A community that opens the same book together closes it in greater harmony.
Mansfield Public Library is pleased to announce our sixth annual One Book One Community Mansfield 2022! Throughout the month of October, Mansfield Public Library is excited to collaborate with neighboring towns, Bridgewater, East Bridgewater, West Bridgewater, Halifax and Plympton, to offer a community-wide read. In collaboration with our One Book One Community partners, we invite all to take part in reading the book, visiting our various town discussions, and participating in any other events, including an in-person Author Talk with Stephen Puleo at the East Bridgewater Public Library on Saturday, October 22nd at 11:00AM. We are looking forward to joining our neighboring libraries and expanding our community of readers in this year’s One Book One Community Read in Mansfield!
Libraries throughout Massachusetts and the country host community reads, promoting literacy and togetherness by sharing the same book read from a wide variety of perspectives. Come in to the library to pick up a copy of the book or place it on hold HERE.
Voyage of Mercy:
The USS Jamestown, the Irish Famine, and the Remarkable Story of America’s First Humanitarian Mission
by Stephen Puleo.
Click HERE for more information on events, happening throughout the month of October, at our neighboring communities.
For events happening at the Mansfield Public Library, please see below:
Tues. Oct. 4th 6:30 - 7:30pm — IN-PERSON Softer Side of Celtic
As part of the One Book One Community celebration of Stephen Puleo’s Voyage of Mercy: The USS Jamestown, the Irish Famine, and the Remarkable Story of America’s First Humanitarian Mission, the Mansfield Public Library is excited to welcome musician Jeff Snow for his musical program, The Softer Side of Celtic.
The Softer Side of Celtic combines the music, stories and a wee bit of history from Scotland, Ireland and England into a program that will keep audiences on the edge of their seat. There will be singing, laughing, clapping and perhaps a bit of foot stomping. The concerts are interactive; questions and input from the audience are encouraged and become part of the event!
Jeff Snow is a talented multi-instrumentalist who plays the music and tells the stories behind the songs. He plays six and twelve string guitar, autoharp, Celtic Bouzouki & Bodhran. Jeff also plays the drums and a variety of other percussion instruments. A skilled guitar player, Jeff was featured in Acoustic Guitar Magazine. He is a contributing writer to Acoustic Guitar Magazine and Autoharp Quarterly.
This event is free and open to all.
Registration recommended for courtesy email reminder. REGISTER HERE.
Tues. Oct. 11th 6:30 - 7:30pm — IN-PERSON Book Discussion - Voyage of Mercy: The USS Jamestown, the Irish Famine, and the Remarkable Story of America's First Humanitarian Mission by Stephen Puleo
All are welcome to join the Mansfield Public Library and our partners in One Book One Community for a discussion of Voyage of Mercy: The USS Jamestown, the Irish Famine, and the Remarkable Story of America’s First Humanitarian Mission by Stephen Puleo. A presentation by the author will take place at the East Bridgewater Library on Saturday, October 22nd at 11:00AM. Copies of the book are available at the library.
“The remarkable story of the mission that inspired a nation to donate massive relief to Ireland during the potato famine and began America’s tradition of providing humanitarian aid around the world
More than 5,000 ships left Ireland during the great potato famine in the late 1840s, transporting the starving and the destitute away from their stricken homeland. The first vessel to sail in the other direction, to help the millions unable to escape, was the USS Jamestown, a converted warship, which left Boston in March 1847 loaded with precious food for Ireland.
In Voyage of Mercy, Stephen Puleo tells the incredible story of the famine, the Jamestown voyage, and the commitment of thousands of ordinary Americans to offer relief to Ireland, a groundswell that provided the collaborative blueprint for future relief efforts, and established the United States as the leader in international aid. The USS Jamestown’s heroic voyage showed how the ramifications of a single decision can be measured not in days, but in decades.”-Amazon
This event is free and open to all.
Registration recommended for courtesy email reminder. REGISTER HERE.
Thurs. Oct. 13th - IN-PERSON Shamrocks in Cyberspace: Digital Irish Genealogy Workshop With Michael Brophy
As part of the One Book One Community celebration of Stephen Puleo’s Voyage of Mercy: The USS Jamestown, the Irish Famine, and the Remarkable Story of America’s First Humanitarian Mission, the Mansfield Public Library is excited to welcome genealogist Michael Brophy for his workshop, Shamrocks in Cyberspace: Irish Genealogy Databases.
Information about our Irish ancestors is exploding on the internet. The best websites for Irish research are explored and analyzed. Recent, landmark additions of Catholic Church records and vital records are presented. Finding aids for further Irish research are assessed and critiqued in this exciting lecture on all that has happened with Irish resources in cyberspace!
Michael Brophy is a nationally known, professional genealogical researcher, heir search specialist, and lecturer from the Boston area. He is currently the Vice President of the Council for the Advancement of Forensic Genealogy (CAFG) and the first Treasurer of the New England of Association of Professional Genealogists. He was featured on the TV series Who Do You Think You Are? and the Irish TV series Dead Money, a genealogy show about heir searchers. He was hired to conduct research forAncestry.com. And several historical authors. Mr. Brophy’s genealogy education includes eight certificates from the Institute of Genealogy and Historic Research (IGHR) and certificates in Private Investigation and Advanced Forensic Genealogy from Boston University. He is a licensed private investigator in Massachusetts.
This event is free and open to all. Please note: This is an intermediate level lecture. (Attendees must know a place in Ireland where their immigrant ancestor came from to gain the most from this talk).
REGISTRATION REQUIRED. REGISTER HERE.
