Museum of Newport Irish History | Newport, Rhode Island

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."
2015-04-16 18:00 UTC
The 1830s and 1840s were arguably the lowest moment for Irish Catholics in American history. Michael Feldberg will recall those difficult years by recounting the attacks by xenophobic Protestants (including some Orangemen) on two Irish Catholic churches in Philadelphia, one of which was burned to the ground. The immigrant Irish Catholics fought back, and several individuals were killed on both sides. Each time, it took the Pennsylvania militia several days to quell the disturbances.
Among the consequences of the riots were the creation of the Philadelphia Police Department, the second such department in the United States, and the establishment of the Philadelphia Catholic parochial school system. On the Protestant side, many of those anti-immigrant “nativists” went on to join the American Republican party, a forerunner of the Republican Party that would nominate Abraham Lincoln for president.
In short, this is a complicated story that has largely been forgotten.
MICHAEL FELDBERG, PhD is executive director of the George Washington Institute for Religious Freedom, the organization that established and operates the Ambassador John L. Loeb, Jr. Visitors Center at the Touro Synagogue National Historic Site in Newport, RI. Previously, he served as executive director and director of research at the American Jewish Historical Society. He has taught American history at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and at UMass Boston and directed the Criminal Justice Program at Boston University. The author of several books, Feldberg is most recently a co-editor of the forthcoming A Rebuke to Bigotry: Reflections on George Washington’s Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, RI.

Scott Molloy, Ph.D. " Rhode Island Irish Socio-Economic Progress: From "Shanty" to "Lace Curtain" during the Gilded Age"
2015-03-26 18:00
Irish immigrants faced a punishing arrival in our state, and their forward progress over the years was not much kinder. By the end of the 1800s, Rhode Island Irish had at least progressed from “shanty” Irish to “lace curtain” status in some quarters. Prof. Molloy will discuss the conditions in Providence’s Irish-dominated Fifth Ward (Newport did not have a patent on fifth wards!) and describe the breaking of the barriers for Irish-Catholics to get into Brown University—and who those students were. Learn how a pro-Irish Yankee editor of the Providence Journal treated the Gaels in the 1880s with fairness, and even published the essays and stories of some of the most famous Irish literary figures in the world. That editor’s collection of Irish sources is now one of the most important collections of its kind in the world and is housed at the Providence Public Library. Prof. Molloy will also outline the continued, almost angrier, animosity against the Rhode Island Irish as they finally climbed the ladder of success by the end of the Gilded Age and the beginning of a new century in 1900.
SCOTT MOLLOY is an award-winning professor at the Schmidt Labor Research Center, University of Rhode Island. He previously drove a bus, was a union activist, and was chief of staff to a United States Congresswoman. He earned his doctorate in American History from Providence College. A prolific writer, Molloy wrote, Trolley Wars: Streetcar Workers on the Line (U. of New Hampshire, 2007) and Irish Titan, Irish Toilers: Joseph Banigan and Nineteenth-Century New England Labor (U. Press of New England, 2008), the latter the topic of a past lecture for the Museum. Professor Molloy has a bibliographic essay about the John Gordon case about to be published and was recently inducted into the R.I. Labor History Society Hall of Fame as well as the R.I. Hall of Fame. We welcome him for this, his fourth speaking engagement with the Museum.

Kurt C. Schlichting, Ph.D. " The Irish Immigrants in Newport: A Question of Upward Mobility"
2014-11-17 18:00
Oscar Handlin, the eminent Harvard historian, argued that immigration was and is the key to understanding American history. For Newport, the arrival of large numbers of Irish immigrants in the late 1840s and 1850s shaped the history of the city to present times. One question that arises is the degree of upward mobility: To what extent did the Newport Irish realize the American Dream? While these immigrants faced hardship and discrimination, did their children and the children’s children enter the mainstream of American life and have opportunity for social and economic success?
Measuring economic mobility is a particular challenge for the 19th century. The 1880 Census asked questions about home ownership and occupation, but none regarding household income. To study income and wealth distribution during this period of Irish immigration is daunting. Historical records such as property tax lists are not computerized and require hundreds of hours of research. However, the establishment of income tax during the Civil War and resulting records in the National Archives provide data on income distribution and can be used to ascertain the ethnic composition of the wealthiest segment of Newport’s population in 1865, as the wealthy are identified by name, occupation and address, providing an indication of the socio-economic status of the Irish during this time frame.
KURT C. SCHLICHTING is the E. Gerald Corrigan ’63 Chair in Humanities & Social Sciences Department and a Professor of Sociology at Fairfield University (CT). He is the author of Grand Central Terminal: Railroads, Architecture and Engineering in New York (Johns Hopkins U. Press, 2001), for which he received the 2002 Best Professional/Scholarly Book: Architecture & Urbanism Award from the Association of American Publishers. This book was the basis of “Grand Central,” an American Experience documentary on PBS, for which Dr. Schlichting served as an academic advisor and was an on-screen interviewee. His recent book, Grand Central’s Engineer: William J. Wilgus and the Planning of Modern Manhattan, was published by Johns Hopkins in the spring of 2012.
In collaboration with the Redwood Library, he and his students are creating a website, “Digital Historic Newport Rhode Island,” to explore Newport’s rich history. The project is funded by the Humanities Institute of Fairfield University. Dr. Schlichting received his bachelor’s degree from Fairfield University in 1970 and his master’s degree and a doctorate from New York University. We welcome Dr. Schlichting for this, his third talk, for the Museum of Newport Irish History.

Cahal Dunne, Irish singer/songwriter on his new semi-autobiographical book, "Put Yer Rosary Beads Away Ma"
2014-10-27 18:00
Singer/songwriter, recording artist, storyteller and comedian, Cahal Dunne, has published a semiautobiographical book. Set in economically depressed 1970s Ireland, it is the coming-of-age tale of Dunne’s alter ego, Billy Golden. During this era there seemed few possibilities and little hope for Ireland’s younger generation, and, to the chagrin of Billy’s mother, he gives up the security of a teaching job to follow his heart into the music business. His six-man band wins the right to represent Ireland in the international Eurovision Song Contest, and his own song is watched on TV by over 500 million people — the chance of a lifetime. Billy and the band have hilarious journeys as they play in dance halls in Ireland and Europe in the waning days of the “show band” craze, and ultimately grow into one of the first ever “Celtic Rock” bands, thirty years before it became the rage on American college campuses.
Cahal will take us along on Billy Golden’ s colorful journey, weaving modern Irish history together with anecdotes and his experiences as he tells the story behind Put Yer Rosary Beads Away Ma (c. 2013). Cahal may even sing a song or two for us! Copies of his book will be available for signature and sale after the talk.
CAHAL DUNNE, “Ireland’s Happy Man,” has been a U.S.-based solo performer since the 1980s. Born in Cork (city), Ireland, he is the nephew of former Prime Minster of Ireland, Jack Lynch. Cahal received his Bachelor of Music degree from the University College of Cork. In that same year, he won first prize in the Castlebar Song Contest with his own song, “Shalom.” He represented Ireland in the Yamaha World Song Contest in Tokyo with another of his own songs, “Lover, Not Just a Wife.” With his winning song, “Happy Man,” he earned the right to represent Ireland at the 1979 International Eurovision Music Contest in Israel. The song became number one in Europe and Ireland with record sales topping the 250,000 marks. A recording artist with more than a dozen albums, he is best known for his renditions of traditional Irish songs and enjoys a busy travel and performance schedule. Cahal lives in Pittsburgh with his wife, Kathleen and son, Ryan.

Edward T. O'Donnell, Ph.D. "Streets of Fire: The Irish and the Civil War Draft Riots of July 1863"
2014-10-06 18:00
The Draft Riots of July 1863 in New York City constitute the largest civil uprising in American history. At least 118 people were killed, including a dozen free blacks who were lynched. Although people of many backgrounds participated in the violence, the Irish played the most prominent role. The riots occurred at an especially critical stage in the war (Gettysburg had concluded just days prior) and they exposed deep divisions within the Union over Lincoln’s leadership, the direction of the war, the ability of the wealthy to avoid military service, and most importantly, emancipation. This presentation, augmented with more than 75 visuals, will examine key questions such as, why did Lincoln decide to impose a draft? Why did the Irish oppose the draft, especially when so many thousands of Irish had joined the Union Army? What key social and political factors led the Irish to riot? How did the riots unfold over four days and how were they ultimately suppressed? Why were the rioters especially brutal towards African Americans? And finally, what was the significance of the riots in terms of this history of the Civil War?
EDWARD T. O’DONNELL was born in Gloucester, MA to Irish American parents. He earned his doctorate in American History from Columbia University and currently is Assoc. Professor of History at Holy Cross College in Worcester, MA. He is the author of several books, including Ship Ablaze: The Tragedy of the Steamboat General Slocum (Random House, 2003), 1001 Things Everyone Should Know About Irish American History (Random House/Broadway Books, 2002), Visions of America: A History of the United States (coauthor, Pearson, 2009), and the forthcoming Henry George and the Crisis of Gilded Age America (June 2015, Columbia University Press). His scholarly articles have appeared in the Public Historian, Journal of Urban History, and the Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. He has also worked on several major museum exhibits on Irish American history, including serving as curatorial consultant to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum in NYC for their Irish Family Apartment (opened, June 2008). This is his second lecture for the Museum of Newport Irish History.

Rev. Robert W. Hayman, Ph.D. " Rhode Island's Struggle to Redeem Its Promise to Its Irish Civil War Volunteers"
2014-09-10 18:00
While the rest of the states of the Union in the 1820s and 30s were moving toward universal manhood suffrage, conservative-dominated Rhode Island chose to preserve the state’s once liberal tradition of a suffrage limited to those who possessed $134 of taxable property. When in the 1830s Irish immigrants, particularly the Catholic Irish, began to take up residence in the state in increasingly large numbers, their presence provided an additional reason for denying the right to vote to those without substantial property. Since the right to vote was limited, few of the Irish sought to become citizens. Many of those who did, sought naturalization in order to legally own property. However, in the light of the service of the foreign-born Irish in the Civil War, the injustice of the situation of the Irish became more apparent. It would not be until 1888 that the efforts of the Irish and their fellow Rhode Islanders succeeded in partially ending Rhode Island’s uniqueness.
ROBERT W. HAYMAN is currently the historian of the Diocese of Providence and one of its archivists. Until his retirement in June 2010, he was an Associate Professor of History at Providence College for thirty-six years. He is the author of a two – soon to be three–volume history of the Diocese of Providence, which tells the story of Catholicism in Rhode Island from 1780 to 1971. The first volume served as Fr. Hayman’s dissertation for a doctorate of philosophy degree in history, which he received from Providence College. During his research, he has looked at the experience of the many immigrant groups that have settled in the state. We welcome Fr. Hayman for this talk, his third for the Museum of Newport Irish History.
