Walks & Trails

The Irish Heritage Trail

About 5 miles with every stop (the trail’s own figure: just over 3 miles) · 3 to 4 hours at an easy pace

LengthAbout 5 miles with every stop (the trail’s own figure: just over 3 miles)

Time3 to 4 hours at an easy pace

StartRose Kennedy Garden, Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park, Atlantic Ave

EndFenway Park, 4 Jersey St

Access Flat except the climb up Beacon Street to the State House and the slope down through the Common; paved sidewalks and park paths throughout, with ramps on the Fiedler Footbridge over Storrow Drive.

Hours and prices Each ticketed stop below carries its hours and admission; the full table is Sights at a Glance.

This trail shows how a starving people took over a Yankee city: Boston became one of the most Irish cities in America the hard way. In the late 1840s, famine ships landed tens of thousands of hungry refugees on the wharves of a Protestant Yankee town that wanted little to do with them. Within four decades an Irish-born mayor, Hugh O’Brien, was running City Hall. Patrick Collins, John F. “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald and James Michael Curley followed, and Fitzgerald’s grandson, John F. Kennedy, carried the family story to the White House. Irish-American mayors from John Collins and Kevin White to Ray Flynn and Marty Walsh kept it going well into this century.

The Irish Heritage Trail reads that story in bronze and granite. Michael Quinlin laid it out in 1994 while working at the Boston Parks and Recreation Department. Its 20 official stops climb from the downtown waterfront past City Hall, the Famine Memorial and the State House, then cross Boston Common and the Public Garden. From there the route follows the Esplanade and Commonwealth Avenue to Copley Square, then cuts through the Fens to finish at Fenway Park. The trail’s own figure of just over 3 miles is the straight run from the waterfront to the ballpark; the loop around the Common and the Esplanade detour make it about 5 miles on foot. Nearly every stop is a free outdoor memorial.

Know before you go

Getting there: the start in Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park is a short walk from Aquarium station on the Blue Line. Park Street (Red and Green Lines) sits mid-route by the State House; Boylston, Arlington and Copley on the Green Line serve the Common, Public Garden and Back Bay stops; and Kenmore (Green Line B, C and D branches) is a few minutes’ walk from Fenway Park at the finish.
Markers: there is no painted line, and the stops are the memorials themselves, each with its own inscription or plaque. Carry the free trail map, which the Boston Irish Tourism Association prints in every issue of its Travel & Culture magazine (look for it at the Boston Common Visitor Information Center, 139 Tremont Street) and posts as a PDF at irishboston.org.
Freedom Trail overlap: the two routes share Faneuil Hall, the Old Corner Bookstore corner where the Famine Memorial stands, the Granary Burying Ground, the State House and Boston Common, and the Shaw Memorial is also the first stop of the Black Heritage Trail. Walk that downtown stretch once and fold the Irish stops into a Freedom Trail day.
Short on time? The official map marks stops 1 through 12, from the waterfront to the Central Burying Ground, as a suggested shorter walk of about two miles that ends beside Boylston station on the Green Line. To reach the Esplanade statues on the full route, cross Storrow Drive on the Arthur Fiedler Footbridge at Arlington and Beacon streets.
Timing: the outdoor memorials can be seen at any hour, but bring daylight for reading plaques. The State House is open to visitors on weekdays only, and the Granary and Central burying grounds keep daytime hours. Allow 3 to 4 hours for the full route, and time the finish for a Red Sox game, a ballpark tour or a pint: see Settle Into an Irish Pub.
Eat and drink: Mr. Dooley’s, the Irish pub on Broad Street a few minutes from the start, does lunch and a proper pint; the city’s pubs are in Bars & Nightlife.

Walks & Trails · The map

The Irish Heritage Trail

Rose Kennedy Garden, Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park, Atlantic Ave › Fenway Park, 4 Jersey St

Map key

Stop by stop

Rose Kennedy Garden and Greenway

Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park, Atlantic Ave

Hours 6 a.m.–11:30 p.m. (city park hours) · Admission Free

Rose Fitzgerald was born in 1890 at 4 Garden Court in the North End, the daughter of Mayor John F. “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald. She married Joseph P. Kennedy and raised nine children, a president among them. Her family, led by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, dedicated this fenced rose garden on her 97th birthday in 1987. Its 104 rose bushes stand for the years of her life, and the Greenway behind the park bears her name.

Kevin White Statue

Faneuil Hall, Congress St side, Faneuil Hall Sq · Free

Kevin White ran Boston for four terms, from 1968 into 1984. He opened Little City Halls in the neighborhoods, was mayor through the busing crisis, and championed the rebirth of the shabby Quincy Market buildings as Faneuil Hall Marketplace. Pablo Eduardo’s ten-foot bronze, unveiled in November 2006, shows him striding away from Faneuil Hall toward the harbor.

James Michael Curley Statues

Curley Memorial Plaza, Congress St at North St · Free

No Boston politician was loved and loathed in such equal measure. James Michael Curley held the mayor’s office in four different decades, served as governor and in Congress, and spent part of his final term in federal prison. Lloyd Lillie’s pair of bronzes, dedicated in 1980, catches both sides of him: one Curley stands mid-speech, the other sits on a bench, ready to listen. Edwin O’Connor’s novel The Last Hurrah drew on his career.

Boston City Hall

1 City Hall Sq, Government Center

Hours Mon–Fri 8:30 a.m.–5 p.m. · Admission Free

For Boston’s Irish, City Hall was the prize. Hugh O’Brien, born in Ireland in 1827 and brought to Boston as a small child, took the oath as the city’s first Irish-born mayor on January 5, 1885, ending the Yankee hold on the office. Patrick Collins of County Cork, elected in December 1901, took the office in January 1902, and Irish-American mayors held the job for most of the 20th century. Until the late 1960s they governed from Old City Hall on School Street; their successors have worked from this concrete landmark since.

In this book: City Hall (Boston City Hall)

Boston Irish Famine Memorial

Washington St at School St, beside the Old Corner Bookstore · Free

Two bronze families share this small plaza at the Old Corner Bookstore. One is starving in Ireland during the Great Hunger of the 1840s; the other strides forward in America, fed and hopeful. Robert Shure’s memorial was unveiled on June 28, 1998, before more than 7,000 people, as the famine’s 150th anniversary was being marked. Eight narrative plaques around the statues follow the story from blighted fields to new lives in Boston.

Granary Burying Ground

Tremont St, beside Park Street Church

Hours Daily about 9 a.m.–4 p.m. · Admission Free

The Granary is the Revolution’s burying ground, and The Freedom Trail has the roll call. Look closer for the Irish. Patrick Carr, an Irish immigrant mortally wounded in the Boston Massacre, lies with the other four victims. Governor James Sullivan, son of Irish immigrants and brother of the Revolutionary general John Sullivan, is buried here too.

In this book: Granary Burying Ground

Robert Gould Shaw and 54th Regiment Memorial

Beacon St at Park St, Boston Common, opposite the State House

Hours 6:30 a.m.–11 p.m. · Admission Free

Augustus Saint-Gaudens was born in Dublin in 1848 to a French shoemaker and an Irish mother from County Longford, and came to America as a six-month-old. His bronze of Colonel Shaw riding beside the 54th Massachusetts is the first stop of The Black Heritage Trail, which tells the regiment’s story; here it stands for the immigrant’s son who made it.

In this book: Boston Common

Massachusetts State House

24 Beacon St

Hours Mon–Fri 8:45 a.m.–5 p.m.; free tours 10 a.m.–3:30 p.m. · Admission Free

Charles Bulfinch’s gold-domed State House, finished in 1798, keeps a surprising Irish collection. Isabel McIlvain’s striding bronze of John F. Kennedy, dedicated in 1990, stands on the front lawn. Inside hang portraits of Irish-American governors from James Sullivan to David I. Walsh and Maurice Tobin, and the green colors of the Irish 9th Massachusetts belong to the battle flag collection. Outside Doric Hall, the labor organizer Mary Kenney O’Sullivan is one of six bronze busts in Hear Us, stop 3 of The Women’s Heritage Trail. Docent tours are free on weekdays.

In this book: Massachusetts State House

Soldiers and Sailors Monument

Flagstaff Hill, Boston Common

Hours 6:30 a.m.–11 p.m. · Admission Free

Martin Milmore arrived from Sligo in 1851, a seven-year-old with a widowed mother and brothers, and grew into one of Boston’s busiest sculptors. His granite column on Flagstaff Hill honors the city’s Civil War dead and was dedicated in September 1877. Its figures and reliefs favor the rank and file over generals. Milmore died young in 1883; Daniel Chester French made his memorial at Forest Hills Cemetery.

In this book: Boston Common

Commodore John Barry Memorial

Tremont St side of Boston Common, south of Park St

Hours 6:30 a.m.–11 p.m. · Admission Free

John Barry, born in County Wexford in 1745, commanded Continental Navy ships through the Revolution and is often called the father of the American Navy. Mayor James Michael Curley dedicated John Paramino’s bronze tablet to him here in 1949. Thieves took it in the 1970s, and the granite copy you see replaced it. The recovered bronze has been kept at the Charlestown Navy Yard, where supporters want it restored and back on view.

In this book: Boston Common

Boston Massacre Memorial

Tremont St side of Boston Common

Hours 6:30 a.m.–11 p.m. · Admission Free

Five men died after British soldiers fired into a crowd on King Street in March 1770, and one was Patrick Carr, an Irish immigrant who lingered for days before he died. When Black Bostonians led the push for this monument, the Massachusetts Historical Society dismissed the victims as rioters. John Boyle O’Reilly, the Irish-born editor, backed the campaign and wrote the poem read at the 1888 unveiling. Robert Kraus made the bronzes.

In this book: Boston Common

Central Burying Ground

Boylston St, Boston Common, near Tremont St

Hours Daily about 9 a.m.–4 p.m. · Admission Free

Opened in 1756 on the Common’s Boylston Street edge, this is where Boston buried people with nowhere else to go: the poor from the almshouse, free and enslaved Black Bostonians, and strangers who died far from home, Irish Catholics among them. After Massachusetts legalized Catholic worship in 1780, Catholic symbols began turning up on the slate stones. The portrait painter Gilbert Stuart rests here too.

In this book: Central Burying Ground

Colonel Thomas Cass Statue

Boston Public Garden, Boylston St side

Hours 6:30 a.m.–11 p.m. · Admission Free

Born in Ireland’s Queen’s County, now Laois, Thomas Cass grew up in Boston and became a North End businessman. In 1861 he raised and led the 9th Massachusetts, the state’s Irish regiment, and was mortally wounded at Malvern Hill in July 1862. He came home to Boston to die. An earlier granite figure drew complaints about its likeness, so Richard E. Brooks’s bronze replaced it in 1899.

In this book: Boston Public Garden

David I. Walsh Statue

Charles River Esplanade, near the Hatch Memorial Shell

Hours Dawn to dusk · Admission Free

David I. Walsh broke a barrier in 1914 when he became the first Irish Catholic governor of Massachusetts, then spent most of the next three decades in the U.S. Senate. In June 1919 he introduced Éamon de Valera to a vast rally at Fenway Park, this trail’s final stop. Joseph Coletti’s 1954 bronze carries the Latin motto Non sibi sed patriae: not for himself, but for his country.

In this book: Esplanade (Charles River Esplanade)

Maurice Tobin Statue

Charles River Esplanade, beside the Hatch Memorial Shell

Hours Dawn to dusk · Admission Free

Maurice Tobin, born in 1901 to an Irish family on Mission Hill, took on his old mentor James Michael Curley in the 1937 mayoral race and beat him. He ran Boston through World War II, served a term as governor, and became Harry Truman’s secretary of labor in 1948. The Mystic River Bridge was renamed for him in 1967. Emilius Ciampa’s bronze went up here in 1958.

In this book: Esplanade (Charles River Esplanade)

Patrick Collins Memorial

Commonwealth Ave Mall, between Clarendon St and Dartmouth St

Hours 6:30 a.m.–11 p.m. (park hours); open to walk through at any hour · Admission Free

Patrick Collins left Fermoy, County Cork, as a small boy, worked as an upholsterer, put himself through Harvard Law School, and served in Congress before winning City Hall in December 1901; he took office the following January. When he died in office in 1905, Bostonians raised money for a memorial within days. Henry and Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson set his bronze bust between two women, Ireland with her lyre and America. It moved to this block in 1966.

In this book: Commonwealth Avenue Mall

John Singleton Copley Statue

Copley Square, Boylston St at Dartmouth St · Free

John Singleton Copley, born in Boston in 1738 to Irish immigrant parents, became the leading portrait painter of colonial America. Paul Revere, Samuel Adams and John Hancock all sat for him. Caught between his Loyalist in-laws and his Patriot clients, he sailed for England in 1774 and never came back. The city named this square for him in 1883, and Lewis Cohen’s bronze, palette in hand, joined it in 2002.

Boston Public Library, Central Library

700 Boylston St, Copley Square

Hours Mon–Thu 9 a.m.–8 p.m., Fri–Sat 9 a.m.–5 p.m., Sun 11 a.m.–5 p.m. · Admission Free

The BPL opened its shelves to anyone, including immigrants who could never have bought books. Hugh O’Brien, the first Irish-born mayor, pushed the Copley Square building forward, and Charles McKim’s palace for the people opened in 1895; the building is read in full on the Architecture & Art Walk. Look above the entrance for the seals carved by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the Dublin-born sculptor of the Shaw Memorial.

In this book: Boston Public Library (Central Library, Copley)

John Boyle O’Reilly Memorial

Back Bay Fens, Boylston St at the Fenway · Free

John Boyle O’Reilly, born in County Meath in 1844, was a Fenian rebel shipped to a penal colony in Western Australia. In 1869 he escaped aboard the New Bedford whaler Gazelle, reached Boston in 1870, and became editor of The Pilot and the city’s leading Irish voice. Daniel Chester French’s memorial, unveiled in 1896, seats Erin between her sons Patriotism and Poetry, with O’Reilly’s bust on the back.

Fenway Park

4 Jersey St, Fenway–Kenmore

Hours Tours daily on the hour, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Nov–Mar; 9 a.m.–5 p.m. Apr–Oct (on game days the last tour leaves 3 hours before game time) · Admission Ballpark tours $30 adults, $21 ages 3–12

Charles Logue, a carpenter from County Derry, landed in Boston in 1881 and built a firm that put up churches, Boston College’s campus and this ballpark, where the Red Sox played their first official game on April 20, 1912. In June 1919 an enormous crowd filled it to hear Éamon de Valera, and Gaelic football and hurling have both been played here. The outside is free to see; games and tours are ticketed.

In this book: Fenway Park