On September 20th, 1803, twenty-five-year-old Robert Emmet was executed for leading an abortive Irish rebellion; his grave was unmarked to erase his name from history. At his sentencing, a stoic Emmet delivered one of the most memorable speeches of the 19th century, asking the world to leave his name and his tomb in obscurity until

Between 1820 and 1920, about five million Irish crossed the Atlantic. Almost all faced formidable challenges, but the wave of two million arriving between 1845 and 1860 in the wake of the famine encountered especially difficult conditions. Decades of scholarship have documented the hardships of the famine migrants, including crushing poverty, hard labor for low

In 1867 forty Irish American freedom fighters, outfitted with guns and ammunition, sailed to Ireland to join the effort to end British rule. They never got a chance to fight as British authorities arrested them for treason as soon as they landed, sparking an international conflict that dragged the United States and Britain to the

Ernie O'Malley was a medical student in Dublin when the Irish Rebellion broke out in April 1916. He immediately joined the fray in Dublin and was quickly promoted in the ranks of the IRA as a GHQ organizer who traveled around Ireland. Eventually, as Commandant-General, he was put in charge of three counties. Though he

Did you know that after the Civil War an Irish-American army attacked Canada with the plan of holding it hostage and ransoming it for Ireland’s independence? It is no blarney. The self-proclaimed Irish Republican Army invaded Canada not just once, but five times between 1866 and 1871 in what are known collectively as the Fenian

Except for St. Patrick’s and Independence Day, this society has worked quietly to alleviate the physical needs and satisfy the emotional needs of its Irish members. While its works of charity have passed without notice, its internal disputes have attracted public attention. The fact that the Order has survived and, at times, flourished is a

Ireland’s small Jewish community dates to the late nineteenth century, when Jews sought to escape persecution in the Russian Empire. While most of the Jewish emigrants ended up in the United States, small numbers went to England and Ireland. In Ireland, groups of Lithuanian Jews settled in Dublin, Belfast, Cork and Limerick. For the most

The 1820s were tough times for Newport. No longer was the harbor the international entrepôt that it had been during the colonial era. The mills along Thames Street were yet to be built and summer visitors were scarce. Yet, in 1828 Benedict Fenwick, Bishop of Boston, procured a lot of land with a schoolhouse on

One hundred years ago, in 1920, daily newspapers around the world told the story of the starvation of a man. That man, Terence MacSwiney, the Lord Mayor of Cork, eventually died in England’s Brixton prison after a seventy-four day fast. The release of his corpse, his funeral, and a series of international commemorations held the

Dr. Erik J. Chaput will discuss the life of Thomas Wilson Dorr and the 1842 rebellion in Rhode Island that bears his name. In his talk, Dr. Chaput will devote particular attention to issues of gender, race and religion, especially the profound role anti-Catholic sentiment and anti-immigrant bigotry played in the spring and summer of

Rhode Islanders were excited about building the Blackstone Canal and saw it as a major employment opportunity. After all, how hard could it be to dig a ditch? The increase in elevation from Providence to Worcester was 452 feet, and the topography of the Blackstone Valley required the canal to traverse marshes, wetlands, creeks and

In April 1888, teen-ager Mary Ann Donovan stood alone on the quays of Queenstown, outside the city of Cork, waiting to board a ship bound for Boston. Her parents had died a few months before, making Mary Ann and her older brother John the only members of the family remaining in Ireland. Older sister Nellie