February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
With this week’s opening of the exhibition “Fire Upon the Hearth: A Celebration of Irish-American Women,” at the Dreams of Freedom Museum in Boston, they’re finally getting their due.
“Our museum tells the story of immigration to Boston . . . and we’ve had special exhibits on the Italians, the Chinese and the Portuguese in the Azorean community,” said Steve Kirk, the museum’s executive director. “But we hadn’t done the Irish and we were looking for the right opportunity. Since March is Women’s History Month, it seemed like the perfect time for this exhibit.”
The exhibition’s foundation is a series of panels describing accomplishments of more than 100 Irish-American women in business, politics, education, religion, entertainment, literature, art and sports.
Created in 1996 by a committee of Irish-American women for a two-year showing at the Irish American Heritage Museum in East Durham, N.Y., the exhibition has since traveled throughout the United States and Ireland.
“Women are an important part of the Irish immigration story,” said Michael Quinlan, president of the Boston Irish Tourism Association, the exhibition’s co-sponsor. “Unlike other ethnic groups in which the men came to America first, 52.9 percent of the Irish immigrants between 1820 and 1924 were women.
“The potato blight caused widespread starvation in Ireland . . . so the women came alone or with other women. And they became a staple in the Irish family by working, raising a family and sending money home to Ireland.”
Many Irish-American women entered the workforce as servants in millionaires’ homes, which “wasn’t all bad,” according to Joseph Dolan, chairman of the Irish American Heritage Museum.
“They learned how to cook, sew, dress and talk,” he said. “They duplicated the efforts of their employers and succeeded.”
Among their accomplishments were the many “firsts” highlighted in this exhibit: the first woman U.S. Coast Guard vessel commander, the first woman U.S. Supreme Court justice and the first teacher in space.
For the Boston show, displays have been added to honor some of the local women. There’s a teal-colored dress that was worn by Jean Butler in the original 1995 production of “Riverdance” and a skating costume that was worn by Olympic silver medallist Nancy Kerrigan.
On loan from the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, the alma mater of Annie Sullivan, Helen Keller’s teacher, are books written in Braille and a machine used to produce Braille documents. And from the Christa Corrigan McAuliffe Center in Framingham, there are official patches of the Challenger Mission and the Teacher in Space program and a model of the Challenger.
The Boston show also has audio-visual components — a tape recording, from the John F. Kennedy Birthplace in Brookline, in which Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy shares her thoughts on motherhood, and a video of Irish stepdancers performing “Riverdance.”
The “Riverdance” video captivated Kira Arnott, a 10-year-old ballet student from Cambridge who visited on a snowy opening day, Feb. 17. Her mother, Mary White, however, was more interested in reading about Elizabeth Bagley, the first woman U.S. ambassador to Portugal.
“Elizabeth Bagley’s roots are the same as mine — her grandmother is from County Clare,” said White, a former Peace Corps volunteer who now works for the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority. “She’s a woman about my age and she’s taken a path that I would have loved to have taken. She seems like an interesting person that I’d really like to meet.”
The organizers of this exhibition say they feel that it will interest visitors with Irish roots. But they also believe that the story of Irish-American women has wider appeal and a broader message.
“For years, I never heard anything Irish unless it was prefaced by Paddy or Mike,” Dolan said. “My hope is that when Mike brings his wife and children to see the exhibit, on the way out the wife will say, ‘What do you think of the Irish women now? Because here we are and here’s what we’ve done.’
“It’s clearly a message of hope, not just for Irish women, but for everyone.”
Complementing the exhibition are a number of free programs. On March 2 at 1 p.m., Irish women short story writers will read from their work. On March 9 at 1 p.m., author Ruth Ann Harris will lecture on Irish women immigrants in the 19th century, and will be followed by a talk at 2 by author Maureen Dezell.
“Fire Upon the Hearth: A Celebration of Irish American Women,” at the Dreams of Freedom Museum, 1 Milk St., Boston ([617] 338-6022, www.dreamsoffreedom.org). Open daily, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Adults $7.50; senior citizens and students $6.50; children (age 6-18) $3.50.