Newport Daily News 12/14/2009, Page A09

OUR VIEW

Irish museum deserves new home at fort

Given the role Irish immigrants played in shaping Newport, it makes sense for the Museum of Newport Irish History to have a permanent home in the city to showcase its collections.

Given the role Irish immigrants played in building Fort Adams, it makes sense for the museum to be located there, if possible.

The museum, founded in 1996, currently is in a temporary site at the Eisenhower House at Fort Adams State Park, but its membership would like to be able to move into the fort’s former mule barn. The museum, a library and boardroom would be situated in a small section of the barn.

“It was mostly Irish labor that built the fort” in the 1800s, said Vince Arnold, the museum’s president and one of its founders. “It’s one of the reasons we would like to stay here at Fort Adams.” Upon its formation, the Museum of Newport Irish History’s first charge was to restore and preserve St. Joseph’s Cem etery, known locally as the Barney Street cemetery. The large lot at the corner of Barney and Mount Vernon streets was the site of a small schoolhouse built in 1809 that was purchased by the Diocese of Boston in 1828 and became the first Catholic church in Newport.

In addition to maintaining the cemetery, the museum hosts an annual lecture series at La Forge Casino restaurant on Irish history and culture and conducts an annual tour of Irish-related sites in the city, using a bus donated by Viking Tours of Newport.

The museum has collected history books about the Irish and has created a computer program with data on the Irish who were born, married and died in the city since the 1840s. Members are recording interviews with residents of the old Fifth Ward, a neighborhood name that has endured long after the city’s voting wards were whittled down in number.

“We’re compiling an audio history about all phases of Irish immigration here and what the immigrants, their children and grandchildren contributed to the town,” Arnold said. “We’re also working on a DVD with a virtual tour of Irish Newport. We hope to get that out soon.”

The museum has preliminary plans for a permanent site and is raising funds to support its planning and development.

While everyone can celebrate all things Irish on St. Patrick’s Day and during the month of March, which has been designated Irish Heritage Month in Newport, the museum works year-round to preserve and promote Irish history in Newport. It deserves a true home from which to do its work.

Irish history museum looks for a real home

By Sean Flynn
Daily News staff

The Museum of Newport Irish History was founded about 13 years ago, but it remains a museum without a real home.

Books, photos and artifacts that document the history of Irish immigrants in Newport and the city’s old Fifth Ward neighborhood are kept at the Eisenhower House in Fort Adams State Park, but it is not a permanent location for the collection.

Vince Arnold, the museum’s founder and president, and its approximately 400 members would like to establish a place where people could go to learn about the social and cultural impact the Irish have had on the city.

The favored location would be in the fort’s former mule barn, which now is known as the Dr.

Fred Alofsin Special Events Building. Newport Collaborative Architects created a preliminary plan for the museum layout in a sm all section of the mule barn, which is on the shoreline of Brenton Cove. It would include the museum, a library, a small theater and a boardroom.

“We would like the space if and when it becomes available,” Arnold said. “It would be great for us because it is an historic site and the fort attracts tourists.”

However , Sail Newport and several other organizations also are interested in obtaining space in the mule barn, he said, so it is uncertain who will be able to move into the state-owned building that requires restoration.

When construction of Fort Adams began in 1824 and continued for the next 37 years, Irish masons, stonecutters and laborers were recruited for the project. There were up to 400 laborers at the site during some periods.

“It was mostly Irish labor that built the fort,” Arnold said. “It’s one of the reasons we would like to stay here at Fort Adams.”

It would not be feasible to locate the museum within the fort itself, he said. It only is open six months of the year and the interior space is damp. It would be expensive to restore it so it could house computers as well as books, photos, documents and other artifacts, he said.

VINCE ARNOLD founder and president of the Museum of Newport Irish History
‘We’re hoping to kick it up a notch and enter an intensive stage of planning for the interpretive site.’
Vince Arnold, founder and president of the Museum of Newport Irish History, holds a historic photo of the mule barn at Fort Adams State Park, also pictured below, which he hopes will become a permanent home for the museum.

NEWPORT David Hansen Daily News staff photos

Founded in 1996, the Museum of Newport Irish History's first task was to restore and preserve St. Joseph's Cemetery, known locally as the Barney Street cemetery. The large lot at the corner of Barney and Mount Vernon streets was the site of a small schoolhouse built in 1809 that was purchased by the Diocese of Boston in 1828 and became the first Catholic church in Newport.

The mostly Irish parishioners quickly outgrew the building, tore it down and erected a wooden Gothic-style church at the site in 1837. A little more than a decade later, in 1848 , they purchased a site on Spring Street and built an impressive new stone church, dedicated as St. Mary's Church in 1852.

The wooden church on Barney Street was torn down in 1864 and all that remains on the lot is the church cemetery, with the graves of the first parishioners. There are headstones marking the burial locations of people such as Ann Flanagan, who died on June 22, 1841, and Mark Sullivan, who died Aug. 1, 1939. Later graves include those of Honora McCormick, who died Jan. 26, 1851, and Bridget O'Sullivan, who died May 14, 1853. None of the graves is more recent than the 1850s.

The museum put up a plaque at the property that was dedicated in June 2000, and members have maintained the cemetery since then. Arnold said the steel fence enclosing the small cemetery was just completed this year.

In the past few years, the museum has hosted an annual lecture series at La Forge Casino restaurant on Irish history and culture. Just last month, Joyce Botelho, who has a master's degree in history from Brown University, spoke about the Irish working class culture of Newport in the early 20th century. She focused on people such as Nora Mulloy, who was born in County Roscommon, Ireland, and immigrated to Newport. She worked as a domestic in several prominent households until she saved enough money to open her own boarding house. Mulloy died in 1954.

After the work at Fort Adams, a later generation of Irish laborers helped build the mansions of Bellevue Avenue and later staffed them, Arnold said. Many of these Irish workers established their homes in the southern end of the city, in what was then the Fifth Ward. Museum members have been taping interviews with people talking about life in the old Fifth Ward.

"We're compiling an audio history about all phases of Irish immigration here a nd what the immigrants, their children and grandchildren contributed to the town," Arnold said.

The museum also has collected history books about the Irish and has a computer program with data on the Irish who were born, married and died in the city since the 1840s. Patrick Murphy, the organization's historian, compiled this data, Arnold said.

While many Irish immigrated to the U.S. and this area in the 1840s as a result of the potato famines, there were Irish in the city from Colonial times, Arnold said. There was a Larkin family from Ireland in Newport in 1655, and the 1790 census included 37 Irish families.

The museum also conducts a tour of Irish-related sites in the city once a year, using a bus donated by Viking Tours of Newport, owned by the Oakley family.

"We're also working on a DVD with a virtual tour of Irish Newport," Arnold said. "W e hope to get that out soon."

While the organization has been busy on many fronts, the next goal is to find a permanent museum site. If the hopes for the mule barn do not work out, perhaps the museum could move into a storefront on Thames Street, Arnold said.

"We're hoping to kick it up a notch and enter an intensive stage of planning for the interpretive site," he said.

To raise money for the effort, the Museum of Newport Irish History will present a comedy night at Ochre Court, Salve Regina University, on Feb. 27, beginning at 7 p.m.

Send reporter Sean Flynn e-mail at Flynn@NewportRI.com.
David Hansen Daily News staff

The Museum of Newport Irish History maintains the Barney Street cemetery, where many Irish immigrants are buried.

The Museum of Newport Irish History is a 501©3 Non-Profit Organization. The membership consists of those who are interested in the history of Irish immigration into Newport County from the 1600’s to the present, and the social and historical contributions that these people have made to the fabric of life here.