Thomas Kilgarriff owned the Kilgarriff’s Café. He was born in Dunmore County, Galway, Ireland, and later moved to the United States. His first job in America was digging ditches and building houses until he saved enough money to buy the Cafe in the 1940s.
There were talent contests and lived Irish music at the venue, making it popular in Jamaica Plain. Kilgarriff booked traditional Irish musicians and Irish pop bands to perform there, attracting all kinds of people, from young ladies wearing go-go boots to older gentlemen dressed in well-fitting suits. Below are some fabulous photographs were taken during an amateur night at Kilgarriff’s Café in 1976.
