The Museum of Newport Irish History’s 25th annual lecture series continues Tuesday, Oct. 20, with a talk by Irish historian and journalist Loretto Horrigan Leary on what Famine immigrants encountered in North American quarantine stations.
“The Irish Famine Immigrant Experience in North American Quarantines” begins at 6 p.m. at the Wyndham Newport Hotel, 240 Aquidneck Ave. It will also be livestreamed on Zoom.
Many who fled Ireland’s Great Hunger did not simply arrive in North America, according to the museum. They faced medical inspections and quarantine on islands and in fever hospitals, and some died there and were buried in grounds attached to the quarantine stations. The talk examines sites including Staten Island in New York, Grosse Île in Quebec and Deer Island in Boston.
Leary, a native of County Galway now based in Connecticut, is a doctoral student in history at Trinity College Dublin, where she studies sites of collective memory tied to the Famine in North America. She is co-chair of the Connecticut-Ireland Trade Commission, and her article “Irish Domestic Servants and the Making of Gilded Age America” appeared in the September/October 2026 issue of History Ireland. Her work has also run in the Irish Examiner USA, Irish Central, Celtic Life and The Connacht Tribune.
Doors open at 5:30 p.m., with light hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar. Admission is $10 at the door, cash or check. There is no charge to attend by Zoom.
Reservations are required for both in-person and Zoom attendance. Register at NewportIrishHistory.org under “Lectures,” using the link under the Oct. 20 listing.
