Abortion ban headed for ballot box in Ireland Health minister defends referendum

By Gregory Katz, Associated Press
February 1, 2018
Gregory Katz, Associated Press

LONDON — Irish women are having abortions regardless of a near-total constitutional ban on terminating pregnancies, the country’s health minister said on Jan. 30 in defense of a planned referendum that will ask voters whether the amendment should be repealed.

Health Minister Simon Harris said on Ireland’s RTE television that he is beginning work on a proposed abortion law that would be submitted to parliament if the May referendum removes the constitutional ban. The legislation would allow abortions during the first trimester, he said.

Forbes Museum exhibit recalls a special mission

By Daniel Sheehan
February 1, 2018
Daniel Sheehan

The newest exhibit at the Forbes House Museum in Milton tells the story of Captain Robert Bennet Forbes’s humanitarian aid mission to Ireland during the height of the Great Potato Famine of the 1840s.

The exhibit, which officially opened on Jan. 27 at an open house event at the museum, features a collection of artifacts and documents that detail the voyage and place it in historical context.

Movement seen for memorial on Deer Island for quarantine dead

By BIR Newsroom
January 1, 2018
BIR Newsroom

There’s progress to report on efforts to establish a memorial to the Irish who fled on “famine ships” in the mid-19th century only to lose their lives in quarantine in Boston Harbor. More than 800 Irish men, women and children died and were buried in graves on Deer Island, and a committee has been at work to create a memorial.

‘HIS DUTY WAS DONE TO THE LAST’ (1st of two parts)

By Peter F. Stevens
January 1, 2018
Peter F. Stevens

On Jan. 16, 1908, BPD officer Lynch made the ultimate sacrifice

First of two-parts

“For God’s sake, keep him away and don’t let him shoot me again!” shouted Patrolman John T. Lynch at Officer John P. Doyle, who had rushed across icy, snow-cloaked Arch Street to the corner of Summer and Kingston streets as three shots pealed though the chill evening air of Jan. 16, 1908.

Aidan Browne is building a legacy of Irish sport in Boston

By BIR Newsroom
January 1, 2018
BIR Newsroom

BY TYLER MCMANUS
SPECIAL TO THE BIR
Aidan Browne, a partner at the Sullivan & Worcester law firm, is a “go-to” person with vast experience representing US and Irish companies. So when he received a call in 2015 from Fionnuala Quinlan, the Consul General of Ireland in Boston, it was not an unusual event.
“Aidan, I have some people from Dublin in town,” she said. “It’s the founder and CEO of the Gaelic Players Association (GPA) and one of his colleagues. Would you mind meeting them?”

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