Statue of Edmund Burke in Washington, DC On April 19, 1774, a full year before the Battle of Concord and Lexington erupted, Irish MP Edmund Burke of Dublin (1729–97) made a compelling speech in the British House of Commons in London, supporting a motion to repeal the Townsend Revenue Act, which taxed tea in the American colonies. Burke warned his colleagues that taxing the American colonies ‘three pence per pound weight upon tea, payable in all his Majesty’s dominions in America,’ was a recipe for rebellion from the colonists. This type of taxation called into question the very ..read more

Bernadette Devlin of Cookstown, Country Tyrone, was elected as the Mid Ulster MP to Westminster Parliament in 1969, and gave her maiden speech there on April 22, 1969. She was 21 years old.  Her opening words set the tone of the speech and also of her political career: "I understand that in making my maiden speech on the day of my arrival in Parliament and in making it on a controversial issue I flaunt the unwritten traditions of the House, but I think that the situation of my people merits the flaunting of such traditions," she said.  Read her entire speech here. Devlin criti ..read more

  State Capitol Building, Concord, New Hampshire, Photo, Michael Quinlin One of New England’s true military heroes of the American Revolution was General John Stark (1728-1822), the son of Scots-Irish parents who emigrated the American colonies in 1720 and settled in the Scots-Irish settlement of Nutfield, NH,where John and his brothers were raised.  Today, the former settlement is comprised of the towns Londonderry, Derry and Windham. It was Stark who coined the famous phrase, Live Free or Die, which is the motto of the state of New Hampshire.  John’s father Archibal ..read more

Photo courtesy of Harvard Libraries Within days of President Abraham Lincoln's April 15, 1861 proclamation seeking 75,000 volunteers to join the Union Army, Irishman Thomas Cass of Boston's North End immediately began recruiting Irish immigrants to form the Massachusetts 9th regiment. The volunteers came largely from Boston and the nearby towns of Salem, Milford, Marlboro and Stoughton. A total of 1,727 men enlisted. The Irish volunteers encamped on Long Island in Boston Harbor through May to train and organize. On June 11, 1861, the Ninth Massachusetts Regiment was mustered into service. T ..read more

Courtesy of Boston College Photo Archives Legendary politician Thomas P. Tip O’Neill was born in North Cambridge on December 9, 1912, the son of Thomas Philip O'Neill, Sr. and Rose Ann Tolan. His grandfather had emigrated in the 1840s during the Irish Famine.   Tip rose to become one of the most powerful political figures in 20th century America, delving into domestic issues as well as international ones, especially regarding Northern Ireland.   O’Neill based his entire career on the mantra, ‘All Politics is Local,’ a phrase that bespoke the need for politicians to comm ..read more

On April 15, 1883, the Nestorian steamship, operated by the Allan Line, landed at Boston Harbor, carrying more then 650 Irish paupers from the west of Ireland  who had been evicted from their small farms sent off to the United States.  It was part of the controversial Tuke Scheme, endorsed by the British Government,  to deal with issues of poverty and starvation in the Connacht region of Ireland.  A scheme was named after wealthy English Quaker James Huck Tuke, who had witnessed first hand the effects of the 1879 Irish famine, which had largely affected the west.  T ..read more

The very first Boston Marathon was held on April 19, 1897, inspired by the first modern Olympic Games held the previous year in Athens, Greece. The race was organized by Boston Athletic Association's John Graham, who has also coached the Boston Olympians and had been inspired by the Olympic marathon race in Athens, which had been won by a Greek sheepherder. The initial field in 1897 Boston consisted of fifteen runners, of whom ten would finish the race, according The Boston Globe, while the Louisville Courier Journal later reported that there were "30 starters, and 23 finished the race ..read more

The famous Boston Athletic Association (BAA) was founded in the late19th century by an unlikely coalition of leading Boston Brahmins and a famous Irish rebel, John Boyle O’Reilly (1844-90).   The BAA was created at a time when amateur sports were increasingly popular across the United States.  There were many collegiate teams in greater Boston and numerous small associations, but the need for a major athletic association was acutely felt by local sportsmen and competitors.    It was O'Reilly in January 1887, who suggested that interested par ..read more

 Charles E. Logue, courtesy of Logue Family  Meet Charles E. Logue (1858-1919), the man who build Fenway Park in 1913 as well as other iconic buildings in greater Boston.   An immigrant County Derry in Ireland, Logue emigrated to Boston in 1881 at age 23, part of a massive wave of Irish who came to Boston in the 19th century, escaping faming, landlord abuses and political oppression, while seeking economic opportunity.  He formed the Charles Logue Building Company in 1890 and was quickly recognized for his carpentry and construction skills.  Boston historian D ..read more

James Brendan Connolly Statue in South Boston On Monday, April 6, 1896, James Brendan Connolly of South Boston became the first medalist in the modern Olympic Games when he won the triple jump on the opening day of the Games in Athens, Greece. Connolly won the event - back then it was called the Hop, Skip and Jump - by jumping 44 ' 9 3/4", beating the second place finisher by nearly six feet. After his final jump, the audience began chanting his name and yelling Nike, the Greek word for victory, according to Connolly's teammate, Ellery H. Clark. Connolly and his American teamma ..read more