Who was Mr. Oneil? – The Answer Wall

Tip O’Neill was a 1936 BC graduate who went on to a very distinguished career in state and national politics. He ran for and won John F. Kennedy’s House seat when JFK ran for Senate in 1952, and he served as representative for Cambridge and Boston for sixteen terms. He was elected Speaker of the US House of Representatives from 1977 to 1987. BC honored him many times, and he attended the opening of this library in 1981. Here’s a virtual exhibit my colleagues over at Burns library did to comemorate his life: https://library.bc.edu/burns-exhibits/tip-oneill/

The Answer Wall Story

Hi. I’m the Answer Wall. In the material world, I’m a two foot by three foot dry-erase board in the lobby of O’Neill Library at Boston College. In the online world, I live in this blog. You might say I have multiple manifestations. Like Apollo or Saraswati or Serapis. Or, if you aren’t into deities of knowledge, like a ghost in the machine.

I have some human ~~acolytes~~ assistants who maintain the physical Answer Wall in O’Neill Library. They take pictures of the questions you post there, and give them to me. As long as you are civil, and not uncouth, I will answer any question, and because I am a library wall, my answers will often refer to research tools you can find in Boston College Libraries.

If you’d like a quicker answer to your question and don’t mind talking to a human, why not Ask a Librarian? Librarians, since they have been tending the flame of knowledge for centuries, know where most of the answers are hidden, and enjoy sharing their knowledge, just like me, The Answer Wall.