The Museum’s Interpretive Center reopens for the 2022 Season Friday, May 27.
For the 2022 Season, public hours are 12:00 noon to 5pm Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday (closed Mon-Wed), through the end of October.
Visitors to the Center will learn about Irish immigration to Newport County from the Colonial era to the present and of the many contributions made to our community by individuals of Irish descent. The exhibits include maps, photographs, artwork, models, video, oral histories and artifacts, including some from the construction of nearby Fort Adams, which was built with Irish immigrant labor.
The Center is located at 648 Lower Thames Street, just south of Narragansett Avenue.
Free parking is available in the small lot behind the building, accessed via Narragansett Ave., or on the street. Click HERE for map and directions.
Admission is free for members of the Museum of Newport Irish History and by donation for others.
Note: Private visits to the Center on alternative days/times and in the off-season may be arranged with adequate lead time to arrange a docent. To inquire, please write to NewportIrishHistory@gmail.com
Our Interpretive Center docent volunteers are the public “face” of the organization, and we could not operate the Center without their support and passion for the
We are also seek additional volunteers to assist with the ongoing maintenance and beautification of the Barney Street Cemetery, final resting place of many of Newport’s early Irish immigrants, located at the corner of Barney and Mt. Vernon Streets in Newport, steps from Washington Square. Work sessions ramp up as the weather warms, and many hands make light work with tasks such as weeding and raking. Interested in joining the team? Please contact Cemetery Committee Chair, Jack McCormack at newportirishhistory@gmail.com
Students seeking community service hours are also welcome, so please spread the word!
As April 1 marked the start of the Museum’s new Fiscal Year, many of our members with Annual (vs. Life) Memberships, are due for renewal at this time.
A big “Thank You” to the 150 of you who made renewal payments thus far. We have a ways to go, with about 150 outstanding.
The annual fee for an Individual membership remains $20, and a Family/Household membership $30 (applies to all those living at the same address).
You may renew now online by clicking the below orange “Membership” button.
If you prefer to pay by check, please send payable to “MNIH” with “Membership” in the Memo line to us at PO Box 1378, Newport, RI, 02840
If you are unsure of your membership status — beforemaking a payment — please email Ann at tpm1@earthlink.net or phone her at 401-841-5493 and she’ll get right back to you.
Please do not send payments or other correspondence to our seasonal Thames Street Interpretive Center address.
NEW WALKING TOUR BROCHURES
We are pleased to share that our new self-guided walking tour brochures have been very well received by members and others interested in Newport’s rich and interesting Irish history, and hundreds have already been sold.
Three tours have been developed, each covering a different neighborhood of “Irish Newport,” and each can be walked in approximately an hour to an hour and a half.
For more information, including how to obtain copies of the three brochures, please visit the “Self-Guided Walking Tour Brochure” page on our website, by clicking the below button.
Click Here for Museum Board of Directors Contact Info. and list of deceased board members, fondly remembered.
The MISSION of the Museum of Newport Irish History is to tell the story of the Irish immigrants and their descendants in Newport County and the surrounding area from the Colonial era to the present. It also seeks to preserve artifacts and mementos relating to their experiences and facilitate
