Barney McGinniskin is appointed to the Boston police force.

The North End resident begins work on November 3, 1851. The first Irish-American on the Boston police force, McGinniskin describes himself as fresh from the bogs of Ireland, although he had lived in the U.S. for at least a decade. His appointment was opposed by Marshal Tukey and mayor John Bigelow, who called it “A dangerous precedent to appoint a foreigner to stations of such trust.” His hiring is supported by Benjamin Seaver, who is elected two months later,* but McGinniskin is fired by Seaver’s successor, Know-Nothing Party candidate Jerome V.C. Smith, in 1854, reinstated, then fired again. There are nearly 40 Irish-American police officers on the force by 1869; 45 by 1871; and by some 100 by 1880.