Michael F. Crowley Lecture Series
Thank you for your interest in our Annual Lecture Series. For information about each talk, including videotapes of many of the lectures, please scroll down. To access information for the 19th Annual and prior series, click on the green labeled bars.
For the talk overview and guest speaker bio please click the “Description” button. Click the “Video” button to play the recording of a past lecture. Our 21st Annual Lecture Series will commence September 19, 2022, in person and via live-streaming.
To reach the Lecture Series Coordinator, please write to NewportIrishHistory@gmail.com
2022 -2023 Series (21st Annual)
Dr. Elizabeth Stack, “Immigrant Activist: Irish Americans who Built a Better Society”
September 19 @ 6:00 pm In person at the Wyndham Hotel Newport and via Zoom.
Lecture made possible by a generous gift from Virginia Pittsley, given in memory of her husband, Bill Pittsley, and their son, Jay Pittsley
Details and link to reserve to follow. Please check back.
2021 -2022 Series (20th Annual)
Steve Marino, “The Life and Times of Patrick J. Boyle, Newport’s First Irish Mayor”
March 23 @ 6:00 pm In person at the Wayfinder Hotel and via Zoom
Lecture made possible by a generous gift from BankNewport
Recording now available. Click “Video” button to enjoy.
To register, select an option below
To Register to attend the lecture and reception to follow in person you must be fully vaccinated. A $5 donation, payable at the door, is requested.
NOTE: As capacity for the in-person presentation at the Wayfinder Hotel is limited, priority for seats will be given to members of the Museum. If you’d like to attend the lecture and reception to follow in person, and are not currently a member, please consider joining by visiting the “Membership” page on this website. Those who join to attend the lecture in person will have the $5 per person lecture fee waived.
To Register to participate via Zoom (no fee):
Questions about this lecture? Click below to email Ann Arnold
Dr. Elizabeth Stack, “Irish Women in the American Labor Movement”
February 22 @ 6:00 pm via Zoom
Dr. Debra A. Mulligan, “Cheers to Eire: The Political Life of J. Howard McGrath”
Lecture made possible by a generous gift from Francis “Frank” Furtado, given in memory of his wife, Barbara Carr Furtado
November 15 @ 6:00 pmIn person at the Wayfinder Hotel and via Zoom
Dr. Margaret Lynch-Brennan and Ms. Leslie B. Jones, “The Irish Bridget: Irish Immigrant Women in Domestic Service in America, 1840-1930, With Spotlight on Irish Servants of the Newport Mansions”
Lecture made possible by a generous gift from an anonymous donor.
October 25 @ 6:00 pmIn person at the Wayfinder Hotel and via Zoom
NEW! The link to the recording of the Oct. 25 lecture is now live.
Dr. John Quinn and Mr. Keith Stokes, “Shared Spaces: The Irish and African Heritage Experience in Gilded Age Newport”
Lecture made possible by a generous gift from Virginia Pittsley, given in memory of her husband, Bill Pittsley, and their son, Jay Pittsley
September 13 @ 6:00 pmIn person at the Wayfinder Hotel and via Zoom
2020-2021 Series (19th Annual)
Joseph Lennon, PhD, “Famine Memories: Terence MacSwiney’s 1920 Hunger Strike”
November 6, 2020 @ 6:00 pm
2019-2020 Series (18th Annual)
2018-2019 Series (17th Annual)
Tom Foley, M.A. Candidate, University of Rhode Island, “The Emmet Guards of Worcester, Mass.”
November 28, 2018 @ 6:00 pm
Christine Kinealy, Ph.D., “Frederick Douglass and Ireland”
September 26, 2018 @ 6:00 pm
2017-2018 Series (16th Annual)
Steve Marino, “The Newport Pre-Famine Irish Community in Transition: 1836-1846”
March 20, 2018 @ 6:00 pm
Ray McKenna, MA, “Providence’s ‘Little Ulster’: Urban Industrial Life and the Famine Irish Generation”
November 13, 2017 @ 6:00 pm
John F. Quinn, Ph.D., “The French Effect: How Rochambeau’s Occupation Benefited the Irish in Newport”
October 16, 2017 @ 6:00 pm
Janet Nolan, Ph.D., “Weathering the Storm: A Fish Story of Ireland and Irish-America”
September 27, 2017 @ 6:00 pm
2016-2017 Series (15th Annual)
Scott Molloy, Ph.D. – “George W. Potter and the Providence Journal’s 1950 Irish Pilgrimage”
November 30, 2016 @ 6:00 pm
Steve Marino: – “Fort Adams and the Irish”
October 25, 2016 @ 4:00 pm
2015-2016 Series (14th Annual)
Tom Riley – “The Great Hunger and Its Impact On The Orphan Train Era in America, 1853-1929”
October 15, 2015 @ 6:00 pm
Barbara (Lepley) Roy – “How to Obtain Your Irish Citizenship”
September 9, 2015 @ 6:00 pm
2014-2015 Series (13th Annual)
Kurt C. Schlichting, Ph.D. ” The Irish Immigrants in Newport: A Question of Upward Mobility”
November 17, 2014 @ 6:00 pm
Cahal Dunne, Irish singer/songwriter on his new semi-autobiographical book, “Put Yer Rosary Beads Away Ma”
October 27, 2014 @ 6:00 pm
Edward T. O’Donnell, Ph.D. “Streets of Fire: The Irish and the Civil War Draft Riots of July 1863”
October 6, 2014 @ 6:00 pm
2013-2014 Series (12th Annual)
2012-2013 Series (11th Annual)
Scott Molloy, Ph.D., “Revisiting “Our Own Kind”: An ‘Angela’s Ashes’ Tale set in Rhode Island”
March 25, 2013 @ 6:00 pm
Karen A. Holland, Ph.D., “Hero of the Siege of Londonderry, 1689?”
February 25, 2013 @ 6:00 pm
Kurt C. Schlichting, Ph.D., “Exploring the Historical Record of Irish Immigration: To American and Newport”
January 17, 2013 @ 6:00 pm
John F. Quinn, Ph.D., “The Rise and Fall of Charles Stewart Parnell, Ireland’s ‘Uncrowned King’”
October 15, 2012 @ 6:00 pm
Donald D. Deignan, Ph.D., “The Rhode Island Irish Famine Memorial: Its Past, Present and Future”
September 17, 2012 @ 6:00 pm
2011-2012 Series (10th Annual)
Marian Mathison Desrosiers, Ph.D., “Remembering the Famine: The McGlinchey of Inishowen and Cambridge, MA”
January 18, 2012 @ 6:00 pm
With gratitude to Dr. Desrosiers for graciously sharing these documents with the Museum and allowing their public posting.
Kurt C. Schlichting, Ph.D. “The Irish in Newport: A Detailed Examination of the 1880 Census”
November 8, 2011 @ 6:00 pm
John F. Quinn, Ph.D., “The Irish in Gilded Age Newport”
October 13, 2011 @ 6:00 pm
William J. Matthews, Ph.D., “A History of the IRA: Oglaigh na Heireann”
September 15, 2011 @ 6:00 pm
2010-2011 Series (9th Annual)
Kenneth R. Dooley, playwright & author, “The Murder Trial of John Gordon”
January 6, 2011 @ 6:00 pm
Marian Mathison Desrosiers, Ph.D., “Island Girl”: Justice Florence Kerins Murray (1916-2004)”
November 4, 2010 @ 6:00 pm
Oral History: Interview of Justice Murray in 2001
Transcript of the interview of Justice Florence K. Murray by Museum of Newport Irish History board member in 2001.
Interview took place at the La Forge Casino Restaurant, Bellevue Avenue, Newport, R.I. Transcribed by Marian Mathison Desrosiers in 2010.With gratitude to Dr. Desrosiers for graciously sharing these documents with the Museum and allowing their public posting.
William J. Matthews, Ph.D., “Eamon De Valera: The Man Who Was 20th Century Ireland”
October 7, 2010 @ 6:00 pm
2009-2010 Series (8th Annual)
Denny Lynch, Photographer, MS, BS, “Maryland’s Irish Connections”
March 3, 2010 @ 6:00 pm
Joyce M. Botelho, M.A. – “Nora Mulloy’s Newport”
November 17, 2009 @ 6:00 pm
2008-2009 Series (7th Annual)
Denny Lynch, Photographer, MS, BS, “The Battle of Baltimore, September 1814”
March 3, 2009 @ 6:00 pm
William J. Matthews, Ph.D., “The Irish Famine (An Gorta Mor) 1845-1849”
February 19, 2009 @ 6:00 pm
2007-2008 Series (6th Annual)
Alen MacWeeney, Photographer, Author, “Irish Travelers, Tinkers No More” (New England College Press, 2007)
November 29, 2007 @ 6:00 pm
William J. Matthews, Ph.D., “The Life and Times of Michael Collins”
November 8, 2007 @ 6:00 pm
2006-2007 Series (5th Annual)
Denny Lynch, photographer, “Returning to Kerry: Photographic Sojourns in and Around Kerry.”
February 28, 2007 @ 6:00 pm
2005-2006 Series (4th Annual)
Paul O’Malley, Ph.D., “Ireland and the Spanish Civil War: A Foreign Policy Racy of Irish Soil”
December 1, 2005 @ 6:00 pm
- 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
2004-2005 Series (3rd Annual)
Fr. Robert Hayman, “Irish immigrants in Rhode Island prior to 1860, with a special look at the Newport area”.
November 18, 2004 @ 6:00 pm
- 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.
2003-2004 Series (2nd Annual)
Denny Lynch, Photographer
March 26, 2004 @ 6:00 pm
Evelyn Sterne, Ph.D. – “Irish in Politics and the Catholic Church”
February 5, 2004 @ 6:00 pm
Charles Duff, Ph.D. – “Edwin O’Connor’s Boston”
December 2, 2003 @ 6:00 pm
Seamus Connolly, Boston College – “An Evening of Irish Traditional music, different languages and stories”
October 23, 2003 @ 6:00 pm
2002-2003 Series (1st Annual)
Earlier Lectures
- Dermot Ryan, Founder and Secretary of the Kinsale Historical Society –
“The Battle of Kinsale” October 30, 2001, La Forge Casino Restaurant. Click HERE for an overview of this lecture from our Fall 2001 Newsletter. - Patricia O’Mally, PhD, Bradford College. Sunday, October 31, 1999, Salve Regina University. Dr. O’Malley dicussed the early Irish in Massachusetts and shared her research methods. For an overview of her talk, click HERE for the article in our Winter 2000 newsletter.
- James Garman, PhD, Salve Regina University – “Some New Interpretations on the Establishment of Newport’s Irish Community, 1840-1870”
- Dermot Ryan, Founder and Secretary of the Kinsale Historical Society –