The Irish Railroad Workers Museum

Going Down the Shore: Summer Recreation for our Immigrant Ancestors

We marvel at the hard work, family devotion and associations that were an essential part of life for our immigrant ancestors. Yet, surprises abound when we discover their commitment to leisure time, spent along the abundant waterfront surrounding Baltimore: a major industrial city tucked into the land bordering the west side of the Chesapeake Bay.

Churches/Parishes

New Beginnings: West Baltimore's Irish of 1900 and Today

New beginnings are nothing new in our neighborhood. We have undergone a remarkable period of learning and growing at the Museum, and even had time to reflect on a new era for the parish that James and Sarah Feeley called home for fifty years.

Music, Dance and Pleasure

Ships for Survival, Boats for Pleasure

Baltimore was a gateway for sailing ships who brought the desperate Irish into America's second busiest port. It was also, in later years a place to gather and travel eastward towards sun, sand and surf if you had a few dollars to spare.

Working Men and Women

Young Irish Women and Their Vocations: Religious and Secular

Irish families just might have been perplexed with what to do with daughters who had so many limitations set upon them during the days of the Penal Laws, and beyond. There were few options for those born into poor Catholic families in the West of Ireland. America was different, but not immediately so. It took Irish leaders to move these young women towards their full potential.

The Passage

Words, Places and the Big Picture

A recent conversation told us that people want to know how a little Museum like ours made so many remarkable discoveries about the modest family that lived at 918 Lemmon Street. Wasn't Sarah an illiterate wife, mother and washerwoman? Yet our research has taught us about the significance of each of our forebears.

Working Men and Women

Horses with Names, or Not: Father Edward McColgan

Today's issue was inspired by several comments from those who enjoyed knowing about the role "Horse-and-Cart" men played in the care and feeding of our immigrant ancestors. Catholic Irish knew a few things about horses, or lack thereof.

Working Men and Women

James Feeley: Our Golden Issue

We’d like to dedicate this fiftieth issue of “The Big Pivot” to the man who inspired our Museum itself. His name was Seamus “James” Feeley (pictured above with his family, as they enjoyed a Chesapeake Bay Excursion, circa 1871). Some might have said that he wasn't "all that much", and yet here we are, basking in the glory of a man from County Tipperary.

All Sample 2

Going Down the Shore: Summer Recreation for our Immigrant Ancestors

New Beginnings: West Baltimore's Irish of 1900 and Today

Ships for Survival, Boats for Pleasure

Young Irish Women and Their Vocations: Religious and Secular

Words, Places and the Big Picture

Horses with Names, or Not: Father Edward McColgan

James Feeley: Our Golden Issue

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