From Kennedy to Curley: Discovering Boston's Irish history on foot

Boston Globe

15-03-2025

Tell us about your Irish heritage.
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I grew up in Pittsburgh. My father's family came here in the 1850s and had a typical love of being Irish American. My dad met my mother in Northern Ireland after World War II. They got married in Limerick and moved to the US. My mother was a very proud Irishwoman, and both my parents passed that pride along to me and my five sisters.
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When did you establish the Irish Heritage Trail? Why?
When I came to Boston, I hadn't realized how Irish it was. I quickly found out. I was working for the parks department in the [Mayor Raymond] Flynn administration in the 1990s and it occurred to me to put together a string of Irish monuments.
I wanted each site to be either an homage to an Irish individual or to have an Irish connection that was interesting in its own right. Obviously, the Kennedy family figures large into this. That's why the trail starts at the Rose Kennedy Garden. Also, the landmarks should be accessible in public parks and other places you can get to easily.
You can come and go at the Boston Public Library, the State House, and even City Hall. I struggled momentarily with Fenway Park where the contractor Charles E. Logue was from County Derry. Even though you can't always get inside, you can look around the exterior and take in the history and magnificence of the structure.
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A section of the Soldier and Sailors Monument on Boston Common.
David L Ryan/Globe Staff
Were you surprised by the number of landmarks you discovered in your early research? Obviously, you keep digging and finding more.
In downtown Boston, most of the statues you saw at that time were of the distinguished Yankees, from what used to be called the Brahmin era. There weren't as many Irish statues in town. I began thinking, what about Irish sculptors? And that became a treasure trove.
Martin Milmore, who created the Soldiers and Sailors Monument on Boston Common, emigrated from County Sligo. Sculptors Augustus and Louis Saint-Gaudens were of Irish and French heritage. Between them, there's easily a dozen statues in Greater Boston alone. Louis sculpted the twin marble lions that flank the main staircase of the central library. They're one of the most talked-about stops on the trail.
Many Irish are interred in the Central Burying Ground on Boston Common, a stop on the Boston Irish Heritage Trail.
David Lyon
Were you surprised by the Irish connections to some of the city's most iconic buildings?
No, because those buildings are repositories of memory. We think a lot about how the Irish Trail interconnects with the Freedom Trail, the Boston Women's Heritage Trail, and the Black Heritage Trail. They intersect in ways that are positive and enriching. If you're walking the Black Heritage Trail, you could find out that Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the sculptor of the Shaw Memorial, was born in Dublin.
At the Boston Massacre Memorial on Boston Common, you could learn that one of the five victims, Patrick Carr, was from Ireland. Many Irish were buried at the Central Burying Ground, also on Boston Common. You'll see Celtic crosses there.
One of the moving stops on the Boston Irish Heritage Trail is the Irish Famine Memorial on Washington Street. This portion shows an immigrant family.
David Lyon
Boston's history is very multilayered and complex. Those intersections help knit it together.
Any tips for exploring the trail?
We created a roughly mile-and-a-half trail from the Rose Kennedy Garden to the Common and Public Garden. That keeps you in the heart of Boston and gives you a sense of old Boston, political Boston.
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The second half would be from Copley Square to Fenway Park. You could spend hours looking at artifacts and statuary in the Boston Public Library.
The Swan Boats were created by two Irish immigrants, Robert Paget and Julia Coffey Paget.
Erin Clark/Globe Staff
What new sites are you are adding this year?
First I would mention the Swan Boats, which were created by two Irish immigrants, Robert Paget and Julia Coffey Paget. Four generations later, they're still going strong. That speaks to an important message. Often people think of Irish Boston in political terms. But you can uncover richness from art or artifacts.
We'll also be adding the painting of [Massachusetts Senator] Daniel Webster in Faneuil Hall by Irish American artist George P. Healy and the bust of author Edgar Allan Poe in the central library as well as Poe's statue near the Transportation Building. Poe was born in Boston to an Irish American father and English mother.
We've talked about recognizing more women for 25 years. We'll be adding the Dartmouth Street memorial to Kip Tiernan, the founder of Rosie's Place [the first shelter for unhoused women in the country]. She was raised by her Irish grandmother. There's an interesting lineage of Catholic Workers, who decide that they're going to help the poor, no matter what. That's the kind of person she was.
Inside The Dubliner in Boston.
Barry Chin/Globe Staff/file
Where should people stop for a break?
The Black Rose is a friendly and iconic pub.
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What do you hope people gain by walking the trail?
It speaks to a broader historical context.
Interview was edited and condensed. Patricia Harris and David Lyon can be reached at
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Patricia Harris can be reached at