Hidden History of the Boston Irish: Little-Known Stories from Ireland's "Next Parish Over"

by Peter F. Stevens

Overview

Peter F. Stevens offers an entertaining and compelling portrait of the Irish immigrant saga and pays homage to the overlooked episodes of the Boston Irish experience.

When it comes to Irish America, certain names spring to mind - Kennedy, O'Neill, and Curley testify to the proverbial "footsteps of the Gael" in Boston. However, few people know of Sister Mary Anthony O'Connell, whose medical prowess carried her from the convent to the Civil War battlefields, earning her the nickname "the Boston Irish Florence Nightingale," or of Barney McGinniskin, Boston's first Irish cop, who proudly roared at every roll call, "McGinniskin from the bogs of Ireland - present!" Along with acclaim or notoriety, many forgotten Irish Americans garnered numerous historical firsts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781596294509
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	03/28/2008
Series:	Hidden History
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	216,248
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Local writer Peter F. Stevens is the news and features editor of the Boston Irish Reporter and has written two books on Irish history—The Voyage of the Catalpa: A Perilous Journey and Six Irish Rebels' Escape to Freedom, which was chosen as a Read Ireland Book of the Month, and The Rogue's March: John Riley and the St. Patrick's Battalion in the Mexican-American War, 1846-48.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements     7
And Justice for All?
"Your Eyes Are Full of Murder": Dominic Daley and James Halligan     10
"The Fires of Hate": The Burning of Charlestown's Ursuline Convent     16
Sworn to Secrecy: The "Know-Nothing" Papers     21
Unrepentant Rebels
A Bold Fenian Man: John Edward Kelly     28
High-Seas Drama: Molly Osgood Childers and the Asgard     33
De Valera: When "Ireland's Lincoln" Came to Fenway Park     37
Cops, Robbers, Rioters and Rogues
Boston's First Irish Cop: Barney McGinniskin     42
"Down with Them!": The Broad Street Riot of 1837     46
The Art of the Double Deal: "Dapper Dan" Coakley and the "Toodles Ryan" Case     51
Blueprints for Success
A Foamy Fortune: Lawrence J. Logan     56
"The House that Logue Built": Fenway Park     59
The Write Stuff
"The Irish Belle of Boston Letters": Louise Imogen Guiney     64
"On This Rock": John Boyle O'Reilly's Paean to Plymouth Rock     69
A Higher Calling
"The Boston Irish Florence Nightingale": Sister Mary Anthony     76
"It Must Be True Since Mr. Keely Says It Is": Patrick Keely     80
Shamrock and Sword
The Forgotten Irish Heroes of Bunker Hill     86
"Clear the Streets": The Boston Irish Draft Riot     91
"The Esteem of All Who Knew Him": Patrick Guiney     96
"Suffragette City"
"The Grand Heckler": Maggie Foley of Meeting House Hill     102
"The General Organizer": Mary Kenney O'Sullivan     107
Let the Games Begin
The Boston Irish "Rocky": Jake Kilrain     112
"The Wollaston Whiz": Tom McNamara     117
Home for the Holidays
Celebrating in Style: The Charitable Irish Society and America's First St. Patrick's Day Gathering     122
On the March: Boston's First St. Patrick's Day Parades     127
"Bah, Humbug": Christmas for the Boston Irish     132
All Politics Is Local
A Mayoral Milestone: Patrick Collins     138
"Curley Became a Bathhouse and Gallivan a Road..."     144
Sources     151