St. Patrick's Church in Lowell, Massachusetts
The next time you are exploring Irish heritage sites in Massachusetts, visit these landmarks in the City of Lowell, a mill city built in the 19th century in large part by Irish immigrants. The idea to create an experimental new town of mills and factories came from Yankee industrialists and bankers, but they quickly realized they needed the newly-arrived Irish to construct the buildings, the roadways and canals to ship materials, and boardinghouses to accommodate the labor force.
A key Irish labor leader in this endeavor was Hugh Cummiskey, an immigrant from County Tyrone who emigrated to Charlestown in 1817. He and 30 Irish laborers walked the 27 miles from Charlestown to Lowell, and began work building the town in 1822, according to historian David McKeen in his book, Lowell Irish. By 1830 there were more than 500 Irish workers, along with their families.
Lowell Canal along Suffolk Street
McKean said that many of Lowell’s first Irish inhabitants shared similar causes of death: drowning, crushed by stone, or killed when a wall fall in on them, he told the
Lowell Sun. “They were the canal builders,” he said. “It remains unknown how many died digging the canals because at that point in time, the Irish were pretty much dispensable. If one died, another took his place.”
Within a decade, St. Patrick's Church was built in 1831 at 282 Suffolk Street, to accommodate the hundreds of families that had spring up in a neighborhood known as The Paddy Camps. A year late, a Catholic Burial Ground was opened, which later became known as St. Patrick's Cemetery.
St. Patrick Statue at St. Patrick Church, Lowell
A second Catholic church, St. Peter's, was built on Gorham Street 1841, as the German and Irish immigrant population continued to grow. Later, Immaculate Conception Church was established in 1872, followed by St. Michael Church in 1883.
The original St. Patrick's Church was too small for the growing congregation there, so a new Gothic-style church was built by famous Tipperary architect Patrick Keely, large enough to hold 2,000 people, McKeen writes. The new church opened on October 29, 1854, where the original church stood. In 1984, St. Patrick Church was officially listed on the
National Register of Historic Places.
Cardinal O'Connell Statue across from Lowell City Hall
By the turn of the 20th century, Lowell had a thriving Irish population, along with a new generation of Irish leaders. One particular favorite native son was William Henry O'Connell. Born in 1859, O’Connell was the son of Irish immigrants, John and Bridget (Nee Farrelly), and the youngest of 11 children. His father, a mill worker died when O’Connell was four. He was ordained into the priesthood in 1884 and spent time at the Vatican, where he made important connections within the church. He became Archbishop of Boston in 1907 and remained in that role until his death in 1944. while becoming Cardinal of the Boston Archdiocese in 1911.
A statue honoring Cardinal O'Connell was unveiled on November 17, 1918 along Cardinal O'Connell Parkway in front of Lowell City Hall, attended by 30,000 people. Read more
about Cardinal O'Connell.
In March 1977, local Irish organizations launched a gala fundraiser for a Celtic Cross monument to be erected near the Cardinal O'Connell statue. The monument, carved in granite, was designed by local stonecutter Adrian Luz and meant to honor the 150th anniversary of the first Irish immigrants who came to Lowell in 1822.
In April, 2016, a Celtic Cross and plaque were placed behind St. Patrick's Church in honor of the Irish who suffered and died during An Gorta Mor, Ireland's Great Hunger, which lasted from 1845-49.
The Celtic Cross chosen for An Gorta Mor was thematic of similar monuments placed throughout New England and beyond by the Ancient Order of Hibernians and other Irish groups. Here are
10 Irish Famine Memorials in New England.
An excellent book for learning more about this topic is
Lowell Irish by David D. McKean, published in 2015 by History Press, Arcadia Publishing.
To learn more about Irish history in Boston, visit
IrishHeritageTrail.com, and for Boston's South Shore, visit
ssirishtrail.org/ Research, Text + Photos, Michael Quinlin
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