President Michael D Higgins arrives in Boston for May 5 Faneuil Hall event
By the BIR Staff
Boston’s Irish community is preparing to welcome Michael D. Higgins, the ninth and current President of Ireland, on his arrival in the city on Sat., May 5, for a whirlwind two-day visit that will coincide with Boston’s designation by the Irish government as the official site of the international commemoration of the Irish Famine.
Higgins will preside over several famine-related events in Boston, and will deliver a lecture on the “Great Hunger” and its impact on Ireland and Boston at Faneuil Hall on the morning of his arrival. The Boston observance will precede by a week the official Irish commemoration in Drogheda, Co. Louth, on May 13.

Michael Higgins, 71, is a longtime Galway politician, a former head of the Labour Party, a poet, a university professor, an author and a broadcaster. He was elected to the presidency last fall and took office in November, succeeding two-term president Mary McAleese.
Boston’s Irish Consulate has announced that Higgins’s May 5 address will be followed by a musical program featuring acclaimed Irish and local Boston musicians, including Frankie Gavin, hat will be produced by WGBH’s Brian O’Donovan. The event will last approximately one hour and will be followed immediately by a short wreath- laying ceremony at the Boston Irish Famine Memorial at the downtown corner of School and Washington streets that will feature a performance by the Boston Police Gaelic Column pipe band.
Consul General Michael Lonergan said he encourages people “to attend what should be a wonderful event for the entire community. This is the new president’s first visit to the United States and we are greatly honored and delighted that he has chosen to come to Boston and lead the commemorations for the Great Irish Famine here in the capital of Irish America. I am sure very many members of our community here will want to come along and be part of what will be a wonderful event both at Faneuil Hall and the Famine Memorial, to which all are welcome.”
In announcing Higgins’s visit, Jimmy Deenihan T.D., the Irish Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and Chair of the National Famine Commemoration Committee, who will be in Boston that weekend, said “Many Irish emigrants during the Great Famine, and indeed after that period, have settled in Boston and on the eastern coast of the United States of America and I know that the community in Boston are working hard to ensure that the Commemoration will be a dignified and fitting tribute to the victims of the Great Irish Famine.
“Drogheda was the second largest port of departure for over one million people who were forced to emigrate. Some travelled
only as far as Britain while others travelled onwards from the UK to North America. Many of these people arrived in Boston, hoping for a more prosperous life. We know from the evidence of Irish heritage in Boston that many settled and prospered in that city. I would like to thank the community in Boston for their ongoing work to ensure that the victims of the famine are remembered and respected in a dignified manner”.
A reception with President Higgins will take place that afternoon at the Seaport World Trade Center beginning at 1:30 p.m.
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Other events this month include:
• The Charitable Irish Society, the Eire Society, and the Forbes House Museum will jointly sponsor a Famine Commemoration program on Sun., May 6, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. The program will feature presentations that highlight significant efforts of two New Englanders to provide aid, comfort and food to Ireland in the darkest years of the Irish Famine. The program will given at Fontbonne Academy, 303 Adams St., Milton, with presentations by Professor Maureen Murphy of Hofstra University and Professor Emerita Catherine B. Shannon of Westfield State University. Murphy, a noted expert on the Irish Famine, will describe the work of Vermont native Asneath Nicholson, who provided aid and comfort to the sick, destitute, and starving in Ireland from l844 to l849. Ms. Shannon will describe the work of Captain Robert Bennet Forbes and the New England Relief Committee, who delivered crucial food to County Cork on the USS Jamestown in the spring of l847. A wine and cheese reception at Forbes House Museum will immediately follow the presentations beginning at 3:30 p.m. The tours will focus on the history of Captain Forbes’s historic 1847 voyage and include an exhibition of various artifacts related to the humanitarian effort. Pre registration is required. Call the Charitable Irish Society at 617- 330-l737 or e-mail them at charitableirishsociety@ gmail.com, or call Barbara Fitzgerald of the Eire Society at 617-698-8758 or e- mail her at barbara.s.fitzgerald@ gmail.com. Tickets are $15 per person. Reservations deadline is May 1. The event is part of the 2012 Annual Irish Famine Commemoration.
• Division 8 AOH and LAOH will hold a Commemoration of the Great Hunger on Sun., May 6, at the An Gorta Mor Memorial
in the Immaculate Conception Cemetery, 29 Barker St., Lawrence, at 1:30 pm. A host of county, state and national AOH and LAOH representatives along with other dignitaries are expectedto be present.
• The Irish International Immigrant Center/ Montserrat Aspirers will host the 19th Annual Black & Green Event on Sun., May 6, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. with a presentation of a program entitled “The Famine in 19th Century Ireland, and Hunger Today: Locally and Globally.” The event will also include an afternoon of performance art, thematic presentations, cultural exchange,
and community building, at Monserrat Aspirers Hall, 358-364 Washington St, Dorchester. For more information please contact Ally Tzovaras at the IIIC at 617-542-7654, Ext. 43, or via atzovaras@ iiicenter.org.
• On May 12, the Irish Cultural Centre host a Famine commemoration at its Canton campus. The evening will begin at 5:30 p.m. with a lecture, a meal, and a viewing of the award winning film “The Great Irish Famine: Remember Skibbereen.” Seamus Mulligan and others will conduct a conversation and Q&A.