Summer Storytelling Series: Mast Landing Brewing Company
2025-08-28 18:30 - 19:30 (America/New_York) | Mast Landing, Freeport, 200 LOWER MAIN STREET, Freeport, United States
The Maine Irish Heritage Center is bringing the cherished Irish tradition of storytelling to Maine this summer!
In days gone by neighbors would gather at night in the local ceili house, the home of a storyteller. They came for conversation, and to hear stories of their community, its history, old tales handed down by the ancestors, some music. These gatherings helped build community and preserve the culture and values of the Irish people.
We invite you to join us this summer at one of our storytelling events! Bring a story, a poem, a song, or simply come to listen and enjoy an evening among friends—or friends-in-the-making.
Event Details:

Location: Mast Landing Brewing Company, Freeport, Maine
Time: 6:30pm-7:30pm
Host: Cathy Furness
Story Guidelines:

Stories, songs, or poems should be 10 minutes or less
A timekeeper will help us keep things moving
No hate speech – creative freedom is welcome, but kindness and inclusivity are essential

All are welcome – come to share or simply to listen

Storytelling is central to Irish culture—as it is to so many cultures around the world. These outdoor events are part of MIHC’s mission to share this tradition across Maine while also supporting local businesses and gathering spaces. Let’s build community together, one story at a time.

Open Hours!
2025-09-04 10:00 - 14:00, 2025-09-11 10:00 - 14:00, 2025-09-18 10:00 - 14:00, 2025-09-25 10:00 - 14:00, 2025-10-02 10:00 - 14:00, 2025-10-09 10:00 - 14:00, 2025-10-16 10:00 - 14:00, 2025-10-23 10:00 - 14:00 and 3 more dates | Maine Irish Heritage Center, 34 Gray St, Portland, ME, 04102, United States
The Maine Irish Heritage Center is open to the public every Thursday from 10am-2pm! Stop in to take a tour of the building, do some research on our genealogy station, or peruse our library collection!
For more information, contact maineirish@maineirish.com!

Maine Irish Writes: September
2025-09-04 17:00 - 19:00 | Maine Irish Heritage Center, 34 Gray St, Portland, ME, 04102, United States
We are thrilled to present our inaugural season of Maine Irish Writes, an inclusive monthly Writer’s Group that will meet in the MIHC Library on the first Thursday of each month!
Led by the incredible poet and author Robert Breen, this welcoming writers group is open to all—whether you’re just starting out or deep into a manuscript. Bring your works in progress, share your voice, and receive supportive, thoughtful feedback in a relaxed and inspiring setting. Together, we’ll explore storytelling, poetry, memory, and the written word in all its forms. Come to listen, come to write, come to connect.
Check out the rest of the series dates HERE!

Lane to the Glen in Concert
2025-09-05 19:30 - 21:00 | Maine Irish Heritage Center, 34 Gray St, Portland, ME, 04102, United States
Friday. September 5th
7:30pm
Doors open at 7:00pm
Join us for an incredible evening of music with Lane to the Glen!
Tickets are $25 for general admission and $35 for priority seating. Don’t wait to get your tickets: the price at the door will be $30 for General Admission and Priority Seating is only available in advance!
About Lane to the Glen
Sligo Traditional Trio comprising Oisín Mac Diarmada (fiddle), Daithí Gormley (accordion), Samantha Harvey (piano, dance)
Oisín and Daithí are steeped in the music and history of the Sligo area, having previously collaborated on ‘Fiddlers of Sligo Tunebook’, a publication which set transcriptions of the fiddle repertoire of key Sligo exponents alongside historic images and context.
Daithí Gormley is widely regarded as one of the finest button accordion players of his generation. His remarkably accomplished debut album Fiddling without a Bow brought an expressive mix of old and new tunes played with an attention to detail, and he is regarded as a conduit to past masters of Irish traditional music.
Oisín Mac Diarmada and Samantha Harvey perform frequently with Téada, a worldwide-touring band founded by Oisín in 2001. Oisín and Samantha previously recorded The Green Branch, a sparkling album of fiddle and piano in 2015, with subsequent teaching and performing engagements in places such as the United States, Italy, France, and Japan.
Learn More about the artists:
https://lanetotheglen.com/
https://lanetotheglen.bandcamp.com/

A Huge thank you to our Sponsor for this event:
Holiday Inn By the Bay!

Maine Irish Reads "The Pull of the Stars" by Emma Donoghue
2025-09-11 19:30 - 21:00 | Maine Irish Heritage Center, 34 Gray St, Portland, ME, 04102, United States
Maine Irish Reads, our monthly book club, meets every second Thursday here at the Center!

From 7:30 – 9 PM in the MIHC Library. Bring a friend. The more, the merrier.
About this month’s book:

In Dublin, 1918, a maternity ward at the height of the Great Flu is a small world of work, risk, death, and unlooked-for love, in “Donoghue’s best novel since Room” (Kirkus Reviews)
In an Ireland doubly ravaged by war and disease, Nurse Julia Power works at an understaffed hospital in the city center, where expectant mothers who have come down with the terrible new Flu are quarantined together. Into Julia’s regimented world step two outsiders — Doctor Kathleen Lynn, a rumoured Rebel on the run from the police , and a young volunteer helper, Bridie Sweeney.
In the darkness and intensity of this tiny ward, over three days, these women change each other’s lives in unexpected ways. They lose patients to this baffling pandemic, but they also shepherd new life into a fearful world. With tireless tenderness and humanity, carers and mothers alike somehow do their impossible work.
In The Pull of the Stars, Emma Donoghue once again finds the light in the darkness in this new classic of hope and survival against all odds.

MIHC Day of Caring 2025
2025-09-13 09:00 - 15:00 | Maine Irish Heritage Center, 34 Gray St, Portland, ME, 04102, United States
Saturday, September 13th
9:00am-3:00pm
We are looking for:
Painters | Carpenters | Cleaners | Gardeners

The Center – originally St. Dominic’s Church – was constructed in the late 1800s, and has long served as one of Portland and Maine’s preeminent cultural centers, meeting spaces, research institutions, libraries, concert halls, wedding venues, and more.
We are hosting this Day of Caring to ensure our beloved space receives the attention it needs and deserves. With many important concerts, fundraisers, and cultural festivals on the horizon, this is the perfect chance to donate your skills, tools, and passion for just a few hours.
If you or your organization are interested in volunteering for this event, please contact us at volunteer@maineirish.com. We want to ensure your skills and expertise are put to the best use possible!

Day of Caring Project Options:
Interior Cleaning:
Sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, and dusting
Exterior Cleaning:
Picking up trash, removing debris, etc
Gardening:
Weeding, pruning, and otherwise tending to flowerbeds
Painting:
Repainting doors, pillars, walls, and trim
Carpentry:
Fixing doors & cabinets, repurposing old scrap wood
Special Projects:
We have a number of larger carpentry & electrical projects for larger, experienced teams.

Irish Maids and Portland's Houses
2025-09-16 18:30 - 20:30 | Maine Irish Heritage Center, 34 Gray St, Portland, ME, 04102, United States
Homes, Histories, and Women’s Networks
Tuesday, September 16th
6:30pm
Join us on Tuesday, September 16th at 6:30pm for a lecture with Thomas C. Hubka, Architectural & Cultural Historian.
Behind Portland’s grand homes and quiet streets lies a largely undocumented chapter of the city’s Irish story—one told in boarding houses, kitchens, and servant stairwells. Irish Maids and Portland’s Houses invites the community to explore the housing and domestic histories of Irish women who came to Portland as domestic workers in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
This talk aims to shine a light on the often-invisible lives of Irish women who arrived in America alone: where they lived, where they worked, and how they supported one another in a new and often difficult world. As single women, they navigated every phase of life—from immigration to labor to community building—without the legal or social protections often afforded to men or married women. Their histories are uniquely tied to the places they lived: domestic service placements, boarding houses, rented rooms, and homes shared with fellow migrants. These networks of chain migration and mutual assistance among women are difficult to trace in official records or family trees, yet they tell a vital and singular story. That is why we are reaching out to the broader Irish community: to help us uncover and preserve this essential chapter through shared family stories, photographs, oral histories, or even just names and addresses that may help us reconstruct this essential part of our heritage.
Whether you have roots in Portland’s Irish neighborhoods or are simply curious about the domestic work that helped build and sustain the city, we invite you to join us in preserving this overlooked legacy.
Professor Hubka will be available after the lecture to discuss further questions. He’ll also be holding interviews at the Center the next day, Wednesday, September 17th from 9am-3pm, to take more detailed information and collect family history stories from the Portland Irish community. Eventually, professor Hubka hopes to visit and document the houses where Irish maids lived and worked in the Portland area! If you have information, stories, or want to learn more about these interviews, please head HERE to learn more and sign up!

About Thomas C. Hubka
Thomas Hubka is a Professor Emeritus from the Department of Architecture, University of Wisconsin−Milwaukee. Through almost forty years of scholarship and teaching he has attempted to link the practice and teaching of architecture to historical and cultural context. He has published widely on topics of popular, vernacular architecture including theoretical works and detailed studies of common buildings such as New England farms, bungalows, ranch houses, and workers’ cottages
His latest books explore America’s most common housing such as workers’ cottages, bungalows, and duplexes: How the Working-Class Home Became Modern, 1900-1940. (University of Minnesota Press, 2021, and Houses without Names: Architecture Nomenclature and the Classification of America’s Common Houses (University of Tennessee Press, 2013).
His two previous books are: Resplendent Synagogue: Architecture and Worship in an 18th Century Polish Community (University Press of New England and Brandeis University Press) for which he received the Vernacular Architecture Forum’s, Henry Glassie Award, 2006; and Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn: The Connected Farm Buildings of New England (University Press of New England) for which he received the Abbott Lowell Cummings Award in 1985.
He is currently living in Portland, Oregon where he has taught courses at the University of Oregon, Portland State University, and Portland Community College and continues to study the housing and neighborhoods of Portland and Oregon.

Thank you to our sponsor for this event: Hyatt Place Portland Downtown-Old Port Square!

Interested in learning more on this subject? There are some fantastic local researches doing great work right here in Portland!
Check out the Portland Bridgit Project to learn more:

The Portland Bridget Project is an independent research initiative led by Michelle O’Donnell Josephson and Hannah Marcel Field. The goal of our work is to find and tell the stories of 19th and early 20th century Irish domestic servants in Portland, Maine. These women are an important part of our local history, but their stories have not been told. You can learn more about us on The Portland Bridget Project Facebook page and on Instagram as @theportlandbridgetproject

Interviews with Thomas Hubka
2025-09-17 09:00 - 15:00 | Maine Irish Heritage Center, 34 Gray St, Portland, ME, 04102, United States
After his lecture at the Center on September 16th, Professor Thomas Hubka will be holding interviews at the Center the next day, Wednesday, September 17th from 9am-3pm, to take more detailed information and collect family history stories from the Portland Irish community. Eventually, professor Hubka hopes to visit and document the houses where Irish maids lived and worked in the Portland area! If you have information, stories, or want to learn more about these interviews, please RSVP for a slot, and email events@maineirish with some details of what you hope to share with Professor Hubka!
Interested in the lecture? Join us on Tuesday, September 16th at 6:30pm to hear more about Irish Maids and Portland Houses! Click HERE for more information!

Thank you to our sponsor for this event: Hyatt Place Portland Downtown-Old Port Square!

Maine Irish Makes: September
2025-09-18 14:00 - 16:00 | Maine Irish Heritage Center, 34 Gray St, Portland, ME, 04102, United States
Calling all makers, artists, and creators! Maine Irish Makes is a monthly gathering for crafters of all kinds—knitters, quilters, beaders, sketchers, weavers, embroiderers, and beyond. Whether you’re just starting a project or putting the finishing touches on one, bring your materials and join us for a cozy, welcoming afternoon of creativity and conversation.
Held at the Maine Irish Heritage Center, this open event is a chance to connect with fellow artists, share skills, and form community across crafting traditions. No instruction is provided—just space, time, and good company.
Join us on the Third Thursday of each month! Free and open to all. Drop in, bring a friend, and get making!

2025 Annual Golf Scramble at Riverside
2025-09-20 | Riverside Golf Course, 1158 Riverside St, Portland, Maine, 04103, United States
Sold Out on the Course – But You Can Still Join Us!
2025 Maine Irish Golf Scramble – September 20 at Riverside Golf Course
Our annual golf scramble is officially sold out—thank you to all the players who will be hitting the links in support of the Maine Irish Heritage Center!
But there are still two great ways to be part of the fun:
Join Us for Dinner & Raffles
Not golfing? No problem! Come for the BBQ dinner, raffles, and prize drawings after the tournament. While some prizes are reserved for players, most raffles are open to everyone—so you’ll have plenty of chances to win. Tickets will be available at the door.
Sponsor a Hole or Event
Sponsorships are still available and are a fantastic way to showcase your company while supporting the Center’s mission. Options include:

Dinner Sponsor – $1,000 Includes logo recognition, on-site signage, social media & email promotion, and more.

Hole Sponsorships – Highlight your business or honor a loved one with your name prominently displayed on the course.

Why It Matters
Your support helps preserve and restore our historic landmark while celebrating and promoting Irish culture in Maine. All proceeds benefit the Maine Irish Heritage Center!
Don’t miss this last opportunity to be part of the 2025 Maine Irish Golf Scramble—join us for dinner or step up as a sponsor today!

Maine Irish Writes: October
2025-10-02 17:00 - 19:00 | Maine Irish Heritage Center, 34 Gray St, Portland, ME, 04102, United States
We are thrilled to present our inaugural season of Maine Irish Writes, an inclusive monthly Writer’s Group that will meet on the first Thursday of each month!
Led by the incredible poet and author Robert Breen, this welcoming writers group is open to all—whether you’re just starting out or deep into a manuscript. Bring your works in progress, share your voice, and receive supportive, thoughtful feedback in a relaxed and inspiring setting. Together, we’ll explore storytelling, poetry, memory, and the written word in all its forms. Come to listen, come to write, come to connect.
Check out the rest of the series dates HERE!

Maine Irish Reads "A Thread of Violence" by Mark O’Connell
2025-10-09 19:30 - 21:00 | Maine Irish Heritage Center, 34 Gray St, Portland, ME, 04102, United States
Maine Irish Reads, our monthly book club, meets every second Thursday here at the Center!

From 7:30 – 9 PM in the MIHC Library. Bring a friend. The more, the merrier.
About this month’s book:

A NEW YORK TIMES AND ECONOMIST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • From the award-winning author comes the gripping tale of one of the most scandalous murderers in modern Irish history, at once a propulsive work of true crime and an act of literary subversion.
“A masterpiece”—The Observer • “Disturbing [and] compelling”—Colm Toíbín • “Superb and unforgettable”—Sally Rooney • “Brilliant”—New York Times Book Review • “A masterly work”—John Banville • “Fascinating”—Emmanuel Carrère • “Morally complex and mesmerizing”—Fintan O’Toole
Malcolm Macarthur was a well-known Dublin socialite. Suave and urbane, he passed his days mingling with artists and aristocrats, reading philosophy, living a life of the mind. But by 1982, his inheritance had dwindled to almost nothing, a desperate threat to his lifestyle. Macarthur hastily conceived a plan: He would commit bank robbery, of the kind that had become frightfully common in Dublin at the time. But his plan spun swiftly out of control, and he needlessly killed two innocent civilians. The ensuing manhunt, arrest, and conviction amounted to one of the most infamous political scandals in modern Irish history, contributing to the eventual collapse of a government.
Winner of the Wellcome and Rooney Prizes, Mark O’Connell spent countless hours in conversation with Macarthur—interviews that veered from confession to evasion. Through their tense exchanges and O’Connell’s independent reporting, a pair of narratives unspools: a riveting account of Macarthur’s crimes and a study of the hazy line between truth and invention. We come to see not only the enormity of the murders but the damage that’s inflicted when a life is rendered into story.
At once propulsive and searching, A Thread of Violence is a hard look at a brutal act, its subterranean origins, and the long shadow it casts. It offers a haunting and insightful examination of the lies we tell ourselves—and the lengths we’ll go to preserve them.

Irish Rebel Songs Workshop with Davy Holden
2025-10-10 19:30 - 21:00 | Maine Irish Heritage Center, 34 Gray St, Portland, ME, 04102, United States
Friday, October 10th
7:30pm
Doors open at 7:00pm
Join Irish historian, Davy Holden, as he dives into the history behind some of Ireland’s greatest rebel songs. Rebel songs are pieces of music which are written about the Irish revolutionary period, and every Irish rebel song tells a unique story from Ireland’s struggle for independence, each a testament to the courage and spirit of the Irish people. Whether you’re drawn to history, music, or simply a love for Ireland, this workshop promises to enlighten, entertain, and leave you with a greater understanding of Ireland’s fight for freedom.
General Admission tickets are $20, and Priority Seating are $30 in advance! Don’t wait to get your tickets, prices will go up at the door!
About Davy Holden
Meet Davy Holden, an Irish historian, storyteller and video creator hailing from south Kilkenny, Ireland.

Davy’s journey into the world of Irish history began as a child, from playing Irish music, to listening to old stories from his elders, and being surrounded by various monuments, memorials and megalithic structures a stone’s throw from his home. With a passion for Irish history and video production, he started creating Irish history videos in August 2022. Since then, his social media channels have blown up, amassing over 680,000 followers across all platforms.

Since 2023, Davy has been travelling all over the United States to perform live Irish history workshops and Irish language workshops. He has also given lectures in various universities and schools. In early 2025, he featured on the RTÉ show, ‘Nationwide’, and in early 2026 he will be featuring on the PBS show ‘Ireland With Michael’. Davy’s mission is to make Irish history more accessible, and to make the history come alive through the lens of his camera – keeping the stories of our ancestors alive.

Learn more at https://davyholdenhistory.com/

Featuring music from the incredible Jim Sharkey!

Jim grew up in County Roscommon, Ireland. His songs reflect the Irish tradition as well as singer-songwriter music he grew up listening to. Regarding his original compositions Sean Smith, BostonIrish Contributor, November 2024 writes “there’s such an innate gentleness to his music, a care and concern expressed about our humanity, on a large and small scale, and that tenderness is once again abundant on his fourth album, “Our Old Village”.
Learn more at https://www.jimsharkeymusic.com

Maine Irish Makes: October
2025-10-16 14:00 - 16:00 | Maine Irish Heritage Center, 34 Gray St, Portland, ME, 04102, United States

Michael C. Connolly launches 'As the Twig is Bent'
2025-10-16 19:00 - 21:00 | Maine Irish Heritage Center, 34 Gray St, Portland, ME, 04102, United States
Michael C. Connolly Launches “As the Twig is Bent”
A Maine Irish Author Event
Thursday, October 16th
7:00pm
Doors open at 6:30pm
Join us for an incredible evening with local Maine author and historian Michael Connolly for the launch of his latest novel/memoir “As the Twig is Bent”!
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About the Book
A boy evolves to a man. What shapes him, nurtures him, supports and challenges him? Over the decades from his deep ancestral roots along the rugged West Coast of Ireland to his own beautiful home port in coastal Maine, the shaping of the boy emerges as he grows and changes. Grandparents he never knew, loving parents he knew every day; family, friends, classmates, mentors and fellow travelers — all provide love, guidance, challenge and support.
Young Coley Folan evolves, gaining insight, purpose, wisdom and humor; all of these he passes on to those he cares about. Share this journey with Coley as he explores and traverses this landscape where the confluence of nature and nurture pave the way for him to an inevitable vocation as a teacher and a scholar.
“Connolly’s characters and experiences are full of vigor and wry humor, while the occasional missteps always seem to resolve themselves with a happy ending — and another life lesson learned. Coley Folan and his family, like so many other immigrants, then and now, understood the power of education and assimilation — and that experience is often the best teacher.”
— Rusty and Sue Atwood, Former Maine Historical Society Trustee, and retired educators in Gorham, Maine
“Rich with humor, heart, and hard-earned wisdom, this is a coming-of-age memoir for anyone who has ever searched for where they truly belong. Connolly’s odyssey is a mirror of a generation longing to find its place in a shifting world.”
— Jean Haney, Entrepreneur and Maine Irish Heritage Center volunteer extraordinaire
“As the ‘new’ Portland, Maine, is quickly replacing the old, Connolly reminds us of the best of what the gritty, yet graceful ‘old’ neighborhoods of the ‘Forest City’ offered for those lucky enough to have called them home.”
— Dr. Mark Hibben, Professor of Political Science at Saint Joseph’s College of Maine
Learn more at https://tower-pub.myshopify.com/
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About the Author
Mike Connolly, 2016 MIHC Claddagh Award recipient, retired in 2020 from St Joseph’s college of Maine after teaching there for 36 years. Since then, he has written 3 novels to go along with his three previous works of history. As the Twig is Bent completes the trilogy of the “Folan Family” through the 20th Century in Portland, Maine. He lives on Munjoy Hill, two streets from the place of his birth.

__________________________________________________________

Other works
They Change Their Sky: The Irish in Maine
John Ford in Focus
Seated by the Sea
Murky Overhead
Ever the Twain Shall Meet

Community Town Hall
2025-10-19 14:00 - 16:00 | Maine Irish Heritage Center, 34 Gray St, Portland, ME, 04102, United States
Sunday, October 19th
2-4pm
At the MIHC
Join us for an afternoon of conversation and community.

The Maine Irish Heritage Center Board of Directors and staff have been working closely with professional consultants to chart a vision for our future. Much of this work has been shaped already by input from our earlier July survey, and we want to hear from you again–or for the first time–as we move towards the final stages of the new Strategic Plan.

At this Community Town Hall, we’ll gather for tea and snacks and engage in a facilitated conversation about the future of the MIHC. As members of our valued community, your ideas and insights are essential in shaping the next chapter of our work to preserve our historic building, celebrate Irish culture, and serve as a true community center.

During the meeting, you will have an opportunity to review what has been drafted so far and give feedback through a series of activities, facilitated discussions, and breakout groups. Input collected by our outside facilitators Rachel Hodges and Robin O’Brien will be used by the Board to shape the final draft of the strategic plan.

Come share your perspective, learn about the Center’s progress, and be part of our forward momentum.

This event is free and open to all.

Matthew Jude Barker Launches 'Becoming American' and 'The Blue and The Green'
2025-10-29 19:00 - 21:00 | Maine Irish Heritage Center, 34 Gray St, Portland, ME, 04102, United States
A Maine Irish Author Event
Wednesday, October 29th
7:00pm
Join us for an exciting evening with local author and historian Matt Barker!
Limited books will be available at the event, but we are offering pre-orders that may be picked up at the event!
Preorder HERE!
Matt will speak about his new books, Becoming American, Portland, Maine’s Irish and The Making of Immigrant America, 1840-1861, and The Blue and The Green, The Irish of Portland, Maine During The Civil War Era, 1861-1870. This era was tumultuous and altered the Irish community of Portland forever. The Great Hunger, the Great Irish Potato Famine (1845-51); the coming of the railroad and steamships; the Maine Law and Neal Dow’s fanatical battle against alcohol; the rise of the Know-Nothings, a not so secret nativist group who attacked Irish communities everywhere; the “Rum Riot” of 1855; the Panic of 1857; the creation of the Republican party and their battles with the Democrats; the coming of the Civil War; the countless Portland Irishmen who fought in the war; the Fenians; the Great Fire of July 4, 1866; and the completion and dedication of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (1869) are among the myriad events and issues that appear in these books. Matt will also talk about the social history of the Portland Irish in this era, including domestic maids, family life, the workers of the Portland Company and the Sugar House, longshoremen, and social organizations. This era truly was the genesis of the Irish Catholic community of Portland.
About the Author
Matthew Jude Barker is a lifelong resident of Greater Portland. He has been a genealogical and historical researcher since 1981, from the age of eight. Since 1996, he has written Maine history article for multiple publications. Matt was a contributor to, They Change Their Sky, The Irish In Maine (2004) and John Ford In Focus (2008), as well as two other history books. He is the author of The Irish of Portland, Maine, A History of Forest City Hibernians (2014), Becoming American (2025), and The Blue and The Green (2025). He researched and compiled the Maine Irish Heritage Trail for Acroglobal. Matt is a genealogist and the resident historian at the Maine Irish Heritage Center, where has been involved since the late 1990s, when he was a member of the Friends of St. Dominic’s, working to save the historic Irish church which became the MIHC.

About the Books:
Becoming American
The amazingly transformative years before the American Civil War affected the Portland, Maine Irish community immensely. That era included the temperance crusade, the Irish Repeal Society, the Great Hunger (the Great Famine), intense Irish immigration, prohibition and the fanatical battle Neal Dow fought against King Alcohol, the Portland Company, the railroad, the sugar industry, the connection via steamers between the city and Great Britain, the Know-Nothing nativist menace, abolition, the rise of the Republicans and their battles with Democrats, the “Rum Riot,” – all contributing to the assimilation and rise of the Irish in Portland, Maine.

The Blue and The Green
The Blue and the Green: The Irish of Portland, Maine During the Civil War is the compelling second volume in Matthew Jude Barker’s series on the Irish experience in Maine. Following his acclaimed book Becoming American, this installment turns to the 1860s, exploring how Portland’s Irish community navigated one of the most turbulent periods in American history.
As the Civil War erupted, Irish immigrants and their American-born children were faced with a difficult choice-remain on the fringes of society or fight for a country that had not yet fully accepted them. Many enlisted in the Union Army, joining Irish regiments and the famed Irish Brigade, seeking both patriotic purpose and social acceptance. Others contributed from the home front, working in the shipyards, organizing in churches, or sending sons and brothers off to war.
Barker draws from military records, newspaper accounts, letters, and parish archives to tell a vivid, human story. He introduces us to Irish soldiers from Portland who fought at Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Gettysburg, and explores how the trauma and triumph of war shaped the city’s Irish neighborhoods, churches, and civic life. We also see the tensions that arose-between nativists and newcomers, between North and South sympathizers, and even within the Irish community itself.
This is not just a military history-it is a story of identity, belonging, and transformation. Through war, loss, and resilience, Portland’s Irish helped redefine what it meant to be both Irish and American. Their story is one of perseverance and pride, rooted in both “the Blue” of Union loyalty and “the Green” of Irish heritage.
Rich in detail and narrative power, The Blue and the Green fills a crucial gap in Civil War and Irish-American scholarship, making it a must-read for historians, genealogists, and anyone interested in Maine’s multicultural roots.

Open Hours!
2025-10-30 10:00 - 14:00 | Maine Irish Heritage Center, 34 Gray St, Portland, ME, 04102, United States
The Maine Irish Heritage Center is open to the public every Thursday from 10am-2pm! Stop in to take a tour of the building, do some research on our genealogy station, or peruse our library collection!
For more information, contact maineirish@maineirish.com!
Please note, for tour groups of 4 or more we require advanced notice to ensure guide availability and proper accommodation. If you’d like to schedule a tour with us, please fill out this google form HERE!

Maine Irish Writes: November
2025-11-06 17:00 - 19:00 | Maine Irish Heritage Center, 34 Gray St, Portland, ME, 04102, United States

Annual Celtic Fair 2025
2025-11-08 09:00 - 15:00 | Maine Irish Heritage Center, 34 Gray St, Portland, ME, 04102, United States
Saturday, November 8th
9:00am-3:00pm
We are excited to bring back another year of festive holiday fun at our Annual Celtic Fair! Join us as part of the 14th annual State Street Holiday Stroll.
The Celtic Christmas Fair features a light luncheon menu, hot and cold beverages, baked goods, a raffle table, music, and more. We’ll have featured performances from the incredible Stillson School of Irish Dance! We draw crowds for the beautiful artistry as well as the luncheon and lively entertainment. We hope you can join us for what has become a wonderful holiday tradition.

Vendor Applications are CLOSED! If you are interested in being on our list for next year, please email events@maineirish.com
