Above Photo: Historic cemetery at the corner of Barney and Mount Vernon Streets in Newport, R.I.
Restored and maintained by the Museum of Newport Irish History.
Not able to join us in person for a Barney Street Cemetery tour?
Learn about this site, central to the history of the Irish in Newport, by checking out these resources:
-Short “virtual tour” of the site produced in spring 2020: click HERE
– Videotape of lecture “Newport’s Early Irish Community and Rhode Island’s First Catholic Church,” presented via Zoom in September, 2020 by Steve Marino: click HERE
– Materials shared in conjunction with the September 2020 lecture, including early 1960s press accounts of the cemetery. click HERE
– Video produced by the Museum in 2010, “The Early Irish in Newport”: click HERE
– Want to see what the cemetery site looked like just before its restoration by the Museum of Newport Irish History? Click HERE for the video.
– Here is an article by the Museum on the history of the site as published in “Newport Neighbors” magazine, March 2022 issue. Click HERE.
Questions: NewportIrishHistory@gmail.com
- Do you have an ancestor that may have been at one of the churches on Barney and Mount Vernon Streets?
- Do you remember the old cemetery before 1962?
- We would like to hear from YOU! Write to NewportIrishHistory@gmail.com
Tour guide, Steve Marino (in green shirt) with cemetery visitors at the Sun. Mar. 20 tour. We were fortunate to have ideal weather and those assembled numbered upwards of 40.
Photo by Larry Bartley
Our tour-takers, numbering around 15, braved rainy conditions for the Sun. Mar. 6 tour by guide, Steve Marino. Their enthusiasm was in no way dampened by the “Irish weather.”
Photo by Jack McCormack
Our final March tour took place on Sunday, March 27. It was brisk, but dry and upwards of 40 tour-takers were on hand.
Photo by Carl Gallagher
HISTORIC IRISH CEMETERY TOURS
March – April 2023
Site tours of the historic Barney Street and St. Mary’s cemeteries will be offered on Sundays during March, the 46th Annual Newport Irish Heritage Month and during April, during RI Historical Cemeteries Awareness and Preservation Weeks.
The tours of approximately 30-45 minutes length, plus time for Q&A, will be given by researcher and guide, Steve Marino, weather permitting. As these are outdoor events, please dress accordingly. A bit of rain won’t stop the tour, but a heavy downpour/snow and/or high winds will result in cancellation.
Reservations Requested. No tour fee charged.
Cemetery Tour Schedule March – April 2023:
Sunday, March 5 – 12:30 pm (Barney St. Cemetery)
Sunday, March 19 – 12:30 pm (Barney St. Cemetery)
Sunday, March 26 – 12:30 pm (St. Mary’s Cemetery)
Sunday, April 16 – 12:30 pm (Barney Street Cemetery)
Sunday, April 23 – 12:30 pm (St.Mary’s Cemetery)
Apr. 23 tour CANCELLED due to poor weather.
Rain Date: Sun. Apr. 30 – 12:30 pm (St. Mary’s Cemetery)
Location – Barney Street Cemetery:
Corner Barney & Mt. Vernon Streets in Newport, RI.
Click HERE for map.
Location – Saint Mary’s Cemetery:
Kingston Ave. near intersection with Warner St., in Newport, RI.
Click HERE for map.
Questions: NewportIrishHistory@gmail.com
Above: St. Mary’s Cemetery entrance gates on Kingston Avenue, near the intersection of Warner Street.
Explore St. Mary’s Cemetery, the final resting place of well over 1,000 Newporters of the mid-1800s through the early 1900s, including countless immigrants from Ireland and first-generation Irish Americans. This cemetery was established to serve R.I.’s first Catholic parish (est. 1828), which, in 1848-1852 constructed a new church in which to house its growing congregation, fueled by immigration from Ireland. That church, dedicated in 1852 to “The Holy Name of Mary, Our Lady of the Isle,” stands today at the corner of Spring Street and Memorial Boulevard West. The St. Mary’s Cemetery was in operation soon after the church was completed.
Meet at the gate on Kingston Ave. near the intersection with Warner Street, shown in above photo.