer Lingus did appeal to the folks in • Malahide Castle con- flight in 1919 when a SUMMERTIME who still own and run already flies the route Malin Head, Co. Donegal, certs, June 7-22, Dublin, Vickers-Vimy biplane Summer is a great the hotel, will celebrate from Dublin to Donegal where scenes from “The ticketmaster.ie, include crash-landed behind the time to visit Ireland. At- 20 years since An Chuirt three times a day, year Last Jedi” were filmed. The Cure on June 8; Marconi wireless station tractions, many of which reopened. round, and Loganair flies The film and its char- Mumford & Sons, 14 and in the Derrigimlagh bog. closed for the winter, have General Manager Ri- from Glasgow to Donegal acters appealed so much 15,George Ezra, June 21, On board were two reopened and are ready cardo Freitas has been airport daily. The hotel to local residents that and Lana Del Rey, the British airmen, Captain to greet visitors. Enjoy with the 68-bedroom hotel can arrange to collect they renamed the R242 22nd. John Alcock (pilot), and Ireland whenever and • Fleetwood Mac, June Lt. Arthur Whitten Brown wherever you go. bostonirish.com June 2019 BOSTON IRISH Reporter Page 17 Immigration Q&A Irish International Immigrant Center Conditional permanent An agency accredited by US Department of Justice One State Street, 8th Floor, Boston, MA 02109 (617) 542-7654 Fax (617) 542-7655 residence: taking a look Website:iiicenter.org Email: [email protected] at the crucial next steps Q. I received a green card valid for two years, based Caitlin McGarry loves Boston on my marriage to a US citizen. I see that the card is due to expire in a few months. What do I do now? and its ‘strong Irish Vibe’ A. Your two-year permanent residence (as opposed At Ulster University, dously from exposure to in Boston at the start of to green cards good for ten years in other circum- Caitlin McGarry has been different aspects of media July 2018, Caitlin arrived stances) is “conditional” because you were married studying toward a degree in a professional and inno- just in time to celebrate the to your US citizen spouse for less than two years at in Communications, Ad- vative setting. Moreover, Fourth of July, spending the time when your legal permanent residence was vertising, and Marketing. Norbella’s dedication to the day at the beach and Caitlin enjoying one granted. Now you and your spouse must jointly file For her third-year place- social responsibility has watching fireworks. of her many trips Form I-751 with US Citizenship and Immigration ment, Caitlin found a really struck a chord with “I came to Boston during across America’s pic- Services (USCIS) during the three-month window truly perfect fit as a media Caitlin, who, with other a great year for sports” turesque northeast. before your current card expires,in order to “remove planning intern with Nor- Norbella employees and Caitlin said. She has at- spirit: “I think people here the condition” and obtain a green card with a ten-year bella, a position that aligns interns, has volunteered tended college basketball are very welcoming to validity period. Neglecting to file this application perfectly with her degree at homeless shelters and games, baseball games, Irish people in general. No on time can have serious adverse consequences, and that directly incorpo- charities across the city. and the Irish hurling wonder, as everyone loves including the loss of permanent resident status. rates many aspects of her When Caitlin is not matches at Fenway Park to claim their Irish roots!” USCIS wants to see that you are still married and studies. “I will definitely working or volunteering, in November. She was As is the case with so many living with your spouse, and that you therefore still return to Ireland with a she is making the most impressed by how the city J-1 exchange visitors, have a basis for permanent residence (and also that whole new and improved of a place that she has was so full of life follow- Caitlin’s year in Boston you do not have any possibly disqualifying issues skill set,” is her confident simply fallen in love with ing Boston victories at has been an unforgettable such as criminal convictions). The kinds of evidence apparaisal of the benefits – the beautiful city of the World Series and the experience. We wish her all that you use to demonstrate the marriage relation- of her internship. Boston. She enjoys walk- Super Bowl. the best as she finishes up ship are essentially the same as at your original Caitlin loves the variety ing through the Public Although she is very far her placement year and as green card interview, except that this time you mail of daily work at Norbella Garden, Back Bay and from home, Caitlin has em- she returns home to finish the evidence to USCIS along with the Form I-751. and will benefit tremen- Cambridge. As she landed braced Boston’s welcoming her degree! For example: Birth certificates of any children born of the relationship, showing the applicant and spouse as the The many sides of self-care parents; copies of federal and state tax returns with By Rachel Reisman preservation” and “I don’t think self-love is a choice, I the “married filing jointly” filing status; evidence of Mental health matters! Spring is the season each year think it’s a decision that has to be made for survival.” joint checking, savings, or other accounts or assets when we remind ourselves that our mental health mat- As Mawiyah Patten notes “self-care can be completely (certificates of deposit, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ters to ourselves, to our friends terrible” as it’s acknowledging our shame, our vulner- retirement accounts, pension plans, etc.), or joint Matters of and family, and in our workplaces. abilities, our limits. However, as anyone who forges obligations on any loans; photo ID cards (such as This year’s theme is “for mind for down this honest path, who gets quiet and listens to driver’s licenses, school IDs, or amended passports) Substance body” as it’s all interconnected; our themselves every day, faces their doubt and fears, the showing the couple’s joint address; an apartment emotional and brain health affects self-care pay-off is bigger and better. lease or a letter rrom the landlord indicating that our bodies, and vice versa. We must take care of our So remember, anything and anyway that enables you both spouses live at the apartment, or copies of rent moods, our minds and our relationships the same way to quiet the distractions and hear your own thoughts, receipts showing both parties’ names. we attend to our bodies, our bones, and our teeth! It’s to feel the strengths and pains in your body, and that Also, house or condominium deeds or mortgage just as valid and just as necessary. helps ease the buzz of worry in your mind is good self- documents showing joint tenancy and obligation; Sometimes it’s easy, often it’s not,and that doesn’t care. You don’t need a fancy yoga class or a juicer, just credit cards showing both spouses’ names on the mean you’re doing it wrong, just that you’re on the a place to sit, breathe, and reflect. It can be at your accounts; documents from an employer showing a right track. At the IIIC, we are here to help you find desk, during a walk, while you drive. The sound of change in records to reflect the spouse’s new marital what you need to cope, manage, and feel better and to the sea can speak to us of our sadness and soothe us, status or showing designation of the spouse as the provide you with the support and care we all need to too. During a run we might acknowledge the grief we person to be notified in event of accident, sickness, preserve ourselves along the way. carry. And then, make that dental appointment, have or other emergency; evidence of life insurance poli- In addition to therapy, medication, AA and other that hard conversation you’ve been putting off, and rest cies where one spouse is named as the beneficiary services that many of us seek out, all of us need to your sore back. Call or email us at any point along the of the other; evidence of one spouse’s medical or develop our particular box or brand of ‘self-care’ tools way, as a big part of self-care is not going it alone and health insurance plan that has coverage for the and routine that work for our own daily life. Self-care hearing your thoughts out loud. other spouse; copies of gas, electric, telephone, cable, is something we’ve heard a lot about over the past few Rachel Reisman, LICSW, is a member of the staff at and other utility bills showing both parties’ names years, and while it’s being touted to sell everything from the Irish International Immigrant Center. rreisman@ (or at least the same mailing address); evidence of candles and wine to spa days and Vegas trips, it’s really iiicenter.org joint ownership of an automobile (title, insurance, about the simple and quiet ways we learn to listen to PS: See our Wellness FB page and watch our video registration, financing). If one spouse owns the car, ourselves, to live in the moment, and be aware. It can about Wellness Services at the IIIC! show at least that the other is covered as a driver cost nothing and should be tailored to you. on the insurance policy. Whenever I meet with a client, no matter how much Also, evidence of vacations and other trips taken they are struggling in a given moment, critical ques- together, including airline tickets and hotel bills; tions are: “What brings you pleasure? Where do you evidence of major purchases made together, such as find fun?” The pleasurable side of self-care includes computers, audio equipment, television, refrigera- things such as reading, laughing with friends, being a tor, washer, dryer etc., including any financing docu- part of the GAA, Netflix binges, taking those candle-lit ments; photographs that show both spouses together baths, or fishing. It is important, and when someone with family and friends; two sworn affidavits from can no longer find this in his or her life, we know the people who know the spouses as a married couple suffering is deep. and who can briefly describe their relationship with Self-care is also self-preservation and the stuff we them. These can be relatives, close friends, employ- find harder to do. This side of the coin is everything ers and others, preferably US citizens. from loving yourself and having compassion for your- No one has all the evidence listed above, but every self, to asking for help, following through with medical couple has at least some of these items. The point tests, and facing hard realities. As Lizzo, the powerful is to submit everything that fits your particular performer, writes: “Self-care has to be rooted in self- situation. Another important reminder is that USCIS expects you to submit documentation that covers the entire two-year period of conditional resi- Join us at the dence. The biggest mistake that people make is not submitting enough documentation. If not enough Boston Pride Parade! proof is submitted, USCIS will issue a request for The IIIC will participate in Boston Pride Parade further evidence or even schedule the couple for an and Festival again this year, partnering with the interview, which will delay processing of the case. Irish Consulate General and other Irish organizations. Note that in some circumstances you can file this Together, we are walking under the banner “Irish for petition without your spouse if, for example, you Pride.” The parade and festival will be held on Sat., June are now divorced or if you are a victim of domestic 8 at noon. We welcome everyone to march alongside violence. In these circumstances, you are required us! Please email Francesca Paranzino at fparanzino@ to show that you had a “good faith” marriage, among iiicenter.org with any questions and to get involved! other things. All are welcome to participate, so bring your friends IIIC can assist you with the I-751 form and affida- and meet us at Boston Pride! IRISH INTERNATIONAL IMMIGRANT CENTER vits and help you to evaluate whether your marriage IMMIGRATION LEGAL ASSISTANCE evidence documentation is sufficient. Also, if you The Irish International Immigrant Center’s immigration attorneys and social workers are available for all immigrants during this time of uncertainty and concern in our community. We are closely have been arrested for any reason since you were following the changes in immigration policies, and are available for confidential, legal consultations, and case representation. At weekly legal clinics, you can receive a free and confidential granted conditional permanent residence, it is es- consultation with staff and volunteer attorneys. For information, or if you or anyone you know would like to speak to an immigration attorney, please call us at (617) 542-7654. sential that you consult with an immigration lawyer before filing. Visit one of IIIC’s weekly clinics for Upcoming Clinic Schedule Clinics are in the evening – please do not arrive more than 30 minutes before the clinic begins for a free, confidential consultation about this or any registration. other immigration law issue. Downtown Boston IIIC, One State Street, 8th Floor, Boston MA 02109 Tuesday, June 4th, 18th and July 2nd at 4:00pm Monday, June 10th at 5:30pm Disclaimer: These articles are published to South Boston inform generally, not to advise in individual cases. South Boston Labouré Center 275 West Broadway South Boston, 02127 Tuesday, June 25th at 6:00pm US Citizenship and Immigration Services and the US Department of State frequently amend regula- Citizenship Clinics IIIC, One State Street, 8th Floor, Boston MA 02109 tions and alter processing and filing procedures. For Wednesdays from 10am-1pm Walk-ins are welcome! legal advice seek the assistance of IIIC immigration legal staff Our Downtown Boston location is fully accessible by public transportation. Phone: 617.542.7654 | Fax: 617.542.7655 | www.iiicenter.org Page 18 June 2019 BOSTON IRISH Reporter bostonirish.com lumbus hall, 15 Winslow Irish Express playing at TIME TO TEE IT UP Boston (SAofB) will host HAPPENINGS Street in Arlington. Denis its dance night. 7-10 p.m. The Irish Pasto- its 13th Annual Golf Tour- Curtin’s band will provide Sun., June 23 – The ral Centre’s Annual nament on Fri., June 7, at the music for dancing. As Irish Social club will host Golf Tournament is set the Brookmeadow Coun- JUNE 2019 always, complimentary “Erin’s Melody” in play- for Mon., June 10, at try Club in Canton. Reg- coffee, tea, and delicious ing for its evening dance. the George Wright Golf istration is at 1 p.m., then Sat., June 1 – The Fathers - will hold their home baked Irish bread 7-10 p.m Course in Hyde Park. a shotgun start at 2:30. Irish Music Club, 410 annual benefit dance at the and pastries. Proceeds The Registration at 7:30 a.m, Dinner and awards after Quincy Ave., Braintree Irish Social club in West Sun., June 23 – donated to the Irish Pas- “Mighty Quinn” fund rais- tee off at 8. Dinner to golf at the club. Cost of the will conduct its monthly Roxbury. Dancing from toral Centre. For addi- er is at Florian Hall from follow at the clubhouse in golf tournament and din- dance. Music by the Andy 7-11 p.m. to the music of tional information, contact 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. Hyde Park. There will be ner is $125. Dinner only, Healy band from 7-11 pm. “Erin’s Melody”. Great President Mary Tannian The awards for closest to the $25. The cost to sponsor Complimentary coffee, tea, raffle prizes. The Ke- Tues., June 25 – at 978-664-4652. Irish Pastoral Centre will pin and longest drive for a hole is $100. To play or and pastries. Admission nyan Choir and the Har- Sun., June 9 – The have its annual BBQ at men and women, and a make your own foursome, is $10. For additional ney Academy of Dancers Irish Social club in West noon. For information, call raffle for valuable prizes. send check payable to the information call Anna at will entertain. For addi- Roxbury will have the 617-265-5300. Cost, which includes golf, Sligo Association of Bos- 617-696-6007. tional information, contact “Silver Spears” playing for Sun., June 30 – The cart, green fees, awards ton, and mail to Will Col- Sun., June 2 – The Fr. Brendan Darcy at 781- its dance night. 7-10 p.m. Irish Social club will fea- and dinner is $150 per leary, 5 Anchorage Drive, Irish Social club in West 326-3288. Sat., June 15 – The ture Mossie Coughlin play- golfer; dinner without golf Wareham 02571. More Roxbury features “Erin’s Sat., June 8 – The Norwood club will not have ing for its evening dance. $35. Hole sponsorships information, Ray McVeigh Melody” for its dance. Knights and Ladies of St. a dance this month. 7-10 p.m. available at $100, and at 617-293-4069 or Kevin 7-10 p.m. Finbarr-Cork club will Sun., June 16 – The Listings provided to BIR, donations appreciated. Johnston, president, at Fri., June 7 – The hold their monthly dance Irish Social club will fea- courtesy Richard Archer. Send checks payable to the 617-908-2050, or kevin- SMA - African Mission at the Knights of Co- ture John Connors and the Irish Pastoral Centre, 15 [email protected]. Rita Road, Dorchester Ma Proceeds will be used JOHN C. 02124. For more informa- to finance three $1,000 tion, call 617-265-5300, or scholarships for children ALLAGHER go online to ipcboston.org or grandchildren of SAofB G The Sligo Association of members. Insurance Agency AUTO Burials in INSURANCE Massachusetts Specializing in Auto- or Ireland Geraghty mobile Insurance for over a half century ASSOCIATES of reliable service to the Dorchester com- PROPERTY MANAGERS munity. Gormley New Accounts Funeral Home Studio and 1-Bedroom Apartments Welcome 617-323-8600 Available in the desirable 1471 Dorchester Ave. Cedar Grove section of Dorchester. at Fields Corner MBTA Phone: 2055 Centre Street West Roxbury, MA Studios reasonably 617-265-8600 priced; “We Get Your Plates” www.Gormleyfuneral.com 1-bedroom units; heat and hot water included. Short walk to the Red Line. Free off-street Parking. EIRE Washing Machines pub and Dryers in building. 795 Adams St. • Dorchester Call Michael at 617-364-4000 “President’s Choice” Geraghty Associates, Inc. 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Harry Brett • Margaret Brett Hastings The official photographers of the Boston Irish Reporter bostonirish.com June 2019 BOSTON IRISH Reporter Page 19 CONNECTING YOU TO CASTLES ACROSS CONTINENTS. Flying nonstop from Boston to Edinburgh, Scotland. Page 20 June 2019 BOSTON IRISH Reporter bostonirish.com