Lectures start at 6 pm. Click on the name of each lecture for all of the details.
For further information about our lecture series, please contact Ann at NewportIrishHistory@gmail.com or 401-841-5493.

• November 4, 2019 - Shai Afsai, Sean O'Callaghan, Ph.D., & John Quinn, Ph.D. , "Newport's Irish-Jewish Rabbi, Theodore Lewis, and Dublin's Jewish Community"
  • Details to follow.

• October 21, 2019 - Rev. Robert W. Hayman, Ph.D., "The History of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in Rhode Island"
  • Details to follow.

• September 26, 2019 - Christopher Klein, "When the Irish Invaded Canada: The Incredible True Story of the Civil War Veterans Who Fought for Ireland's Freedom" (Doubleday Books, March 2019)
  • Click here to read a book review from the Wall Street Journal, June 2019.

• April 26, 2019 - Cormac L.H. O'Malley, J.D., "Ernie O'Malley (1897-1957): Irish Patriot and Author: A Life Fighting the Pale"
  • Click here to view a video of the presentation.
• March 25, 2019 - Dr. Lucy Salyer, author of "Under the Starry Flag: How a Band of Irish Americans Joined the Fenian Revolt and Sparked a Crisis over Citizenship"
  
  • Click here to view a video of the presentation.
• February 11, 2019 - Brendan O'Malley, Ph.D. Newbury College, "How the Irish Shaped Immigrant Politics in Nineteenth-Century New York"
  • Click here and then on his photo for further information.
  • Click here to view a video of the presentation.
• November 28, 2018 - Tom Foley, M.A. Candidate, University of Rhode Island, "The Emmet Guards of Worcester, Mass."
• September 26, 2018 - Christine Kinealy, Ph.D., "Frederick Douglass and Ireland"

• April 24, 2018 - Kurt C. Schlichting, Ph.D., "The Irish in Newport - Building a Community: The St. Mary's Church 'Great Collection of 1881'"
  • Click here to view a video of the presentation.
  • Click here to see slides of the presentation.
  • Click here to see a copy of "The St. Mary's Church Great Collection of 1881" subscriber list. 2018_04_24_Schlichting_slideshow.pdf
• March 20, 2018 - Steve Marino, "The Newport Pre-Famine Irish Community in Transition: 1836-1846"
  
  Click here to view a video of the presentation.
• November 13, 2017 - Ray McKenna, MA, "Providence's 'Little Ulster': Urban Industrial Life and the Famine Irish Generation"
  
  Click here for a Providence Journal article.
• October 16, 2017 - John F. Quinn, Ph.D., "The French Effect: How Rochambeau's Occupation Benefited
  the Irish in Newport"
  Click here to view a video of the presentation.
• September 27, 2017 - Janet Nolan, Ph.D., "Weathering the Storm: A Fish Story of Ireland and Irish-America"
  Click here to view a video of the presentation.

• April 10, 2017 - Kurt C. Schlichting, Ph.D., "Manhattan's Irish Immigrant Neighborhoods: From the Famine to the Movie Classic - On the Waterfront"
  Click here to view a video of the presentation.
• March 28, 2017 - Rebecca L. Abbott. MFA., Prof. of Communications, Dept. of Film, TV & Media at Quinnipiac U. and Christine Kinealy, Ph.D, founding Dir. of "Ireland's Great Hunger Institute" at Quinnipiac, will host the documentary film: "Ireland's Great Hunger and the Irish Diaspora" (a 50-min. documentary film).
  See website: www.irelandsgreathunger.com.
• November 30, 2016 - Scott Molloy, Ph.D. - "George W. Potter and the Providence Journal's 1950 Irish Pilgrimage"
• October 25, 2016 - Steve Marino: - "Fort Adams and the Irish"
  • [Note: 4 pm and 6 pm presentations were given.]
• September 20, 2016 - Margaret Lynch-Brennan, Ph.D., Public Scholar for New York Council for the Humanities: "The Irish Bridget: Irish Immigrant Women in Domestic Service in America, 1840-1930"

• April 12, 2016 - Dean Robinson and Donald D. Deignan, Ph.D., of Ireland's Easter Rising of 1916 Centennial Remembrance Committee of R.I. and John Quinn, Ph.D., of Salve Regina University: " A Doomed Rebellion? : The 1916 Easter Rising and Its Impact on the Irish Newporters."
• March 22, 2016 - Edward H. Furey, founder, The Keely Society : "Patrick C. Keely's Legacy to the Catholic Church in America and St. Mary's Church in Newport, R.I."
  Note: This lecture will be held in St. Mary's Church, which was designed by Irish-born architect Patrick C. Keely (1816-1896).
• November 12, 2015 - Edward T. McCarron, Ph.D. - "Facing the Atlantic: Ireland, Newfoundland and Outmigration to New England, 1790-1860"
  Click here to view a video of the presentation.
• October 15, 2015 - Tom Riley - "The Great Hunger and its Impact on the Orphan Train Era in America, 1853-1929" www.theophantrainriders.com
• September 9, 2015 - Barbara (Lepley) Roy - "How to Obtain Your Irish Citizenship"
  

• April 16, 2015 - Michael Feldberg, Ph.D., Exec. Dir. George Washington Institute for Religious Freedom www.gwirf.org.
  "When Irish-American Catholic Churches Burned: The Philadelphia Bible Riots of 1844."
• March 26, 2015 - Scott Molloy, Ph.D. " Rhode Island Irish Socio-Economic Progress: From "Shanty" to "Lace Curtain" during the Gilded Age"
• November 17, 2014 - Kurt C. Schlichting, Ph.D. " The Irish Immigrants in Newport: A Question of Upward Mobility"
  
  See also: Kurt's 29 page report on the Newport Irish.
• October 27, 2014 - Cahal Dunne, Irish singer/songwriter on his new semi-autobiographical book, "Put Yer Rosary Beads Away Ma"
• October 6, 2014 - Edward T. O'Donnell, Ph.D. "Streets of Fire: The Irish and the Civil War Draft Riots of July 1863"
• September 10, 2014 - Rev. Robert W. Hayman, Ph.D. " Rhode Island's Struggle to Redeem Its Promise to Its Irish Civil War Volunteers"

• March 27, 2014 - Janet Nolan, Ph.D., "Servants of the Poor: Teachers in Ireland and Irish-America at the Turn of the 20th Century"
• February 27, 2014 - John F. Quinn, Ph.D., Salve Regina U. History Dept. Chair, "The Cause of Humanity is One The World Over: Frederick Douglass' Irish Advocacy"
• November 12, 2013 - Christopher Klein, Author & Journalist,John L. Sullivan, "The Boston Strong Boy" author of "The Boston Strong Boy" : America's First Irish-American Hero
• October 8, 2013 - Patrick Conley, Ph.D. , R.I. Historian Laureate, "Politics, Prejudice, Patriotism, and Perseverance: Rhode Island's Catholic Irish Confront The Civil War"
• September 12, 2013 - Rosamund Burton, writer and journalist, "Castles, Follies and Four-Leaf Clovers: Adventures Along Ireland's St. Declan's Way"

• March 25, 2013 - Scott Molloy, Ph.D., "Revisiting "Our Own Kind" : An 'Angela's Ashes' Tale set in Rhode Island"
• February 25, 2013 - Karen A. Holland, Ph.D., "Hero of the Siege of Londonderry, 1689?"
• January 17, 2013 - Kurt C. Schlichting, Ph.D, "Exploring the Historical Record of Irish Immigration: To American and Newport"
• October 15, 2012 - John F. Quinn, Ph.D., "The Rise and Fall of Charles Stewart Parnell, Ireland's 'Uncrowned King'",
• September 17, 2012 - Donald D. Deignan, Ph.D., "The Rhode Island Irish Famine Memorial: Its Past, Present and Future"

• March 22, 2012 - Roxanne O'Connell, Ph.D., "Your Granny's Gramophone: The Cultural Impact of early recording technology on Irish Music"
• January 18, 2012 - Marian Mathison Desrosiers, Ph.D., "Remembering the Famine: The McGlinchey of Inishowen and Cambridge, MA"
• November 8, 2011 - Kurt C. Schlichting, Ph.D. "The Irish in Newport: A Detailed Examination of the 1880 Census"
• October 13, 2011 - John F. Quinn, Ph.D., "The Irish in Gilded Age Newport"
• September 15, 2011 - William J. Matthews, Ph.D. ,"A History of the IRA: Oglaigh na hEireann",

• January 6, 2011 - Kenneth R. Dooley, playwright & author, "The Murder Trial of John Gordon"
  Click here for Newport Daily News article re. Dooley entering R.I. Heritage Hall of Fame, May 2018.
  Click here for printable copy of article.
• November 4, 2010 - Marian Mathison Desrosiers, Ph.D., "Island Girl": Justice Florence Kerins Murray (1916-2004)"
• October 7, 2010 - William J. Matthews, Ph.D., "Eamon De Valera: The Man Who Was 20th Century Ireland"
• July 15, 2010 - Barbara (Lepley) Crowell Roy, MBA, MS, "How to Obtain Your Irish Citizenship"

• October 22, 2009 - Edward T. O'Donnell, Ph.D., "Compassion & Corruption: The Political Machine and the Irish American Experience"
• November 17, 2009 - Joyce M. Botelho, M.A. - ""Nora Mulloy's Newport"
• January 28, 2010 - Barbara A. Kathe, Ph.D., "Giving Forward: W.B. Yeats and Seamus Heaney"
• March 3, 2010 - Denny Lynch, Photographer, MS, BS, "Maryland's Irish Connections"
• March 23, 2010 - Joyce M. Botelho, MA, "Nora Mulloy's Newport" (an "encore" presentation hosted by Cluny School, 75 Brenton Road, Newport)

• April 16, 2009 - Edward T. McCarron, Ph.D., "From the Nore Valley to North America: Migrations from the Parish of Inistioge, County Kilkenny"
• March 3, 2009 - Denny Lynch, Photographer, MS, BS, "The Battle of Baltimore, September 1814"
• March 9, 2009 - John F. Quinn, Ph.D., "The Rise of Catholicism in Newport, 1880-1950" (an "encore"presentation hosted by Cluny School, 75 Brenton Road, Newport)
• February 19, 2009 - William J. Matthews, Ph.D., "The Irish Famine (An Gorta Mor) 1845-1849"
• January 8, 2009 - John F. Quinn, Ph.D., "The Rise of Catholicism in Newport, 1880-1950"
• November 6, 2008 - Charles Artaud Byrne, MS, Lt.-Col. U.S. AF (retired), "Ranelagh: The Irish Warlord" (Tate Publishing Company, 2008)
• October 14, 2008 - Scott Molloy, Ph.D., "Irish Titan, Irish Toilers: Joseph Banigan and Nineteenth-Century New England Labor" (University Press of New England, July 2008)

• March 10, 2008 - Dr. Brian Trainor, Ulster Historical Foundation, "Emigration from Ulster to North America in the 18th Century"
• January 17, 2008 - Nancy Lusignan Schultz, Ph.D., "Mass Mailings: The Irish and American Miracles of Prince Alexander Hohenlohe, 1823-24", (published Mar. 2011 as "Mrs. Mattingly's Miracle: The Prince, the Widow, and the Cure that Shocked Washington City", Yale Univ. Press)
• November 29, 2007 - Alen MacWeeney, Photographer, Author, "Irish Travellers, Tinkers No More" (New England College Press, 2007)
• November 8, 2007 - William J. Matthews, Ph.D., "The Life and Times of Michael Collins"

• February 28, 2007 - Denny Lynch, photographer, "Returning to Kerry: Photographic sojourn in and around Kerry”
• November 30, 2006 - Nancy Lusignan Schultz, Ph.D., "McGowan's Tavern, Paddy Funerals, and Rossiter's Dog: Irish Factors in the 1834 Attack on the Charlestown, Mass. Convent"
• November 2, 2006 - Professor William Matthews, PhD, from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. "Green Against Green: The Tragic Irish Civil War".

• April 20, 2006 - Maureen Lapan, Ph.D., founding member and officer of the International Berkeley Society, "Images of Berkeley in Newport: 1729-1732"
• February 9, 2006 - J. Stephen Grimes, Director of Archives and Records Management for the R.I. Supreme Court, "From Bricklayer to Bricklayer; The Rhode Island Roots of Congressman John E. Fogarty's Irish-American Nationalism"
• December 1, 2005 - Paul O'Malley, Ph.D., "Ireland and the Spanish Civil War: A Foreign Policy Racy of Irish Soil" *
  • The term "Racy" has been used in the past as a way of commending the organization or policy as exhibiting the excellence of the Irish race, according to Dr. O'Malley
• October 20, 2005 - William Matthews, Ph.D., The Irish Rising of 1916 and how it led to the 1919-21 insurrection against Britain.

• November 18, 2004 - Fr. Robert Hayman, Historian for the Diocese of Providence. Fr. Hayman’s talk focused on the "Irish immigrants in Rhode Island prior to 1860, with a special look at the Newport area".
  • He referred to the memoirs of Bishop Fenwick of Boston who noted that in 1827 there were about 150 Irish men working at Ft. Adams, and some 35 working in the Portsmouth coal mines.
  • He also referenced the baptismal records of children born to parents working at Ft. Adams in the late 1820s and the obituary of James Cottrell who came to Newport from Ireland to work on the Fort in 1828.
• October 13, 2004 - Dr. Lawrence Arnold of Dublin, the author of numerous articles dealing with seventeenth century Irish History, and author of The Restoration Land Settlement in County Dublin 1660-1668, spoke about the events in Irish history leading up to the Cromwellian war and the settlement following that war.

• March 26, 2004 - Denny Lynch, photographer
• February 5, 2004 - Evelyn Sterne, Ph.D. - "Irish in Politics and the Catholic Church"
• December 2, 2003 - Charles Duff, Ph.D. - "Edwin O'Connor's Boston"
• October 23, 2003 - Seamus Connolly, Boston College - "An Evening of Irish Traditional music, different languages and stories"

• October 24, 2002 - Inaugural talk by Dr. John Quinn, PhD, an associate professor of history at Salve Regina University on his newly published book "Father Mathew's Crusade - Temperance in Nineteenth Century Ireland and Irish America"

Earlier programs for the Michael F. Crowley Lecture Series 2005 through 2008:

• Marian Desrosiers, Ph.D., Talk entitled: "A 5th Ward Girl: Florence Murray"
• Denny Lynch, Lecturer, Photographer and Historian - Slide presentation entitled: "Returning to Kerry: Photographic Sojourns in and Around Kerry"
• Nancy Lusignan Schultz. Ph.D. Salem State College - "McGowan's Tavern, Paddy Funerals and Rossiter's Dog: Irish Factors the 1834 Attack on the Charlestown Massachusetts Convent"
• William J. Matthews, Ph.D., University of Massachusetts - "Green Against Green: The Tragic Irish Civil War"
• Dr. Maureen T. Lapan, Founding member of the International Berkeley Society - "Images of Berkeley in Newport: 1729 - 1732"
• Charles Duffy, PhD, Providence College - "Edwin O'Connor's Boston"
• James Garman, PhD, Salve Regina University - "Some New Interpretations on the Establishment of Newport's Irish Community, 1840-1870"