Moakley would represent the district during some of the most tumultuous times in its history. Two years after his election the community would be rocked by riots after a federal court imposed mandatory busing to desegregate the schools.

Over the next decade drugs and mobster Whitey Bulger would exact a heavy price on the community, before the area began a revival that would bring people of many races and nationalities to the area.

Ethnically some analysts say the district is still probably the most heavily Irish congressional district in the nation. But now the district is culturally and economically diverse, loosing the vestiges of its old Irish neighborhoods, O’Connor says.

“The Ninth is one of the most diverse districts in the country. It’s a rainbow district of Hispanic, black, white and Asian constituents,” Clark says.

Candidates must also contend with an expanding district, which extends to Easton to the southwest, Braintree to the southeast, Brockton, the old shoe manufacturing town, and the textile mills of Taunton.

Democrats outside of Southie now outnumber those inside Boston’s borders, 102,333 to 81,749 registered voters.

John, a 42 year-old Boston firefighter, typifies the old face of the district.