Irish Museum Opens Interpretive Center on Thames Street

The Museum of Newport Irish History announces the opening of its new Interpretive Center at 648 Thames Street, just south of Narragansett Avenue.  The Center will be open for the season beginning Saturday, June 11. Hours will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday through Sunday, June through October.  Admission is by donation.

Visitors to the Center will learn about Irish immigration to Newport County from the 1600s to the present and of the many contributions made to the Newport community by individuals of Irish descent.  

The exhibits, which were designed by Northeast Collaborative Architects, Inc., include maps, photographs, video, and artifacts, including some from the construction of , which was built primarily with Irish immigrant labor.  The Center and its signage is organized around several key themes, including “work,”  “play,” and “pray,” recognizing  key aspects of life in the local Irish community.

On opening day, June 11, there will be a brief ribbon cutting ceremony at approximately 10:15am, which will be open to the public. Representatives from Newport City Council, including Mayor Stephen Waluk, will be on hand, as well as special guest, Michael Lonergan, Ireland's Consul General to New England.

Founded in 1996, the Museum of Newport Irish History is a non-profit organization with over 400 members.  The organization sponsors numerous educational and social events throughout the year, including the popular Michael F. Crowley Lecture Series.  The organization also restored and also maintains the Barney Street Cemetery at the corner of Barney and Mt. Vernon Street.  It is the resting place of many of Newport’s earliest Irish residents and was the cemetery founded to support Rhode Island’s first Roman Catholic parish, the forerunner of the current St. Mary’s on Spring Street.

To learn more about the Museum of Newport Irish History, please visit www.NewportIrishHistory.org or phone 401-848-0661.