Irish Heritage Festival Brings A Wee Bit of Ireland to Dorchester

Adams Corner, Dorchester, MA - Irish Heritage Festival Map

Shuttle buses will run all day from Ashmont and North Quincy T stations. If you are traveling by car, take the shuttle from Florian Hall on Hallett St or Granite Ave Park & Ride in Milton.

Dorchester is gearing up for the town’s first ever Irish festival. In what promises to be a spectacular day of fun, music and tradition, Adams Corner will close down on Sunday, October 11 to celebrate Dorchester's famed Irish heritage.

“We have one of the highest concentrations of people that can claim Irish ancestry here in Dorchester, and we’re trying to highlight all those positive aspects that make this community what it is,” said festival co-chair John O’Toole. “It can really lay claim to being the epicenter of Irish activity in Boston.”

The sense of support and excitement for the Irish Heritage Festival has been overwhelming since the event was announced. Local businesses have jumped on board and the mayor’s office has helped slice through the red tape, giving single day outside licenses to the neighboring bars.

“We were essentially going to try to do this next year, but the interest was so great that we basically said, ‘We’re going to be able to pull this off this year,’” O’Toole said. “We have a wonderful, cohesive, tight-knit community, the majority of which boasts Irish ancestry.”

The all-day event will shut down Adams Corner from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., next to the historic Eire Pub, where presidents have long been coming for photo ops. The festival boasts a solid line-up of performers including Pauline Wells, Aoife Clancy, The Joshua Tree and The Gobshites as well as the very best in traditional Irish dancing and seisuins. With that in mind, O’Toole expects over two thousand people to attend.

This event marks the beginning of an annual fall tradition in Dorchester, and every year the festival intends to honor someone from the Irish American community. This year’s honoree is Michael Joyce, a longtime Dorchester resident and Irishmen from Connemara who dedicated his life to helping others.

“He was such a great humanitarian,” said his daughter Mary Joyce Morris. “Our house was always filled with people coming to talk to him, coming to get advice from him. He never said no to anyone.”

Joyce passed away in 1988 of stomach cancer at the age of 66.

“His roots were in Connemara, his heart was in Dorchester, and his life was at the State House,” she said.

He was well recognized, not only in the Irish community, but by people of all ethnicities.

A judge recently came up to Mary and told her, “I knew your father. Your father was a diplomat without a portfolio.”

The city plans to erect a permanent monument to Joyce, but no plans have yet been finalized.

The festival will host the finale of the Shamrock Idol at 5 p.m., a local version of American Idol with an Irish twist.