This tunnel was dug by Irish railroad workers as part of the Norwich and Worcester Railroad. It allowed the line to hug the river as it worked its way through northeastern Connecticut. Work on the tunnel required Irish laborers equipped with picks and shovels to slowly chip their way through solid rock in order to create the passageway. The tunnel was completed in 1837 and remains the nation's oldest railroad tunnel still in use ... [ more ] | |
St. Mary Star of the Sea Roman Catholic Church in New London began in the 1840s, serving Irish workers from a storefront on Bank Street. Soon, St. John's parish was formed and a chapel was erected on Jay Street. In 1855 a new church, St. Patrick's, was consecrated on Truman Street ; the original church on Jay Street was used for Sunday-school purposes. St. Patrick's parish acquired a large lot at the corner of Washington and Huntington Streets in 1866 and the following year work began on a new church. The parish was renamed St. Mary Star of the Sea in 1874 and ... [ more ] | |
John McCurdy (1724-1785) was born in County Antrim in Ireland, the son of a Scottish Presbyterian clergyman. He was the third generation descended from one of five brothers who fled English persecution in Scotland to settle in northern Ireland in 1666. He probably learned his business skills in Belfast, before emigrating to New York in 1745, where he was known as a merchant by 1747. He purchased this house from Amos Tinker in 1753 when he moved to Lyme. McCurdy was active in many forms of maritime trade, including ... [ more ] | |
Several mills, beginning with the Spraque Mill in 1856, attracted immigrant labor to the area. Many Irish, French- Canadians and Poles settled in the village of Baltic and they formed a substantial Catholic community. By the late 19th century they were able to build several parish buildings, including the Second Empire style St. Mary Convent, erected in 1888, Immaculate Conception Church (1911) and Academy of the Holy Family (1914) ... [ more ] | |
The house is the birthplace of Captain Edmund Fanning, an explorer and sea captain known as the 'Pathfinder of the Pacific.' Fanning become the first American captain to circumnavigate the globe, in 1797-1798, aboard the Betsey, with a crew from Stonington. He made a fortune trading seal skins for goods in China--silk, spices and tea--which he then sold in New York City. He discovered three Pacific Islands, known collectively as the Fanning Islands, Fanning, Washington, and Palmyra ... [ more ] |
CT Irish-American
Heritage Trail
640 Arrowhead Drive
Orange, CT 06477
The Irish experience has had a profound impact on Connecticut's past, and its narrative spans all periods of the state's history and touches every one of its eight counties and 169 towns.
