November 11, 2025

Dear Members,

This fall has been a busy one thus far for the Museum's board members and volunteers. We hosted two history lectures, offered two Irish cemetery tours, and wrapped up the 2025 Season at the Interpretive Center on Lower Thames Street. Additionally, we entertained members and their guests with a sold-out musical-comedy show fundraiser, Blarney, Bologna, and Beyond – an amazing evening conceived and directed by Fr. Mark Sauriol. We are grateful that so many of you were able to participate in one or more of these programs.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, we continue to research and document Newport's rich Irish history, assist members with family genealogy research, and plan upcoming lectures and other activities, including our annual Christmas Open House at the Interpretive Center, discussed below. 


YOU, our members, make all of this possible, and we are deeply grateful for your support, which enables us to preserve and celebrate Newport's rich Irish heritage!

We are also very fortunate to have many new members join our ranks thus far in 2025. Click HERE to see the list of those who joined since our last update of August 25. These updates include existing members who purchased a Life membership subscription. Welcome and thank you to all!

Our final lecture of the calendar year, before the 2025-26 Series takes a winter hiatus, is approaching quickly on Wednesday, November 19, with special guest speaker Cormac O'Malley, whose talk is discussed below. If you plan to join us and have not yet reserved a spot, either in person or on Zoom, please do so now.

Scroll all the way to the end so you don't miss any news!

Third Program of the 2025-26 Series

~ Our 24th Annual ~

 Guest Speaker:

Cormack K.H. O'Malley


Wednesday, November 19, 6:00 p.m.

Wyndham Newport Hotel

240 Aquidneck Ave, Middletown, R.I.

and Live-Streamed via Zoom

Made possible by a generous gift from

Francis J. Furtado 
in memory of

Barbara Carr Furtado


For a copy of the talk overview you 
received in the mail, click HERE

• Doors open at 5:30 p.m.
• Light hors d'oeuvres & cash bar available
• 
  

Click a link below to sign up


In-person: $5 fee at the door

(cash or check to MNIH)

Zoom registrants: No fee

Cormac Kevin Hooker O'Malley is the son of Ernie and Helen Hooker O’Malley. He has been interested in Irish history since his college days.Since his retirement from an international corporate law practice, Cormac has worked to preserve his father’s literary and historical legacy as well as his mother’s artistic and cultural heritage by facilitating exhibits of her art collection, her own sculpture, photography, and theatre stage sets in Ireland and the USA, and by encouraging institutions to publish extensive catalogs about those exhibits. 
This year, two major exhibits of her works are at the University of Rochester and the University of Limerick. Cormac has also produced two documentary films about her work, which have been shown on Connecticut Public Television: A Call to Arts (2020) and Camera and

Clay (2023). We welcome Cormac for this, his second talk to our membership.



Thanks to our wonderful volunteer docents and our Salve Regina University intern, our Interpretive Center at 648 Lower Thames Street was open to the public Thursday through Sunday, from noon to 5:00 p.m., from Memorial Day Weekend through Sunday, October 26.

The Center is now on hiatus until the Spring of 2026, but will be open for two special events in December and for select days during March, Newport Irish Heritage Month. Scroll down for additional information. 

Private off-season visits may be arranged with sufficient notice for us to schedule a docent by writing: NewportIrishHistory@gmail.com


Interested in joining our docent team in 2026?

We'd love to have you on board! To learn more, please write us at NewportIrishHistory@gmail.com.

THANK YOU MUSEUM DOCENTS!

Our thanks to the following who worked one or more shift
at the Interpretive Center during our 2025 Season

* Interpretive Center Manager # Salve Summer Intern

Photo of Private Murphy provided by Patrick F. Murphy.

Re-dedication ceremony photos courtesy of VFW Post 406, Newport.

In collaboration with the City of Newport, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post 406, Newport, hosted a re-dedication of Private Murphy G. Field, at the corner of Ruggles Avenue and Carroll Avenue in Newport, at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, November 8, 2025. A reception followed at Ancient Order of Hibernians Hall on Wellington Avenue.

Many members of the community gathered to honor Irish immigrant and Newport resident, Private Michael G. Murphy, who died in action in France during World War I in 1918. To ensure his name and story are known by future generations, a new plaque and flagpole were installed. 


Those in attendance included local government officials, Newport Police and Fire Departments representatives, members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the AOH Pipes and Drums, members of the clergy, neighbors, veterans, and members of the Murphy family, including Museum Board Member Emeritus, Patrick F. Murphy.

To learn more about Private Murphy, please click the button below to access an article written by his cousin, Museum Board Member Emeritus and City of Newport Historian Patrick F. Murphy, from the March 2014 issue of Rhode Island Roots, the quarterly journal of the Rhode Island Genealogical Society.

For more photos of the November 8 re-dedication ceremony, please visit the VFW Post 406 Facebook page post, by clicking THIS LINK.

The Consulate General of Ireland in Boston will host a

"Pop-Up Consulate" at the Museum's Interpretive Center the afternoon of Wednesday, December 3.



Details to come. Please "save the date."

Established 1996

a 501c3 non-profit organization

Mailing Address:

PO Box 1378, Newport, RI 02840

Interpretive Center:

648 Lower Thames Street, Newport RI 02840

Email: NewportIrishHistory@gmail.com

Click Here for Museum Board of Directors Contact Info. and list of deceased board members, fondly remembered.

The MISSION of the Museum of Newport Irish History is to tell the story of the Irish immigrants and their descendants in Newport County and the surrounding area from the colonial era to the present. It also seeks to preserve artifacts and mementos relating to their experiences and facilitate

research on Irish history and heritage.