The Life and Death of Mayor Thomas Doyle

By 1860, about 20% of the population were direct immigrants from Ireland, and another 20% were American-born children of Irish migrant parents. In the course of a few decades, the Irish had become the largest ethnic population in Ireland. Thomas Doyle was born in 1829 to a family of Irish Protestant heritage. Doyle was first elected in 1848 at the age of 21 to city councilor of the 6th Ward, and would spend the rest of his life in public service as a city councilor and the youngest member of the school board. In 1864, Doyle ran against fellow Republican incumbent Jabez Comstock Knight and won. His victory was proof of the growing political power of the Irish community. Mayor Doyle remained in office as mayor for the remaining 18 years of his life.

When elected Mayor, the population of Providence was 54,000. By his death, the city had more than doubled in size to 120,000.[3] A new public high school was built in 1878.[4] English High School on Pond Street. Mayor Doyle fully overhauled the city’s water and sewage system, and he professionalized the police and fire departments which helped move many Irish families into the middle class. In 1875, Doyle presided over the construction of a new Providence city hall at the Southern Base of Exchange Place[5] and the construction of Roger Williams Park.[6]. The mayor was famous for a liberal spending program that often ran counter to the interests of the City Council. He prioritized Irish interests over all other communities, helping to ensure Irish political hegemony throughout the second half of the nineteenth century which reinforced the longstanding pattern of racial homogeneity in city politics.