History

New England and Virginia dominate much of American history in the first half of the seventeenth century and the Irish had a part in both places. Francis Magnel, a name associated with County Cork, was  a sailor who arrived in May of 1607 on one of the original Jamestown ships. He returned to England in April, 1608. That fall, Dionis Oconor (sic), Tradesmen, is listed as arriving in Jamestown  on the “Second Supply”. Presumably Irish continued to join other settlers there. In fact, in 1626 several Irish people who survived the shipwreck of the Sparrow-Hawk on Cape Cod found refuge in Plymouth until  a year later when they secured passage to Jamestown, their original destination.

Later in that century Ireland actually sent assistance to the colonists during an early conflict with Native Americans known as King Phillip’s War. In March, 1677, a gift of 125 English pounds was received to be shared among Plymouth towns.

The population of the English colonies grew during the 1700’s connecting along the Eastern Seaboard and the Irish Population, domestic help, tradesmen, sailors, laborers also increased. Boston became a more important arrival point than Plymouth with regularly scheduled ships.

The Irish played  an important part in years surrounding 1776. One interesting Irishman, James Magee, was born in County Down, Ireland in 1750. He came to America with his brother before the start of the American Revolution. It was during the Revolutionary War that James Magee commanded several ships; first the Independence and then the General Arnold. Later, Captain Magee was instrumental in establishing  trade with China. Find out about the James Magee story on our Plymouth pages.

In Ireland, the Penal Laws were first introduced in 1690 with other Penal Laws following over the next 30 years. Irish Catholics were forbidden to receive an education, or to speak the Irish language, enter a profession, vote, hold public office, practice their religion, attend Catholic worship, engage in trade or commerce, purchase land, lease land, receive a gift of land or inherit land from a Protestant, rent land worth more than thirty shillings a year, own a horse of greater value than five pounds, be the guardian to a child, educate their own children, or send a child abroad to receive an education.

Bishop Jean-Louis Cheverus traveled from Boston to Plymouth, where he celebrated Mass at the home of Judge Joshua Thomas at 56 Main Street in 1813. On his way back to Boston, Bishop Cheverus stopped in Scituate to celebrate Mass there.

In Ireland the Irish Parliament was abolished and Ireland was brought under direct rule from London, and by 1844 was ruled by military occupation.

The majority of the Irish lived in poverty. The social pyramid top was occupied by the English and Anglo-Irish land owners (mostly absentee) who exercised almost limitless power over their tenants. The native Irish were mostly tenant famers who paid rent by raising food for the landlord. In addition to the Penal Laws removing their civil and human rights, trade laws were passed over 500 years severely restricting and later prohibiting Irish trade in wool, linen, beef, pork, fish, butter, cheese, silk, tobacco, and glass.

The combination of Penal Laws, land seizures, and the destruction of Irish trade combined to make the Irish the “Poorest of the Poor.”

A quote attributed to the Frenchman Gustave de Beaumont describes the awful conditions of the Irish populace:

“In all countries…paupers may be discovered; but an entire nation of paupers is what was never seen until …Ireland.”

Is it any wonder then that the 1800’s saw Irish immigration explode! Known by many names An Gorta Mór, The Great Hunger, The Irish Potato Famine, The Famine was the immediate cause of the Irish flight. Interestingly, all of Europe experienced crop failures during this same period of time, but no country experienced the death, disease, and starvation that Ireland did. Other countries fed their populace and provided relief to those in need. England did not.

Food exports from Ireland to England continued unabated throughout this time. While Irish families starved and fell by the roadsides with green mouths from eating grass in desperation, enough food to feed the entire population hundreds of times over was shipped to England.

Laissez- Faire Economics prohibited government interference. Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Charles Trevelyan who was in charge of England’s famine response, was a devoted advocate of Laissez- Faire and strictly enforced its tenets. He wrote about the Irish in a letter stating that “the judgement of God sent the calamity to teach the Irish a lesson”.  Many English believed the Irish were subhuman.

The Irish made up one half of all migrants to the United States during the 1840’s. The desperation of leaving the homeland where generations of ancestors were interred is captured in a painting by Pádraic Reaney of Moycullen Co. Galway. The disease ridden, starving, ragged and poor immigrants were not welcomed on arrival.  There were many jobs available but the immigrant Irish were barred. “No Irish Need Apply” were the most frequent words in Help Wanted Ads. Prejudice was rampant. The Irish “Bridget”, as female domestic workers were called because employers couldn’t be bothered to learn their names, were reviled as “stupid”. Supposedly humerous silent films were made of Bridgets setting houses on fire through incompetence and some made fun of them misinterpreting directions. Instead of serving the salad “undressed”, they  themselves would be naked as they served. Even now, the term “Paddy Wagon” continues the slur that the “pugnacious and often drunk Irish” need to be hauled to jail in wagons. Likewise the Irish accent was dubbed a “brogue” because people said the Irish spoke English as though they had a shoe in their mouths.

From 1820 to the start of the Civil War, the Irish constituted one third of all immigrants. Early in the century, the majority of Irish immigrants were single men. After the 1840’s, the pattern shifted to families as a few family members came first and earned money to bring relatives later. In later years, women provided the majority of new arrivals. From 1841 to World War II, some estimates conclude that 4.5 million Irish came to the United States.

For those interested in learning more about An Gorta Mór, we recommend exploring the Skibbereen Heritage Centre. Here you will find very accessible information explained by Famine Scholars, Philip O’Regan and Terri Kearney.

The voyage from Ireland was arduous taking from 4 to 8 weeks in deplorable conditions. Many of the ships were so bad they were called “Coffin Ships”. Not all completed the trans Atlantic voyage. Some were lost or shipwrecked. The Brig Saint John was lost within sight of land. Learn about this tragic event on our Cohasset pages.

Not on our trail but on the nearby Boston Irish Heritage Trail is the very moving story of the Deer Island Memorial. It reminds us of those who died from various effects of their voyage- starvation, disease etc. within sight of their destination.

Once you have explored the South Shore Irish Heritage Trail, we recommend spending time visiting the other sites on the Boston Trail. In fact fully five of the twenty stops on the Boston Trail have a South Shore Irish Trail connection: Rose Kennedy Garden, John Boyle O’Reilly Memorial, James Michael Curley and Maurice Tobin statues and our beloved Fenway Park. Irish immigrant Charles E. Logue (1858-1919), one of Boston’s renowned builders of Irish descent, built Fenway Park which survives because he built Fenway strong enough to carry a second story. It still stands while parks of the same vintage have been replaced. He also built Lawson Tower in Scituate for Thomas Lawson one of the richest men in America at the beginning of the twentieth century.

The Civil War saw many Irish born as well as sons of Irish immigrants fighting on Union or Confederate sides. Many gave their lives as did the O’Brien boys from Kingston. Others are acclaimed as heroes such as Jeremiah Quinn from Weymouth.

After the Civil War politics became the vehicle for Irish upward mobility. Ward bosses,  predominately Irish, were able to dole out jobs. People with jobs could afford housing and food so the bare necessities of life were attainable. The ward bosses through that patronage allowed the Irish to climb the social ladder leaving poverty behind.

In 1884, Boston elected its first Irish mayor, Hugh O’Brien.

Politics continued to play an important part in Irish lives in the 1900’s John Fitzgerald, James Michael Curley, Maurice Tobin, and John B. Hynes were all mayors of Boston with “Trail Town” connections. Honey Fitz is closely associated with Hull while the remaining summered in Scituate.

Around 1847, Daniel Ward, an immigrant from Ireland, was working as a fisherman when he recognized a plentiful seaweed he knew as carrageen, or Irish moss. Back home in Ireland, the Irish harvested this seaweed for multiple uses in cooking, medicinal uses, and more. He established the Irish Mossing industry in Scituate which thrived spanning two centuries until it ended in the 1990’s. While it lasted, the Mossing industry was a draw for many Irish who settled in Scituate and nearby towns. The Scituate Maritime and Mossing Museum is a jewel among small museums housing many artifacts from the mossing days in Scituate.

High hopes for Home Rule in Ireland were dashed with the onset of WWI but in 1916 the “Easter Rising” was the spark that eventually led to an Independent Republic of Ireland. The Proclamation read that day  outside the GPOis most impressive and has similarities to the United States Declaration of Independence. In fact Ireland’s fight for independence was the first successful one since our own Revolutionary War. This document is reproduced on and celebrated by the handsome, granite Easter Rising Monument located along our Trail in Scituate Harbor.

There are other interesting parallels between the South Shore and Ireland as well. Eamon De Valera spoke at Fenway Park on a money raising trip to the United States. The builder of Fenway, Charles Logue, is one of our  “Locals”. Also, the grand nephew of Tomás Mac Curtain lives in Scituate and represents the town in the Massachusetts House of Representatives (Patrick Kearney). And long time resident of Scituate, Margaret Stapleton’s uncle fought with Dan Breen’s Third Tipperary Brigade IRA. We are confident that more undiscovered connections are out there.

Marshfield, especially the area between Fieldston and Brant Rock, had many Irish owned cottages. These were built on small lots with houses close together. As was often said, you could lean out a window and see what was being served for dinner next door. St Ann’s Roman Catholic Church was part of the neighborhood and a center for community activities.

In “Great Brant Rock Fire”, a lecture by John Horrigan he states: “On Monday, April 21st, 1941, a firestorm driven by unseasonably high winds engulfed 446 homes, 96 garages, 12 stores, 2 hotels, a casino, a post office and a church in Brant Rock, Massachusetts. Miraculously, due to the heroic actions of several police and fire departments (who were aided by local volunteers), not one life was lost. But in the aftermath of the inferno, many things changed in Marshfield: the landscape of Fieldston, Brant Rock and Ocean Bluff, the subsequent building codes, the firefighting methodology, the retail district and the way of life of many year-round and summer residents of Marshfield.”

It is a testament to the Irish character that the area was rebuilt.

As Bostonians and others became familiar with the South Shore, it became a favorite summer destination and thus was born the cognomen “The Irish Riviera”.

Children and grandchildren of these summer residents often bought “year round homes” in the area thus making these sleepy towns into suburbs. Others discovered the appeal of the many natural resources, recreational opportunities, magnificent scenery in all seasons and its appeal to artists and the developing thriving restaurant scene. The South Shore has arrived!

At the onset of a a new millennium others are discovering the South Shore as a perfect destination with magnificent beaches and recreational opportunities, an outstanding food scene with lobster rolls and fish tacos competing with the traditional fish and chips, broiled haddock grilled bluefish, clam chowder and clam bakes for favorite offerings.

And now, we have the South Shore Irish Heritage Trail celebrating just one of the many immigrant groups that make this country and this small part of it so appealing.

“Come on Down!” A Céad Míle Fáilte awaits.