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Gaelic sport and the Irish diaspora in Boston, 1879–90

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Paul Darby
Paul Darby*
Affiliation:
School of Applied Medical Sciences and Sports Studies, University of Ulster at Jordanstown
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Extract

Although Gaelic sports have been played in an organised fashion for over a century in the United States, academic research on the development and role of these sports among the Irish diaspora has been extremely limited. This is hardly surprising, given the more general disregard of the significance of sport in the burgeoning literature examining the Irish experience in America. In its most general aspect, this study seeks to redress this neglect. Drawing predominantly on archival material from the John J. Burns Library at Boston College and from Boston Public Library, the article charts and explores the processes involved in the transfer of Gaelic sports from Ireland to one of the most significant focal points of Irish immigration, Boston. This analysis not only identifies and examines the key agencies and individuals responsible for the early development of Irish sports in Boston, but also seeks to explore the role they played in the promotion and preservation of a distinctively Irish ethnic identity. In particular, the article assesses the extent to which Gaelic games have functioned as an arena in which Irish nationalism was fostered in the greater Boston area during the 1880s. Before turning to these central concerns, it is important to understand the social milieu in which these games developed. Thus the article begins with a brief context-setting discussion that charts Irish emigration to Boston and offers some insights into the socio-economic and political environment encountered by the Irish on completion of their journey.

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 33 , Issue 132 , November 2003 , pp. 387 - 403
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 2003

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References

1 O’Connor, Thomas H., The Boston Irish: a political history (Boston, 1995), p. xv.Google Scholar

2 O’Toole, James M., ‘Boston’ in Glazier, Michael (ed.), The encyclopedia of the Irish in America (Notre Dame, 1999), p. 57Google Scholar. By 1850 the number of Irish had risen to 35,000 in a total population of 136,900.

3 For example, Boston was a city with a strong literary tradition, fostered by the ‘Brahmin’ aristocratic tradition. However, illiteracy, brought about in part by the penal laws, meant that large numbers of those emigrating in or around the Famine era could not share with Bostonians their love of literature.

4 Beatty, Jack, The rascal king: the life and times of James Michael Curley (1874-1958) (Reading, Mass., 1992), p. 22.Google Scholar

5 See McCaffrey, Lawrence J., The Irish Catholic diaspora in America (Washington, D.C., 1997)Google Scholar; idem, Textures of Irish America (Syracuse, N.Y., 1992).

6 McCaffrey, Irish Catholic diaspora, p. 71.

7 Peter Eisinger, cited ibid.

8 Ralph Wilcox notes that historians have largely ignored the role of sports among various ethnic groups in America during the nineteenth century. This is certainly the case with regard to Irish immigrants in Boston. See Wilcox, Ralph C., ‘Sport and the nineteenth-century immigrant experience’ in D’Innocenzo, Michael and Sirefman, J. P. (eds), Immigration and ethnicity: American society — ‘melting pot’ or ‘salad bowl’? (Westport, Conn., 1992), p. 178.Google Scholar

9 Ibid., p. 179.

10 Bjarkman, P. C., The Boston Celtics encyclopaedia (Champaign, Ill., 1999).Google Scholar

11 McCaffrey, Textures of Irish America, pp 26-7. For a general discussion of the role of American sports for Irish immigrants see Reiss, Steven A., ‘Sport, race, and ethnicity in the American city, 1870-1950’ in D’Innocenzo, and Sirefman, (eds), Immigration and ethnicity, pp 191–220.Google Scholar

12 The Irish have been credited with dominating baseball between 1870 and 1900. See Bjarkman, P. C., ‘Forgotten Americans and the national pastime: literature on baseball’s ethnic, religious, and racial diversity’ in Multi-cultural Review, i (Apr. 1992), pp 46-8.Google Scholar

13 McCaffrey, Textures of Irish America, p. 27.

14 See particularly Cronin, Mike and Mayall, David (eds), Sporting nationalisms: identity, ethnicity, immigration and assimilation (London & Portland, Oreg., 1998).Google Scholar

15 Miller, Kerby and Wagner, Paul, Out of Ireland: the story of Irish emigration to America (London, 1994), p. 110.Google Scholar

16 Bairner, Alan, Sport, nationalism and globalization: European and North American perspectives (Albany, N.Y., 2001), p. 70Google Scholar. See also Sugden, John and Bairner, Alan, Sport, sectarianism and society in a divided Ireland (Leicester, 1993)Google Scholar; Mandle, W. F., The Gaelic Athletic Association and Irish nationalist politics, 1884-1928 (Dublin, 1987)Google Scholar; Cronin, Mike, Sport and nationalism in Ireland: Gaelic games, soccer and Irish identity since 1884 (Dublin, 1999).Google Scholar

17 This analysis is made by drawing predominantly on newspapers, journals and magazines that were aimed specifically at Irish-American audiences. While the sources used are unique for a study of this kind, there are potential problems in the ‘reading’ of these texts. As Jeff Hill has pointed out, ‘there are many dangers in accepting at its face value the language of the sporting press’ (Hill, Jeff, ‘British sports history: a post-modern future’ in Journal of Sports History, xxiii (1996), p. 16)Google Scholar. Accordingly, I acknowledge that the language used in these sources is at times intended to rouse the readers and encourage them to view Gaelic games in nationalistic terms.

18 Boston Pilot, 4 Oct. 1879.

19 The Gael, Sept. 1901, p. 292.

20 Boston Pilot, 12 June 1886.

21 Ibid., 4 Oct. 1879.

22 Ibid.

23 Donahoe’s Magazine, Nov. 1879, pp 460-64. For example, clearly demarcated boundaries were not used, and the game was often interrupted by encroachments onto the ‘field of play’ by spectators.

24 Boston Pilot, 4 Oct. 1879.

25 Donahoe’s Magazine, Nov. 1879, p. 464.

26 Ibid., p. 462.

27 Boston Pilot, 4 Oct. 1879.

28 As well as being the victims of ethnic and religious prejudice, sections of the Irish population were also the perpetrators of racial discrimination in Boston. During the second half of the nineteenth century Irish attitudes towards the Afro-American population were mixed. On the one hand, liberal sections of the Irish-American community were staunch abolitionists. However, a sizeable proportion of the Boston Irish were guilty of perpetrating the types of racism and discrimination which they themselves had experienced at the hands of the American nativist movement. For this group, the abolitionist movement was generally viewed as being hypocritical because it was being championed in Boston largely by WASPs who were perceived as being guilty of discrimination against and exploitation of Irish immigrants. The possibility of abolition also raised serious economic concerns among Irish labourers and trade union bosses who developed a keen sense of hostility towards a black population that they viewed as competition for jobs. For a general comment on Irish-Afro-American relations in this time period see Coogan, Tim Pat, Wherever green is worn: the story of the Irish diaspora (London, 2000)Google Scholar. For a detailed analysis of the relationship between Boston’s Irish and black communities see O’Connor, Thomas H., South Boston, my home town (Boston, 1994)Google Scholar. It should be noted that the event involving the throwing of balls and sponges at the negro was included in the day’s proceedings despite the presence of a number of staunch abolitionists, including John Boyle O’Reilly (for whom see below, pp 397-400).

29 Boston Pilot, 12 June 1886; Irish Echo, July 1888, p. 4. The Irish Echo was the official newsletter of the Philo-Celtic Society of Boston and was published sporadically between 1886 and 1894.

30 The Gael, Jan. 1882, p. 1.

31 Ibid., May 1887, p. 705.

32 Irish Echo, July 1888, p. 4.

33 Hehir, John, ‘Boston and North East Gaelic Athletic Association, 1884-2000’ in North East Gaelic Athletic Association, A century of Boston G.A.A. (Boston, 2000), pp 2–3Google Scholar; Irish Cultural Centre, ‘Boston and the North East Gaelic Athletic Association, 1884-1999’ in Commemorative program, Irish Cultural Centre grand opening — Phase I (Irish Cultural Centre, Boston, 1999), pp 8–9.Google Scholar

34 de Búrca, Marcus, The G.A.A.: a history (2nd ed., Dublin, 1999), pp 31-3.Google Scholar

35 Irish Echo, Oct. 1888, p. 4.

36 Donahoe’s Magazine, Nov. 1888, p. 474.

37 De Búrea, G.A.A., p. 33; Hanna, F., ‘The Gaelic Athletic Association’ in Glazier, (ed.), Encyclopedia of the Irish in America, pp 353-4Google Scholar. Plans to revive the Tailteann Games were suspended until the early 1920s.

38 The Gael, Aug.-Sept. 1900, p. 258.

39 Details of the complement of G.A.A. clubs in Boston in this time period are given in the club histories of Boston Galway Hurling Club and the Young Ireland Hurling Club which were published as part of North East Gaelic Athletic Association, century of Boston G.A.A.

40 Irish Echo, Oct. 1888, p. 4.

41 Roche, J. J., The life, poems and speeches of John Boyle O’Reilly (New York, 1891).Google Scholar

42 The Gael, Sept. 1901, p. 292.

43 Greeley, Andrew M., The Irish Americans: the rise to money and power (New York, 1981), p. 92.Google Scholar

44 Celtic Monthly, Aug. 1879, pp 76-82; Donahoe’s Magazine, Oct. 1890, pp 359-70.

45 Shannon, William V., The American Irish: a political and social portrait (New York, 1966), p. 197.Google Scholar

46 Roche, John Boyle O’Reilly, p. 201.

47 Donahoe’s Magazine, Oct. 1890, pp 359-60.

48 Sugden & Bairner, Sport, sectarianism & society, p. 29. See also Cronin, Mike, ‘Fighting for Ireland, playing for England? The nationalist history of the Gaelic Athletic Association and the English influence on Irish sport’ in International Journal of the History of Sport, xv, no. 3 (1998), pp 36–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mandle, Gaelic Athletic Association.

49 O’Reilly, John B., Athletics and manly sport (Boston, 1890), p. iGoogle Scholar. The book contained three detailed chapters on the ethics and evolution of boxing, training methods for athletes, and ancient Irish athletic games, as well as a series of short stories on the author’s canoeing expeditions. O’Reilly is also described as an ‘apostle of muscular Christianity’ in Roche, John Boyle O’Reilly, p. 202.

50 O’Reilly, Athletics & manly sport, p. xi.

51 For an insightful discussion of Irish-American nationalism in the second half of the nineteenth century see McCaffrey, Irish Catholic diaspora.

52 Donahoe’s Magazine, Apr. 1886, p. 180.

53 ‘Cronin, Mike, ‘Enshrined in blood: the naming of Gaelic Athletic Association grounds and clubs’ in Sports Historian, xviii, no. 1 (May 1998), p. 96.Google Scholar

54 Reiss, ‘Sport, race & ethnicity’, p. 192.

55 Ibid.

56 By the late 1880s influential sections of Irish America found it increasingly difficult to reconcile their efforts to achieve respectability in the American mainstream with aspects of Irish-American nationalism. For example, the insistence of Patrick Ford, the proprietor and editor of the hugely influential Irish-American newspaper, the Irish World, that Irish freedom be combined with socialism, worried many supporters of the cause of Irish freedom, as did the violence perpetrated by Clan na Gael. Factionalism in Irish politics, caused by Parnell’s involvement in the O’Shea divorce scandal in 1890, also saw Irish-American nationalism lose support. See McCaffrey, Textures of Irish America, pp 151-2.

57 This has subsequently been the case in Boston for those with an interest in playing or watching Gaelic sport (interview with Connie Kelly, public relations officer of the North East G.A.A. Board, Belmont, Mass., 30 July 2000; interview with John Hehir, former president of the North American County Board, Brighton, Mass., 15 Aug. 2000).

58 For example, in 1993 a Gaelic football club was established in memory of Aidan McAnespie, who was shot dead by a British soldier in 1988. One of the key reasons for the formation of the club was to highlight and publicise among Irish-Americans what was perceived to be continued political injustice in Northern Ireland. In addition, in 1998 the body responsible for overseeing Gaelic games in Boston took the decision to change its name from the New England to the North East G.A.A. Board, thereby removing what was a superficial but no less symbolic connexion between the Boston G.A.A. and England. On this point see Darby, Paul, ‘Gaelic games and the Irish immigrant experience in Boston’ in Bairner, Alan (ed.), Sport and the Irish: historical, political and sociological perspectives (Dublin, forthcoming).Google Scholar

The author would like to thank Liverpool Hope University College for the financial assistance that facilitated the field work for this study. For advice and access to the special collections and archives of the John J. Burns Library at Boston College the author is indebted to Dr Robert O’Neill and John Attebury. Tim Lynch of the Irish Institute at Boston College and the staff at the college’s Thomas P. O’Neill Jr Library were also very accommodating in helping with numerous requests for assistance, as were staff at Boston Public Library (Brighton and Copley branches). Thanks also go to Kieran Conway, Mark Stokes and Olivia Cahill of the Irish Emigrant, a weekly newspaper for Boston’s Irish community, who gave so freely of their time and considerable knowledge of Gaelic sport in Boston. John Hehir, former president of the North American County Board, and Connie Kelly, public relations officer of the North East G.A.A. Board, deserve special mention for sharing with me their views and memories of the development of Gaelic sports in Boston and for their kind words of encouragement. I would also like to express my gratitude to the players and officials of Notre Dame Gaelic Football Club, particularly Maurice Walsh, Liam Byrne and Hugh Meehan, as well as those at Delaware Place and Napleton Street, Brighton, Mass., for helping to make my field work so enriching and enjoyable. Finally, the encouragement and advice I received when I presented preliminary findings of my research at the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport conference in San Antonio,Texas, in November 2001, particularly from Alan Bairner and Joe Maguire, is much appreciated.