MUSEUM OF NEWPORT IRISH HISTORY
ANNUAL LECTURE SERIES

Thank you for your interest in our Annual Lecture Series, now in its 23rd Season!  Please scroll down for information about each talk, including videotapes of many of the lectures. To access details for each Series, click on the green labeled bars (e.g. “2023-2024, 22nd Annual”).

Please click the “Description” button for the talk overview and speaker bio. Click the “Video” button to play the recording of a past lecture.

Reservations are required for all talks and a modest fee may apply. All talks begin at 6:00 p.m. The majority of our talks are presented in person, at the Wyndham Newport Hotel (Middletown, R.I.), and all talks are live-streamed via Zoom.

Our 23rd Annual Lecture Series kicked off with a talk by Dr. John F. Quinn on September 18, which was followed by a talk by Dr. Hasia Diner on October 28, and Dr. Marian Mathison Desrosiers on November 20.  Scroll down for details and the links to enjoy the videos of these three presentations and many past presentations.

After a holiday/winter hiatus, the Series will resume in February 2025. Details to come.

Invitations to all talks are mailed and e-mailed to all Museum members of record, and posted on this page, along with links to reserve.

Please consider becoming a member and supporting our popular lecture series.

To reach the Lecture Series Coordinator, Ann Arnold, please write to NewportIrishHistory@gmail.com

  • 2024-2025 Series (23rd Annual)

    Marian Mathison Desrosiers, PhD,  “A Celtic Team: Genevieve McGlinchey and Wallace Mathison, Newport Community Leaders in the 1950s to 1980s”

    November 20, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. in person at the Wyndham Newport Hotel and via Zoom
    Lecture made possible by a generous gift from Francis J. Furtado, given in memory of his wife, Barbara Carr Furtado

    To register, select an option below.
    If you will attending the lecture in person, a $5 fee, payable at the door via cash or check to “MNIH,” is requested. There is no fee to participate via Zoom.

    NOTE: If you’d like to attend the lecture and reception in person, and are not currently a member of the Museum of Newport Irish History, please consider joining by visiting the “Membership” page on this website. Those who join to attend the Nov. 20 lecture will have the $5 per-person lecture fee waived (1-time) and, going forward, will receive advance notification of our activities via Members’ E-news and U.S. Mailings.

    To Register to participate via Zoom (no fee):

    Questions about this lecture?  Click below to email Ann Arnold, Lecture Series Coordinator.

    Dr. Hasia R. Diner, “Opening Doors: The Unlikely Alliance Between the Irish and the Jews in America”

    October 28, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. in person at the Wyndham Newport Hotel and via Zoom
    Presented in Collaboration with Touro Synagogue Foundation

    Touro Synagogue Foundation

    To register, select an option below.
    If you will attending the lecture in person, a $5 fee, payable at the door via cash or check to “MNIH,” is requested. There is no fee to participate via Zoom.

    NOTE: If you’d like to attend the lecture and reception in person, and are not currently a member of the Museum of Newport Irish History, please consider joining by visiting the “Membership” page on this website. Those who join to attend the Oct. 28 lecture will have the $5 per-person lecture fee waived (1-time) and, going forward, will receive advance notification of our activities via Members’ E-news and U.S. Mailings.

    To Register to participate via Zoom (no fee):

    Questions about this lecture?  Click below to email Ann Arnold, Lecture Series Coordinator.

    Dr. John F. Quinn, “Dr. Grace and Mr. Bennett: Irish Newport’s Gilded Age Leaders”

    September 18, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. in person at the Wyndham Newport Hotel 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

  • 2023 -2024 Series (22nd Annual)

    Steve Marino, “The Great Cutter Race of 1905: An Irish Tale of Newport’s Gilded Age”

    March 20, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. in person at the Wyndham Newport Hotel and via Zoom.
    Lecture made possible by a generous gift from Frank Furtado, in memory of Barbara Carr Furtado

    Video now available!

    Christopher Klein, “John L. Sullivan, ‘The Boston Strong Boy’: America’s First Irish American Hero”

    February 26, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. via Zoom.
    Lecture made possible by a generous gift from Margaret Armstrong Murray, given in memory of her husband, Vincent J. Murray

    Maureen D. Brady, “The Surprising U.S. Roots of Ireland’s Tourism Industry, 1950s-1960s”

    November 13, 2023 @ 6:00 pm. In person at the Wyndham Newport Hotel and via Zoom.
    Lecture made possible by a generous gift from Valarie and Dana Gelb

    Dr. Mark A. Stickney, “The Irish Musicians of Newport”

    October 16, 2023 @ 6:00 pm. In person at the Wyndham Newport Hotel and via Zoom.
    Lecture made possible by a generous gift from Larry Bartley, given in honor of Patrick F. Murphy, Museum Board Member Emeritus

    Dr. Christine Kinealy, “Forgotten Heroes of Ireland’s Great Hunger”

    September 26, 2023 @ 6:00 pm. In person at the Wyndham Newport Hotel and via Zoom.
    Lecture made possible by a generous gift from Virginia Pittsley in memory of Dr. Cheryl A. McCarthy

  • 2022 -2023 Series (21st Annual)

    Mike Slein, “A Virtual Tour of Irish Newport: Connecting the Dots”

    March 29, 2023 @ 6:00 pm. In person at the Wyndham Newport Hotel and via Zoom.
    Lecture made possible by a generous gift from Frank Furtado in memory of Barbara Carr Furtado

    Note: Do to a technical issue, the videotape of Mike Slein’s talk presented on March 29, 2023 at the Wyndham Newport Hotel and live-streamed via Zoom, was not captured. Mike graciously agreed to re-present his lecture on the campus of Salve Regina University, which is the recording you may now access.”

    Maureen D. Brady, “Sarah Parker Remond: A Black Abolitionist in Ireland, 1859”

    February 21, 2023 @ 6:00 pm 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

    Dr. Kurt C. Schlichting, “Ethnic Enclaves: Newport’s Kerry Hill Irish in 19th & Early 20th Century”

    November 14, 2022 @ 6:00 pm In person at the Wyndham Newport Hotel and via Zoom.
    Lecture made possible by a generous gift from The Fastnet Irish Pub.
    Fastnet Pub Newport

    Raymond J. McKenna, “From Emyvale to Providence: A Deep Dive Into a 19th Century Chain Migration”

    October 18, 2022 @ 6:00 pm In person at the Wyndham Newport Hotel and via Zoom.
    Lecture made possible by a generous gift from Margaret Armstrong Murray, given in memory of her husband, Vincent J. Murray

    Dr. Elizabeth Stack, “Immigrant Activists: Irish Americans who Built a Better Society”

    September 19, 2022 @ 6:00 pm In person at the Wyndham Newport Hotel (NEW venue) 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

  • 2021 -2022 Series (20th Annual)

    Steve Marino, “The Life and Times of Patrick J. Boyle, Newport’s First Irish Mayor”

    March 23, 2022 @ 6:00 pm In person at the Wayfinder Hotel and via Zoom
    Lecture made possible by a generous gift from BankNewport
    Bank Newport

    Dr. Elizabeth Stack, “Irish Women in the American Labor Movement”

    February 22, 2022 @ 6:00 pm via Zoom

    Dr. Debra A. Mulligan, “Cheers to Eire: The Political Life of J. Howard McGrath”

    November 15, 2021 @ 6:00 pm in person at the Wayfinder Hotel and via Zoom
    Lecture made possible by a generous gift from Francis “Frank” Furtado, given in memory of his wife, Barbara Carr Furtado

    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”

    October 25, 2021 @ 6:00 pm. In person at the Wayfinder Hotel and via Zoom
    Lecture made possible by a generous gift from an anonymous donor.

    Dr. John Quinn and Mr. Keith Stokes,  “Shared Spaces: The Irish and African Heritage Experience in Gilded Age Newport”

    September 13, 2021 @ 6:00 pm. In person at the Wayfinder Hotel 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

  • 2020-2021 Series (19th Annual)

    Janet Nolan, PhD, “When Harry Met Mary Ann: An Irish Family in an American City”

    April 21, 2021 @ 6:00 pm via Zoom

    Chuck Arning, Public Historian, ” How Hard Would It Be to Dig a Ditch Anyhow? – How the Irish Saved The Blackstone Canal”

    March 16, 2021 @ 6:00 pm via Zoom

    Erik J. Chaput, PhD, “Politics, Bigotry and Nativism: Rhode Island’s Catholic Irish in the 1842 Dorr Rebellion”

    February 10, 2021 @ 6:00 pm via Zoom

    Joseph Lennon, PhD, “Famine Memories: Terence MacSwiney’s 1920 Hunger Strike”

    November 6, 2020 @ 6:00 pm via Zoom

    Steve Marino, “Here’s the church, here’s the steeple, open the door and see all the people: Newport’s early Irish community and Rhode Island’s first Catholic church.”

    September 24, 2020 @ 6:00 pm via Zoom

  • 2019-2020 Series (18th Annual)

    Shai Afsai, Sean O’Callaghan, Ph.D., & John Quinn, Ph.D., “Ireland’s Jewish Community and Newport’s Irish Rabbi”

    November 4, 2019 @ 6:00 pm at the Mainstay Hotel & Conference Center

    Rev. Robert W. Hayman, Ph.D., “The Early and Mostly Forgotten History of the Ancient Order of Hibernians and Ladies Auxiliary in Rhode Island From 1849 to 1920”

    October 21, 2019 @ 6:00 pm at the Mainstay Hotel & Conference Center

    Christopher Klein, “When the Irish Invaded Canada: The Incredible True Story of the Civil War Veterans Who Fought for Ireland’s Freedom”

    September 26, 2019 @ 6:00 pm at the Mainstay Hotel & Conference Center

  • 2018-2019 Series (17th Annual)

    Cormac L.H. O’Malley, J.D., “Ernie O’Malley (1897-1957): Irish Patriot and Author: A Life Fighting the Pale”

    April 26, 2019 @ 6:00 pm at the Mainstay Hotel & Conference Center

    Dr. Lucy Salyer, author of “Under the Starry Flag: How a Band of Irish Americans Joined the Fenian Revolt and Sparked a Crisis over Citizenship”

    March 25, 2019 @ 6:00 pm at the Mainstay Hotel & Conference Center

    Brendan O’Malley, Ph.D., “How the Irish Shaped Immigrant Politics in Nineteenth-Century New York”

    February 11, 2019 @ 6:00 pm at the Mainstay Hotel & Conference Center (NEW venue)

    Tom Foley, M.A. Candidate, University of Rhode Island, “The Emmet Guards of Worcester, Mass.”

    November 28, 2018 @ 6:00 pm at the International Tennis Hall of Fame

    Christine Kinealy, Ph.D., “Frederick Douglass and Ireland”

    September 26, 2018 @ 6:00 pm at the International Tennis Hall of Fame

  • 2017-2018 Series (16th Annual)

    Kurt C. Schlichting, Ph.D., “The Irish in Newport – Building a Community: The St. Mary’s Church ‘Great Collection of 1881′”

    April 24, 2018 @ 6:00 pm at the International Tennis Hall of Fame

    Steve Marino, “The Newport Pre-Famine Irish Community in Transition: 1836-1846”

    March 20, 2018 @ 6:00 pm at the International Tennis Hall of Fame

    Ray McKenna, MA, “Providence’s ‘Little Ulster’: Urban Industrial Life and the Famine Irish Generation”

    November 13, 2017 @ 6:00 pm at the International Tennis Hall of Fame

    John F. Quinn, Ph.D., “The French Effect: How Rochambeau’s Occupation Benefited the Irish in Newport”

    October 16, 2017 @ 6:00 pm at the International Tennis Hall of Fame

    Janet Nolan, Ph.D., “Weathering the Storm: A Fish Story of Ireland and Irish-America”

    September 27, 2017 @ 6:00 pm at the International Tennis Hall of Fame

  • 2016-2017 Series (15th Annual)

    Kurt C. Schlichting, Ph.D., “Manhattan’s Irish Immigrant Neighborhoods: From the Famine to the Movie Classic – On the Waterfront”

    April 10, 2017 @ 6:00 pm at the International Tennis Hall of Fame

    Rebecca L. Abbott. MFA., Prof. of Communications, Dept. of Film, TV & Media at Quinnipiac U. and Christine Kinealy, Ph.D, founding Dir. of “Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute” at Quinnipiac, will host the documentary film: “Ireland’s Great Hunger and the Irish Diaspora”

    March 28, 2017 @ 6:00 pm at the International Tennis Hall of Fame

    Scott Molloy, Ph.D. – “George W. Potter and the Providence Journal’s 1950 Irish Pilgrimage”

    November 30, 2016 @ 6:00 pm at the International Tennis Hall of Fame

    Steve Marino: – “Fort Adams and the Irish”

    October 25, 2016 @ 4:00 pm & 6:00 pm at the International Tennis Hall of Fame

    Margaret Lynch-Brennan, Ph.D., Public Scholar for New York Council for the Humanities: “The Irish Bridget: Irish Immigrant Women in Domestic Service in America, 1840-1930”

    September 20, 2016 @ 6:00 pm at the International Tennis Hall of Fame

  • 2015-2016 Series (14th Annual)

    Dean Robinson and Donald D. Deignan, Ph.D., of Ireland’s Easter Rising of 1916 Centennial Remembrance Committee of R.I. and John Quinn, Ph.D., of Salve Regina University: ” A Doomed Rebellion? The 1916 Easter Rising and Its Impact on the Irish Newporters.”

    April 12, 2016 @ 6:00 pm at the International Tennis Hall of Fame

    Edward H. Furey, founder, The Keely Society: “Patrick C. Keely’s Legacy to the Catholic Church in America and St. Mary’s Church in Newport, R.I.”

    March 22, 2016 @ 6:00 pm at St. Mary’s Church, Newport

    Edward T. McCarron, Ph.D. – “Facing the Atlantic: Ireland, Newfoundland and Outmigration to New England, 1790-1860”

    November 12, 2015 @ 6:00 pm at the International Tennis Hall of Fame

    Tom Riley – “The Great Hunger and Its Impact On The Orphan Train Era in America, 1853-1929”

    October 15, 2015 @ 6:00 pm at the International Tennis Hall of Fame

    Barbara (Lepley) Roy – “How to Obtain Your Irish Citizenship”

    September 9, 2015 @ 6:00 pm at the International Tennis Hall of Fame

  • 2014-2015 Series (13th Annual)

    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.”

    April 16, 2015 @ 6:00 pm at the Young Building, Salve Regina University

    Scott Molloy, Ph.D. ” Rhode Island Irish Socio-Economic Progress: From “Shanty” to “Lace Curtain” during the Gilded Age”

    March 26, 2015 @ 6:00 pm at the Young Building, Salve Regina University

    Kurt C. Schlichting, Ph.D. ” The Irish Immigrants in Newport: A Question of Upward Mobility”

    November 17, 2014 @ 6:00 pm at the International Tennis Hall of Fame

    Cahal Dunne, Irish singer/songwriter on his new semi-autobiographical book, “Put Yer Rosary Beads Away Ma”

    October 27, 2014 @ 6:00 pm at the International Tennis Hall of Fame

    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 at the International Tennis Hall of Fame

    Rev. Robert W. Hayman, Ph.D. ” Rhode Island’s Struggle to Redeem Its Promise to Its Irish Civil War Volunteers”

    September 10, 2014 @ 6:00 pm at the International Tennis Hall of Fame

  • 2013-2014 Series (12th Annual)

    Janet Nolan, Ph.D., “Servants of the Poor: Teachers in Ireland and Irish-America at the Turn of the 20th Century”

    March 27, 2014 @ 6:00 pm

    John F. Quinn, Ph.D. – “The Cause of Humanity is One The World Over: Frederick Douglass’ Irish Advocacy”

    February 27, 2014 @ 6:00 pm

    Christopher Klein, Author & Journalist, “John L. Sullivan, ‘The Boston Strong Boy’: America’s First Irish-American Hero”

    November 12, 2013 @ 6:00 pm

    Patrick Conley, Ph.D., R.I. Historian Laureate, “Politics, Prejudice, Patriotism, and Perseverance: Rhode Island’s Catholic Irish Confront the Civil War”

    October 8, 2013 @ 6:00 pm

    Rosamund Burton, writer and journalist, “Castles, Follies and Four-Leaf Clovers: Adventures Along Ireland’s St. Declan’s Way”

    September 12, 2013 @ 6:00 pm

  • 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)

    Roxanne O’Connell, Ph.D., “Your Granny’s Gramophone: The Cultural Impact of early recording technology on Irish Music”

    March 22, 2012 @ 6:00 pm at the International Tennis Hall of Fame

    Marian Mathison Desrosiers, Ph.D., “Remembering the Famine: The McGlinchey of Inishowen and Cambridge, MA”

    January 18, 2012 @ 6:00 pm at the International Tennis Hall of Fame (NEW venue)

    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 at the La Forge Casino Restaurant

    John F. Quinn, Ph.D., “The Irish in Gilded Age Newport”

    October 13, 2011 @ 6:00 pm at the La Forge Casino Restaurant

    William J. Matthews, Ph.D., “A History of the IRA: Oglaigh na Heireann”

    September 15, 2011 @ 6:00 pm at the La Forge Casino Restaurant

  • 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

    Edward T. O’Donnell, Ph.D., “Compassion & Corruption: The Political Machine and the Irish American Experience”

    October 22, 2009 @ 6:00 pm

  • 2008-2009 Series (7th Annual)

    Edward T. McCarron, Ph.D., “From the Nore Valley to North America: Migrations from the Parish of Inistioge, County Kilkenny”

    April 16, 2009 @ 6:00 pm

    Denny Lynch, Photographer, MS, BS, “The Battle of Baltimore, September 1814”

    March 3, 2009 @ 6:00 pm

    John F. Quinn, Ph.D., “The Rise of Catholicism in Newport, 1880-1950” (an “encore” presentation hosted by Cluny School, 75 Brenton Road, Newport)

    March 9, 2009 @ 6:00 pm

    William J. Matthews, Ph.D., “The Irish Famine (An Gorta Mor) 1845-1849”

    February 19, 2009 @ 6:00 pm

    John F. Quinn, Ph.D., “The Rise of Catholicism in Newport, 1880-1950”

    January 8, 2009

    Charles Artaud Byrne, MS, Lt.-Col. U.S. AF (retired), “Ranelagh: The Irish Warlord” (Tate Publishing Company, 2008)

    November 6, 2008 @ 6:00 pm

    Scott Molloy, Ph.D., “Irish Titan, Irish Toilers: Joseph Banigan and Nineteenth-Century New England Labor” (University Press of New England, July 2008)

    October 14, 2008

  • 2007-2008 Series (6th Annual)

    Dr. Brian Trainor, “Emigration from Ulster to North America in the 18th Century”
    Program co-sponsored by the Newport County Convention & Visitors Bureau

    March 10, 2008 @ 6:00 pm at La Forge Casino Restaurant

    Nancy Lusignan Schultz, Ph.D., “Mass Mailings: The Irish and American Miracles of Prince Alexander Hohenlohe, 1823-24”, (published Mar. 2011 as “Mrs. Mattingly’s Miracle: The Prince, the Widow, and the Cure that Shocked Washington City”, Yale Univ. Press)

    January 17, 2008 @ 6:00 pm

    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

    Nancy Lusignan Schultz, Ph.D., “McGowan’s Tavern, Paddy Funerals, and Rossiter’s Dog: Irish Factors in the 1834 Attack on the Charlestown, Mass. Convent”

    November 30, 2006 @ 6:00 pm

    Professor William Matthews, PhD, from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. “Green Against Green: The Tragic Irish Civil War”.

    November 2, 2006 @ 6:00 pm

  • 2005-2006 Series (4th Annual)

    Maureen T. Lapan, Ph.D., founding member and officer of the International Berkeley Society, “Images of Berkeley in Newport: 1729-1732”

    April 20, 2006 @ 6:00 pm

    J. Stephen Grimes, Director of Archives and Records Management for the R.I. Supreme Court, “From Bricklayer to Bricklayer; The Rhode Island Roots of Congressman John E. Fogarty’s Irish-American Nationalism”

    February 9, 2006 @ 6:00 pm

    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

    Professor William Matthews, PhD, from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. “Green Against Green: The Tragic Irish Civil War”.

    November 2, 2006 @ 6:00 pm

  • 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.

    Dr. Lawrence Arnold of Dublin, the author of numerous articles dealing with seventeenth century Irish History, and author of The Restoration Land Settlement in County Dublin 1660-1668, spoke about the events in Irish history leading up to the Cromwellian war and the settlement following that war.

    October 13, 2004 @ 6:00 pm

  • 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” based on Dr. Sterne’s recently published book, “Ballots and Bibles: Ethnic Politics and the Catholic Church in Providence”

    February 5, 2004 @ 6:00 pm at the La Forge Casino Restaurant

    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)

    Inaugural talk by Dr. John Quinn, PhD, an associate professor of history at Salve Regina University on his newly published book “Father Mathew’s Crusade – Temperance in Nineteenth Century Ireland and Irish America”

    October 24, 2002 @ 6:00 pm

  • 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”