Irish Community Connections

On Friday, May 10, the Irish International Immigrant Center stood alongside leaders of government, business, labor and faith communities to re-affirm the conviction that Congress should pass immigration reform now to strengthen the safety and further the prosperity of all Americans.

As part of his continuing rise in local politics, Irishman Denis Keohane was appointed Chairman of the Milton Board of Selectman last week. Last year, the Cork native became the first foreigner to be elected to the Board of Selectman and now creates further history by becoming first Chairman from outside the U.S.

God bless you, Fr. Brendan, and thank you from the bottom of our hearts.



The group left Boston on Saturday with Program Director Kieran Taggart and Senior Program Supervisor Gary McLaughlin to return home to Ireland. We wish them every success for the future.

Sarah will be coordinating our ESOL, Citizenship Education and Career Advancement programs. The IIIC welcomes Sarah, and wishes her every success in her new role.

Ballymena All Saints ABC has a long history in boxing and is in existence for over 50 years. In that time they have had NI champions and All-Ireland champions of all ages and have had boxers compete at 3 different Commonwealth games.

Their current coach, Gerry Hamill is a former Commonwealth games gold medalist and represented Ireland at the1976 Olympic Games. This is the second time the All Saints ABC have visited Boston having boxed here in 1999 with two of the fighters who traveled with that team, Dermot & T J Hamill, returning again.

or call 212-206-0847.

The “American and European Works of Art” show takes place at 12pm on May 17 at 63 Park Plaza, Boston, MA 02166. For more information on the event, contact Barry Lyndsay 857-264-6652.

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This year, the camp will run for four weeks in the middle of summer: July 15-19, July 22-26, July 29-August 2, and August 5-9. The camp is a fun and educational program about Irish culture and traditions for children in grades 1-5 and grades 6-8, specifically designed for and tailored to the needs and interests of both elementary school and middle school students. It provides a wide range of classes and activities, including instruction in Irish sports including Irish football and hurling, language, music, and dance as well as arts & crafts, storytelling, and literature.

Michelle from Registry of Motor Vehicles

We are so glad to have Maura here with us at the IPC and feel that her skill set ideally meets the Mission of the IPC.

Despite this challenging and often taboo topic, Maureen McGlame (COASA) lead our discussion in a warm, healing way and offered plenty of hope. The room was filled with parents, grandparents, spouses and siblings who have all seen the devastation that addiction has wrought in their families. I left this wonderful meeting last night full of hope - and really would love to invite all our Irish and Irish American readers to join us for the next meeting of this supportive group on Tuesday, May 7th at the Laboure Center in South Boston, 275 West Broadway.

The next video and discussion will focus on how to identify and respond in a helpful way if there are children in your life being impacted by substance abuse. I will be there and available to chat afterwards if you have any lingering questions. A special thank you to Sr. Mary Edel (Laboure), Fr. Joe (St. Vincent's Parish), Joan Lynch (Maria Droste Services) and of course, Maureen McGlame (COASA) for our warm welcome! The pizza was delicious! Please join us May 7th and share the hope of recovery!

Krystle was a wonderful girl with gorgeous blue eyes, an amazing smile, a great personality, and a beautiful soul. We will hold on tight to her memory in both our hearts and minds. She will never be forgotten.”

In 1943, the SMA Fathers were welcomed into the Archdiocese of Boston. The Latin initials: “SMA”- Societas Missionum ad Afros, is our official name but over these fifty something years, we fondly became known in Boston as the “SMA Fathers” or the “African Missions.”

Boston College is a Jesuit, Catholic university located in Chestnut Hill, Mass. Ranked among the best universities in the United States, the school enrolls 9,000 undergraduates and 5,000 graduate students from all 50 US states and more than 40 countries.

Last week, on Marathon Monday, the Irish International Immigrant Center (IIIC) welcomed the Tyrone-Donegal Partnership (TDP) Wider Horizons group of twenty young men and women in the midst of the chaos of last week’s bomb explosions. The group arrived in our downtown Boston Center an hour before the incident. IIIC and TDP staff and local host families provided a warm, home-away-from-home welcome.

Club Leabhar Nua Eabhrac , an Irish language book club in New York, presents the launch of Feargal Mac Ionnrachtaigh’s “Language, Resistance and Revival: Republican Prisoners and the Irish Language in the North of Ireland”

Mac Ionnrachtaigh book tells the untold story of the truly groundbreaking linguistic and educational developments that took place among republican prisoners in Long Kesh prison from 1972-2000.

During a period of bitter struggle between republican prisoners and the British state, the Irish language was taught and spoken as a form of resistance during incarceration. The book unearths this story for the first time and analyses the rejuvenating impact it had on the cultural revival in the nationalist community beyond the prison walls. Based on unprecedented interviews, Feargal Mac Ionnrachtaigh explores a key period in Irish history through the original and "insider" accounts of key protagonists in the contemporary Irish language revival.