History

From the Archives: June 12, 2009

Here’s a post from eleven years ago as the country was trying to recover from the Great Recession. In the midst of the pandemic and its resulting economic distress, it seems a timely reminder that the old saying “in crisis there is opportunity” applies to city planning too. Is Lowell…

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Flag Day in Lowell

Today is Flag Day which observes the June 14, 1777, vote by the Second Continental Congress adopting a national flag of the United States which was to be “thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.” In…

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“Droichead na nDeoir” and other poems by BILLY FENTON

This month Trasna is featuring writers participating in Words Ireland National Mentoring Programme. Every year, 22 emerging writers are selected for the program in the areas of literary fiction, creative non-fiction, children’s/YA fiction, and poetry. Each are paired with mentors. Featured this week is poet Billy Fenton. On participating in Words Ireland, he…

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D-Day in Lowell, June 6, 1944

The weather in Lowell was mostly sunny and warm on Monday, June 5, 1944. Across the Atlantic Ocean, things were quite different. In the English Channel, high winds caused heavy seas and low clouds enveloped the coast of France. The forecast caused General Dwight Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, to…

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Irish Grave Monuments in Lowell

A recent journal article authored by some familiar names contributes important new evidence to our understanding of the earliest Irish immigrants in Lowell. “Migration and Memorials: Irish Cultural Identity in Early Nineteenth-Century Lowell, Massachusetts” (published in the International Journal of Historical Archaeology on December 18, 2019) examines the iconography of…

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Throwback Thursday: June 3, 2013

This week’s Throwback Thursday takes us back to June 3, 2013, and a visit to Lowell by Grammy Award winning singer/song writer Carole King. Paul Marion wrote the following blog post to document her visit which had her attend a campaign rally for Ed Markey who was then running for…

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Monuments and Memorial Day

There is some dispute about where and when the first Memorial Day was held but there is no question that the purpose of the day was to honor and remember those who died while serving in the military. In recent years the Greater Lowell Veterans Council holds its ceremony on…

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