Boston: Irish
April 27–May 4, 2015

  • Boston Police Gaelic Column of Pipes and Drums at the Boston Public Library by Bill Brett, from “Boston: Irish” (Three Bean Press; 2014)

    Boston Police Gaelic Column of Pipes and Drums at the Boston Public Library by Bill Brett, from “Boston: Irish” (Three Bean Press; 2014)

  • Sister Evelyn Hurley in a coat, scarf and cap she knitted in South Boston by Bill Brett, from “Boston: Irish” (Three Bean Press; 2014)

    Sister Evelyn Hurley in a coat, scarf and cap she knitted in South Boston by Bill Brett, from “Boston: Irish” (Three Bean Press; 2014)

  • Funeral home director – and unofficial “Mayor of West Roxbury” Richard F. Gormley at the gate of the Forest Hills Cemetery, Jamaica Plain section of Boston, by Bill Brett, from “Boston: Irish” (Three Bean Press; 2014)

    Funeral home director – and unofficial “Mayor of West Roxbury” Richard F. Gormley at the gate of the Forest Hills Cemetery, Jamaica Plain section of Boston, by Bill Brett, from “Boston: Irish” (Three Bean Press; 2014)

  • President of The Ad Club Kathy Kiely, at the organization’s downtown offices, Boston, by Bill Brett, from “Boston: Irish” (Three Bean Press; 2014)

    President of The Ad Club Kathy Kiely, at the organization’s downtown offices, Boston, by Bill Brett, from “Boston: Irish” (Three Bean Press; 2014)

  • TD Garden’s Director of Communications Tricia McCorkle, at the TD Garden, North Station, Boston, by Bill Brett, from “Boston: Irish” (Three Bean Press; 2014)

    TD Garden’s Director of Communications Tricia McCorkle, at the TD Garden, North Station, Boston, by Bill Brett, from “Boston: Irish” (Three Bean Press; 2014)

  • Martin J. Walsh on November 5, 2013, the night he was elected as the 54th mayor of Boston, at the Park Plaza Hotel, Boston, by Bill Brett, from “Boston: Irish” (Three Bean Press; 2014)

  • Nineteen-year-old fiddler and construction worker (and college student) Kevin Doherty atop a backhoe at Pope John Paul II Park in Dorchester, by Bill Brett, from “Boston: Irish” (Three Bean Press; 2014)

    Nineteen-year-old fiddler and construction worker (and college student) Kevin Doherty atop a backhoe at Pope John Paul II Park in Dorchester, by Bill Brett, from “Boston: Irish” (Three Bean Press; 2014)

  • Sara and Diarmuid O’Neill and their four children, from left Rahel, Bezawit, Selamawit and Andualem, at the family’s backyard in Brookline, Mass., by Bill Brett, from “Boston: Irish” (Three Bean Press; 2014)

    Sara and Diarmuid O’Neill and their four children, from left Rahel, Bezawit, Selamawit and Andualem, at the family’s backyard in Brookline, Mass., by Bill Brett, from “Boston: Irish” (Three Bean Press; 2014)

  • L Street Brownies Swimming Club 111th annual Polar Bear Plunge on New Year’s Day, January 1, 2014, into the frigid Dorchester Bay by Bill Brett, from “Boston: Irish” (Three Bean Press; 2014)

    L Street Brownies Swimming Club 111th annual Polar Bear Plunge on New Year’s Day, January 1, 2014, into the frigid Dorchester Bay by Bill Brett, from “Boston: Irish” (Three Bean Press; 2014)

  • Commander Sean D. Kearns and Commander Robert L. Gillen, on board the USS Constitution, U.S. Navy Shipyard, Charlestown, by Bill Brett, from “Boston: Irish” (Three Bean Press; 2014)

    Commander Sean D. Kearns and Commander Robert L. Gillen, on board the USS Constitution, U.S. Navy Shipyard, Charlestown, by Bill Brett, from “Boston: Irish” (Three Bean Press; 2014)

Acclaimed Boston photographer Bill Brett returns with Boston: Irish, a collection of more than 260 black-and-white photographs of the people and the city he loves. It is his most personal book yet.

Building on his four previous books, Boston, Irish turns the lens on Bill’s own community, the city’s Irish Americans. Dedicated to his mother, Mary Ann Brett, Boston, Irish chronicles—and crystallizes—a unique period in the city’s history. A time inhabited by newly arrived immigrants and second- and third-generation Irish-Americans that won’t be seen again.

Boston: Irish covers every aspect of the region’s Irish-American community with portraits and stories ranging from a 99-year-old nun to a colorful funeral home director to an Irish tenor to a New York Times best-selling novelist. It also explores the full breadth of the Irish immigrant experience, representing those from the Republic and Northern Ireland and both Roman Catholics and Protestants alike.

For Mary Ann Brett, who to all who knew her was the embodiment of grit, heart, and faith, and those of her immigrant generation, the sense of Irish community in Boston was not limited to one family or to a single neighborhood. It was felt grandly, holding those from Beacon Hill and City Hall to the very last street in the city in its embrace. When the world thinks of Boston, they think of the Irish as the city’s bulwark community. What Bill Brett thinks of Boston runs much deeper and can be found on each and every page of Boston: Irish.

Artists

Bill Brett
Bill Brett billbrett.com

“I love what I do and I love this city. I feel that I have a front row seat in history – even as I preserve that history for Boston through my photos.” —Bill Brett

An award-winning photojournalist, Bill Brett is well known for his career at The Boston Globe, where on June 1, 2014, he marked his 50th anniversary with the newspaper. “Boston, Irish” is Bill’s fifth book; all of his titles feature the city and its people. Bill’s work can be seen regularly on the print pages and online platforms of The Globe as well as online at www.BillBrett.com and through active social media platforms.

Bill started his news career hawking The Boston Globe on the street corners of his native Dorchester, Massachusetts. He first worked at The Globe as an 18-year-old part-time photographer, learning the art of photography and the business of news at the same time. In 1977, he was named chief photographer at The Globe. He was the photography-member of The Globe team nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Journalism in 1978 and 1979. Under Bill’s leadership, staff photographer Stan Grossfeld won the only two Pulitzer Prizes ever awarded to The Globe photo staff. In 1999, Bill became Director of Photography, a position from which he retired in 2001.

His weekly “Party Lines” column continues in the print version of The Globe, together with his “The Seen” online. Also, since retirement from The Globe, Bill has published five books that include portraits of the heart and faces of Boston. His first book, “Boston, All One Family,” with a foreword by Robert B. Parker, received the 2006 President’s Award from the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts. He also won an Award of Excellence for Photography in the 27th annual creative competition of the Society for News Design, for his portrait of Stephan Ross at Boston’s Holocaust Memorial.

In his 50 years of chronicling the life and people of the city, Bill has photographed thousands of events and fundraisers, with his coverage helping to raise awareness for and bring donations to the many organizations whose events he has shot. In 2009, Bill received an honorary degree from the Franklin Institute of Technology, the school at which he took his only class in photography before becoming famous as the man who shoots the faces of Boston.

Bill lives in Hingham, Massachusetts, with his wife, Virginia. They have four children and four grandchildren–and a fifth on the way.