Grab your green, and keep the Guinness chilled, South Shore! St. Patrick’s Day may be here, but the celebration is going to continue here on the “Irish Riviera.” Thanks to the historic Blizzard of 2026, the beloved Scituate and Abington St. Patrick’s Day parades have both been rescheduled for Sunday, April 12. Consider it an extended holiday season—a perfect excuse to dive into the rich, fascinating history of how the South Shore of Massachusetts became the most Irish stretch of land in America.
From the Famine to the Boston Wharves
To understand the South Shore’s deep green roots, we have to go back to the mid-19th century. During the devastating Great Hunger (or Potato Famine) of the 1840s, millions of Irish refugees fled starvation and British oppression, boarding disease-ridden “coffin ships” bound for America.
Many of those who survived the harrowing transatlantic journey landed in Boston. Unfortunately, they weren’t exactly welcomed with open arms. Arriving in utter poverty, these immigrants were crowded into squalid waterfront tenements in Boston, taking on grueling day-labor and domestic jobs while facing intense prejudice, famously marked by “No Irish Need Apply” signs.
Building the “Irish Riviera” on Seaweed
So, how did the Irish make their way from cramped slums in Boston to the breezy, scenic coastline of the South Shore? Believe it or not, it had a lot to do with seaweed.
In 1847, an Irish immigrant and fisherman named Daniel Ward was sailing off the coast of Scituate when he spotted a familiar red algae called Chondrus crispus—better known as Irish moss. Back in Ireland, this moss was used for cooking and medicinal purposes. Ward realized it was a goldmine. The moss was incredibly valuable as “carrageen,” a thickening and stabilizing agent used in everything from ice cream and beer to medicine and calico dyes.
Ward set up shop on the beaches of Scituate, and as word spread, Irish immigrants flocked to the area for a familiar form of labor that offered them a way out of the city. The mossing industry boomed and became a true family affair, with wives and children helping to dry the harvests on the beaches. The industry even crowned an “Irish Mossing Queen” in 1934—a nine-year-old girl named Mim Flynn, who rowed her own dory to make money for her family during the Great Depression.
The Railroad and the Rise of the Suburbs
While the mossers established the first working-class Irish beachheads, the expansion of the Old Colony Railroad in the 1840s truly opened the South Shore up to the masses. As the Boston Irish gained political power and professional wealth, the “lace-curtain” elite began moving south to build magnificent seaside Victorian homes. Legendary Boston mayors like James Michael Curley and John “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald (JFK’s grandfather) spent their summers in Scituate and Hull, cementing the region’s prestige.
The biggest population boom, however, came right after World War II. Armed with the GI Bill, returning veterans from heavily Irish neighborhoods like South Boston and Dorchester packed up and moved to towns like Weymouth, Braintree, and Marshfield. They transformed seasonal cottage communities into year-round suburban strongholds, essentially transplanting urban Irish culture straight to the coast.
The Second Exodus: Busing and the Rise of “Suburban Southie”
While the post-WWII era and the GI Bill sparked the initial boom of Irish migration to the suburbs, the 1970s brought a second, much more turbulent wave of relocation to the South Shore. You can’t fully tell the story of the Irish Riviera without acknowledging the painful and explosive era of Boston’s busing crisis.
In June 1974, Judge W. Arthur Garrity Jr. issued a landmark ruling in Morgan v. Hennigan, mandating the desegregation of Boston Public Schools. The court order forced the busing of 20,000 students across the city, notably combining students from Roxbury—a primarily Black neighborhood—with South Boston, a predominantly Irish Catholic stronghold.
The decision unleashed years of fury and violence. When mandated busing began in September 1974, Black students arriving at South Boston High School had to be escorted by police motorcycles as jeering crowds hurled rocks, bottles, eggs, and racial slurs. The tension gripped the city, and politicians like City Council member Louise Day Hicks became the fierce face of the anti-busing movement, while violent clashes regularly broke out in the schools and on the streets.
This intense social strife fundamentally altered the region’s demographics. Seeking to escape the city’s racial tensions, violence, and the busing mandate, thousands of families fled in a second major wave of migration out of Boston. During the 1974-1975 school year alone, more than 30,000 students left the Boston public school system for private or parochial schools, or moved away entirely.
Many of these Irish-American families looked straight down the coast for a new start. They poured into South Shore communities, profoundly transforming towns like Weymouth, which absorbed so many displaced urban families that it earned the lasting nickname “Suburban Southie”. This mass relocation ultimately solidified the South Shore’s status as the undisputed demographic heart of Irish America, tying the coastal suburbs forever to the complex and often troubled history of Boston itself.
From Ward Bosses to the “Lace-Curtain” Elite
If seaweed brought the first working-class Irish to the South Shore, it was politics that brought the glitz, the glamour, and the prestige. Following the Civil War, local politics became the ultimate vehicle for Irish upward mobility in Massachusetts. In Boston’s crowded immigrant neighborhoods, Irish ward bosses like Patrick J. Kennedy in East Boston and John “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald in the North End built massive political machines by doling out jobs, extending credit, and doing favors for their communities. By 1884, the glass ceiling shattered when Boston elected its first Irish Catholic mayor, Hugh O’Brien.
As these political heavyweights gained power and wealth, they naturally needed a place to escape the sweltering, crowded city summers. The South Shore quickly became the destination of choice for the “lace-curtain” Irish—a term affectionately used for those who had achieved a measure of wealth and social status—transforming quiet fishing villages into an enclave of political dynasties.
In fact, four different Boston mayors—John Fitzgerald, James Michael Curley, Maurice Tobin, and John B. Hynes—all had deep ties to our local coastal towns. The legendary, larger-than-life rogue Mayor James Michael Curley spent his summers holding court in Scituate, while “Honey Fitz” was famously associated with Hull, where his daughter Rose’s family enjoyed a fashionable summer retreat on Nantasket Beach.
This political migration laid the groundwork for the most famous Irish-American family of all: the Kennedys. The marriage of Rose Fitzgerald and Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. united two of Boston’s most powerful Irish ward boss families. While the Kennedys eventually established their legendary compound a bit further south in Hyannis Port, their story is perfectly emblematic of the Irish journey from Boston’s tenement slums to coastal prestige. It all culminated, of course, with John F. Kennedy—the great-grandson of a famine immigrant—becoming the nation’s first Irish-Catholic president in 1960.
The tradition of Irish political giants heading to the Massachusetts coast for their golden years continued well beyond the JFK era. Legendary Speaker of the House Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill, an unapologetic, old-school Boston Irish politician who dominated national politics for a decade, eventually retired down to Harwich Port on the Cape.
And if you look closely at our current local leaders, that historic emerald thread is still tightly woven into our local government. According to the South Shore Irish Heritage Trail Patrick Kearney, the current Massachusetts State Representative from Scituate, is actually the grand-nephew of Tomás Mac Curtain, a revered figure in the 1916 Easter Rising who served as the Lord Mayor of Cork. The old country may be thousands of miles away, but on the South Shore, political history is always right in our backyard.
The Most Irish Town in America
Today, the South Shore is an absolute demographic marvel. According to the U.S. Census, Scituate is officially the “most Irish town in America,” with nearly 50 percent of its residents claiming Irish ancestry. But it’s not just Scituate; neighboring towns like Braintree, Hull, and Marshfield consistently rank among the top Irish municipalities in the country.
By the Numbers: Just How Irish Are We?
If you’ve ever wondered if the “Irish Riviera” nickname is just a local exaggeration, the U.S. Census Bureau is here to confirm that the stats absolutely back it up. An astounding 16 of the top 20 most Irish communities in all of Massachusetts are located right here in the South Shore corridor. Looking at the broader map, Plymouth County boasts the second-highest percentage of Irish descendants of any county in the entire country.
If we are handing out bragging rights for the greenest towns around, the numbers are nothing short of incredible. Here is a look at the most Irish municipalities on the South Shore, based on the percentage of residents claiming Irish ancestry:
Scituate (47.5%): Not only the top of our local list, but officially recognized as the #1 most Irish small town in America.
Braintree (46.5%): Ranks among the top five most Irish small cities in the U.S..
Hull (45.8%): A historic lace-curtain summer retreat that still boasts massive Irish numbers.
Marshfield (45.6%): Comes in a close fourth, with its Fieldston neighborhood reigning as the single most Irish-American section of the town.
Avon & Pembroke (44.9%): Tied for fifth place, further cementing the inland reach of the Riviera.
Milton (44.6%): A classic gateway suburb with deep emerald roots.
Abington (44.5%): More than enough Irish heritage to justify its legendary, formerly-bet-driven St. Patrick’s Day parade.
Whitman (44.3%) & Hanover (44.2%): Rounding out the top of the pack with incredibly strong showings.
To put this incredible demographic density into perspective, consider the city of Boston. Long famous as the capital of Irish America, Boston’s Irish population currently sits at around 17.4 percent. With nearly half of the populations in Scituate, Braintree, and Hull claiming Irish roots, the South Shore isn’t just a suburban outpost—it is the true demographic heart of Irish America.
Keeping the Heritage Alive Today
With those demographics, it’s no wonder our local St. Patrick’s Day parades are the stuff of legend. While we wait for April 12 to roll around, it’s worth noting how these massive celebrations began with incredibly humble (and hilarious) origins:
The Abington Parade kicked off in 1980 purely because of a $10 bet between a local businessman, Jack Bailey, and his employee. Bailey decorated his trucks just to drive around the block and win his ten bucks, but the local police chief caught wind, asked to be grand marshal, and a beloved tradition was born.
The Scituate Parade, now the largest on the South Shore, started in 1994 when a few neighbors in the Minot area decided to take a small, festive walk around the block.
If you want to immerse yourself in the culture before the rescheduled parade day, take a drive down the South Shore Irish Heritage Trail. Unveiled in 2021 and modeled after Ireland’s famous Wild Atlantic Way, the trail features 33 landmarks stretching from Weymouth down to Plymouth. You can visit the Easter Rising Monument in Scituate Harbor, the Brig St. John monument in Cohasset, and the Scituate Maritime and Mossing Museum.
So, keep those flags flying and your spirits high. The Blizzard of 2026 may have delayed our parades, but as the history of the South Shore shows, the Irish have weathered far worse storms. We’ll see you on the parade route on April 12. Céad Míle Fáilte—a hundred thousand welcomes!
Sources include: The Boston Globe, The Irish Times, GBH, CBS Boston, JFK Library, Smithsonian Magazine, Irish America, South Shore Irish Heritage Trail, The Scituate St. Patrick’s Day Parade, The Abington St. Patrick’s Day Parade, and AI Deep Research Tools.
