If your paternal ancestor came from Ireland and settled in Greater Boston then this is the place for you. Over the last 400 years hundreds of thousand of Irish people came to Boston. Some stayed and many moved on. Today there are an estimated 1,665,000.00 residents of Irish descent in Massachusetts. “History has bound this country (Ireland) very closely to the United States. Down the centuries millions of Irish people crossed the Atlantic in search of a new life in a new world..... As Irish people our relationships with the United States and the European Union are complex. Geographically we are closer to Berlin than Boston. Spiritually we are probably a lot closer to Boston than Berlin.” Remarks by Tánaiste, Mary Harney at a Meeting of the American Bar Association in the Law Society of Ireland, Blackhall Place, Dublin on Friday 21st July 2000.