James Kennedy McGuire (1868-1923) was an American politician who was only in his 20s when elected Mayor of Syracuse, a city in New York State. He was given the nickname of the 'boy mayor' when elected to that office in 1895. I have just written a newspaper article for the Irish Times on the boy mayor. Read it here.
Several books have been written in America about McGuire including James K. McGuire: Boy Mayor and Irish Nationalist by Joseph Fahey and The Political Lives of James K. McGuire by Daniel Schultz. There has not been much written about McGuire in Ireland but perhaps that could change.
Due to his Irish ancestry (his father was born in Enniskillen), McGuire took an interest in Irish affairs. As I mention in my newspaper article, he was a member of many Irish fraternal associations and clubs in America. He also tried to help Irish people who visited America to spread information about the cause of Irish freedom. One of those he met there and got to know was Diarmuid Fawsitt (1884-1967) who was sent to America as Consul of the Irish Republic. I was pleased to see that a grand-daughter of Fawsitt's read my article and wrote to the newspaper about Fawsitt's relationship with McGuire. You can read the letter here and you can find out more about Fawsitt in his entry in the Dictionary of Irish Biography.
