For anyone who is Irish-American, and whose family came to America before 1900, the question of where in Ireland those people came from is all too often unanswerable. But for those…
Category: County Monaghan
One man who brilliantly illustrates the continuity of community across the border dividing County Monaghan and County Tyrone, is John Hughes, the first Archbishop of New York. His parents were born in Monaghan and he…
One of the most fascinating characters to grace the Irish community in Providence was James Donnelly, a priest from County Monaghan who would one day be anointed Bishop of Clogher, the…
Read More 1854: An Irish Sojourner Visits Providence, Rhode Island
“The Silent City” is how the Providence Visitor referred to St. Patrick’s Cemetery in 1889. At the time, it was estimated that at least 21,136 members of the Irish community of…
Dad training in South Carolina A recent weekend spent with Dad at a World War II air show was more than a treat. I saw the joy in Dad’s face…
It is well known that Irish-Americans have long identified with the issues of their ancestral home. But as someone whose parents and grandparents belonged to “assimilation generations,” it came as…
Read More Inflammatory Words, Found in a Most Unlikely Place
Thomas G. Bradford Map of Rhode Island 1838 Rhode Islanders have long prided ourselves on our history of tolerance, going back to the arrival of Roger Williams in 1636. However,…
Read More The Long and Uneven Fight for Equality: Providence, R.I. 1841
I received two letters in the mail this week that reminded me of a very kind and gentle man from Somalia. The two letters that I received were sent to…
Read More Two Men: Two Continents, Two Centuries, Parallel Experiences
On “St. Paddy’s Day,” while people wear the green and act silly and self-congratulatory, it is worth remembering the sacrifices and the challenges that the earliest Irish immigrants faced in making…
Monday, October 7, 1850, was a day of hope and exhilaration. The decision had been made weeks before, his tickets were bought and his bags packed. Alexander McDonald Lawson said…