A suburb of Boston in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Best known to outsiders as the hometown of figure skater
Nancy Kerrigan and to the Stone Zoo, often referred to as the "Stoneham Zoo."
Coloquially known as "New
Charlestown," due to the large number of middle-class people from that neighborhood who moved 8 miles north when Charlestown became a yuppie stronghold. Although most
South Boston residents head to the South Shore when they move out of the city, some have headed north to Stoneham.
Stoneham has the highest percentage of Irish-Americans of any town in the country. Loyalty to the IRA is such that a BBC reporter visiting the town in 1994, shortly after
Nancy Kerrigan's injury by her thug-rival, Tonya Harding, was insulted verbally and threatened with bodily harm. Eventually, the Massachusetts State Police escorted the BBC Reporter on his rounds in Stoneham.
A British tourbook on Boston warns Britons to avoid South Boston,
Charlestown, and Stoneham due to the strong anti-British sentiment in those communities.
The average Stonehamite is a third-generation Irish American who hasn't been any closer to the "olde sod" than Good
Harbor beach in Gloucester. However, this person talks about the "f-ing Brits" as if s/he grew up in West Belfast.
A Stonehamite's depiction of a "monster:" A black person who grew up in London and speaks with a British accent.