Promoting Boston Irish Culture Since 1937

A Journey Home (1934) with Mary Kilroy at the ICC on 22 January

The Eire Society of Boston and the Irish Cultural Centre will host a program, A Journey Home (1934), A Narrative Including Family Letters with Mary Kilroy, on Sunday 22 January at 2pm at the ICC, 200 New Boston Drive, Canton.

A series of letters, written by Delia McGuire to her betrothed in Boston, chronicles a summer spent in Gurrane, County Mayo in the summer of 1934. The written words chronicle the sentiments of an ambivalent bride-to-be, who desperately wished to stay with her mother in the old sod, while a patient groom-to-be, James Kilroy awaited her return in America.

The groom sent more and more money to his beloved, and he saved all her letters, until finally, in September 1934, they were married in Boston.

The program, created by Mary Kilroy and John McGuire, introduces the audience to family members including Grandmother “Oonie” Waldron McGuire and Auntie May McGuire, relatives of the bride, and John Kilroy, Patrick Kilroy and Mary Kilroy Crowe, siblings of the groom.

For more information, call Maudy Dooher, Director of Programming & Membership at the Irish Cultural Centre, at 781- 821- 8291, ext. 103, or email mdooher@irishculture.org. Visit the website http://www.irishculture.org/. Refreshments will be served.

The Eire Society of Boston, founded in 1937, is among Boston’s oldest Irish organizations. Through its programs and events, the ESB promotes knowledge of Irish culture and supports scholarship in the arts, sciences, literature, language and history of Ireland.

For general information on ESB programs and events, email Barbara Fitzgerald, ESB Corresponding Secretary at barbara.s.fitzgerald@gmail.com.

To become a member of the Eire Society of Boston, visit the website https://www.eiresociety.org/membership/ or email Mary Ellen Mulligan, Membership Secretary, at membership@eiresociety.org.