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Fifteenth Annual Rhode Island Labor History Conference
Irish Workers and Politics in Rhode Island
Saturday April 3, 2004
United Food and Commercial Workers Hall
278 Silver Spring Street, Providence, R.I.
8:30-9:00 AM
Welcome. Breakfast and coffee will be served.
9:00-9:45 AM
Joseph Sullivan, author of The IWW in Providence’s Little Italy
“No Irish Need Apply? Work and Society among the Irish in Jacksonian R.I.”
9:45-10:30 AM
James C. Garman, Salve Regina University
“ ‘To Control the Disorderly Sort’: Irish Lives at the Rhode Island State Prison, 1838-1878."
10:45-11:30 AM
Evelyn Sterne, University of Rhode Island
“ ‘Our Own Home Rule Question in R.I.’: Irish Americans and Voting Rights.”
11:30-12:15 PM
Scott Molloy, University of Rhode Island
“An Irish Civil War in Woonsocket: The Great Rubber Company Strike of 1885."
12:15-1:00 PM
Lunch (pizza will be provided)
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View the Central Falls High School student display on “The Search for James Wilson.”
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“The Search for James Wilson: From the Catalpa to Central Falls”
Our afternoon session examines Irish revolutionary James Wilson, who escaped from an Australian prison in 1876 and lived in Rhode Island for 45 years.
1:00-1:15 PM
Dick Tierney, Irish Genealogical Society of Rhode Island. Video presentation.
1:15-1:30 PM
Don Twohig, Adams Library, Central Falls. Website presentation.
1:30-1:45 PM
Jimmy Ryan, great-grandson of Capt. Anthony of the rescue ship Catalpa, showing artifacts.
1:45-2:00 PM
Phil Edmonds and Clann McLaughlin, with traditional Irish musical tribute to Wilson.
2:00-3:15 PM
Panel of experts on James Wilson:
- George McLaughlin, Central Falls High School (moderator)
- Thomas Shannahan, Director of Adams Library
- Niall Fennessy, member of the Irish Freedom Committee
- Al McAloon, RILHS board member who witnessed Wilson’s burial
- Peter McConaghey, who delivered Wilson’s pension checks as a boy
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4:00-4:30 PM
Ceremony at Wilson’s grave, St. Mary’s Cemetery, George and Pine Streets, Pawtucket.
Directions to the UFCW Hall: Take Route I-95 to exit 24 (Branch Avenue). From the north, make a right off the ramp onto Branch Avenue (or, from the south, make a left off the ramp). On Branch Avenue, at the second light, make a right onto Silver Spring Street. The UFCW Hall will be three blocks down on the left. The UFCW Hall has its own parking lot, and additional street parking is available along Silver Spring Street.
In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, the sponsors will make reasonable accommodations to ensure program access. The UFCW Hall is fully handicapped-accessible. Anyone requiring special arrangements should call Rick Stattler at 273-8107 x18 at least a week in advance of the conference.
Sponsored by the Rhode Island Labor History Society (www.rilhs.org)
Free and open to the public |