An Article by Ray McKenna
Visit Ray’s Blog at http://federal-hill-irish.blogspot.com/2012_06_01_archive.html
“The day, as benefits the season, was very pleasant, the streets were thronged with thousands who came to visit us from the neighboring towns. The railroad trains came in immensely loaded, and the steamboats were crowded, and the publick (sic) conveyances were loaded with passengers.”
This is how the Providence Journal described the city on July 4, 1852, the nation’s seventy-fifth birthday, and the grandest party in the city’s history. For two young Irish immigrants, this day was even more thrilling.
The day started out with a bang. At six a.m., the marine artillery, led by Colonel Balch, fired off the first of two artillery displays that would shake the city. One can imagine the soon-to-be-newlyweds, after a fitful night of trying to sleep, waking with a start.
Rising from his bed on Spruce Street, twenty-three-year-old Peter McKenna was soon greeted by his best man and longtime friend from County Monaghan, Hugh McCabe.
Around the corner, twenty-year-old Kate Duggan was laughing and nervously chatting with her siblings and parents at their home on Acorn Street.
Four years earlier, James Duggan and Ellen McKenna Duggan, farmers from the townland of Dernalosset in the parish of Errigal Truagh, North County Monaghan, managed to get most of their children safely out of Ireland and away from the Great Famine.
Barely arriving in Providence, their son, Patrick, named for James’ father, died of consumption (tuberculosis), the scourge of nineteenth century America.
But that was more than a year and a half ago. Today was a day for looking forward.
As family and friends waited for Peter and Kate to arrive at Sts. Peter and Paul, the streets of the city filled quickly with merry-makers. Farmers, enjoying a few hours away from their land and their animals, came into town with their families. Factory workers, with a rare holiday off from the typical twelve to fourteen hour workday, made merry with friends and family. Every church in town tolled their bells on every hour. Noon exploded with the sound of a one-hundred-gun salute.
Wedding guests included Kate’s siblings, John, Ann and Sarah, as well as Mary Lamb, Catherine’s maid of honor. Among the others attending were John, Mary, Patrick and Ann McKenna, Bridget Trainor, Patrick Rogers, the McQuaids and Owen Murray. It was a very Monaghan County crowd.
The ceremony complete, the wedding party moved on to Federal Hill, the center of the city’s Monaghan-Tyrone community. There, as family and friends ate and drank heartily, musicians and guests played and sang their favorite tunes from the ‘Old Sod.’
Meanwhile, every neighborhood, and especially those around the pier and the cove, were alive with the mellifluous sounds of musical groups and happy crowds.
The marine artillery, having made their presence known at daybreak, made another appearance as the highlight of the Grand Parade. Children watching with joy had one hand on their miniature flag, the other in a parent’s hand. The streets of Providence had never been this wonderfully chaotic.
The wedding reception on Spruce Street was just up the hill and in sight of the Cove, the center of all festivities. From there, Peter, Kate, and their friends, witnessed the artillery’s second salute of the day at six o’clock. This was followed by music by the American Brass Band.
How great it must have been to have such extraordinary entertainment for your wedding day.
While the brass band played, revelers witnessed a display of ‘Bengal lights,’ bluish flairs used at sea for signally and identification. On this day, these fireworks dramatically punctuated the band’s tunes.
With the sun setting, everyone, young and old, thrilled to the sight and sound of the fireworks display. Again, as the Providence Journal witnessed, the fireworks “went in style, promptly, brilliantly, and to the great satisfaction of the thousands who witnessed it from the bridges, the park, from windows, and housetops and hills, and from every point of observation.”
And by those Irish revelers on their new home called Federal Hill.
Just seven years earlier, Peter and Kate nearly died in the Great Hunger. But on this night, they knew that this new and great land of theirs would bring great blessings on them, their children, and their descendants.
Thank you for another great article Ray!
Ray’s blog is at http://federal-hill-irish.blogspot.com/2012_06_01_archive.html