Irish America March / April 2019

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TRAVEL

MUSIC

MOVIES

BOOKS

HISTORY

NEWS

GENEALOGY

MARCH / APRIL 2019

CANADA $4.95 / U.S. $3.95

“IT’S ALL ABOUT

TAKING OWNERSHIP, WORKING TOGETHER, AND CREATING UNITY.” NYPD Commissioner James P. O’Neill

The

HALL

FAME 2019 Inductees: John Dearie • Adrian Flannelly • Terry George • Charlotte Moore • Arturo O’Farrill • James P. O’Neill • Ciarán O’Reilly

DISPLAY UNTIL APRIL 30, 2019

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Integrated Education in Northern Ireland: Thanks in part to The Ireland Funds, over 22,000 children from Catholic, Protestant, and other diverse backgrounds are able to learn together.

$3m

in grants to Integrated Education

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integrated Schools

22,000 children throughout Northern Ireland

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Congratulations to the 2019 Irish America Hall of Fame inductees Thanks to you, The Ireland Funds has assisted over 3,200 outstanding Irish organizations and causes across the island of Ireland and around the globe.

Integrated Education is just one example of our commitment to peace and a shared society in Northern Ireland as children from Catholic, Protestant, and other diverse backgrounds are now able to learn together.

Let us help you connect with Ireland and realize your philanthropic goals.

Visit www.irelandfunds.org

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Vol. 34 No. 2 March / April 2019

Features

The Long Walk and Docks, facing Galway Bay

16

16 St. Patrick’s Day Parades

Put on your green, pour a pint of Guinness, and do a jig – it’s St. Patrick’s Day! Take a look at how different cities around the country celebrate Ireland’s patron saint.

By Dave Lewis

HIGHLIGHTS News From Ireland

The Dublin Apocalypse manuscript; long-lost Connolly play found; and nurses strike for fair pay.

35 Hall of Fame

Honoring the extraordinary new inductees: James O’Neill, John Dearie, Adrian Flannelly, Terry George, Arturo O’Farrill, Charlotte Moore, and Ciarán O’Reilly, who all share an affinity for their Irish heritage.

p. 10

Irish Eye on Hollywood

Saoirse Ronan, war films, and 2020 Oscar predictions.

Too soon? p. 14

56 Cover Story: James P. O’Neill

NYPD Commissioner James P. O’Neill once guarded the perilous subway system, rose through the ranks, and now tackles big city issues by addressing them block by block.

By Maggie Holland

Hibernia

John Brennan speaks to young leaders; IA’s Business 100 Luncheon; UCC goes to NYU; and Americans prepare for Brexit. p. 18

60 Galway Girl

Gerry O’Shea travels to the city that inspired Steve Earle’s beloved tribal anthem and continues to be the bond between Celtic and Americana music.

By Gerry O’Shea

56

68 The Passion of the San Patricios

The legacy of St. Patrick’s Battalion, an honor-bound group of Irishmen that championed the cause of the smaller Mexican force against the might of the U.S. army during the Mexican-American War.

By Mark R. Day

Eileen Battersby; Kevin McCaul; Moira Kennedy O’Malley; Jer O’Leary; Kevin Roche; Patricia Wald.

p. 26

64 Wild Irish Women: Isadora Duncan Known as the “Mother of Modern Dance,” Isadora Duncan threw tradition to the wind in more ways than one, and lived her impulsive life as a free spirit, “sans limites.”

By Rosemary Rogers

Those We Lost

Sláinte!

Edythe Preet has everything you need for a rainy day, including shepherd’s pie. p. 74

64

Photo Album

68

72 Window on the Past: Hugh Daily

How a tenacious one-armed pitcher overcame his disability – but not his temper. Even with one of the best ERAs in the league, no team kept him around longer than one season.

By Ray Cavanaugh

Irish America Magazine (ISSN 0884-4240) © by Irish America Inc. Published bi-monthly. Mailing address: P.O. Box 1277, Bellmawr, NJ, 08099-5277. Editorial office: 875 Sixth Avenue, Suite 1606, New York, NY, 10001. Telephone: 212-725-2993. Fax: 212-244-3344. E-mail: submit@irishamerica.com. Subscription rate is $21.95 for one year. Subscription orders:1-800-582-6642. Subscription queries:1-800-582-6642, (212) 725-2993, ext. 150. Periodicals postage paid at New York and additional mailing offices. Postmaster please send address changes to Irish America magazine, P.O. Box 1277, Bellmawr, NJ, 08099-5277. Irish America is printed in the U.S.A.

George Kelnhofer tells the story of his grandfather, a salvage diver and underwater welder. p. 80

DEPARTMENTS 6 8 30 76 78 82

First Word Letters Quote Unquote Book Reviews Roots Crossword

Cover Photo: James Higgins

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John Dearie

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Adrian Flannelly

Terry George

Charlotte Moore

Ciarán O’Reilly

Arturo O’Farrill

James P. O’Neill

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Vol. 34 No. 2 March / April 2019

IRISH AMERICA Mórtas Cine Pride In Our Heritage

Founding Publisher: Niall O’Dowd Co-Founder/Editor-in-Chief: Patricia Harty Art Director: Marian Fairweather Assistant Editor / Sales and Events Coordinator Mary Gallagher Writers: Ray Cavanaugh Tom Deignan Maggie Holland Darina Molloy Edythe Preet Rosemary Rogers Financial Controller: Kevin M. Mangan Accounts: Mairead Bresnan

IRISH AMERICA 875 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 1606 New York, NY 10001 TEL: 212-725-2993 FAX: 212-244-3344

Subscriptions: 1-800-582-6642 EMAIL:

submit@irishamerica.com www.irishamerica.com Irish America Magazine ISSN 0884-4240) © by Irish America Inc. Published bi-monthly.

Mailing address: P.O. Box 1277, Bellmawr, NJ 08099-5277.

Editorial office: 875 Sixth Avenue, Suite 1606, New York, NY 10001. Telephone: 212-725-2993.

Fax: 212-244-3344 E-mail: Submit@irishamerica.com.

Subscription rate is $21.95 for one year.

Subscription orders: 1-800-582-6642. Subscription queries: 1-800-582-6642, (212) 725-2993, ext. 217.

Periodicals postage paid at New York and additional mailing offices.

Postmaster please send address changes to Irish America Magazine, P.O. Box 1277, Bellmawr, NJ 08099-5277.

IRISH AMERICA IS PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.

the first word | By Patricia Harty

Trailblazers Past & Present

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t was the first time that I knew the full weight of Irish America. Coming from a small country with few people, it’s difficult for an immigrant to grasp that in a place as big as America, the Irish could wield such power. I’m talking about the first Irish-American Presidential Forum in 1992. It was arranged by thenassemblyman John C. Dearie. I don’t remember the venue, but I do remember the excitement in the room when candidate Bill Clinton, then the governor of Arkansas, showed up. Truth be told, having lived in California, I was a Jerry Brown fan. I might even have been wearing my “We the People” T-shirt. Brown was good on Ireland. He had a policy paper. But Brown was late, and by the time he got to the forum, Clinton had stolen the show.

By then, Martin Galvin of NORAID had asked the question: Would Clinton grant Gerry Adams a visa to visit the U.S. if there was an I.R.A. ceasefire? Clinton said, “Yes.” The genesis of what became the Good Friday Agreement was in the room that night.

Over the following years, I watched it play out. I saw the power of Irish America being brought to bear on the Troubles and other issues important to the Irish. I saw the thrust of it in Adrian Flannelly’s work on immigration reform. I saw it, too, in the good will extended by Irish-American writers to Terry George, now an award-winning writer and director. And I saw, and continue to see, the love of heritage and the sharing of it, by Charlotte Moore and Ciarán O’Reilly, who for 30 years have been nourishing the soul of Irish America with their Irish Repertory Theatre productions, right here in New York City.

Nowhere is the story of Irish America more arresting than in New York. It’s astonishing to look at the brass plates that adorn the wall in NYPD Commissioner O’Neill’s office – Irish name after Irish name – McGuire, Kelly, Murphy, McLaughlin, Ryan, and on and on: all of whom, at one time, held the job of commissioner, and oversaw what is the largest police department in the United States.

O’Neill, as you will read in Maggie Holland’s cover story, is truly one of New York’s finest. He rose through the ranks from subway cop back in the 1980s, when New York’s transit system was one of the most dangerous in the country, to become New York’s top cop overseeing a neighborhood policing strategy that is bearing fruit, and as commissioner, he’s championing female empowerment and gender equality within the force.

For all of our success in America, we Irish are travel birds who have settled in every corner of the globe, and wherever we go the music goes with us. Listen to Arturo O’Farrill’s “Oh Danny Boy,” or “She Moved Through the Fair.” These traditional Irish songs infused with Cuban, Mexican, and Afro flavors will touch your heart.

We are thrilled to induct Arturo, Adrian, Ciarán, Charlotte, John, Terry, and James into our Hall of Fame on March 14th. We know you will enjoy reading all about them in the following pages. Also included in this issue for your reading pleasure are stories of a couple of trailblazers from a bygone era who would be worthy Hall of Fame inductees were they around today: Isadora Duncan, daughter of an Irish immigrant, who threw tradition to the wind and became the mother of modern dance; and Hugh Daily, born in Ireland in July, 1847 (the worst month and year of the Famine). At 16, Hugh lost a hand in an accident, but he went on to pitch in the major leagues. So, this St. Patrick’s Day, raise a glass to all that’s been achieved. Dance and sing and enjoy a jar, if that’s your thing. But no resting on laurels. Northern Ireland is again in the news, with worries about the border being reinstated between the Republic and the North when Britain leaves the E.U., and immigration continues to be an problem (last year the Irish got 1/3 of one percent of the 50,000 diversity visas issued annually). Fortunately Irish Americans, including some of those who were involved in the peace process, are on the ball. But your voice is needed. John Dearie says: “We need to get young people involved...on Brexit, the MacBride Principles, Irish visas...there’s a whole generation that has not heard the message: America has a vital role to play.”

Mórtas Cine.

6 IRISH AMERICA MARCH / APRIL 2019

Moët Hennessy is proud to support

Irish America Magazine and congratulates the 2019 Hall of Fame Inductees.

·· Most Honored

©2019 Moët Hennessy USA Inc., New York, NY. Moët Hennessy USA encourages responsible drinking.

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caint | readers forum

Keynote Eileen McDonnell

I loved your cover feature on Eileen McDonnell.

She’s a great Irish American and her story reflects the story of many immigrants who came to this country so that their children and grandchildren could have a better life.

I was happy to be able to listen to her keynote speech on your website. I love your website with all those archives to troll through – it’s my favorite downtime occupation, but that said, I can’t wait for your magazine to arrive in my mailbox.

I make myself a cup of Barry’s tea and take a break from whatever I’m doing to have a flick through to see what I have to look forward to. It’s on my wish list to attend one of your events, but in the meantime, I’ll continue to watch your event coverage, particularly your Hall of Fame coverage online.

– Stanislaus Bearde, Petaluma, CA, submitted via email

Celebrating the Past and the Present

What a beautiful voice Niamh has. It was delightful listening to her performances [at the IA Business 100 Awards]. It made me nostalgic for Ireland. I only wish I could have been there in person. I’m going to see if I can get her album now. Thank you for sharing. I also enjoyed the article on Mayo. I wasn’t aware there was so much history in the county. I was very impressed.

– Eva O’Sullivan, submitted online

Kilcar, My Donegal Playground

Love the Magazine

I have been a subscriber of your magazine since its inception.

The “Kilcar, My Donegal Playground,” story in the Nov. / Dec. issue brought back memories of my youth in Astoria, Queens. My late brotherin-law was a patron of O’Donnell’s Pub on 30th Avenue (between 41st and 42nd Streets). I was acquainted with Paddy O’Donnell and my daughter went to St. Joseph’s Elementary School with his daughter Monica. That was in the 1960s and the Pub is gone now but my memories of growing up in Astoria came flooding back to me after reading this article.

Thank you for this great story and photo.

I wonder if his daughter Monica has seen it.

– Louise M. Finan, submitted online PHOTO: TOURISM IRELAND

Love this magazine. I learned about my own family’s customs, things I just took for granted. NOW I know why we kept money in the sugar jar in the good breakfront!! Excellent stories, well-written pieces, and an in-depth pictorial view of Ireland. Friends have planned trips based on the articles they have read.

I have been lucky to have visited Ireland over 19 times and lived there off and on for two years. The magazine brings me back to some wonderful days I have lived there and hope to again.

– Margaret Hales McKitty, submitted via Facebook

Brexit Makes Ireland More Attractive

Ireland needs the help of Irish America to make sure the British do not renege on their Good Friday Peace Agreement commitments. Things are heating up!

Ní neart go cur le chéile.

– Ma McGlinchey, submitted online

ANGELA’S CHRISTMAS

Made my daughter cry. It was lovely.

– Julie Pierce, submitted via Facebook

IRISH ART SELLS FOR HIGHEST TOTAL EVER

So it is chic to have art depicting abject poverty? Any one who buys this stuff should feel morally obligated to give to charity...

– Ann Fossler, submitted via Facebook

CELTIC FOOTBALL CLUB DINE OUT IN NEW YORK FOR CHARITY

Hope they ate better than the White House fast food for American football college champs.

– Marjorie Larney, submitted via Facebook

STAN & OLLIE AND THE IRISH

Great comedic pair. Hardy was actually born in a small town in Georgia that’s about 50 miles from where I live!

– Barbara Charlie Gay, submitted via Facebook

[Stan & Ollie] stayed at a hotel in Dun Laoghaire, County Dublin, in the 1950s.

– Martina Murray, submitted via Facebook

Visit us online at irishamerica.com to leave your comments, or write to us: A cottage in Mayo 8 IRISH AMERICA MARCH / APRIL 2019

Send a fax (212-244-3344), e-mail (submit@irishamerica.com), or write to Letters, Irish America Magazine, 875 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 1606, New York, NY, 10001. Letters should include the writer’s name, address, and phone number and may be edited for clarity and length.

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HIBERNIA • NEWS DUBLIN APOCALYPSE MANUSCRIPT NOW ONLINE

LONG-LOST JAMES CONNOLLY PLAY MAY BE FOUND

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T

Folio 4v of the Dublin Apocalypse manuscript at TCD, depicting the Fourth Horseman.

PHOTO: BOARD OF TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN

rinity College Dublin (TCD) celebrated the digitization of the Dublin Apocalypse manuscript, one of the great medieval treasures of TCD’s library, on February 1.

The 14th-century Latin manuscript of the Book of Revelation is accompanied by exquisite illustrations in gold and other vivid colors depicting scenes of the horsemen of the Apocalypse, battles with many-headed beasts, and the heavenly Jerusalem for its

readers to enjoy.

The manuscript has been in TCD’s possession for over a century, since former provost Franc Sadleir donated it from his private collection in 1851. Now for the first time, a full digital copy of the manuscript in all its splendor, (118 individual digital scans), can be viewed online by a global audience via the Library’s Digital Collections platform.

Laura Cleaver, Professor in the History of Medieval Art, explained: “An illuminated manuscript of international importance by a master artist, the Dublin Apocalypse provides an arresting vision of the end of the world. Unusually the images, rather than the Latin text, dominate each page.

“Aside from its stunning beauty, the manuscript provides insight into the long tradition of apocalypse manuscripts and how our ancestors contemplated the end of days.”

– M.G.

10 IRISH AMERICA MARCH / APRIL 2019

n Nora Connolly’s 1935 memoir of her father, James Connolly, she mentions a play of his entitled The Agitator’s Wife, which scholars have never been able to find. A short story of the same name was recently discovered in an obscure journal in Warwick University’s library, leading University of Glasgow academics to believe it could be the long-lost work.

The short story, which was found in an 1894 issue of the Labour Prophet, a Christian socialist journal, tells of the struggles of Scottish dockworkers against the Shipping Federation on the Leith waterfront. The workers’ leader, Tom Arnold, overwhelmed with despair from leading the strike in the face of police brutality with a sick child at home, is brought to contemplate suicide. His wife Mary comes to the rescue, leading the strikers when they were about to give up.

Besides the identical name, the story was written in the same period and, as Professor Willy Maley, Dr. Maria-Daniella Dick, and Kirsty Lusk wrote in the Irish Study Review, “It reminds us very strongly of Connolly’s other writing in its politics, its themes, and in its socialist feminist viewpoint, which was rare for that time.”

The fact that it is a short story and not a play has not discouraged the scholars, who say that it could be a different version of the lost work or that Nora misinterpreted the genre when her mother spoke to her of the work.

Born in Edinburgh, James Connolly was a member of the Industrial Workers of the World and the founder of the Irish Socialist Republican Party. A leader of the Irish Citizen Army, he was shot for his part in the 1916 Easter Rising. Connolly was a radical thinker more celebrated for his journalism and political theory than his creative works, which makes the possible discovery of this story all the more intriguing. Another play of his, Under Which Flag? was long considered lost as well until it resurfaced 50 years ago. – M.H.

IRELAND LEADING THE WAR ON PLASTIC

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reland, the first to ban smoking in public places and the first to charge for plastic bags in supermarkets, is now taking it one step further.

The Irish government has prohibited the purchase of all single-use plastics in its own offices as well as other public buildings, including schools. The products banned include a variety of commonly used items: cutlery, cups, plates, and cotton swabs among the worst offenders.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar confirmed wholeheartedly that the ultimate goal is to eradicate the non-biodegradable waste entirely. “We are going to get there,” he said. “And the plan is to do that across all government departments and then different agencies as well.”

The announcement came in January, following declarations by the European Parliament and the European Commission, establishing an objective to cut out the use of non-recyclable plastics across the E.U. over the coming years. Ireland was one of the first E.U. members to set forth a comprehensive plan in response.

The action is hoped to make a significant dent in marine pollution, in a step to re-vamp the government’s policy to fight climate change. “It is practical steps like these that put us on a sustainable path, which is essential if we are to achieve our ambition to become a leader,” asserted Richard Bruton, Irish Minister for Climate Action and the Environment. “I am committed to putting us on the right trajectory to meet our obligations.” – M.G.

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NEWS • HIBERNIA

S

SYRIAN REFUGEE IN IRELAND WINS SCIENCE AWARD

uad Al Darra, a master’s student studying computer science at NUI Galway’s College of Engineering and Informatics, was one of five winners at the recent Techfugees Global Challenge competition.

Inspired by her own personal displacement journey, Suad discovered the power of big data during her studies and entered her “Refugees Are” project, a news analysis platform that aims to map public opinion around refugees, into the competition.

The program can help identify locations with negative stories in their media about refugees, essentially mapping public opinion on the subject, in order to target the problem of xenophobia and dispel news “bubbles.”

The tone of media coverage has real-life implications for refugees as they attempt to assimilate into a new country or community after being forced to leave their old home. Al Darra says, “The goal is to tackle the problem of xenophobia against refugees created by the media, which is negatively affecting their hope of integrating and starting a new beginning.”

After graduating from Damascus University in 2008 as a software

THE CRY OF THE CURLEW

Irish Plant and Animal Life Endangered

PHOTO: SUAD AL DARRA

O

engineer and working at several tech companies, Al Darra and her husband moved to Ireland in 2014, escapMSc Computer Science ing the conflict in Syria and looking for a graduate, Suad Al Darra, better future. While a student at NUI Galpictured center with way, she had her first child.

Techfugees Challenge Conor Hayes, Program Director of the judges from L - R: Mike Butcher, Chairman of MSc in Data Analytics at NUI Galway, Techfugees; Marwan said, “Suad fashioned an award-winning Elfitesse, Startup Relations Director at data analytics project on a subject that is Station F; Nina Heir, hugely relevant to the many other disProgram Manager at placed families and people in the Katapult Accelerator; world.” and Joséphine Goube, The Techfugees Global Challenge CEO of Techfugees. competition sought the most innovative new projects that use technology to help displaced people, refugees, and NGOs. The competition’s project applications went through an international jury of experts, who selected 25 finalists from hundreds of applicants from 52 countries across the world.

The projects were then pitched in front of an international jury at the Techfugees Summit in Paris. Suad’s project was one of five final winners. – P.H.

ne third of the species of Irish plant and animal wildlife are in danger of extinction, according to the Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT).

On the endangered list are a large proportion of marine life, insects, and plants, including the alpine saxifrage (a perennial plant), the angel shark, birds such as the curlew and the twite, and a third of the bee species native to Ireland.

“Ninety percent of our highest-value habitats protected under the E.U.’s Habitats Directive are in ‘poor’ or ‘inadequate’ status,” Padraic Fogarty, IWT’s campaign officer, asserted in his report. Most of the causes are related to human interaction with the environment: climate change, of which Ireland has been feeling the effects in recent years; the reduction of space in natural habitats (only 0.6 percent of Ireland’s original bog lands and one-percent forest coverage of the island as a whole remain); atmosphere and water pollution; and an abuse of finite resources, including overfishing.

In a plea to the Irish government to be proactive, Fogarty enumerated steps to avoid or slow the strikingly rapid process, noting, “We are likely to be the last generation to have the power to take meaningful measures to save life on Earth.” Suggestions include a large-scale restoration of natural habitats for threatened wildlife, including boglands, peatlands, and conifer forests, and incentive for Irish farmers to adopt non-abrasive methods.

“This can be done to the great benefit of Irish communities,” he added. “Small-scale coastal fishing communities have all but disappeared. Conversely, restoring natural systems brings great opportunity in bringing benefits back to local people and resilience to those who depend upon them.”

In response to pleas from the trust and other nature -based organizations, the government offered a plan to impede the progress of extinction, which includes restoring former wetland areas, starting a national seed bank to preserve native plants, and educating the public on the needs of vulnerable species and habitats. “We need to protect the nature we have,” explained Irish Senator Grace O’Sullivan, “and bring in policies to restore what we had before.” – M.G. MARCH / APRIL 2019 IRISH AMERICA 11

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Irish nurses in Sydney, Australia, showing support for striking Irish nurses.

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CREDIT: VIDEO: LAURA PHILLIPS / STAND WITH NURSES AND MIDWIVES)

HIBERNIA • NEWS

IRISH NURSES STRIKE FOR FAIR PAY

reland’s nurses went on strike on January 30 in a dispute over pay and staff shortages. There were three separate 24-hour stoppages and a planned three-day strike set for February 12, until the strike was suspended February 11 for three weeks as part of a recommendations by the Labour Court.

The strike was organized by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organization (INMO) and the Psychiatric Nurses Association. The INMO had requested a 12-percent pay increase, which would bring nurses in line with other health professionals, such as physiotherapists, and to the same level of compensation they received before their salaries were cut with the downturn in the economy at the end of 2006.

Over 250 Irish nurses working in Australia gathered at the Sydney Opera House January 19 to show their support for the strikers, saying “Give us a reason to come home.”

“It is not a competitive pay rate that Ireland is offering, and therefore there is a recruitment crisis in Ireland,” said nurse Laura Phillips in a video of the rally.

One nurse says she “literally earns double” working in the Middle East as compared to nurses working in Ireland. In response to the initial proposed agreement with the government, Aine McCarthy, a student nurse who had been out on the picket line every day of the strike, tweeted, “I’m hurt, disappointed and totally begrudging my career choice today.”

Further talks did not reach a conclusion as we went to press. About 90,000 patients had medical appointments cancelled during the stoppages, but what wasn’t widely reported is that the nurses never stopped caring for patients.

They picketed during lunch breaks and after work.

A 2017 year-end report on Journal.ie said that Irish hospitals are spending thousands of dollars in overseas recruitment drives, when it should be encouraging its own nurses to stay at home. There are currently 65,000 nurses in Ireland: 51,000 are Irish, 4,600 are from India and 4,265 are from the Philippines.

Only 270 are from the United States. – M.H.

Nurses picketing in Ireland.

PHOTO: RTÉ.

12 IRISH AMERICA MARCH / APRIL 2019

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ANCIENT GAELIC MANUSCRIPT DISCOVERED

recently discovered 15th-century Irish vellum manuscript reveals a connection between Gaelic Ireland and the Islamic world, and illustrates that medical scholarship in medieval Gaelic Ireland was on a par with that practiced on the continent.

The discovery – a sheet full of text in Irish – cut from a 15th-century Irish vellum manuscript that had been trimmed and folded and stitched to the spine of a pocket-sized Latin manual printed in London in 1534-1536, was made by Prof.

Padraig Ó Macháin of University College Cork.

The identity of the text as a fragment of a translation into Irish of the Canon of Medicine by the Persian physician Ibn Sena (980–1037), also known as Avicenna, was established by Ó Macháin’s collaborator of many years, Prof.

Aoibheann Nic Dhonnchadha of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, an expert on medieval Irish medicine.

Ibn Sena was considered one of the most significant physicians in the Islamic Golden Age, and his Canon of Medicine was a great medical encyclopedia which, through translation into Latin (from which the Irish text itself is translated), achieved great popularity in Europe. The Irish “The Avic enna Fra gment” fragment, which contains parts of the opening chapters on the physiology of the jaws, the nose, and the back, is further evidence of Irish scholars traveling to Europe and bringing their learning back to the medical schools of Ireland.

Because of the importance of the manuscript fragment to the history of Irish learning and medicine, the owners, a family in Cornwall, agreed that the binding should be removed from the book by John Gillis of TCD, opened, and digitized under the supervision of Prof. Ó Macháin, to whom they entrusted the book, with a new binding provided. This was completed and “The Avicenna Fragment” is now available for viewing on the Irish Script on Screen website.

A public seminar on aspects of Gaelic medieval medicine was hosted by UCC on March 7. – P.H.

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HIBERNIA • IRISH EYE ON HOLLYWOOD

By Tom Deignan

Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in The Irishman.

REMEMBER THE 27 CRUSADERS

THE IRISHMAN FOR 2020?

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t’s time for Academy Award predictions – for 2020! It’s never too early to look ahead and see which films Hollywood honchos are positioning as Oscar bait, to lure crowds away from their iPhone apps and Netflix accounts. The influential show biz web site IMDB.com ranks The Irishman, Martin Scorsese’s next movie (to be released by Netflix, of course), as the top contender among the movies slated to be released this year, and eligible for next year’s Oscar race. Also ranked high for the 2020 Oscar race is a pair of reboots with elite Irish and Irish-American talent – Dumbo, featuring Colin Farrell and Michael Keaton, and Little Women, with Saoirse Ronan and Timothée Chalamet. Also tipped for lots of attention next Oscar season is Ford vs. Ferrari, starring Irish actress Caitriona Balfe (pictured above) alongside Matt Damon. Rounding out the 20 or so flicks that are expected to garner heavy awards attention are Ad Astra, an outerspace drama starring Irish actress (and Oscar nominee) Ruth Negga, The Goldfinch, directed by Irishman John Crowley, and Fonzo, a gangster biopic about Al Capone (Tom Hardy), who was married to Irish American Mae Coughlin.

BRANAGH TO DIRECT ARTEMIS FOWL

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t may or may not get Oscar consideration, but you don’t get much more Irish than the blockbuster-to-be summer 2019 release Artemis Fowl. Based on the series of fantasy novels by Wexford native Eoin Colfer, the movie – at least for now, entitled simply Artemis Fowl – will be directed by Belfast native Kenneth Branagh, who has fully shaken off his Shakespearean roots and gone Hollywood. This is just the latest big-budget flick for the BAFTA-winning, Oscar-nominated actor-turned-director, whose recent directorial efforts include Thor, Cinderella, and Murder on the Orient Express, based on the Agatha Christie novel. The Artemis Fowl movie will also feature Kilkenny youngster Ferdia Shaw in the title role, as well as numerous other Irish and British talent. Meanwhile, Branagh is already looking beyond 2019, having signed on to another Agatha Christie project – a movie based on another of her books, Death on the Nile.

14 IRISH AMERICA MARCH / APRIL 2019

nd then on the opposite end of the cinematic spectrum, there are those small but powerful documentaries that make their way around festival circuits and private screenings in the hopes of getting their stories of local characters and color out into the world – and perhaps catching the eyes of a major film company. One such movie – slated to be screened at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania for free this June – is Remember the 27 Crusaders.

This is the story of a historically Irish-American Catholic school in Philadelphia, which sent an extraordinary number of young men to fight in the Vietnam War. In fact, according to the filmmakers, Father Judge High School – located in Northeast Philadelphia – suffered more casualties during the Vietnam War than any other Catholic high school in America. (The school is named to honor the founder of the Missionary Servants of the Most Blessed Trinity, which donated land so that the school could be built.) The film – directed by Shawn Swords and produced by Irish American Films and Thistle Dew Studio – premiered at the Father Judge High School auditorium in November 2018, and revolves around poignant interviews and memories of the times the service men spent at Judge, and how the war affected their friends and families. Remember the 27 Crusaders will be shown Wednesday, June 12, at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Keep an eye out for other screenings.

NEIL JORDAN REDUX

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rish-born Oscar winner Neil Jordan has been relatively quiet for a decade or so, but he has assembled a strong Irish team of talent in front of and behind the camera for the psychological thriller Greta, slated to hit theaters in March. Written and directed by Jordan (The Crying Game, Michael Collins), Greta stars Chloë Grace Moretz (Carrie) as well as Isabelle Huppert in the title role.

Moretz plays a young New Yorker who finds a purse belonging to Greta on a subway train. Soon enough, Greta is luring the young woman into a friendship that veers from obsessive to deadly. Greta also features Crying Game star and Belfast native Stephen Rea, as well as Colm Feore (born in Boston to Irish parents), while celebrated Irish cinematographer Seamus McGarvey will collaborate with Jordan behind the camera.

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Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan

GABRIEL AND THE LOST GIRLS

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SAOIRSE & KATE IN DOUBLE HEADER

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ake one English Oscar winner, and one Irish three-time Oscar nominee, and what do you get? A very unlikely love story.

In March, Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan will begin shooting a film with the working title of Ammonite. The film follows the life and work of Mary Anning, a paleontologist whose fossil discoveries provided important insight to pre-historic life in the United Kingdom. People.com reports: “Set at an English coastal town in the 1820s, the movie will follow Anning (Winslet) and a wealthy woman from London struggling with health issues (Ronan) as they develop an intense relationship.”

The movie will be directed by Francis Lee, whose 2017 drama God’s Own Country was about a romance between two men working together on a farm.

Aside from the aforementioned Little Women, Ronan is also slated to begin shooting Wes Anderson’s latest film The French Dispatch, also featuring Bill Murray, Benicio del Toro and – yes – Kate Winslet.

Amy Ryan is in Maniac.

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rt imitates life – and features Gabriel Byrne, and a trio of Irish-American New Yorkers – in the dark, forthcoming movie Lost Girls. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Robert Kolker.

That novel seems to have been inspired by the numerous missing women who turned up in remote beachfront areas along Long Island. Many of the women had fallen into financial trouble and turned to online prostitution. All in all, as many as 20 women may have fallen victim to the same killer over the last two decades. Lost Girls, slated for release next year, stars Byrne – who can also be seen in the current Netflix show Maniac, alongside Jonah Hill and Emma Stone – as well as Amy Ryan, Dean Winters, and Kevin Corrigan. All three of these Hollywood vets have New York Irish roots.

Ryan – who took her mother’s name, rather than her birth name Dziewiontkowski – has appeared on shows ranging from The Office to The Wire, while Winters played prisoner Ryan O’Reilly on Oz, and Johnny Gavin on the IrishAmerican TV drama Rescue Me. Finally, Corrigan is entering his fourth decade in show biz, having appeared in films ranging from Goodfellas to The Departed.

THE IRISH WAR OF INDEPENDENCE

inally, Irish broadcaster RTÉ has a surprise hit with the Easter Rising mini series Rebellion (currently streaming on Netflix), so it’s no surprise they went ahead and produced a sequel. Entitled Resistance, the film dramatizes the events of the Irish War for Independence, the guerrilla battle between Irish republicans and the British, which raged from he hunger for post-apocalyptic stories only seems to be getting stronger, so Irish star-inroughly 1919 to 1921. The the-making Barry Keoghan – after doing serious historical Irish fare such as Black ’47 bloodshed lasted until the infaand the Belfast drama ’71 – has signed on to an FX TV series with a big-time sci-fi mous peace agreement which twist. Keoghan will star in a series simply entitled Y, and based on the book Y: The Last Man, partitioned Ireland – and led to which explores a world where some sort of terrible disaster has wiped away – get this – all further fighting, this time bemale mammals, with the exception of one male human being. Y also stars Diane Lane, tween the Irish themselves.

Imogen Poots and – fittingly for Keoghan – the California-reared actress Marin Ireland. The Keep an eye out for Resistance, series will also star Timothy Hutton as the U.S. president. Which means there are already two which will surely make its way males in the cast. But, hey, it’s a post-apocalyptic world. So anything can happen. to the U.S.

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KEOGHAN WILL STAR IN Y

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HIBERNIA • ST. PATRICK’S DAY PARADES

CELEBRATING ST. PATRICK IN THE U.S.

BOSTON

The Irish of Boston have been celebrating St. Patrick’s Day since the 1730s. Not only does the parade celebrate Saint Patrick, it also commemorates Evacuation Day, the day the British left Boston during the American Revolutionary War, so it’s fitting that John Beatty, executive director of the Massachusetts Military Task Force, will serve as the parade’s chief marshal on March 17 in South Boston. Up to a million spectators are expected.

CHICAGO

For the past 50 years, the Windy City has been famous for dyeing the Chicago River green on Saint Patrick’s Day, and it’s not the only attraction. Chicago has three St. Patrick’s Day parades and a multitude of festivities that attract some 8,000,000 revelers. The South Side Parade, to take place on March 17, is the largest and will be led by Grand Marshal Terence “Terry” J. Hancock, the president of Teamsters Joint Council No. 25. Parades will also take place downtown on Columbus Drive, on March 16 and on the Northwest side on March 17, in the Norwood Park neighborhood.

CLEVELAND

In 1842, Rev. Peter McLaughlin decided to celebrate St. Patrick with a mass, parade, and banquet. 177 years later, the Irish community of Cleveland, is still celebrating. This year, William “Bill” Homan has been selected as the grand marshal. Bill is a founding member of the Irish American Club.

A unique part of the Cleveland celebrations is the honoring of the city’s “Irish Mother of the Year.” This year that honor goes to Eileen Kilroy. The parade will begin at the intersection of Superior Avenue and East 18th Street and will end at the intersection of Rockwell and Ontario Street on March 17.

DETROIT

Now in its 61st year, Detroit’s parade follows along Michigan Avenue through the area 16 IRISH AMERICA MARCH / APRIL 2019

known as Corktown, the city’s oldest neighborhood, named for County Cork immigrants who settled there in the 1840s.

This year’s parade, on March 10, will be led by Grand Marshals Paul and Agnes Gowdy, lifelong contributors to the Detroit Irish community. Families PHOTO: TOM BEAUDOIN can view the parade from heated grandstands, listen to live entertainment, get their faces painted, enjoy an Irish dance lesson, and much more. The Corktown Races, a 5-km. race, is also a feature of the day. It attracts over 8,000 participants and raises funds for the St. Patrick Senior Center.

PHOTO: DOMINICK TOTINO PHOTOGRAPHY.

Some of the biggest and best parades celebrating Ireland’s patron saint actually take place in America. New York may have the largest parade in the country, but it’s followed closely

by Savannah, Georgia. And while the Boston parade has a long history, the Holyoke, Massachusetts parade rivals it for its sheer color and gaiety. Here’s a sampling of parades across the U.S. By Dave Lewis

HOLYOKE

Over the years since its debut in 1952, this Massachusetts parade has featured such notables as President John F. Kennedy, actress Maureen O’Hara, and Irish America’s co-founder Patricia Harty!

This year’s grand marshal is Roger J. Reidy, a longtime stalwart of the community. Dr. Christopher Fox, director of the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies, will receive the Ambassador Award, and Lauren Hanna Dulude will serve as the Grand Colleen. Lauren, who completed 400 hours interning at Boston Children’s Hospital, dances with the Trend N Motion Dance Crew in the Boston area.

NEW YORK

New York City’s parade, dating back to March 17, 1762, is the largest St. Patrick’s Day celebration in the world with around 150,000 participants and close to two million viewers.

These numbers could be even higher this year, as the New York parade will also host marchers from Washington, D.C., where the parade was cancelled due to lack of funds.

Brian O’Dwyer, an active participant in the Northern Ireland peace process and the son of late civil rights leader Paul O’Dwyer, will lead the parade up Fifth Avenue on March 16.

Dancers at the San Francisco Parade

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ST. PATRICK’S DAY PARADES • HIBERNIA

PHILADELPHIA

The Philadelphia parade, which dates back to 1771, attracts some 20,000 marchers, 200 Irish dance schools, numerous high school bands, GAA clubs, and other groups. Sean McMenamin will lead the parade on March 10.

An immigrant from Mayo, Sean has been active in the community since the 1960s. His late wife Joanna, of Sligo, who, like her husband, was very active in the community, had particular pride in expanding the Irish Center’s library.

The theme of this year’s parade is “Saint Patrick, Unite Us!”

PHOTO: IRISHPHILADELPHIA.COM

PITTSBURGH

ST. LOUIS

Pittsburgh’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade, founded in 1869, features over 23,000 marchers and draws a crowd of 350,000. Mike Gallagher, a local musician who has entertained with his 12-string acoustic guitar at Pittsburgh’s many Irish pubs, parades, and festivals, has been selected as the parade’s grand marshal. Mike will be accompanied by the winner of the Miss Smiling Irish Eyes competition (unnamed at press time).

The theme of this year’s parade is: “A United Ireland.”

SAN FRANCISCO

This year the 168th St. Patrick’s Day Parade, by far the west coast’s largest Irish event, will take place in San Francisco on March 16. The theme for this year’s parade is “Women Breaking Barriers,” and who better to lead it than Mayor London N. Breed, the 45th and first African-American female mayor in the history of San Francisco. Some 200,000 spectators are expected to attend.

MILWAUKEE

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Detroit’s grand marshals, Paul and Agnes Gowdy New York City, 2018 Philadelphia’s grand marshal Sean McMenamin Savannah’s grand marshal Jerry Counihan Lauren Dulude, the Grand Colleen of Holyoke

Milwaukee’s St. Patrick’s Day parade was first held on March 17, 1843. It is said to have been influenced by the Temperance movement at the time. In its current form, the parade is in its 53rd year and is organized by the Shamrock Club of Wisconsin, which nominated its longtime coordinator Kim Nowak as parade marshal. Nowak was nominated along with the Irish Rose, Dawn Fleming, and the Shamrock Club’s Irish Man of the Year Mike Malloy.

Every year, the Friends of St. Patrick’s Milwaukee chapter and the AOH partner with the Hunger Task Force to collect nonperishable food items at the St. Patrick’s Day parade in downtown Milwaukee. Parade spectators are encouraged to bring food items to the parade. Volunteers collect the donations in grocery carts throughout the parade route.

The St. Louis parade will be led by Joseph B. McGlynn, Jr., who founded the parade back in 1970. Irish senator Aidan Davitt will be the guest of honor. The honorary parade marshal is Kevin Short, CEO of Clayton Capital Partners.

St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson and over 130 floats, bands, marching units, large heliumfilled balloons, 5,000 marchers, and 350,000 attendees are expected on March 16.

SAVANNAH

Now in its 195th year, the Savannah parade is the second largest in the U.S. and one of the most colorful. On March 16, marchers, floats, and pipers will be led down Abercorn Street by Grand Marshal Gerald P. “Jerry” Counihan, who has roots in Kerry and Tipperary.

Jerry had a 21-year career with the IBEW and is credited with providing jobs for many young men and women in Georgia. Since his retirement in 2009, he has been active in humanitarian projects in Haiti and Puerto Rico.

ST. AUGUSTINE

In 2018, Dr. J. Michael Francis, a historian at the University of South Florida, discovered that in 1600, the people of St. Augustine, along with two Irishmen, (one a merchant and the other a priest) celebrated the feast day of Saint Patrick by marching in the streets of the city and firing cannons from the fort the Spanish soldiers occupied there. This year, the parade will be led by current and former presidents of Flagler College Dr. William Proctor, Dr. William Abare, Jr., and Dr. Joseph Joyner in honor of the college’s 50th anniversary and its contributions to the community. IA MARCH / APRIL 2019 IRISH AMERICA 17

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HIBERNIA • EVENTS

JOHN BRENNAN SPEAKS TO YOUNG LEADERS

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around the world,” he explained, “so you want to have people ver 150 young business leaders from the U.S. and abroad from those difference experiences, different backgrounds to be gathered in New York City for The Ireland Funds’ 8th able to be in the agency and carry out its mission.”

Annual Global Young Leaders Summit, hearing from many Brennan called Brexit “very misguided,” and “a symptom industry and government leaders. The four-day event kicked off manifestation of populism in the world.” Nevertheless, he on Thursday, January 24. said it was due to an understandable criticism of globalization, The keynote speaker was John O. Brennan, former director of the CIA under President Obama. In a fireside chat with Ireland which “has had a very uneven impact on societies,” explaining Funds board member Susan Davis, Brennan discussed his career, that those in metropolitan areas are more likely to benefit from globalization in terms of education and technological opportunitoday’s national security challenges, and how his Irish-Catholic ties, whereas those in rural communities may see the factory that upbringing prepared him to make agonizing decisions. they, their parents, and their grandparents all worked in and Over the 20th century, the different federal agencies had grown isolated, resulting in a lack of sufficient sharing of informa- depended on close down due to outsourcing. So, while Brexit (and the congruent American sentiments) may be ill-advised, the tion. After the 9/11 attacks, President Bush asked Brennan to set concerns behind it are legitimate and must be addressed. up and lead what would become the National Counterterrorism When asked if there was an inherent weakness in western Center, an organization that would integrate disparate informaliberal democracies’ emphasis on values due to the tension tion that resides in the databases of various agencies into a between values and interest, he responded by recognizing the single cohesive agency in order to better thwart terror attacks. challenge in dealing with those who take advantage Thanks to the NCTC empowering the other agencies of our values to undermine the security and stability as well as being empowered by them, we are much TOP: The Ireland of society, but emphasized the importance of our better prepared to thwart terror attacks than we were Funds Young Leaders in N.Y. values and the obligation of leaders to uphold and in 2001: “We have to continue to evolve, and it’s a for a four-day demonstrate them.“Let’s remember what we’re process of constant improvement and adaptation.” meet-up. fighting for, what we’re about, and what we’re Brennan also spoke about new dangers that the dedicated to,” said Brennan. “I’m willing to deal ever-evolving digital landscape poses for the intelliBELOW: Consul General Ciarán with some of those challenges, but I’m not willing to gence community, and the new individual privacy Madden, former give up the principles that this country and other concerns it raises. “How do you optimize privacy CIA director John countries were founded upon.” Brennan’s steadfast and civil liberties, which are what this country was O. Brennan, Patricia Harty of Irish morality can be traced to a childhood ambition, not founded upon, but at the same time, try to ensure America, Susan to be director of the CIA, but in fact, the first that the security of this country is protected?” he Davis of Susan American pope.

–By Maggie Holland asked. He believes there should be an independent, Davis Intl., and Kyle bipartisan congressional commission, like the one Clifford of the IF. created after 9/11 that led to the NCTC, to take on the cyber challenge: “It’s the issue of the 21st century.”

Adaptation and collaboration are big for Brennan. As director, he reorganized the CIA, breaking down the walls that existed between the directorates, like he had done with the federal agencies, and added a fifth directorate, the Digital Innovation Unit. “I really needed to prepare the agency for the challenges of the future, not to address the problems of the past,” he said.

Today, thanks in large part to Brennan, there is a female director and female general council, three of the five directorates are headed by women, and almost 50 percent of the workforce is female. “We’re supposed to be the eyes and ears 18 IRISH AMERICA MARCH / APRIL 2019

Irish America Hall of Fame Recipient Adrian Flannelly Dad/Granddad/Uncle, Thank you for always leading the way and carrying us through life’s little bumps in the road. You are forever the rock that keeps us strong.

The values our family hold, the enormous love that we share, and the people we have become are all because we have tried to follow in your footsteps.

Our “Hall of Fame” has always held your name, so please know we are so proud of you today and always!

Congratulations from your biggest fans!

Linda, Paul, Eileen, Kathleen, Frank, Andres, Gavin, Falynn, Sebastian, Scarlett, Patricia and Danny

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HIBERNIA • BUSINESS 100

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he 33rd annual Irish America Business 100

was celebrated on December 12 at the Metropolitan Club in Manhattan. Eileen McDonnell, chairman and CEO of Penn Mutual, delivered a keynote address reflecting on what it meant to be an Irish American. She told of how her heritage had impacted her life, and the work ethic, family values, music, and humor her four immigrant grandparents had imparted. McDonnell also talked of growing up in a supportive family, and how as CEO she created a caring work “family” environment at Penn Mutual.

“Great leaders recognize that success is based on the success of others, and that they are a part of something bigger than themselves, ” she said.

The impressive group of honorees, 60 of whom were in attendence, represented a wide range of companies across the U.S. Featured among this year’s honorees were many notable women, including Audrey Hendley, an immigrant who heads American Express Travel, Michele Cusack, a first-generation Irish American who is chief financial officer of Northwell, one of the largest health systems in the U.S., and Julia Davis (fifth-generation), a private wealth manager at Goldman Sachs, whose grandfather taught her to never give up.

– Photos: Ben Asen

ABOVE: Eileen McDonnell and her sisters Terry McDonnell-Ganley, Jean Sincerbox, and Barbara Kelnhofer. Eileen was presented with the House of Waterford Crystal Lismore Bowl.

FROM TOP: Honorees Tom Keaney and Shannon Deegan. Editor Patricia Harty, honoree David Greaney, and Mary Sugrue, CEO of the Irish American Partnership.

Honoree Don Colleran (inset). Don’s wife, son, and daughter.

LEFT: Honoree Tony Dunne with his wife, Andrea, and Caroline Regan.

BELOW: The honorees pose for a group photograph.

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TOP: (L to R) SAP honorees Kevin McManus, Andrew O’Flaherty, and Ted Sullivan, along with guests Paige Tabler and Carrie Otte, are pictured with keynote Eileen McDonnell and editor Patricia Harty.

Insets: Honoree Mary McEvoy, who won the magnum of champagne courtesy of Moët Hennessy; and honoree Jim DeHayes.

2ND ROW: Honoree Kieran McGrath, his wife Debbra, Mary Kelly Kehoe, and honoree Martin Kehoe. Honoree John Fitzpatrick and Courtney Kennedy.

3RD ROW: Honorees Dan Schmedlen (right) and Michele Cusack with guests. Honoree Audrey Hendley.

Insets: Honorees Michelle Cusack and Julie Davis.

4TH ROW: Niall O’Dowd and honoree John Saunders.

Lorraine Turner, Kieran McLoughlin, and Loretta Brennan Glucksman.

5TH ROW: Group of honorees.

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HIBERNIA • EVENTS

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ORIGIN THEATRE’S 1ST IRISH AWARDS

IRISH IN PALM BEACH

oth the Ireland-U.S. Council’s 27th Annual Winter Meeting and the Ireland Funds’ 29th Annual Emerald Isle Palm Beach Dinner Dance took place in Palm Beach, Florida, over Valentine’s Day. At the Council’s meeting, Ambassador Dan Mulhall updated the members and their guests on Brexit, and Arabella Bishop and Charlie Minter from Sotheby’s spoke to the crowd on the importance of investing in Irish art. The Ireland Funds’ black-tie gala, “An Irish Valentine Celebration,” honored longtime supporters Paula and Bob Butler with its 2019 Philanthropic Leadership Award. Vocalist Niamh Hyland performed, accompanied by Shu Nakamura on the guitar.

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he crowd-pleasing rugby play Alone It Stands scored Best Production at the 2019 Origin 1st Irish Theatre Festival’s closing night festivities at the Manhattan Club at Rosie O’Grady’s in Times Square on January 28. Two critically acclaimed productions imported from Ireland – On Blueberry Hill and The Morning After the Life Before also had big wins, with On Blueberry Hill earning Best Actor for Niall Buggy and Best Design; and The Morning After winning Best Actress for Lucia Smyth, and Best Director for Paul Meade. Winning Best Playwright was the locally based, Galway-born playwright Ronan Noone for his gripping and gritty one-hander in verse called The Smuggler.

The festival’s Special Jury Prize went to Sole Purpose Productions, the Derry, Northern Ireland, producer of Blinkered, for its mission to bring difficult social topics into non-traditional theatre settings.

Fionnula Flanagan, currently on Broadway in The Ferryman, was honored with a Special Lifetime Achievement Award given by Origin Theatre Company, the producer of the festival.

ABOVE: Bob Crowe and Elizabeth Bagley (former U.S. Ambassador to Portugal) with Irish Ambassador to the U.S. Dan Mulhall and his wife Greta.

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L to R: Rob Donelson, Exec. Director of Development and Alumni Relations UCC, President of UCC Prof.

Patrick O’Shea, Prof. Kevin Kenny, Director of Glucksman Ireland House NYU and Ciarán Madden, Ireland’s Consul General to New York.

PHOTO: JAMES HIGGINS

TOP RIGHT: Jim and Dore Normile.

Jim is a prominent New York lawyer and PresidentGeneral of the American Irish Historical Society.

UCC AT NYU

lumni of University College Cork got together at NYU’s Glucksman Ireland House, for a reception hosted by the president of UCC, Professor Patrick O’Shea. Graduates were updated on the exciting developments taking place at their alma mater and mingled with former classmates and faculty.

PHOTO: PATRICIA HARTY

Fionnula Flanagan with Mark Lambert, who play Aunt Maggie Faraway and Uncle Patrick Carney, respectively, in The Ferryman, and Eoin Cannon, who plays Frank McCourt in Angela’s Ashes: the Musical, which is destined for Broadway.

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Baroness Blood CeleBrated

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aroness may Blood, recently retired from the U.K.’s House of Lords after a long and very distinguished career, was celebrated in New York City in January at an ireland funds reception held in the fitzpatrick Grand Central Hotel.

Early on in her professional life, the Baroness was a true trailblazer in promoting equality for women in the workforce, and went on to serve as Information Officer of the Greater Shankill Partnership. She was also the first woman ever in Northern Ireland to be given a life peerage. Chairman of the Ireland Funds John Fitzpatrick said, “We at the ireland funds know her best for her tireless campaign for integrated education in northern ireland, and we have enjoyed partnering with her for many years now in support of this critically important mission.”

Liam Neeson, May Blood, and John Fitzpatrick.

PHOTO: MARGARET PURCELL

tHe tánaiste Goes to WasHinGton

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ameriCans PrePare for Brexit

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imon Coveney, the Tánaiste (Ireland’s deputy prime minister) was in New York in February to support Ireland’s campaign for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council, the election for which will take place next year and in Washington, D.C. There he joined many of his E.U. counterparts and representatives of over 70 countries in attending a ministerial meeting of the Global Coalition to defeat isis, of which Ireland is a member. The Tánaiste took the opportunity to meet with U.s. secretary Pompeo during the ministerial meeting, as well as many other meetings with Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress to discuss priority issues, in particular Northern Ireland, Brexit, immigration, Ireland’s economic relationship and foreign policy issues, including the Middle East.

The Tánaiste addressed the Congressional Friends of Ireland at a large event on Capitol Hill on February 6 to mark the centenary of the First Dáil and launch the Global ireland initiative. This strategy will see Ireland doubling its impact in both the U.S. and Canada, through investment and engagement – deepening, broadening, and securing these hugely important relationships at every level for the future.

he troubles of Brexit do not stop at the E.U. border. The american Brexit Committee convened in New York City on January 24 to assess how Great Britain’s exit from the European Union will affect Ireland and the 1998 Good friday agreement (Gfa). The meeting included members and representatives from major Irish-American organizations, including the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH), the Irish American Unity Conference (IAUC), the Brehon Law Society, the American Committee on AmericanIrish Relations, as well as academics and labor activists.

In order to strengthen America’s ties to Ireland, the American Brexit Committee, a longstanding ally, seeks to call attention to the real threat of Britain’s Brexit policies not only to Ireland’s economy, but also to American investments in Ireland.

“There is little doubt,” asserted John Dearie, a former New York State legislator and prominent New York City attorney, “that the Good Friday Agreement and the peace process in Ireland will be threatened with Brexit. The divorce will have a negative impact on the econTOP LEFT: The omy not only of the Irish Republic but on Northern Ireland, one of American Brexit Committee the U.K.’s poorest regions.” convened in N.Y.C. Among the topics discussed were the Trump administration’s rein January. warding of the U.K. for Brexit with a massive trade deal despite the U.S.’s considerable trade deficit with the U.K., the fifth largest RIGHT: Tánaiste Simon Coveney economy in the world. (right) meeting National AOH board member dan dennehy is concerned that with former conIreland may be getting “shortchanged” in the U.S.’s courting of gressman Peter the U.K., citing the absence of a new U.S. Ambassador to Ireland.

King (R–N.Y.) and Congressman ABC Chairman John Corcoran added, “Hopefully the British will Richie Neal respond to Congress with truth faster than the 40 years it took (D–M.A.) in Washthem to tell the truth about Bloody Sunday!” ington, D.C.

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HIBERNIA • EVENTS

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NYPD PHOTO LAUNCH

ark Condren pitched the idea of an NYPD-centric coffee table book to Commissioner James O’Neill in 2016 after finishing a similar project about Ireland’s police force, the Garda. O’Neill was supportive, and Condren began making trips from Ireland to New York – 14 trips in two years. Condren captured NYPD cops in every sort of situation, from changing horse shoes to responding to armed suspects. The book, NYPD, was launched at the Irish Consulate in New York in February to a room packed with NYPD personnel, including Commissioner O’Neill. A portion of the proceeds from the book sales will go to benefit the Police Foundation.

TOP RIGHT: Loretta Brennan Glucksman gets a hug from Bridget Cagney at the GIH gala.

RIGHT: Bob Downey talks to Glenn Kenny about his work after a showing of Putney Swope at Waterside Plaza NYC. 24 IRISH AMERICA MARCH / APRIL 2019

he awarding-winning writer Alice McDermott and Pittsburgh business leader Jim Rooney were honored at the annual Glucksman Ireland House NYU Gala on February 28.

Some 300 gathered to toast the honorees at a cocktail reception followed by a seated dinner with presentations of the Seamus Heaney Award for Arts and Letters to McDermott and the Lewis L. Glucksman Award for Leadership to Rooney.

Marie Heaney, widow of the poet, lauded McDermott’s writing. In turn, McDermott talked about Heaney’s gift for language, and offered a line of his that she often quotes: “We must teach ourselves to walk on air against our better judgment.” Loretta Brennan Glucksman, who co-founded GIH with her husband Lewis, presented the award to Jim Rooney, and talked warmly about her friendship with his family, including his father, Dan Rooney, the late U.S. ambassador to Ireland, and the family’s philanthropy. Joanie Madden and Cherish the Ladies entertained. The event was held at the Kimmel Center on the NYU Campus.

NYU president Andrew Hamilton, an Englishman who spent 10 years in Pittsburgh and is a huge Steelers fan, was surprised with the gift of a team jersey.

PHOTO: JAMESHIGGINS.COM

ABOVE: Photographer Mark Condren (left) and Sgt. Conor McDonald at the launch of Condren’s book of New York’s Finest in action.

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GIH GALA HONORS

DOWNEY TALKS

Nowadays people think of Bob Downey as actor Robert Downey, Jr.’s father, but back in the ’60s and ’70s he was celebrated for his avant-garde movies – most notably, his 1969 satire Putney Swope, a send-up of both Madison Avenue and American race relations. After a screening of Putney Swope in N.Y.C. recently, Downey sat down with Glenn Kenny, the film critic and journalist, to discuss what has now become a cult classic. Downey said he’s happy his work has found younger fans.

PHOTO: JAMESHIGGINS.COM

Loretta Brennan Glucksman, Alice McDermott, Marie Heaney, and Jim Rooney at the GIH gala.

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JUDY COLLINS ON THE TOWN

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inger and author Judy Collins, just off an 18-month tour with Stephen Stills, and with hit song “Dreamers” on the Billboard charts, was back in New York City, her home since the ’70s, on February 4 to accept the Joe's Pub Vanguard Award & Residency for 2019. The award celebrates the career of a singular artist who has contributed to American life and pop culture. Alex Knowlton, Director of Joe’s Pub, which is part of the Public Theater, said, “Continuing this program into its second year with the voice of a generation is a dream. Beyond her extraordinary talent, Judy Collins remains one of America’s most vital artists because of her creative rigor and dedication to her artistry. “ Ever the activist, Judy’s song “Dreamers” is about the deportations of young undocumented immigrants who were brought here as babies. Judy also dined at the Century Club with Louise Peabody, whose painting of Judy was part of an exhibition of contemporary art created by the club’s members.

STORY AND SONG

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uthor Mary Pat Kelly launched her latest his torical fiction novel, Irish Above All, with a gathering at the Irish Rep. on February 11. It was a lovely celebration of Irish America, as Kelly regaled her audience with tales from her life and historical notes on the journey of her protagonist, her greataunt Nora. She displayed an image of her parents’ wedding photo (her “one high-tech thing”), tying in the theme of intermingling generations.

The night was supplemented with music by the Irish Consulate’s Mary Deady, whose brilliant soprano gave context to Kelly’s anecdotes with songs including “Has Anybody Here Seen Kelly?” and “Happy Days Are Here Again.” They closed together with a rousing performance of “When rish Ambassador to the United States Daniel Mulhall presented the Irish Irish Eyes Are Smiling,” and not a voice in the American Business Chamber & Network Awards at a luncheon on house was silent. Deputy Consul General Seán Ó Friday, March 1, at the Union League of Philadelphia. Over 600 people hAodha spoke, reflecting on the proud Irish-Ameriwere present. can identity. “I meet people with a really strong The Ambassador Award, given each year to a member company that has Queens accent who say, ‘I’m Irish too,’” he said. “It helped carry out the chamber’s mission of strengthening business and makes me really proud, and really touched.” educational ties between the U.S. and Ireland, went to Teleflex, Inc., a Kelly thanked Charlotte Moore and Ciarán global provider of medical technology products. Teleflex CEO Liam Kelly O’Reilly, co-founders of the Irish Rep., by quoting was present to accept the award. the Wall Street Journal. “‘Irish Rep. is just the best The Taoiseach, or “Chieftain,” Award recognizes individuals of Irish theater company in the United States,’” descent who have demonstrated leadership and compassion. This she cited. “My only question is, why limit year the award went to Daniel J. Keating, III, Executive Vice PresiTOP RIGHT: The artist Louise it to just the United States? It could very dent of Gilbane Building Company, and Sarah P. Keating, Esq., the Peabody and well be the best in the world.” – M.G. principal owner and CEO of Keating Environmental Management. singer Judy The Uachtarán, or “President’s,” Award honors the tradition of Collins pose in the office of Ireland’s president in building cultural and economic front of Peabody’s alliances. This year’s recipient was the Travis Manion Foundation. portrait of Collins Travis Manion was killed by an enemy sniper in 2007 while he was at the Century saving his wounded fellow marines. TMF’s vision is to create a Club. nation of purpose-driven individuals and thriving communities that RIGHT: Singer is built on character. – M.H.

BUSINESS AWARDS IN PHILADELPHIA

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PICTURED ABOVE: Sean Flatley, President of the Irish American Business Chamber & Network; Col. Tom Manion, Chairman Emeritus, and Ryan Manion, President, of the Travis Manion Foundation; Daniel & Sarah Keating; Liam Kelly, CEO of Teleflex; Kevin Kent, Chairman of the Irish American Business Chamber & Network.

Mary Deady and author Mary Pat Kelly in performance at the Irish Repertory Theatre.

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those we lost | passages Eileen Battersby

(1958 – 2018) ormer literary critic and correspondent for the Irish Times Eileen Battersby died in late December 2018 in a car accident in County Meath, aged 60.

Known for her incisive reviews of a wide range of literature and her enthusiasm for all subjects, Battersby was recognized four times as the National Arts Journalist of the Year and once as Critic of the Year.

Battersby was born and raised in Los Angeles, after her family had relocated from Ireland. She received most of her secondary education in Ireland, where she would come to live and work. Pursuing English literature and history for her undergraduate degree at UCD led to her achieving her master’s there as well.

Hired as a critic and feature writer at the Irish Times in 1988, she satisfied wide-ranging interests, covering Wimbledon in 1989 and reporting from the prehistoric structure at Newgrange each year on the Winter Solstice. Still, it was in her literary criticism that she found the most recognition.“She would never relent when the question was of quality – in her purview, no talent went uncelebrated, no mediocrity went unmasked,” noted Man Booker prizewinner and former literary editor of the Irish Times John Banville. “And she had such a rich sense of humour, especially when the joke was on her. Oh dear, how we shall miss her.”

Battersby leaves behind daughter Nadia, mother Elizabeth Whiston, and siblings Elizabeth, William, and Breffini. – M.G.

PHOTO: BERGIN O’MALLEY

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Kevin McCaul

(1924 – 2019) rish-born pediatrician Dr. Kevin McCaul died in early February, aged 95. His career of 45 years caring for the children of Norwalk, C.T., made him a wellrespected and beloved member of that community, but McCaul’s connection to Ireland never wavered.

McCaul grew up in Letterkenny, County Donegal as one of nine children of George and Margaret (née McGinty). McCaul received his M.D. from UCD and began his medical career working in various hospitals in Ireland and England while attending the Radcliffe Infirmary at Oxford.

After brief international stints as a ship’s doctor and physician at London’s 1948 Olympic Games, he moved to the University Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, to begin training in pediatrics, becoming chief resident in that department. He became a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and cofounded the Irish / American Pediatric Society.

Upon moving to Connecticut, McCaul established a practice in partnership with Drs. James Minor and Jack McNamara, then later with Dr. Diane Allawi.

“Dr. McCaul was doctor to all four of my children,” Norwalk mother Carmela Tornatore recalled

PHOTO: FIONA MCCAUL ANDREN

I TOP: Moira Kennedy O’Malley CENTER: Eileen Battersby ABOVE: Dr. Kevin McCaul

26 IRISH AMERICA MARCH / APRIL 2019

in an online tribute. “He will always be remembered as a gentle, caring doctor who made himself available after hours and was always there to reassure young parents that all was well.”

McCaul is predeceased by his parents and siblings. Surviving him are his wife, Colette (née Kilmartin); their three children: Kevin, Brian, and Fiona; and five grandchildren: Reid, Lindsay, Charlotte, Paige, and Will. – M.G.

Moira Kennedy O’Malley

(1945 – 2018) oira Kennedy O’Malley, co-founder and inaugural executive director of the Ireland Funds, died on Christmas Day, 2018. She was 73. Born and raised in Worcester, Massachusetts, the second of four children to John and Helen Kennedy (née Driscoll), Moira attended Albertus Magnus College in Connecticut. Later, her job processing international applications to Columbia University led her to help organize one of the first-ever democratically elected university senates at the school. Kennedy met her husband, then-law student Cormac O’Malley, at her 1970 Saint Patrick’s Day bash. The couple married six months later and honeymooned in Ireland. The son of Ernie O’Malley, one-time commandant general of the Irish Republican Army, and American artist Helen Hooke, Cormac shared Moira’s passion for the troubled country.

Back in the U.S., Moira used her skills as a hostess to advantage. At a 1975 dinner with businessman Tony O’Reilly, she opened the discussion on how to support Ireland, an aspiration which launched the Ireland Funds. Moira’s position as first executive director saw her launching fundraising events across the country, with proceeds going to such organizations as the Glencree Centre for Reconciliation and St. Michael’s House in Dublin.

Moira is mourned by her husband Cormac; daughter Bergin; son Conor; brothers Brendan, Sean, and Brian Kennedy; Sean and Brian’s respective wives, Ann and Frances; and grandsons Emmett and Elliott Boyle. – M.G.

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Jer O’Leary

(1945 – 2018) rish actor, artist, storyteller, and activist Jer O’Leary died in late December 2018, at the age of 73. He was known for his many roles in such movies as My Left Foot, In the Name of the Father, Michael Collins, and Braveheart, and on TV most recently as Lordsport Dockhand in Game of Thrones.

Born in Dublin to Denis and Sadie O’Leary (née Healy), O’Leary left school at 14 to get a job as a messenger boy. He joined the I.R.A. at 21, and by 27 was imprisoned for activities associated with his membership. In Mountjoy Prison he learned a skill that he would use the rest of his life: graphic art design. Marrying fiancée Eithne O’Brien, who had waited out his sentence, O’Leary went on to win

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those we lost | passages successive competitions hosted by the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union, and was asked to produce new designs for the union’s banners. He introduced the likenesses of James Connolly and James Larkin, the latter of whom inspired his lifelong performance as an actor.

Larkin was his first and ongoing role, starting in 1975’s The Non-Stop Connolly Show on the Dublin stage. The performance continued in iterations of Larkin’s speeches at funerals, celebrations, and other occasions. Writer Peter Sheridan said O’Leary’s delivery “was probably the greatest example of taking an audience on a journey they never suspected they were going on.”

O’Leary is predeceased by his son, Diarmuid, his brother Denis, and his wife Eithne, who died in 2017. He leaves behind daughters Norah and Clare and sisters Margaret and Carmel. – M.G.

Kevin Roche

PHOTOS: WIKIPEDIA

TOP: Kevin Roche CENTER: Jer O’Leary ABOVE: Patricia Ward

(1922 – 2019) evin Roche, the prominent Dublin-born, American architect who brought his modernist style to many significant buildings, passed away on Friday, March 1, at his home in Guilford, Connecticut, at the age of 96.

Though he was a soft-spoken man, his work spoke for itself, broadcasting to the whole city his confidence and talent. His bold, innovative buildings include the J.P. Morgan Bank headquarters on Wall Street, the expansion of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the skyscrapers of United Nations Plaza, the redesign of the Central Park Zoo, and the Ford Foundation headquarters in Midtown Manhattan, to name a few.

Roche was raised in Mitchelstown, County Cork, and graduated from University College Dublin in 1945. In 1948 he left Ireland for graduate school at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

In 1950 he joined Eero Saarinen and Associates, where he met his future architectural partner, John Dinkeloo, as well as his partner in life, his wife Jane.

In 1966, after Saarinen’s death, Roche and Dinkeloo formed Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates LLC and completed 12 major unfinished Saarinen projects, including St. Louis’ famous Gateway Arch.

In 1982, Roche became one of the first recipients of the Pritzker Prize, the highest architectural honor, generally regarded as architecture’s equivalent to the Nobel Prize. In 2017 Irish filmmaker Mark Noonan released a feature documentary entitled Kevin Roche: The Quiet Architect. Roche was interviewed by Irish America in 1989, and inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2012. His remarks on his induction were used in Noonan’s documentary.

The New York Times called Roche “one of the rare architects who was admired and trusted by corporate executives, museum boards, and government officials, who allowed him wide leeway in expressing

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his restless formal imagination.”

In a true testament to Roche’s character, he befriended his critic, Yale architecture historian Vincent Scully, who once criticized Roche’s New Haven buildings for exuding a “paramilitary dandyism.”

Roche even was one of the people to eulogize Scully at his memorial service in 2017.

In his Pritzker acceptance speech Roche asked, “Is not the act of building an act of faith in the future, and of hope?” Indeed, it is. He is survived by his wife, five children, and 15 grandchildren. – M.H.

Patricia Wald

(1928 – 2019) ormer federal judge Patricia Mary McGowan Wald died in January 2019, at 90 years old. Wald made history as the first female judge to preside in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., serving as its chief for five years.

Raised in Torrington, Connecticut, by a single mother, Wald worked school holidays in a factory that produced surgical and sewing needles, then ball bearings during the war. The work prepared her for a rigorous career and fueled a lasting interest in labor and family law. After graduating as her high school’s valedictorian, she attended Connecticut College for Women, then earned a fellowship to Yale Law. Marrying Robert Wald in 1952, Patricia worked nights and weekends while raising her family. Her work ethic made her a rising star, working diligently to defend the underprivileged by helping to legislate bail reform to accommodate low-income defendants and educational opportunities for mentally and physically disabled students. She became the assistant attorney general under President Carter before accepting a federal judgeship, the beginning of a career full of highlights: helping to restructure the legal system of the former USSR, a two-year stint on the war crimes tribunal presiding over the former Yugoslavia, and a ruling that sexual orientation could not be the sole basis for military discharge.

A career strung with hard-won successes gave Wald a philosophical view of defeat: “You always have a sad feeling when you write a dissent because it means you lost,” Judge Wald said in an interview with The Bar Report. “But you write them because you have faith that maybe they will play out at some time in the future, and because of the integrity you owe to yourself.”

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg recalled the extent of Wald’s dedication. “In all of her work and days as a lawyer, then judge, she pursued justice with passion – heart, mind and soul...and unsparingly devoted her efforts to advancing the health and welfare of humankind.”

Wald is predeceased by her husband Robert and survived by their sons Douglas and Thomas, daughters Sarah, Johanna, and Frederica, 10 grandchilIA dren, and one great-grandchild. – M.G.

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A striking tale of the enduring Irish-American spirit “Irish Above All combines the myths and magic of Ireland with the grit and energy of Irish-American Chicago in the first half of the 20th century.”

—ROMA DOWNEY, acclaimed actress, producer, and New York Times bestselling author

“Nobody knows the Irish like Mary Pat Kelly. And nobody writing today knows better how to breathe life into Irish-Americans, with all their dreams, hopes, and aspirations.”

—WILLIAM MARTIN, New York Times bestselling author of Bound for Gold

“Prepare to be transported through 1920s-40s Chicago and Ireland for an epic story of love, loss, and the strength of one incredible Irish woman.”

—MARTHA HALL KELLY, New York Times bestselling author of Lilac Girls Hardcover and eBook • Available Now

“Mary Pat Kelly is a peerless storyteller.

In Irish Above All, she blends history and fiction into a seamless narrative that is gripping, poignant and enlightening.”

—PETER QUINN, American Book Award-winning author of Banished Children of Eve

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HIBERNIA • QUOTE UNQUOTE “The morality, the foundations of goodness that I take away from my religious background, those values, those principles, the difference between good and bad, right and wrong – they drive me, and I try to live up to the example my father set for me about this country and what it means to be a good person and a good citizen.”

– Former director of the CIA John O. Brennan speaking to the Ireland Funds Young Leaders in New York City in January.

“He was one of the rare architects who was admired and trusted by corporate executives, museum boards and government officials, who allowed him wide leeway in expressing his restless formal imagination. He was softly spoken, with a distant echo of an Irish accent, but it was an understated manner that belied the self-confidence that the buildings he made for his patrons radiated.”

“The original murder trial did not examine what happened immediately before or after the blast on 5 October 1974 in any great detail because the prosecution case was based entirely on [false] confessions signed by the accused.”

– The New York Times’ glowing tribute to Kevin Roche, the Irish architect, who died in his home in Guilford, C.T., on March 1. He was 96. In 2012, Roche was inducted into the Irish America Hall of Fame.

Brian O’Dwyer, a Manhattan lawyer, in a letter to the New York Times. O’Dwyer is the grand marshal of the 2019 St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York City.

PHOTO: OISTIN MAC BRIDE

Surrey coroner, Richard Travers, on why he is reopening the inquiry into the I.R.A.’s Guildford pub bombings, which killed five people in 1974. The inquest was halted after the so-called Guildford Four – Gerry Conlon, Paul Hill, Paddy Armstrong, and Carole Richardson – were jailed for the bombings in 1975. They were not released until 1989 when the court of appeal finally quashed their convictions and recognized the miscarriage of justice. – The Guardian

“Twenty years of peace in the aftermath of the Good Friday Agreement cannot mask the continued commitment of the Irish to the ultimate reunification of Ireland, here in America as well as there... Those of us who are committed to preventing a hard border have been meeting with leaders on both sides of the Atlantic to let London know that we are prepared to bring whatever pressure we can muster against a postBrexit American-British trade agreement unless the border stays open.”

“The way people talk to each other online is disgusting. There’s no way you would ever say half of the stuff you do to someone’s face. Bravery behind the buttons of a phone.”

Niall Horan – formerly of One Direction – letting his nearly 40 million Twitter followers know that kindness pays. – The Irish Voice

Courtney Kennedy, daughter of Robert Kennedy, and her husband Paul Hill outside the High Court, Belfast, 1994.

”The British are about to kick us in the teeth again.”

30 IRISH AMERICA MARCH / APRIL 2019

Patrick O’Reilly, a retired pub manager in Ireland, who sees old wounds reopening between the two countries over Britain’s chaotic departure from the European Union.

– New York Times “Quote of the Day.” 2/24/29

“We are excited about the future and where this can go. Giving Irish-American kids the chance to learn about their heritage is a good thing.”

Denis Mulcahy, the founder of Project Children, which brought Catholic and Protestant children from N. Ireland to America for summer holidays at the height of the Troubles, commenting on the new scholarship program, launched in his name, that will send American youngsters to Ireland. – The Irish Voice

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Home Is Where the H

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NEW GLOBAL TV AND ONLINE CAMPAIGN TO DRIVE CONTINUED G

There’s a renaissance happening in Irish tourism.

2018 was a record year, with visitor numbers passing the 11 million mark for the first time. These figures are completely unprecedented. Americans and Canadians took 2.1 million trips to Ireland in 2018, facilitated by 24 dedicated gateways, representing a 14-percent increase on the year before.

Thanks to successful marketing campaigns, Tourism Ireland has raised the island’s profile as a must-visit (and mustreturn) destination. Now it’s building on these solid foundations with the new “Fill Your Heart With Ireland” advertising message to the world.

An industry first, the campaign has been created by the heart rate data of a real couple who had never visited Ireland before. The couple was hooked up to covert heart monitors, which were linked to a head-mounted camera that captured all of their experiences. The result proves the heart-filling effect that the island of Ireland has on visitors – whether they’re kayaking on Achill Island, exploring Devenish Island in County Fermanagh, or discovering the highest sea cliffs in Europe at Slieve League, wild Atlantic scenery around Fanad Head, or visiting the Titanic.

The new global campaign, featuring the track “Home Again” by Dublin band Delorentos, was launched in New York in January. Tourism Ireland CEO Niall Gibbons and Executive Vice President for North America Alison Metcalfe unveiled the new marketing campaign at an event at the Hearst Tower, which was attended by prominent travel writers and media professionals.

“We’ve seen significant growth, but we’re not resting on our laurels,” Metcalfe, who capped 2018 by picking up the Best Destination in Europe Award at the Travel Weekly Readers’ Choice awards, tells Irish America.

“We’re looking to see how we can manage that growth in a very sustainable way. With our new campaign, what we’re looking to do is to start to tell a bigger story. To let people know that there’s more to Ireland than just the Giant’s Causeway or the Ring of Kerry. But we’re also talking about new locations, lesser-known areas, attractions, and experiences.”

The new campaign will see Tourism Ireland talking about Slieve League, which are among the highest and most spectacular sea cliffs in Europe. Expect to see stunning images of the iconic Fanad Lighthouse too (now a remarkable self-catering holiday destination) and key parts of the Wild Atlantic Way. “What we’re saying is that there’s far more to do and see in Ireland than most people are aware of,” says Metcalfe. “Sometimes Americans think that because the island of Ireland is geographically quite small, there aren’t enough unique experiences to fill a longer vacation. We want to change that perception.”

You know what you’ll do on day one, two and three, but what about four or five and six? That’s a question Tourism

ABOVE: A visitor enjoying the Titanic Belfast, the world's largest Titanic visitor experience.

Ireland will answer this year. “We want to connect with people through their interests and passion points. So whether it’s food, culture, outdoor activity, great landscapes, ancient history, Ireland has it all.”

A lot of people don’t realize that we have ancient history, or that Newgrange is older than the pyramids.

The array of attractions is simply enormous. For example, Ireland’s pre-historic past comes to life in our ancient monuments, including the UNESCO World Heritage Site at Newgrange. But last year, new Bronze Age enclaves were being spotted by drones flying over fields dried out by an unusually lengthy summer, with the result that even more previously undiscovered “henges” have been reported.

Meanwhile, Irish culture, including our literature, music, film, and theater, are what bring us to the world’s attention, and that exchange is being returned with interest with the growing tourist footprint at our festivals and summer schools.

Irish food culture too, with its focus on minimal processing and farm-to-table freshness, is a story that is only beginning to make itself heard, and Tourism Ireland is all over it, reminding potential visitors that our restaurants regularly make the World Restaurant Awards shortlist, and that our produce is outstandingly fresh.”

In fact, Dublin is now one of the world’s most desirable foodie destinations, with visitors spending one third of their travel budget on dining.

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Heart Is!

D GROWTH IN IRISH TOURISM

Irish used to call it, Samhain) originated in Celtic pagan Ireland. Or that the greatest Halloween night in the world is held annually in DerryLondonderry at the end of October, when it seems the entire city dresses up to celebrate. You can visit Ireland at any time of the year and there will be something going on.”

The focus on year-round activities is intentional. With Atlantic currents keeping the temperature mild year round, shoulder seasonal tourism trips are a focus of the new campaign, which Metcalfe calls the “smart” season, when it is less expensive, less crowded, and every bit as enjoyable.

2019 is already off to a roaring start thanks to those smart season trips. Dublin Airport just had its busiest January on record, with more than two million passengers passing through its doors in the first month of 2019. Indeed, passenger volumes to and from North America increased by a remarkable 14 percent, with almost 211,000 passengers taking transatlantic flights to and from Dublin in January.

There is no doubt that our castles, our famed cities, and our epic history all still retain their appeal and their hold on the imagination, but a new kind of tourist is in search of a new kind of experience: time for reflection and the renewal that comes from it.

This has opened up a new and once harder to reach market, where the unspoiled landscapes and the sustainability of the attractions are all part of the appeal. Last year Ireland was visited by roughly twice its own population, but it did not feel overwhelmed by visitors the way one might in Venice or London because of the sheer variety of attractions and the careful management of the tours and sites.

America is and will remain a key market, of course. That will not change in 2019. The Céad Míle Fáilte (one hundred thousand welcomes) doesn’t have an expiration date.

“In 2018, we welcomed a record two million North American visitors to the island of Ireland,” says Metcalfe.

“Looking to the year ahead, we are confident that our strategy, combined with more airline seats than ever before from the U.S., and a strong dollar, as well as the strength and competitiveness of the vacation experience right around the island of Ireland, will deliver further growth. We look forward to welcoming more of our great friends from the United States this year and in the years to come.”

ABOVE: Tourism Ireland CEO, Niall Gibbons, Minister Brendan Griffin TD, Bill Byrne (Aer Lingus), and Alison Metcalfe, Tourism Ireland’s Executive Vice President for North America.

From golfing trips to state-of-the-art whiskey distilleries, from Star Wars to Game of Thrones, your to-do list will be endless, so Tourism Ireland has identified and then amplified everything that makes Ireland so uniquely welcoming. They work to connect with people on an emotional level.

“We’re trying to connect through food, through outdoor activities. We’re saying that, for example, if you’re in Connemara, you can go walking, or if you want to go kayaking off Achill Island, you can do all of these things, but you don’t have to go on a kayaking holiday or a hiking holiday. These are activities available to all. This is just another way to enjoy the Irish landscape. So the campaign aims to showcase the variety of things to do and see and connect to potential travelers’ interests.”

For Americans part of the appeal is self-evident: we share a heritage and we speak the same language. “To a certain extent, we are pushing on an open door, with many Americans considering a trip to Europe. To those considering Ireland, we are saying that Ireland is a great destination if you’re Irish, but it’s just as great a destination if you’re not Irish.

“As a destination marketing organization, we are trying to compete within that European context,” Metcalfe says.

“So, while we’ve just launched a new campaign, we will start filming in new locations in April, looking at new regions and attractions in order to build a bigger story that maps the whole island.

“Few visitors to Ireland know that Halloween (or, as the

– Cahir O’Doherty

What are you waiting for?

Visit Ireland.com to begin filling your heart with Ireland in 2019.

IS YOUR HEART IN THE RIGHT PLACE? Kylemore Abbey, County Galway

Because it wants to come home. Home to family, friends, stories. Home to festivals, traditional music, and the Irish pub.

Home to majestic landscapes and fabulous feasts.

You know the places. They’re the castles silhouetted against fiery sunsets, the islands that stir you with their beauty, the towns like Westport that pulsate with energy, and the iconics sites like Kylemore Abbey that are etched with true love. And when it comes to those legendary 100,000 welcomes, well‌ They say you should always listen to your heart, and it wants to be in the right place.

Find your way home at

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I R I S H

A M E R I C A

HALL FAME 2 0 1 9 Cuimhnígí ar na daoine ar tháinig sibh – Remember the people from whom you came.

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The Irish America Hall of Fame honors those who have excelled in their chosen fields, while acknowledging that we stand on the shoulders of our ancestors – those brave Irish men and women who took the first steps into the unknown so 2 that their children might have a brighter future in America.

The Hall of Fame, housed at the Dunbrody History of Emigration Centre in New Ross, County Wexford, was inaugurated by Irish Amer1 ica magazine in 2010 with the induction of Donald R. Keough, an Irish-American businessman who exemplified the very best of Irish America, and embodied our motto “Cuimhnígí ar na daoine ar tháinig sibh – Remember the people from whom you came.”

We congratulate this year’s honorees – Adrian Flannelly; John 6 C. Dearie; Terry George; Charlotte Moore; Ciarán O’Reilly; Arturo O’Farrill; and James P. O’Neill, who have also traveled far, but have not forgotten from whence they came.

Mórtas Cine.

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| Adrian Flannelly 2 | James P. O’Neill 3 | John C. Dearie with President Bill Clinton 4 | Arturo O’Farrill 5 | Ciarán O’Reilly, Angela Lansbury, and Charlotte Moore 6 | Terry George and his daughter Oorlagh MARCH / APRIL 2019 IRISH AMERICA 35

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I R I S H

A M E R I C A

HALL FAME Lawyer, Public Servant, and Peacemaker

John C. Dearie

By Tom Deignan

J

ohn Dearie may not remember the specific year, but he remembers a very small, very important detail about one New York City St. Patrick’s Day parade in the late 1980s.

“I remember seeing all of these people march ing by, county after county. It had to be tens of thousands of men and women marching by. And they were all wearing this ribbon.”

Dearie – a longtime New York state lawmaker and 2019 inductee into the Irish America Hall of Fame – is referring to a ribbon that was specially designed so that Irish-American groups could express their support for the appointment of a special envoy to Northern Ireland. Whatever differences of opinion all of these Irish groups may have had at the time – and there were surely plenty – they all wanted then-president Ronald Reagan to know that the U.S. should play a bigger role in efforts to bring an end to the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

IRISH AMERICA INVOLVED

April, 1992: (New York City) John C. Dearie introduces candidate William J. Clinton to one of the Irish-American Presidential Forum attendees.

At the time, this seemed a very ambitious – even unlikely – hope.

The situation in the North was terrible, with hundreds dying in political violence every year. Meanwhile, the U.S., especially during the Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher years – often cited its “special relationship” with Great Britain, when defending its hands-off approach to the North.

And yet, within a decade, not only would a special envoy be named (the one-time U.S. Senator from Maine, George Mitchell), but the historic Good Friday Peace agreement would be signed.

John Dearie – a Bronx native, with roots in Cork and Kerry – played a key role in making it all happen.

“When America got involved,” Dearie recently told Irish America, “when a fella from Arkansas appointed a fella from Maine, we were able to bring about significant developments.”

Dearie was referring to President Bill Clinton,

36 IRISH AMERICA MARCH / APRIL 2019

John C. Dearie

elected in 1992, after promising the Irish-American community that America would play a bigger role in the peace process. That included not only appointing Mitchell, but also agreeing to issue a visa to Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, so that he could travel to America and lobby for a prominent nationalist role in the negotiating process.

Adams has been a mainstream figure for decades now, so it’s hard to remember when he was a pariah in the eyes of many British officials, and even some influential Irish Americans.

But when Adams himself looked back on these events, he could not leave out the important role John Dearie played.

“In April 1992, a well-known Irish American, John Dearie, organized a forum on Irish issues in Manhattan’s Sheraton Hotel for Democratic presidential hopefuls Jerry Brown and Bill Clinton,” Adams recalled in his book A Farther Shore: Ireland’s Long Road to Peace.

Adams added: “Asked by one of the panelists if he would appoint a peace envoy for the north, Clinton said he would. When Martin Galvin of NORAID (an American support group for the republican cause) asked the presidential candidate if he would authorize a visa for me and other Sinn Féiners to visit the U.S, Clinton replied, ‘I would support a visa for Gerry Adams.’ Clinton went further and endorsed the MacBride Principles. His response received loud applause.”

Many credit these Irish-American presidential forums with putting Northern Ireland on the U.S. political agenda. And since, in Dearie’s opinion, it has dropped off the radar in recent years – despite the serious threat Brexit represents to the situation in the North – he says the 2020 election is the right time to bring such forums back.

PARENTS’ PRIDE

Dearie says he is particularly proud to be named into the Irish America Hall of Fame alongside the likes of Adrian Flannelly, with whom he discussed so many

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important Irish issues of the day on radio.

“There are few things in my adult life that are more significant than this,” Dearie said. “It’s something I treasure.”

Both of his parents have passed, but Dearie knows they would be particularly proud of this honor.

“My dad was one of the most humble people that I can recall…but they both would be very proud. We were not people anticipating recognition for anything.

We were Bronx folk and just happy to do the right things.”

John Dearie’s road to international peace negotiator began on the streets of St. Raymond’s parish in the heavily Irish Parkchester section of the Bronx.

His father was a union plumber, while his mother worked for an advertising company.

“We actually had a piano in our two-bedroom apartment. And groups of friends of my family would come to the apartment and, literally for hours, we had a couple of women who were remarkable piano players.

And we would just sing Irish songs.”

Dearie attended what was then Manhattan Prep High School, run by the Irish Christian Brothers on the campus of Manhattan College.

At a time when Irish Americans from urban Catholic schools were some of the top basketball players in the country, Dearie was an all-city player.

He wound up with dozens of athletic scholarship offers – but one stood out more than others.

“When the coach at Notre Dame came to our apartment and offered me a (basketball) scholarship…

Once I heard Notre Dame, that ended everything for me. It wasn’t a hard choice.”

Dearie played against a number of future NBA Hall of Famers in the late 1950s and early 1960s, averaging 10 points and eight rebounds a game.

After Notre Dame, Dearie attended business and law school, also working at the United Nations, giving him his first real taste of the political process and the international scene.

BACK TO THE BRONX

But when a New York State Assembly seat in Dearie’s old neighborhood opened up, he decided to enter politics. At the time, the burning issue of the day was U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

Fellow Irish-American assemblyman Sean Walsh, who represented Fordham, turned Dearie onto issues related to the Irish on both sides of the Atlantic.

“In the ’70s and ’80s, there were a tremendous number of Democrats and Republicans, in the state senate and in the legislature, who were Irish-American,” Dearie recalls, recounting the numerous issues the American Irish Legislators Society took on.

TOP: Kitty and John Dearie (center), with (from left) son Michael, his wife Clarissa, their daughter Isabella, (right) Dearie’s daughter-in-law Liv, and her husband, Dearie’s son John Patrick.

ABOVE: (1986) Albany introduces Dearie’s bill, the MacBride Principles, signed into law later that year by Gov. Mario Cuomo (first in the nation). Clockwise from left: Gov. Cuomo, John Dearie, Paul O’Dwyer, and Sean MacBride.

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TOP LEFT: John Dearie pictured with Gerry Adams in 2018.

TOP RIGHT: (1/10/1960) John Dearie drives around Dave DeBusschere for a Notre Dame basket. (Detroit Free Press) ABOVE: John Dearie pictured with his sister, Eileen (fourth from right), her seven children and their spouses, and 20 grandchildren.

There was the controversy over Joe Doherty, an I.R.A. volunteer who escaped from a Northern Ireland prison and fought extradition for years in the U.S. Then there was the implementation of the MacBride Principles, which ensured that U.S. companies doing business in Northern Ireland did so without contributing to discrimination.

Dearie grew upset with powerful politicians nodding to the Irish-American community by merely wearing a green tie on St. Patrick’s Day. He believed it was up to Irish Americans to put pressure on elected officials to address issues that actually mattered.

Recalling his own first visit to Belfast in the early 1980s, Dearie said: “There was still a military presence on the commercial streets as I recall. There was a lot of tension…you could feel. I felt there was an uneasiness and tension that was very measurable.”

LOOKING AHEAD

Now, after two decades of tenuous peace that Dearie helped bring about, fear is again palpable on the streets of Belfast.

“It’s worrisome,” Dearie says bluntly.

As The New York Times noted recently: “In the tortured history between the two island nations, Brexit is just the latest in a long line of perceived slights the Irish have suffered at the hands of the British. And now, with the possible exception of Britain, no country 38 IRISH AMERICA MARCH / APRIL 2019

stands to lose more from Brexit, and particularly from a damaging ‘no-deal’ departure, than Ireland.”

At the center of this controversy is the question of what kind of border Brexit may require between the Republic of Ireland and the North.

“Not only (could Brexit) be economically destructive, if it results in the return of a strong international border, it could undermine the hard-won 1998 peace deal with Northern Ireland, known as the Good Friday Agreement,” the Times added.

Dearie believes greater Irish-American involvement could help avert the worst-case Brexit scenario. Which is why Dearie says other veterans of Irish-American affairs, such as congressmen Richie Neal and Eliot Engel, as well as former congressman Joe Crowley, are looking to bring back Irish-American presidential forums for the 2020 election.

More broadly, Dearie – who added that he is expecting to visit Ireland in April – believes it is important for a new generation of Irish Americans to reconnect with their culture.

“We need to get young people involved in AOH chapters, we have to find groups with younger Irish Americans… How do we reach a Friendly Sons (type) organization that has contact with (Irish Americans) and try to deliver the message about the importance of things like Brexit, the MacBride Principles, Irish visas. How do we get that message home?”

He added: “There’s a whole generation that has not heard the message: America has a vital role to play.” IA

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I R I S H

A M E R I C A

HALL FAME Broadcaster

Adrian Flannelly

By Maggie Holland and Michael Scanlon

Flannelly and his wife, Aine Sheridan, were recipients of the 2012 Holyoke St. Patrick’s Parade Committee’s Ambassador Award.

H

e’s been praised by the New York Daily News as the “Dean of Irish Radio in the United States,” by New York Newsday as “a promoter of incredible charm and energy,” by The Irish Times as “an entertainer, lobbyist, and an entrepreneur,” and by The New York Times as “an avuncular host.”

He is Adrian Flannelly, host of his own radio show, which is broadcast internationally each week and has been on the air continually for the last 50 years, bringing listeners a mix of music, international and national news, culture, economic developments, commentary, interviews with musicians, writers, politicians, and statesmen including presidents of the United States and Ireland.

Adrian was best described by Loretta Brennan Glucksman, Chairman of Glucksman Ireland House NYU and Grand Marshal of the 2018 New York City Saint Patrick’s Day Parade, when she said, “Adrian Flannelly is our historian, our bard, our mediator, our influencer – our true and loyal friend. He is the voice of Irish America.”

Born in Attymass, County Mayo, to Pádraic and Linda Flannelly (née O’Dwyer), who were both schoolteachers, Adrian Flannelly immigrated to the United States in 1959, when he was 17 years old. Luckily, he happened to already have family members in the States, and some notable ones at that.

William O’Dwyer, Flannelly’s uncle, had been the 100th mayor of New York City, the city’s first Catholic mayor, and had subsequently been the United States ambassador to Mexico, appointed by President Truman. Paul O’Dwyer, William’s brother, was a renowned civil rights activist and former New York City Council president. Paul sponsored Flannelly to come to the United States and helped him get a job as a piano player in Mickey Carton’s Irish band.

Adrian recalls, “The band performed regularly

40 IRISH AMERICA MARCH / APRIL 2019

at weddings and party celebrations and to packed houses like the Jaeger House and the Trocadero in Yorkville during the week and at Gaelic Park on Sundays. I took up the piano accordion, which became my main instrument. Our band was like the United Nations of musicians, comprised of Irish, Italian, and Jewish musicians, all playing Irish music and the pop tunes of the day. Through friends in the band I became acquainted with multi-ethnic radio, and I discovered there was no radio program dedicated to the Irish.”

Adrian launched his first radio show in 1969, a decade after emigrating from Ireland. As time passed, he stayed with the music scene but dove deeper into politics and social issues facing the Irish in America and back home.

“I began to see the radio show as a conduit for change and a way to shed light on issues concerning the Irish-American community – especially when it came to U.S. immigration reform and the visa lotteries,” Adrian says. He became a major force on behalf of applicants during the Donnelly and Morrison visa programs, even filling up a truck with thousands of applications from Irish immigrants and driving with his daughter, Linda, to Washington and personally delivering the applications for visas to the government lottery. He was also co-founder of Project Irish Outreach with Monsignor James J. Murray, Director of Catholic Charities, Archdiocese of New York.

His efforts resulted in legalizing thousands of undocumented Irish immigrants in the United States in the 1980s and 1990s. In response to his initiative, the Irish government appointed Flannelly in 2000 as the U.S. Representative on its task force on “Policy Towards Emigrants,” an initiative of former Taoiseach Brian Cowen.

Locally, Flannelly had a particular knack for

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making friends with successive mayors of New York City, who always held out the welcome mat for him at City Hall. Mayor Koch was often heard singing the song “New York, New York” at Irish events, with Adrian accompanying him on the piano, and Koch never failed to credit Adrian with helping him with the Irish vote.

On Adrian’s annual St. Patrick’s Day show, Mayor Giuliani officially declared March 17, 1997, as “Adrian Flannelly Day.” Mayor Michael Bloomberg called Flannelly his “good friend” as he appointed him Irish Cultural Liaison to City Hall. As such, Flannelly organized Bloomberg’s three trips to Ireland, including to Belfast in May of 2008 for the U.S.-Northern Ireland Investment Conference, where Bloomberg was a keynote speaker.

Adrian also serves as the Irish Cultural Liaison for the Irish Hunger Memorial in Battery Park City, adjacent to the World Trade Center and World Financial Center. The recreated famine cottage that sits on the half-acre site is a major attraction for millions of visitors to New York City since its

opening in 2002. The cottage was transported from Adrian’s native parish of Attymass, County Mayo.

Adrian’s voice is recorded on a guided tour of the memorial, in which he explains the history of the famine that ravaged Ireland from 1847 to 1852.

He attributes a great deal of his success to his wife, Aine Sheridan, who is not only his partner in life, but also his partner on the show and on irishradio.com.

Born in Edgeworthstown, County Longford, Aine is also the executive assistant to the chairman of Capital Management LLC at Mutual of America Life Insurance Company. She joined Flannelly Promotions Ltd. as executive vice president in 1991, where she expanded the show and initiated international broadcast links. Aine has been named one of the “Top 50 Power Women” by Irish America and one of the “Top 50 Most Influential Irish Amer-

TOP LEFT: Flannelly broadcasting from his New York studio.

TOP RIGHT: Flannelly with New York City’s former mayor, Ed Koch.

ABOVE: Flannelly’s nephew, Daniel Gasiewski, sits in on an interview with Mayor Bloomberg.

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TOP: Flannelly soon after his arrival in New York.

ABOVE: Flannelly, pictured in his studio with Congressman Brian Donnelly, counting Donnelly Visa applications.

RIGHT: Paul O’Dwyer, Bruce Morrison, Niall O’Dowd, and Flannelly take part in an on-air discussion of the Morrison Visas.

ican Women” by the Irish Voice. Aine was also voted “Woman of the Year” by the Emerald Isle Immigration Center in New York, of which both she and her husband are on the board. Adrian’s other great supporters are his children, Linda, Paul, Eileen, and Kathleen, and his four grandchildren.

Adrian himself has no shortage of accolades.

Honored as “Man of the Year” by seven organizations in seven distinct years, namely: the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the Irish Business Organization of New York, the American Irish Musicians Society, the Emerald Society of the NYPD, the Irish Examiner USA, the New York City Board of Education, and Ambassador of the St. Patrick’s Day parade, Holyoke, M.A. To cap it all off, Quinnipiac University awarded Adrian an honorary doctorate degree in Humane Letters in 2016.

Adrian’s return to music came under less-thanideal circumstances, but resulted in something remarkable. In 1997, an eight-foot mirror fell on Adrian’s wrist and severed the tendons. In lieu of months of physical therapy, he prescribed himself a strict regimen of daily piano playing. Upon the completion of his rehab, he recorded an album, a

42 IRISH AMERICA MARCH / APRIL 2019

compilation of Irish classics and American standards entitled Ireland and Beyond: Adrian Flannelly Plays His Own Piano Favorites, to benefit children’s hospitals in New York and Dublin, including Our Lady of Mercy Healthcare System and Our Lady’s Hospital. This treatment plan of his gave him discipline, of which he says, “I have none at all.”

Add modesty to the long list of commendations for Adrian Flannelly, because a radio show does not run consistently for 50 years and garner such acclaim without a substantial amount of discipline, although Adrian might call it plain stubbornness!

Niall O’Dowd, the publisher and cofounder of Irish America, emphasized, “Adrian Flannelly is a trailblazer and a pioneer, the man who put Irish radio in America on the map. Not only that, he cares deeply about the community. He was a leader in the fight for immigration reform and for the peace process in Northern Ireland. A talented musician, he livened up every Irish party with his wit and humor. He was among the first to extend the hand of welcome when I came to New York, young IA and green. He is a true gentleman.”

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I R I S H

A M E R I C A

HALL FAME Academy Award-winning Director

Terry George

By Cahir O’Doherty

Ulster homecoming: Terry and his daughter Oorlagh pose with their joint Oscars for The Shore. The film won the 2012 Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film.

T

here is a thread that links each of Terry George’s films, and it comes directly from his life. “I’m talking about ordinary people struggling against oppression,” he tells Irish America. “That’s always been my kind of guiding light.”

Whether it’s the true-to-life tale of the late Gerry Conlon (the Belfast man who spent 15 years in an English prison having been wrongly accused) in In the Name of the Father (1993), or the two bereaved mothers in Some Mother’s Son (1996), or Hotel Rwanda (2004), about the struggle of Tutsi refugees against the Hutu militia, or, more recently, the tragic lovers fleeing the Armenian genocide in The Promise, the thread linking each of these films is unmistakable.

No wonder, really. The 66-year-old Irish filmmaker learned about oppression the hard way, growing up in a city long divided by allegiance and history.

“My father and mother came from the staunchly nationalist Markets area and the Short Strand in Belfast, and they aspired to get out of the ghetto, eventually moving to a lower middleclass Protestant neighborhood,” he tells Irish America.

“That was in the 1960s, when the North was starting to desegregate to some degree. And then when the Troubles broke, they were forced out of it.”

Not everyone may be aware of how massive that exodus was: up to 60,000 people were burned out of their homes in Belfast alone in what was then the biggest displacement of citizens in Europe since World War II. It completely re-segregated the map of Belfast.

Like a lot of young people at the time, George

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was himself swept up in the conflagration. In 1971, he was arrested with a group of fellow teenagers in a security swoop. For three days he was interrogated and beaten, until he finally confessed that he was in the I.R.A. to make it stop.

He was then imprisoned without trial for eight weeks, and word got around quickly. After he was named as an I.R.A. member (a charge he denies), his family were forced out of their home by angry Protestant extremists – who threatened to burn it down.

“We ended up in Twinbrook, which at that point was a new housing development. It had become a sort of de facto refugee camp when Catholics from all over Belfast were burned out of their homes.”

In 1975, George was arrested again. He was reportedly driving with armed militants when British soldiers stopped and arrested them, although George insists that he did not have a weapon. Soon after, he was sentenced to six years in prison.

“In 1975, I was sentenced to six years and I did three,” he says. He was sent to the Maze, which at the time also held Gerry Adams and Patsy O’Hara, the third of 10 men to die in the 1981 hunger strikes.

“Out of that experience came a lot of the writing for my debut play, The Tunnel. A lot of the films that (fellow Irish filmmaker) Jim Sheridan and I worked on together all draw from that period. So the Troubles not just shaped my life, my family’s life, but certainly shaped my artistic life.”

Exodus was really the only option on the menu for that talented generation of Irish actors and filmmakers in the ’70s and ’80s in Belfast, he admits.

Think of Kenneth Branagh, Liam Neeson and Terry himself – all of them had to leave their home to make their mark in their chosen industries.

In 1981 he moved with his wife Rita and infant daughter Oorlagh to New York City, and it changed his life. There he did “what everybody else does,” construction, bartending, driving taxis, loading trucks. Then he got a job at New York magazine as a fact checker, through the help of two IrishAmerican writers. “I got that through Michael Daly

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and Pete Hamill, who sort of put a word in for me, and, you know, both of whom were seminal in starting off my writing career.”

At the time, George wrote a freelance music column for the Irish Voice, and he was the first to interview the Pogues for Rolling Stone when they came over to the U.S. for their debut tour. “I remember that as a funny interview because the fact checkers at the magazine couldn’t understand a word lead singer Shane MacGowan was saying on the tape.”

Coming to America was a liberation for George in terms of the career possibilities. “Even though we were undocumented, I felt more that I belonged in New York that I ever felt in Northern Ireland. I don’t know if it’s quite the same today, but back then you felt part of an Irish family. There was a community, and by that point a wave of Irish immigration was going on. So the possibilities were enormous compared to what they had just left behind.”

In 1985, George’s play The Tunnel, about his experiences in the Maze, opened at the Irish Arts Center, where Jim Sheridan was the artistic director. It caused a sensation and ran for six months.

After that he wrote about the hunger strikers, an event that had enraged nationalist opinion across the spectrum in a way rarely seen. George says he did not agree with the tactic, but his exploration resulted in the screenplay Some Mother’s Son. The film focuses on the mothers of two of the strikers (played

by Fionnula Flanagan and Helen Mirren) who are caught up their sons’ struggle.

The script languished unproduced, but soon after Gabriel Byrne commissioned George to write In the Name of the Father, based on the true story of four people falsely convicted of the 1974 Guild-

ford pub bombings, which killed four off-duty British soldiers and a civilian. The film received seven Oscar nominations. It’s success then allowed George and Sheridan to produce Some Mother’s Son (1996) in Ireland, with a budget of $8 million.

George is keenly aware of the power of the medium to influence people. His film Hotel Rwanda (2004), about the Rwandan genocide in 1994, was nominated for multiple awards, including Academy Award nominations for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Original Screenplay. He says Hotel Rwanda “helped change the Americans’ perspective on that whole situation.” And, “In the Name of the Father had an impact on Bill Clinton and others at a time when the peace process was just clicking off, so movies do have a way of changing the world. I strongly believe that.”

TOP : Terry directing Brendan Fraser in Whole Lotta Sole (2012).

ABOVE: On the set of The Promise with the film’s star, Christian Bale (center).

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through the Gobi Desert, where the spirited little pup matches his steps over the Tian Shan Mountains and across the massive sand dunes of the Gobi Desert (giving him his name in the process) and keeping pace with Leonard for the entire 77 miles, eventually burrowing into his heart.

“I have another book called A Disappearance in Damascus,” George adds. “It’s a wonderful book about a Canadian journalist who befriends an Iraqi woman in Damascus, then the woman disappears because of her associations with the journalist. It’s good to have multiple projects on the go. Nowa-

TOP: With Fionnula Flanagan, who starred in Some Mother’s Son, and Belfast’s legendary musician, Van Morrison, in 2007.

RIGHT: On the set of The Promise. Terry’s son, Seamus (pictured left), is the assistant director.

BELOW: The Armenian National Committee of America named Terry Man of The Year in 2018.

The cross (a typical Armenian cross) is the national symbol.

The success of George’s projects also left some others not so enamored. “The British government and some of the conservative newspapers just went apoplectic about Some Mother’s Son and In The Name of The Father in particular.”

His more recent film, The Promise (2016) on Ottoman government’s extermination of 1.5 million Armenians in WWI, also caused a furor. The Turkish government spent over $10 million trying to offset George’s message. “They actually made a phony revisionist movie called The Ottoman Lieutenant that was designed to whitewash the genocide and be released before The Promise. I mean, it looked like it had the same marketing and all.

So yeah, I mean, they do not like being reminded of the Armenian genocide.”

To be a successful director and producer these days, you need to have multiple projects waiting to be green-lit, George says. “I also have a script in development that’s based on a book called Finding Gobi. It’s about a little dog in China and the adventure it goes on – a complete departure from my usual topics, but it’s a book that I really like.”

Finding Gobi introduces us to ultramarathon runner Dion Leonard, who is joined on his 155-mile race by a devoted stray dog who accompanies him 46 IRISH AMERICA MARCH / APRIL 2019

days you have to haveall sorts of coals in the fire for one of them to hit, you know?”

While his work focuses on world conflicts, George’s heart is never far away from Northern Ireland. His film The Shore, about two boyhood friends who meet 25 years after they were torn apart by the Troubles, won the 2012 Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film. It was filmed entirely at George’s family cottage near Ardglass, County Down.

The profound changes that have occurred north and south since he left have astonished him. Now is the time to reach out to unionism with persuasive arguments to make the case for reunification, he says.

“They’re not being asked to join some Catholic priest-dominated state anymore. They’re being asked to join one of the most viable sections of the European Union.” It will be hard to get beyond the legacy of sectarianism and bitterness, “but if we can start down that road it will be to the benefit of all,” he says.

Linking each project since the start of his career is a concern for ordinary people making their way and pushing back against often overwhelming odds.

That’s the thread he followed out of the Troubles toward his remarkable career. He shows no signs of stopping now. “I’m trying to do a TV series on the peace process with Niall O’Dowd (publisher of Irish America and the Irish Voice) and Bill Clinton’s inIA volvement and all of that.”

Famines in Ireland Before 1845 and After 1852 An International Conference at Quinnipiac University June 12–15, 2019

Exploring the impact of recurrent famines on a society in which poverty, hunger, emigration, and even death, were part of life and not unique to the period marked by the Great Hunger of 1845–52.

Participants will visit:

• An exhibit of the life of James Hack Tuke, a Quaker philanthropist who helped 10,000 people leave Ireland • Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum at Quinnipiac University • Knights of Columbus Museum Co-hosted by the Irish Heritage Trust at Strokestown Park.

Visit ighi.qu.edu for more information.

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I R I S H

A M E R I C A

HALL FAME Irish Repertory Theatre Founders

Charlotte Moore & Ciarán O’Reilly

By Neil Hickey

Ciarán O’Reilly, Angela Lansbury, and Charlotte Moore.

T

he year is 1980. A former movie actor, Ronald Reagan, whose great-grandfather was an emigrant from the village of Ballyporeen in County Tipperary, is the newly-elected, 40th president of the United States. That same year another emigrant, Ciarán O’Reilly from County Cavan, was performing in an off-Broadway play called Summer by the Irish writer Hugh Leonard, where he met an actress, Charlotte Moore – granddaughter of expatriates from County Wexford – who was a fellow member of the cast.

Thus begins the origin story of the Irish Repertory Theatre in New York, the most renowned theater company in the U.S., devoted exclusively to staging “the works of Irish and Irish-American classic and contemporary playwrights” (according to its mission statement) and providing a hearth and a home for audiences to savor the work of dramatists from Goldsmith, Synge, Wilde, and Yeats, to Beckett, Shaw, Friel, and Behan, as well as musicals with an Irish tilt: Finian’s Rainbow, Meet Me in St. Louis, and Take Me Along.

The Moore-O’Reilly success could not have been predicted when, in 1988, the audacious notion of pivoting from acting to producing and directing plays popped to their minds. With the merest investment (actors earned only $100, no matter how long a play ran), they rented a small theater on West 18th St. in Manhattan and decided in cold blood that their first production would be Sean O’Casey’s The Plough and the Stars – a brave choice, because of its large cast and the intricacies of revolutionary politics in Ireland in the early 1920s.

The production, directed by Charlotte, was a hit,

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so they put the proceeds into another play, and then another. Both forsook busy acting careers on and off-Broadway to become entrepreneurs. Among Charlotte’s many roles had been a part in Noel Coward’s Private Lives, with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Ciarán made his Broadway debut in Emlyn Williams’ The Corn Is Green.

Early in their new jobs, a woman telephoned Ciarán and declared that she greatly enjoyed their productions and might donate money to the new venture. She inquired if the company was non-profit.

Ciarán innocently supposed that since there were no profits, the theater must surely fit that description. So it became officially a non-profit enterprise and has remained so, even as the Irish Repertory Theatre is now comfortably and happily in the black and one day soon will have paid off a debt of $6 million for the purchase of its permanent home on West 22nd St. in the Chelsea section of Manhattan.

Its aim was and remains “to bring works by Irish and Irish-American masters and contemporary playwrights to American audiences…and to encourage the development of new works focusing on the Irish and Irish-American experience.”

Thus, we arrive at the present. A pair of major events this year are witness to the Rep’s success in fulfilling its founders’ aspirations. First, Irish America is inducting Moore and O’Reilly into the magazine’s Hall of Fame, which annually since 2010 has recognized the achievements of Irish-born and Irish-American leaders in the arts, business, politics, science, the military, journalism, and other professions. Says Ciarán: “It’s a huge honor for us to be included in such illustrious company as John Dearie, Adrian Flannelly, Terry George, Arturo O’Farrill, and NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill.”

The second big event is the Rep’s 30th anniversary, which is being celebrated in grand style from

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PHOTOS: JAMES HIGGINS, COURTESY IRISH REPERTORY THEATRE

January through May, with the company’s most ambitious undertaking to date – a comprehensive retrospective of Sean O’Casey’s life and work, including the esteemed Dublin Trilogy: The Shadow of a Gunman, Juno and the Paycock, and The Plough and the Stars, presented in the order in which they were written.

Each play is having its own run, followed by a month of all three works in repertory, including three “Dublin Saturdays,” in which the dramas will be staged all on the same day. Rep audiences are enjoying free readings of the other O’Casey plays, plus symposiums, lectures, film screenings, and a musical evening.

Shivaun O’Casey, the playwright’s daughter, who is taking part in the celebration, gave me her view of it: “Charlotte and Ciarán are simply remarkable people. I can only wonder at how they have run their theatre company for 30 years with such principled dedication. Now, to celebrate 30 years of their company’s existence, they have mounted an O’Casey Festival over many months. This is a staggering achievement, a huge undertaking done with hard work and a love for the art of theatre. I salute them both and thank them.”

Shivaun’s father, born in 1880 in Dublin, was the youngest of 13 children in a Protestant workingclass family. He was largely self-educated, worked at menial jobs, became a committed socialist, and early on discovered his yen to be a writer. Eventually, he wrote more than a score of plays, many of

them controversial because of their irreverent take on aspects of political life in a troubled Ireland, plus a six-volume autobiography, essays, and short stories. His earliest submissions to the Abbey Theatre were rejected until The Shadow of a Gunman was accepted in 1923. He rests comfortably in the pantheon of the 20th century’s major literary figures.

Ireland, as is regularly noted, has contributed a disproportionate number of great writers to that set, among them William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett, and Seamus Heaney, all Nobel Prize winners for literature. “It’s a geographically isolated country that produces extraordinary story tellers. It’s in the DNA,” said Charlotte during a joint chat with her and Ciarán in their comfortable

TOP: Charlotte Moore and Ciarán O’Reilly, the founders of the Irish Repertory Theatre.

ABOVE: The Irish Rep. Gala, June 4, 2018: James Barbour, Melissa Errico, Jeremy Irons, Charlotte Moore, and Ciarán O’Reilly.

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ABOVE: Ciarán O’Reilly, in the act of directing The Dead with Paul Muldoon and novelist Jean Hanff Korelitz, who had the idea to do James Joyce’s short story as an immersive theater production.

RIGHT: Terry Donnelly, J. Smith Cameron, Ciarán O’Reilly, Caitriona Yeats, Swoosie Kurtz, Matthew Broderick, Sarah Jessica Parker, Charlotte Moore, Peter Gallagher, Colum McCann, and John Slattery at the 2016 Irish Rep. gala fundraiser.

BELOW: Longtime supporter and 2018 gala honoree Tina Santi Flaherty, with Jeremy Irons, who participated in the stage production of songs by lyricist Alan Jay Lerner.

years ago.”

As a kid growing up in Southern Illinois, Charlotte already was performing in Catholic grade school plays, yearning to be an actor. “I wanted to be a movie star,” she recalls, with a smile, but shifted her focus to live theater, which soon became her passion. That led eventually to roles in many venues, including the New York Shakespeare Festival, and more awards than we can list: the Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, The Wall Street Journal’s Best Director Award (2011), plus two Tony nominations. Her adaptation of the musical Camelot was the attraction at this year’s Lincoln Center Theatre fundraiser.

Ciarán O’Reilly suspects that his own involvement in theater derives from his father, Paddy O’Reilly, a politician who served 33 years in Dáil Éireann, the Irish parliament, from County Cavan.

“Politics is a form of theater,” Ciarán feels sure. He, too, is hung ’round with awards for acting and directing. He has appeared at the Abbey in Dublin, on Broadway (A Touch of the Poet), worked in movies (e.g. The Devil’s Own, starring PHOTOS: JAMES HIGGINS, COURTESY IRISH REPERTORY THEATRE Harrison Ford) and TV series (Law and offices above the recently renovated, 150-seat Rep Order). At the Rep, he has acted in many productheater, with its additional 60-seat performance tions, including Dancing at Lughnasa, The Shaughspace below the main stage. “We’re here in the raun, Candida, Da, and A Whistle in the Dark. theater capital of the world,” adds Ciarán, “where His most outrageous performance, however, was about 200 Broadway and off-Broadway theaters not on the stage but on a motorbike when, in his 20s, compete for audience. We bow to no one in the he made a solo trip around the world. Yes, solo; yes, caliber of our work, which is as meticulous as that around the world – through Europe, Egypt, Syria, of any theater company in the country.”

Jordan, Turkey – over land and then steamship to The director / producer Harold Prince (Cabaret, Australia, across the U.S., and home to Ireland.

Phantom of the Opera, Sweeney Todd), a luminary (That’s a whole other story.) What possessed him to in Broadway theatrical history, responded to my embark on so perilous a tour of the planet? He request for his view of the Rep this way: “I have explains: “As the fellow who climbed Mount been a ‘charter member’– if such exists – of the Everest said: ‘Because it’s there.’” He brings a bit Irish Repertory Theatre since its inception 30 years of that same adventurous nature to his life as an ago. Charlotte Moore and Ciarán O’Reilly are actor, producer, and director. exponents of Irish theatre, which I rate among the On any performance day, as you enter the Rep’s best on this earth. Their repertoire is mammoth now, crowded, bijou lobby with its mini-refreshment stand and their audience is as enthusiastic as it is large. and phone booth-sized box office, you’re likely to Every production my wife and I have seen is firstencounter Charlotte Moore – petite, graceful, rate – starting with epic material, beautifully acted, gracious – chatting with arrivals as they come and exquisitely designed.” through the door from West 22nd Street. And over Another kudos comes from Loretta Brennan there, his back to the wall: Ciarán O’Reilly, wreathed Glucksman, who calls Charlotte and Ciarán “gifted in a smile that quickens to laughter, is enjoying the artists who have chosen to dedicate their craic in a cluster of patrons and admirers. Then you artistry to the benefit of our whole Irishwalk the short hallway to the stage, with its evocative American community. Their brilliant, set, and you’re immediately in the gravity field of Ireindividual talents were honed and land and can almost breathe the aroma of a turf fire expanded during their early profesand taste the black, foamy stout, and you know you’ll sional careers. We are the benehear the English language spoken with a passion and ficiaries of their deep generosity beauty you’re unlikely to experience anywhere else. in deciding to establish the IA Irish Repertory Theatre 30 Welcome to the Irish Repertory Theatre.

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I R I S H

A M E R I C A

HALL FAME Grammy Award-Winning Musician

Arturo O’Farrill

By Rosemary Rogers

ABOVE: With his father, Chico, when he was six.

RIGHT: (New York 2017) El Museo del Barrio; Afro Latin Jazz Alliance; Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra; Arturo O’Farrill on piano.

A

t first the names Arturo and O’Farrill don’t seem to belong together. But, in the long, romantic history of the Hibernia-Hispania connection, they do: Bernardo O’Higgins liberated Chile; the San Patricios Brigade fought for Mexico in its War of Independence; the Milesians, settlers of ancient Ireland, sailed from Spain to “the Promised Isle.” Then there were those lucky sailors, survivors of the Spanish Armada who, after being tossed on the shore of West Ireland, liked what they saw and just…stayed.

When the Catholic King James II was deposed, many Irish natives, realizing a grim future lay ahead, left Ireland, including a son of County Longford reborn in Cuba as Don Ricardo O’Farrill y O’Daly. Descendants of the Don prospered in Havana and today, their family mansion is the 4-star Hotel Palacio O’Farrill, featuring a Salón Longford. Havana was where Chico O’Farrill, father of today’s inductee, was born and rejected his father’s career choice (law) for himself, instead becoming a jazz musician and the star of the 1940s Afro-Cuban music scene. He brought his bold, fiery sound to New York, wrote with bebop greats to create a new style by fusing Latin rhythms with jazz.

Chico never returned to Cuba. But his son, our Hall of Fame inductee, Arturo O’Farrill – pianist, composer, educator, and six-time Grammy winner – has returned for his father.

Arturo has been America’s de facto cultural diplomat to Cuba, performing and teaching there since 2002. He has succeeded in building a bridge between the two countries despite decades of hostility between their governments. Arturo played the same role in Cuba that Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie played as “jazz ambassadors” to the Soviet Union, a mission that helped defuse tensions during the Cold War. By performing with Cuba’s musicians and educating its youth, Arturo employed music’s greatest strength: the ability to communicate without saying a word.

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In 2010 he was in the immigration area of José Martí Airport when he noticed something odd, “The guy who took my passport was smiling broadly, really beaming.” He soon found out why – President Obama had normalized relations with Cuba. Within 48

hours he was recording CUBA: The Conversation Continues, which later had critics raving, “A visionary album…by imagining the future, Arturo has given us something timeless.” Eight months later, he was at the newly re-opened U.S. Embassy when the American flag was raised for the first time in 54 years.

But Arturo’s career didn’t begin in Afro-Cuban jazz; he first replayed Chico’s father / son conflict and rejected the music and culture of his own father.

A piano virtuoso from an early age, Arturo vowed to avoid clavé, the five-beat pattern elemental to Cuban music. He wanted to forge his own musical identity working with groups that blended hip-hop, funk, and disco. At 19, experimental artist Carla Bley was in

PHOTOGRAPHER: LAURA DILIBERTO

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a bar, heard him play, and immediately recruited him for her band in an upcoming show at Carnegie Hall. After four years with Carla, Arturo went solo to tour the globe with, among others, Wynton Marsalis and Harry Belafonte.

Arturo returned to his roots in 1990 when his father, after years of obscurity, enlisted him in his comeback. “I was able to let go of many ghosts of the past,” Arturo said when asked about his shift in musical direction. With his son at the piano, Chico conducted the 18-piece big band, “My father was a brilliant man, and the honorable thing to do was help him get his art out. It was very much a filial responsibility, but an artistic responsibility as well.” It was during this time that Arturo found his true context,

PHOTOGRAPHER: DAVID GARTEN

“I realized that the music we call ‘Latin’ is unbelievably important, unbelievably beautiful, and unbelievably hard to play…”

The comeback gave the senior O’Farrill the greatest success of his career and a series of albums produced by Todd Barkan followed. The savvy producer found a fundamental difference between the O’Farrills, “Arturo is a very protean figure, more protean than even his dad because he has a wider scope of interests and influences.” To honor Chico, who died in 2001, Arturo assembled the Chico O’Farrill Afro-Cuban Band, later renamed the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra (ALJO) a nonprofit arts and education organization that found a home at Lincoln Center and later at Symphony Space.

A passionate educator and man of scholarship, Arturo has been a professor at various colleges, now teaching at the Manhattan School of Music while spearheading an important program in the New York City public school system. The ALJO, under his direction, has provided instruments and instruction to

TOP LEFT: Arturo O’Farrill pictured in front of some Brooklyn street art.

TOP RIGHT: Performing with his father, the Cuban composer, at Carnegie Hall.

ABOVE: Arturo likes to wear this African jacket when he performs.

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LEFT: Performing in Cuba at the 30th Havana International Jazz Festival in 2015.

PHOTOGRAPHER: DAVID GARTEN

Through the Fair” is unforgettable. Arturo is again returning to Ireland this summer, where he’ll tour and study traditional Irish music. It’s all more fodder for his television work-in-progress, Rhythms of Life, a series showing how the “universal language” offers windows into the lives of people around the world. Arturo’s recent and successful concert in Abu Dhabi, featuring artists from the Middle East, brought home the joyful IA message: music is what brings us together.

TOP RIGHT: A younger Arturo with his parents, Lupe and Chico; family friend and music writer Charles Graham; and a friend.

ABOVE: Arturo with his sons, Adam and Zack, who are now grown up and are highly regarded musicians and composers.

RIGHT: Lupe O’Farrill, Chico O’Farrill (Arturo’s parents), and little Arturito!

public schools and produced a gifted youth orchestra, the Fat Afro Latin Jazz Cats. His message to his students, “Do things that sound beautiful and have a life of their own. That’s more important than you, the artist; it’s about the art.”

Seemingly tireless, Arturo continues to travel, performing both with his own band and other orchestras, producing albums, working with dance companies, and writing ballets. He’s received commissions from multiple institutions from Lincoln Center to the Apollo Theatre. He and his wife, Alison Dean, a classical pianist, have two sons, Zachary (a drummer) and Adam (a trumpeter), who formed their own musical group: the O’Farrill Brothers Band. The legacy continues.

The kid who rejected his musical heritage is now the global spokesperson for Afro-Cuban music. And speaking of heritage, Arturo co-founded and plays with Bill and Heather Bixler in a Celtic-Latin group, the Auction Project, creating “a place where Celtic reels merge with gospel and funk.” Their version of “She Moves

54 IRISH AMERICA MARCH / APRIL 2019

May The Road Rise up to Meet You! Heartiest of congratulations to my fellow Hall of Fame inductees: ADRIAN FLANNELLY TERRY GEORGE

ARTURO O’FARRILL JAMES P. O’NEILL

CHARLOTTE MOORE & CIARÁN O’REILLY

Comhghairdeas!

From John C. Dearie

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I R I S H

A M E R I C A

HALL FAME NYPD Commissioner

James P. O’Neill

By Maggie Holland

James O’Neill shows his cufflinks to Cardinal Dolan, the Archbishop of New York.

‘‘

J

immy’s not just a cop’s cop. He’s a New Yorker’s New Yorker.” When it comes to James O’Neill, New York City’s 43rd and current police commissioner, those words by Chirlane McCray, the wife of N.Y.C. Mayor Bill de Blasio, could not be more spot-on.

A more fitting NYPD commissioner couldn’t be found in Central Casting. He is a steadfast New Yorker who started his career guarding the treacherous 1980s subways and has since held almost every rank in the department. His first day as commissioner saw a bomb exploding in Manhattan. He likes hockey, motorcycles, and war biographies. He loves his mom, his sons, and Irish soda bread.

“I’m proud of my Irish heritage,” he says when he meets with the Irish America team at his office in One Police Plaza, “and I’m proud of being American, also. It’s all helped me be who I am.” He jokes that his sons, who are only half Irish, completely identify as being 100 percent.

His sons, now grown, are Danny and Christopher.

Danny is 29, works for an insurance company, and is engaged to be married. Christopher is 25 and works at the NYPD doing video production in the office of the Deputy Commissioner of Public Information.

O’Neill grew up in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, on a block with about 50 kids on it, and he knew them all. “I didn’t know the people around the corner on 31st Street,” he said. “That was a different world. But I knew everybody on 32nd.”

Seven of those 50 kids were O’Neills. “Every summer day,” he said, “my mom would throw us out at eight o’clock in the morning, feed us at lunchtime, throw us back out, and we’d come back in for dinner.”

Their father, Joseph O’Neill, would work around the house on the weekends listening to the Clancy Brothers and other Irish music on Fordham radio station’s popular Irish program, Ceol na nGael.

His dad used to say their ancestors were “The

56 IRISH AMERICA MARCH / APRIL 2019

Royal O’Neills,” while his mom would give him a jab in the ribs, teasing, “Oh, yeah. Sure we were – the kings and queens!”

O’Neill’s maternal grandparents, Joe and Mary Kelly, came to the United States from County Longford. He spent a lot of time with his grandmother.

Every Friday night, Helen O’Neill would put James and his brother on the bus at Beverly and Nostrand Avenue, and their grandmother would pick them up in her neighborhood, about 30 minutes away.

His grandfather Joe was a hardworking, funny man who worked numerous jobs, including as a taxi driver and in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. He passed away when O’Neill was seven years old, but not before leaving a memorable impression. As O’Neill put it, “He did this, did that, probably drank too much, had a little too much fun – but he treated us like gold.”

His paternal grandparents came from County Monaghan. They lived on the same block as the O’Neills in Brooklyn. “My dad’s father didn’t show it quite as much,” O’Neill said, “but he was always looking after us.” He was a tall, stern man who worked for the telephone company. He came over to the United States after living up against the border in Monaghan through the Irish Civil War. “We were afraid of him,” he remembers.

Although he did not come from a cop family, O’Neill wanted to join the NYPD from an early age.

The only police officer in his family was his uncle by marriage, Bill Reid, a happy man with great stories.

“If anybody was my inspiration, it was him,” said O’Neill. “It just seemed like he loved life and really had a purpose.”

O’Neill joined the Transit Police in January of 1983. He was 25 at the time and had been working at an insurance company as a surety bond underwriter. “It was a good job working with good people, but this was in my heart and if I didn’t do

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it, I would regret it later in life,” he said.

He attended John Jay College of Criminal Justice, where he got a bachelor’s degree in government, and later a master’s degree in public administration.

Back in the 1980s, New York City was a different place. It was the era in which Gerald Ford infamously told the city to drop dead, if not in so many words.

The subway was described as “the most dangerous place on Earth.” As Paul Theroux wrote in The New York Times in 1982, “It has been vandalized from end to end. It smells so hideous you want to put a clothespin on your nose, and it is so noisy the sound actually hurts. Is it dangerous? Ask anyone, and, without thinking, he will tell you there must be about two murders a day on the subway.”

It was an act of bravery to even venture down into the place, and James O’Neill was patrolling the night shift. As a Transit Police officer for 12 years, he would ride the subway by himself back and forth from 168th Street and Broadway at the tip of Manhattan, down to J Street in Brooklyn, from eight at night until four in the morning.

“Were there times that it felt a little dicey? Sure,”

he said. “Was I afraid? I’m not sure.”

In 1995, when O’Neill was a lieutenant, the Transit and Housing Authority Police Departments merged with the NYPD. Once there, he continued moving up the ranks. “Every rank that I held, I wanted to do my best,” he said at his swearing-in ceremony as commissioner, choking up a bit, “and if that brought me further recognition, fine. But I didn’t do it to move up the ranks. I did it because that’s the way I’ve been taught by my mother to live my life.”

After the ceremony, his mother told reporters that she raised him “to be a sound and moral man, and to always do the right thing – and he has.”

O’Neill is unique in that he rose through the department to eventually become commissioner. A chief of department, the most senior uniformed position, had not been promoted to commissioner in over four decades, according to Thomas Reppetto, the author of NYPD: A City and Its Police.

He has held every rank in the NYPD except for

TOP LEFT: NYPD Commissioner James P. O’Neill at the Hispanic Day Parade.

TOP RIGHT: O’Neill takes a photo with a celebrant of the West Indian Day Parade.

ABOVE: O’Neill talks to officers during National Night Out Against Crime.

MARCH / APRIL 2019 IRISH AMERICA 57

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TOP: O’Neill, taken by Mark Condren for his book, NYPD: Behind the Scenes with the Men and Women of the New York City Police Department.

ABOVE: O’Neill talks to Irish America.

detective (although he has been both a lieutenant and a chief in the detective bureau) and a two-star chief (because he jumped from one star to three stars).

Though his effective communication skills dealing with all types of people can be traced back to his time patrolling the subway trains and platforms, he considers his experience being a commanding officer to be the most helpful to him as commissioner. He commanded three precincts over six years: Central Park, the 25th Precinct in East Harlem, and the 44th in the Bronx, right around Yankee Stadium. “It’s almost like running a mini city,” he says. “It gives you the all-around experience; it gives you exposure to everything.”

O’Neill was commanding officer in East Harlem when the 9/11 attacks occurred. The police commissioner at the time, Bernard Kerik, had hosted a dinner the night before for all the commanding officers at the Museum of Natural History, so most of them were not in by eight o’clock in the morning.

O’Neill got to his office in the 25th precinct shortly after the second tower fell.

Every precinct sent a sergeant and eight officers down to the World Trade Center that morning.

“Thank God nobody from our precinct died,” said O’Neill, “but we had a couple people who were seriously injured. We didn’t know where they were all day.” He somberly named four men whom he knew who passed away that day: John D’Allara, Mike Curtin, John Coughlin, and Joe Vigiano. “It was hard,” he said. “Still is.”

There are three things the commissioner is looking at when it comes to antiterrorism: the NYPD’s ability to investigate, their ability to prevent, and their ability to respond.

There is a Joint Terrorism Task Force comprised of 300 investigators from 56 agencies – 113 of them are New York City cops. Any threat that emerges from the stream is fully investigated, if not by the JTTF then by the NYPD’s Intelligence Bureau.

There are also NYPD detectives assigned to 14 different locations around the world, embedded with either the local, state, or federal police wherever they are stationed, sending intel back to

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the department in real time.

“We tabletop all the time, we run drills, and we make sure that we continue to talk to each other to ensure that nobody is keeping information to themselves,” he said.

The bombing in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan that injured 31 people occurred on September 17, 2016. O’Neill was legally, yet unofficially, sworn in as commissioner on September 16, the night before the attack, and officially sworn in at a ceremony the following Monday, September 19.

He was in the process of moving his things up to the commissioner’s office and had just left when he got the call. “At first I was thinking ‘I can’t believe this is happening,’” he recalls. “But then I knew just based on my experience that we would catch the guy who did it, and we did.”

They identified the suspect within 30 hours, and within 50 hours he was arrested.

O’Neill found out in the middle of his swearing-in ceremony that they had caught the perpetrator. A lieutenant walked over and handed him a note with the news, which he then discreetly showed to the new chief of department also about to be sworn in, Carlos Gomez, whose eyebrows shot up.

There was a scheduled press conference about the bombing directly following the ceremony. He recalls, “I actually asked John Miller right before the ceremony started, ‘Hey, can you do me a favor? Can you catch this guy before the end of the ceremony?’

And sure enough they did.”

The police commissioner does not wear a uniform, as it is a civilian position. Having donned the uniform every day for most of his 33-year career, O’Neill was very proud of it and sad to give it up. “If there is anything that was difficult about going from chief of department to police commissioner,” he said, “it was giving up the uniform.”

At the press conference announcing his appointment, he joked, “I’m really going to have to up my game when it comes to suits.”

Unlike previous commissioners, who had spent time in the private sector among New York’s social elite and came into the commissioner job wearing custom suits with ties from Hermès or Charvet, O’Neill is more sartorially modest. “His shirts and ties are more Marshalls or Century 21 than Armani or Canali,” ribbed John Miller, the Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism.

(He wore an Irish emerald green tie for our interview, which is good enough for me.)

After growing up in that little community within the capital of the world, O’Neill understood that the key to effective, cohesive policing is personal relationships and mutual trust between police of-

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ficers and residents. It is about having that neighborhood cop who is looking out for the members of the community.

O’Neill first developed Neighborhood Policing, a comprehensive crime-fighting strategy based on improved communication and collaboration with the community members, as chief of patrol starting in June 2014, and as chief of department, he expanded it. It is structured to provide sector officers with off-radio time to engage with neighborhood residents, identify local problems, and work toward solutions.

Before Neighborhood Policing, the sectors were arbitrarily divided within the precincts. As part of Neighborhood Policing, the sectors have been redrawn to represent the natural neighborhoods.

Much of Neighborhood Policing depends on being able to make decisions at the rank of police officer, which is something that did not typically happen before. Now, when something is going on in a sector, if the officers don’t take care of it, it will still be there when they come back in the morning, so they have to come up with a creative solution in conjunction with the community. The officers take pride in this new responsibility. “It’s all about taking ownership, working together, and creating some unity here,” says O’Neill.

The final sector rollout was in October, making the strategy now operational in every residential neighborhood in the city. It is the largest, best funded, and best-staffed community policing initiative ever undertaken in the United States, and has fundamentally changed policing in New York City.

O’Neill knew from his vast experience as a police officer that the idea had potential, but he did not know how successful it was going to be in action. As it turns out, pretty successful: 2017 saw fewer than 300 homicides, the lowest number since the 1950s, and 2018 followed suit. (For comparison, there were 2245 homicides in 1990.) This past October, for the first time in more than 25 years, New York City went an entire three-day weekend period without a single shooting incident.

O’Neill attends a great deal of community meetings, so when he says, “Everywhere I go, I’m getting good feedback,” he means it.

Even with those impressive numbers and glowing feedback, O’Neill has still contracted with the RAND Corporation to produce an independent study to make sure that the program is building trust. “We know it’s keeping crime down,” he says, “but we have to make sure that this is what communities around New York City want.”

O’Neill says that the biggest challenge he faces right now is restoring the public’s trust in the NYPD. 2014 was a difficult time for law enforcement. Both of the grand jury decisions for the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the death-in-police-custody of Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York, came in November and December of 2014, respectively.

There were protests every day. “The NYPD is used to handling protests,” said O’Neill, “but this time they were protesting us, and that culminated in the assassination of

two of our police officers, Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, on December 20, 2014.”

“No matter what happens,” he said, “we have to make sure that we keep police officers motivated, and we continue to restore the trust that you need in order to effectively police anywhere, especially New York City.”

As a step toward building that trust in the NYPD, O’Neill announced in early February that he would support legislation to make more of the department’s disciplinary records public in the interest of transparency.

“There are a lot of things we do well, but there are also a couple things we don’t do that well, and one of them is the transparency of our disciplinary system,” he said.

In an op-ed for the New York Daily News, O’Neill called for the reform of section 50-a of the New York State Civil Rights Law, which currently prohibits the

disclosure of public employees’ personnel records, including the disciplinary records of cops. “For Neighborhood Policing to maximize its potential,” he wrote, “there must be mutual trust between the police and the public. And nothing builds trust like transparency and accountability.”

O’Neill owns three motorcycles, a Kawasaki Concours, a BMW Adventure, and a sport bike. “The BMW has hard steel cases in the back, so it’s pretty cool,” he says. He and a group made up of mostly active or retired cops ride all around the country. They have taken trips to Tennessee, Montana, Arkansas, Kentucky, West Virginia, and many trips to Maine.

Sometimes it’s six or seven guys, sometimes it’s as many as 19, like on their trip to Tennessee last year. His brothers, John and Hugh, tag along once in a while. “It’s a lot of fun,” says O’Neill. “They get a kick out of it, hanging out with my ‘cop friends,’ as they say.”

Without a doubt, New York City is in good hands with O’Neill, the sartorially modest New Yorker’s New Yorker who is continuing a long history of the Irish in the police department. When asked about this history, he pointed to a list up on the wall of all the NYPD commissioners and IA quipped, “You pick out the names that aren’t Irish!”

An impromptu press conference on a New York City sidewalk.

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N O I T C E N N O C C I T N A L T THE TRANSA e Earle to ars ago led Stev

Galway 20 ye n An encounter in ay, the connectio d To s. g n so d e v a music remains. belo n st ca o ri e m m is A h f d o an e n write o all Irish city between this sm

W

BY GERRY O’SHEA

alking along the Claddagh Quay, I turned toward the Salthill Promenade as an onshore gust whipped my jacket to my chest. The lyrics bouncing around my head all day moved to my lips.

And I knew right then I’d be takin’ a whirl ’round the Salthill Prom with a Galway girl.

A raw October day, I had spent the afternoon battling the weather as I wandered the same streets that the lyricist, Steve Earle, roamed 20 years before.

I first heard Earle’s song, “The Galway Girl,” being covered by Celtic-rock band Scythian at a Washington, D.C., pub. The lyrics immediately reminded me of a brief trip to Galway as a teenager, when I stumbled across a crowd encircling a middleaged busker on Shop Street. The musician, his hands and guitar equally weathered, was belting out “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain” in such a stirring rasp I anticipated tears on the faces of those stepping forward to drop a few pence in his cap. I had no doubt there was something enchanting about these streets.

Today, I was in Galway to learn about this seaport city’s unique connection to Americana music – a blend of rock, country, folk, and blues – and what inspired Earle to write the song.

Known as the “City of Tribes” in reference to

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the 14 families that dominated commerce here for centuries, Galway wears its medieval past in plain sight, cloaked in the remains of Anglo-Norman castles, pre-Cromwell churches, and the remnants of a stone bastion that once provided protection from marauders.

But what has shaped the city’s modern era is less its preservation of history and more its veneration of culture. Film, cuisine, literature, and most often, music are celebrated every year in dozens of festivals. In a country where song and dance remain as indispensable as food and shelter, Galway’s embrace of revelry stands apart.

“Music is really the fabric of what we are in Galway,” Eoghan MacNamara tells me as he stands on Dominick Street outside of the Róisín Dubh music hall.

“The land here in the west has always been naturally wild and untamed, and I suppose that feeds into Galway and its culture, especially its music.”

MacNamara is co-owner of the Róisín Dubh, a Galway staple for nearly 30 years that has drawn Americana acts like the Delines and Josh Ritter. In the late 1990s, it was also frequented by a Texas-born singer and songwriter, Steve Earle.

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TOURISM IRELAND

M E H T N A L A B I R T A D E R I P THAT INS

FAR LEFT: Steve Earle and the Dukes.

TOP: The Long Walk and Docks facing Galway Bay. CENTER: Colorful terraced houses on the Long Walk.

ABOVE: Róisín Dubh, the legendary live music venue in Galway City.

LEFT: We Banjo 3 onstage. Left to right: Fergal Scahill, David Howley, Martin Howley, and Enda Scahill.

Instrumental similarities between Irish and American music make for a natural transatlantic union – the fusion of fiddles, banjos, and narrativerich lyrics – but Galway maintains a distinct kinship with Americana.

In the early 1900s, new Irish immigrants – disproportionately from Ireland’s west – brought their instruments and recordings to the American diaspora.

Peter “PJ” Conlon, an accomplished accordion player and Galway native, was one of the first to record and sell Irish folk music in the United States. As the

Celtic-folk movement accelerated mid-century with the arrival of the Clancy Brothers, Irish music found larger audiences. Soon, Nashville took notice.

Producer Jim Rooney’s six-decade career in Music City included work with Bill Monroe, Nanci Griffith, and John Prine. Arguably the individual most responsible for bringing modern Americana to Ireland, he now splits time between Nashville and Galway, where he’s known to join the occasional seisiún.

In Rooney’s autobiography, In It for the Long Run: A Musical Odyssey, he tells of becoming enamored MARCH / APRIL 2019 IRISH AMERICA 61

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TOP: A Galway street busker.

ABOVE: The Latin Quarter of Galway City extends from the Spanish Arch to O'Brien's Bridge to St Nicholas' Church to Middle Street.

with Irish music after being invited to a fleadh ceol (music festival).

“There were impromptu sessions in every house, pub, out in the street, everywhere.” The singing Rooney witnessed was his introduction to the depth of song tradition in Ireland. “It seemed to come up out of the earth itself.”

While the bond between Irish music traditions and Americana has shaped over decades, perhaps no band demonstrates this current link more than Galway-based We Banjo 3. The band, heavily influenced by American country and bluegrass artists, refers to their style as “Celtgrass.” Martin Howley, tenor banjo, mandolin, and vocals, is a seventime all-Ireland banjo champion and the first Irish player to perform at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry.

“I grew up with my father singing Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson to me and my brother. It was part of who we were, we just didn’t know anything different.”

When Earle arrived in Ireland in 1997, he was five times divorced and had served time in prison for drug and gun offenses, his addictions nearly killing him. Galway might seem a strange place for a recovering addict – the city is often lightheartedly dubbed a “graveyard of ambition” due to its irresistible nightlife – but Earle believed its relative solitude and musical culture outweighed the temptations.

Galway would help reignite his creativity.

Adding to Galway’s appeal was Earle’s familiarity with Irish musical traditions. His mentors, Americana founding fathers Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt, frequently performed throughout Ireland (Van Zandt played his last show at the Róisín Dubh before his death in 1997). Earle had also previously collaborated with the Pogues’ Shane MacGowan and Terry Woods. The two would eventually introduce him to Irish musician Sharon Shannon, with whom Earle would record “The Galway Girl.”

With the wind sideways at my face, I trudged back toward the city, making my way to the Long Walk, the pier where Earle and his companion had strolled.

Its one-way street was empty, save for an older man in a faded wool sweater, smoking a cigarette outside a coral row house. As I passed, he acknowledged me with a “hi-ya,” carefully holding his cap to keep from losing it to the bay.

I crossed into Galway’s West End in search of a fire and a pint, and maybe some music. The neighborhood is no more than a few blocks in size but offers a cluster of the city’s most popular live

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music venues, including Monroe’s and the Crane Bar, pubs that once hosted acts during Galway’s “Americana Festival.” With heavy grey clouds pressing down, I continued quietly mumbling Earle’s lyrics.

We were halfway there when the rain came down On the day-I-ay-I-ay.

Since the song’s release in 2000 there have been efforts to uncover Earle’s muse. Her name remained a mystery to most until 2016 when the book, On Raglan Road: Great Irish Love Songs and the Women Who Inspired Them, identified Joyce Redmond as the object of Earle’s affection. Redmond, also a musician, had met Earle on Quay Street and – as the song suggests – they became close and spent much of their time wandering along Galway’s waterfront.

Now 64, Earle still looks the part of the “outlaw country” tag once applied to his musical bent. His wispy beard is mostly gray, and at first glance he could be taken for a gruff, Harley-riding hell raiser – but his demeanor is far from brusque. Soft-spoken and not afraid to smile, these days the three-time Grammy Award-winner could pass for a tenured physics professor.

Reflecting on the popularity of “The Galway Girl” – much of which can be attributed to a version by Irish musician Mundy that reached the top of the Irish charts in 2008 – Earle has said the song may be how he is eventually remembered.

“They’re going to be singing that song in Ireland for a long time. I really do believe that. And that’s the only kind of immortality anybody can hope for.”

My return to Galway ended with a storm – in the most literal sense. Remnants of Hurricane Ophelia came barreling toward Ireland, the largest to hit the island in nearly 50 years. As I worried about miscellaneous dangers the weather imposed, Ophelia’s looming arrival was met in Galway with an apathy and unrelenting jocularity that, in combination, is difficult to find outside of Ireland.

As tides rose and trees bowed the day before my flight home, I sat in Blake’s Bar, named for one of Galway’s infamous tribes. Next to me was a turtle-necked octogenarian, enjoying a pint of cider with her husband.

“What are you doing to prepare for Ophelia?” I asked, anticipating hearing about a stockpile of groceries or plans to head to higher ground.

“Ah, sure love I don’t know. Pray?”

Her response was trailed by a burst of laughter and nurturing pat on my back, a welcome reminder of the joy in not taking things too seriously. The storm passed, as they do, and I left my rented flat in the early morning for a taxi to Shannon Airport.

Standing in the dark, bags in hand, I looked across from the cab stand to a placard in front of Monroe’s that listed upcoming shows: a regular weekly seisiún; an Irish singer-songwriter; Metallica and Pearl Jam tribute bands.

At the bottom of the schedule was Scythian, the American band that introduced me to Earle’s song so many years ago. On the way to the airport, I made a IA note to catch them back home.

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An American pioneer of dance and an important figure in both the arts and history, Isadora Duncan was known as the “Mother of Modern Dance.”

By Rosemary Rogers

ISADORA DUNCAN “Sans Limites”

“I dance what I am.”

– Isadora Duncan

“She was a flame sheath of flesh made for dancing.”

Breathing Tokens, Isadora Duncan – Carl Sandburg

“Oh, body swayed to music, oh, brightening glance.

How can we know the dancer from the dance?”

“Among School Children.”

– William Butler Yeats

PHOTO: ISADORA DUNCAN FOUNDATION

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A

great fire raged in her house when she was an infant. A fireman raced into the burning room and threw her out an open window into the arms of another fireman. So began the highpitched drama that was the life of Isadora, a life that ended even more theatrically than the firemen’s game of catch. She lived for only 50 years, but in that short time, she founded modern dance, toppled Victorian sensibility, helped usher in the modernism of the early 20th century, and made some sensational headlines.

Angela Isadora Duncan was born on May 27, 1877 in San Francisco, the youngest of four children. Her mother, Dora, was a first-generation Irish American whose parents, Thomas Grey and Mary O’Gorman, were born, respectively, in Counties Tipperary and Offaly. After leaving Ireland, the devout Catholics sailed to America to travel across the plains, settling in Missouri. The family later moved to California, where Thomas went on to be a state senator and their daughter Dora went on to be a rebel. She married, at 21, something of a bounder, the much older Joseph Duncan.

Soon after Isadora was born, Joseph Duncan, a banker, was caught embezzling at work, while Dora discovered he had been embezzling at home too, pawning her jewelry, melting down the family silver, and splitting the proceeds with his girlfriend.

No longer the good Irish-Catholic girl, Dora first divorced her husband, then her faith by embracing atheism. She forged ahead as a single mother and moved her four children to Oakland.

Dora supported the family by giving piano lessons while Isadora and her sister Elizabeth taught dance, and together the family held theatrical performances in their home. Mother and children were all remarkable, but they forever followed the lead of the youngest and most charismatic: Isadora.

Bored by school, Isadora dropped out at 10 and taught herself at the public library. Even at that young age she had decided her future – she would be both a free spirit dedicated to the arts and a feminist who would never bear the “stigma of slavery” that was marriage.

The Duncan family continued to shock the Oakland Establishment. They were eccentric, owed money all over town, and worse, had taken to going barefoot and wearing odd costumes in public. The criticism didn’t bother the Bohemian brood one bit – food may have been scarce, but their home was filled with music and poetry. In her biography, Isadora wrote of facing down the moralists. “I suppose it was due to our Irish blood that we children were always in revolt against tyranny.”

She revolted against another, seemingly innocu-

ous, form of tyranny: ballet. She called it a “living death,” rife with affectations, tutus, and stiff shoes.

Her dance would be the gateway to the soul, “a different dance,” free, earthy, in communion with the elements. She believed she ran out into the storm, rain and sun, and became part of them. “The wind?

I am the wind. The sea and the moon? I am the sea and the moon.” It would be in the tradition of the ancient Greek ideal, as unlike ballet as possible.

Isadora would stand alone at the back of the stage, barefoot, hair flowing and, in this corseted age, wearing a tunic often without benefit of underwear. She remained completely still until her long neck rose out of the muslin and slowly she began to move. Soon she was bounding across the stage, thrusting her knees, collapsing and rising, all to the music of Bach, Beethoven, Wagner, and Chopin. For inspiration she would, at varying times, draw on the writings and philosophy of Plato, Darwin, Nietzsche, and Walt Whitman; her dance was her own “Song of Myself.”

But Oakland was a backwater populated by provincials, hardly the place to stage a revolution. At 18, Isadora headed to Chicago, where she became so destitute, she sold her Irish lace for food. She finally found work in vaudeville, flouncing about as “Peppy Dora,” a cheesy act that failed to discourage the spiritual dancer. It was just another step to realizing her destiny as a great artist.

An impresario, Augustin Daly, saw something in Isadora and brought her to New York. After two years in his road company, mostly playing fairies, Isadora confronted Daly, “What’s the good of having me here, when you make no use of my genius?” He replied by putting his hand down her dress, she countered by quitting, and soon was performing in the homes of “the 400”: the wealthiest New Yorkers. But when a fire left her homeless, Isadora read it as a sign to leave New York; she hopped a steamer to London, traveling under her grandmother’s name, Mary O’Gorman.

In 1898, she arrived in London and again gave private performances where the elite now included royalty. The fresh, uninhibited, American girl captivated the fusty Victorians and won an influential patron, Mrs. Patrick Campbell, the muse of George

OPENING PAGE: Isadora Duncan, photographed by Elvira.

Munich, 1904 “Tanagra.”

BELOW: Duncan with her children Deirdre and Patrick in 1913.

PHOTO: ISADORA DUNCAN FOUNDATION

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Isadora with her dancers, The Isadorables.

She had the dream in her heart, the dream of the Irish...” Together they vowed to create a new world of the theatre, and together they overlooked the pesky fact of Craig’s wife.

In 1903 in Berlin she gave her most famous speech, a manifesto, on the future of dance. Doubtless thinking of herself, Isadora predicted dance would be for the “free spirit…whose body and soul have grown so harmoniously together.” Her feminism ran throughout the manifesto as she anticipated the “body of the new woman more glorious than any woman that has yet been.”

When the American Athena finally made her pilgrimage to Greece, she kissed the ground, touched the sacred marble of the Acropolis and made plans to eduPHOTO: ISADORA DUNCAN FOUNDATION cate young children. Her original Bernard Shaw. The actress, always reduced to sobs school, in Germany, embraced her philosophy,

by Isadora’s performances, insisted “the barefoot “Let us first teach little children to breathe, to vidancer” experience Paris. brate, to feel” and her radical concept – the solar In Paris, in 1900, it was Isadora’s turn to sob, so plexus was the source of all the body’s energy and overcome by passion at seeing her vision realized movement. She loved all her students, particularly in the marble statues of Greek antiquity. Now inher pets, the talented girls known as the spired and emboldened, she captivated le tout “Isadorables,” later adopting them and giving them Paris, the cultural center of the western world. her last name.

Rodin proclaimed, “Sometimes I think she is the Isadora was a woman with a fierce maternal greatest woman the world has ever known,’’ while drive, as evidenced by the feelings she had for her another sculptor spoke of seeing her on the stage, Isadorables, but more than anything she wanted a “When she appeared, we all had the feeling that child of her own. She approached George Bernard God was present.” And God, in this case, was très Shaw: “Will you be the father of my child? A comchic (those tunics!), loved good food, and nights in bination of my beauty and your brains would starthe café. Her triumph was complete. tle the world.” His Shavian response: “I must Isadora took her act, as it were, on the road. decline your offer with thanks, for the child might From 1899 to 1907 she was a sensation from great have my beauty and your brains.” cities to the odiferous outposts of Russia and EastIn 1906 she did have a child with Craig, named ern Europe – the dancer from America had become Deirdre, evoking Irish mythology and “Deirdre of more famous than its president, Woodrow Wilson. the Sorrows,” a reference that would prove She needed no translation, audiences saw her as the painfully prescient. Two years later, as she and universal expression of the human spirit, life with Craig were getting increasingly competitive, all its ecstasy and tragedy.

Isadora booked a Paris engagement and, taking Her Greek ideal now included the Dionysian or Deirdre, left Germany. After one performance, a sensual tradition, perhaps, because at 25, she had tall, handsome, and smitten stranger walked into lost her virginity. She became a feverish free love her dressing room. Paris Singer, heir to the Singer advocate, taking lovers from the aristocracy, the Sewing Machine fortune, had a compelling pickboxing ring, and the train, both passengers and up line: “I’m here to help, what can I do?” Apparporters. ently a lot. He gave her an estate to build a school In 1904 she met the great love of her life, stage dedicated to art, an apartment in Paris, and, best of designer Gordon Edward Craig. Craig describes all, in 1910, a son, Patrick. While she had great afher impact on the changing Western culture: “Into fection for Singer and appreciation for his generosthis dangerous world leapt Isadora possessed of ity, she refused to marry him. immense courage… People called her a great artist, Isadora now had everything: fame, great wealth, a Greek goddess but she was no such thing. I ala devoted partner and two beautiful children. But ways thought how Irish she was – which means, she was Irish, she was superstitious, she knew the how full of natural genius which defies description. risk of drawing too much attention to life’s deepest

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joys. So began a sense of forboding that wouldn’t leave – during her performances she began to smell funeral flowers.

In 1913, while Isadora and Paris were having lunch, the chauffeur driving the children stopped to crank the engine without securing the break. The car bolted forward into the Seine, drowning Deirdre (six), Patrick (three), and their nanny. It was a death blow for Isadora too, killing any “hope of a natural, joyous life for me”; she longed for “annihilation in death.’’

Isadora distanced herself from Singer, who always remained devoted, while Edward Craig failed to attend his daughter’s funeral. She turned to her family, and they retreated to Italy where, in a desperate attempt to have another child, she got pregnant by a local artist only to have that baby die a few hours after its birth, “A triple fountain of tears, milk and blood flowed from me.”

Grief begat spinning: she went to New York to build schools and theatres, ventures that failed.

She had a rift with her family – even the Isadorables, save Irma Duncan, deserted her.

Adrift, she didn’t notice or care that as her wealth diminished, her absinthe intake expanded, as did her waistline. She had a few lesbian affairs, most notably with Mercedes de Costa, the sometime inamorata of Garbo and Dietrich. In addition to Mercedes, Isadora had become infatuated with communism.

In 1921, Isadora took herself to Moscow, the first American granted a visa to the fledgling Soviet Union. She set out to start a children’s dance school, bring her revolutionary art to revolutionaries and “dance for the masses.” Sulking in the masses was poet Sergei Essenin, who shared Isadora’s passion for creativity and vodka. He was 18 years younger, and, overturning her lifetime aversion, she married him, rationalizing, “it was easier to marry him than adopt him.”

Needing money, Isadora embarked on a tour of America, bringing along her little madman of a husband – she would dance, then trot him out to recite his poetry, in Russian, a language few Americans knew. Essenin, always drunk and usually violent, proved years again of his time by trashing their hotel rooms. Isadora, not to be outdone, bared one brazen breast in Boston while draping the rest of her body in commie red, a scandal that rocked Beantown.

She received a horrifying review from George Balanchine, “To me it was absolutely unbelievable – a drunken, fat woman who for hours was rolling around like a pig.” Her reputation in tatters, she left her mother country, announcing, “Goodbye America, I shall never see you again!” She never did. Essenin went back to Moscow where he later slit his wrists, wrote a poem in his own blood, and finally expired.

Losing her children was the cause of the wreckage that defined the last 14 years of her life. But,

in truth, she was always an excessive personality, always driven by impulse, a woman of abandon without self-control. Let’s not forget her motto was “Sans Limites.”

Now, with no limits, there was nowhere to go but down, and go down fast.

During her final years, she was a grotesque figure, wandering between Paris and the Riviera, notorious for public drunkenness and stalking young men. She lived on handouts from former colleagues and was given to selfdeprecating quips, “I don’t dance anymore, I only move my weight around,” or “Men and potatoes have ruined my life.” Most of her friends deserted her, leaving only her most loyal girlfriend, Mary Desti, mother of great American director, Preston Sturges. PHOTO:WIKIPEDIA COMMONS When Mary told Isadora she was destroying her legend, needed to cut back on her drinking and especially lay off the boys, gently adding that they weren’t interested in a woman of her age, Isadora stormed off in a huff.

They must have made up, because Mary was with her in Nice when Isadora spotted a young driver in an open-air Bugatti sports car. Being Isadora, she hopped in, and, prescient for the last time, shouted to her friends, “Adieu, mes amis, je vais a la gloire!” – “Goodbye, my friends, I go to glory!” She took off and moments later, the fringes of her signature scarf caught in the spokes of the back tire, instantly breaking her neck.

Isadora Duncan fought PuLEARNINGLAB.SI.EDU ritanism, championed feminism, celebrated the female body, and created a TOP: Portrait of Isadora Duncan. London, 1906. new art form. Today her legacy is manifest, evident in contemporary choreography, dance ABOVE: Isadora with schools, and yes: ballet. She even managed to exParis Singer. ceed the many and extravagant controversies of her life with her death, as flamboyant as it was tragic, almost as if she had designed it: Irish mysticism had fused with Greek tragedy – the dancer IA had become the dance.

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The Passion of the San Patricios

PHOTO: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

BY MARK R. DAY

Irish America looks back at the legacy of St. Patrick’s Battalion, an honor-bound group of Irishmen that championed the cause of the smaller Mexican force against the might of the American army during the MexicanAmerican War.

“YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND THAT WE MEXICANS AND IRISH ARE VERY SENTIMENTAL,” havior, and opportunism that drove the immigrants

said the slight, grandmotherly figure, leaning forward in a high-backed living room chair and choosing her words carefully. Short of stature, wiry, and extremely lucid for her 81 years, Patricia Cox, the noted Mexican novelist, was explaining why nearly 250 immigrant Irish soldiers deserted from the U.S. Army during the 1846 war with Mexico and joined the enemy forces, even though the latter were losing battles. A year later, just as Mexico City’s Chapultepec Castle fell to the Americans, U.S. Col. William S. Harney (known in the ranks as a “right hard hater”) gave the sign to hang 30 prisoners of the rebel St. Patrick’s Battalion, led by Galway-born Captain John Riley. The war was over, and Mexico was forced to cede half its territory to the colossus of the north.

Cox’s use of the word “sentimental” translates poorly into English. In Spanish, it connotes compassion, solidarity, and deep personal bonding, rather than superficial feelings. During the two-year conflict, the immigrant deserters forged a strong alliance with the Mexicans. But Anglo-American historians insist it was not solidarity but drink, disorderly be-

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into the enemy’s ranks. In a sense, the scholars’ conclusions are understandable. By the 1840s the stereotype of the drunken and combative Irishman had taken root in the U.S. consciousness, later hardening into vicious cartoons showing Paddy and Bridget as crude, hapless, simian brutes, congenitally incapable of assimilation into white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant society.

The memory of the Batallón de San Patricio might have sunk into oblivion had it not been for a visit Cox made to the former Franciscan friary of Churubusco in Mexico City in the 1950s. A custodian, mindful of her Irish ancestry, showed her a stone engraving commemorating a number of Irish volunteers that defended the convent / fortress as U.S. Gen. Winfield Scott’s army pushed into the city.

Encouraged by her husband, sculptor Lorenzo Rafael, Cox thoroughly researched the story and published the novel Batallón De San Patricio. The book earned her critical acclaim, a citation from President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, and has helped strengthen the bonds of affection between Mexico and Ireland.

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LEFT: “Battle of Churubusco. Fought near the city of Mexico 20th of August 1847 / J. Cameron.”

Hand-tinted lithograph.

1847. John Cameron (artist), Nathaniel Currier (lithographer and publisher).

Commemoration

PHOTO: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.

Those ties surface annually with the commemoration of the Batallón de San Patricio at Mexico City’s San Jacinto Plaza, where Gen. Scott ordered 16 of the deserters to be hanged on September 10, 1847. The square is now a peaceful park, punctuated by artists’ exhibits and surrounded by trendy restaurants. A cross section of the city’s Irish community and local dignitaries watch solemnly as a military band plays the Irish and Mexican national anthems. On the crowd’s periphery, an American tourist with a video PHOTO: THELMA DATTER / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS camera asks what the Irish were doing in Mexico in 1847. His wife tells him to hush.

Standing behind Walsh are two young Irish busiA police honor guard places a floral wreath near a nessmen, Mike Nolan and Des Mularkey. “It makes stone plaque commemorating the men who marched me proud when I think about the St. Patrick’s Battalwith Captain John Riley. As Stephanie Counahan ion and the affinity between the Irish and the Mexi(Cox’s daughter-in-law) calls out the name of each can people,” says Nolan. “People here remind me soldier, the crowd chants, “Murió por México” (“He that one of the members of the battalion was a Nolan. died for Mexico”). After a few speeches, the cereIt’s a great story of martyrs, of people fighting for a mony draws to a close with a drum roll and the playjust cause – and to think they were Irish, well, it ing of reveille. Slowly, the flags are folded, including makes you feel good.” Mularkey nods in agreement. one dedicated to Riley.

“It’s great that the Irish have done something here Among the onlookers is Denise Ogden, a Dublin and we are remembered for it,” he adds, “So you do native who has lived in Mexico City for 20 years. “I get a few goose pimples when you hear the Irish nathink this ceremony is important,” she says, carrying tional anthem played so far from home.” a two-year-old girl in her arms and flanked by two Later, Erwan Fouere, the European Community’s other daughters. “It shows how Mexicans were Irish-born ambassador to Mexico, explains that sevhelped by other nations and how much the Irish care eral Irish military figures made their appearance in about justice and peace throughout the world.” BeLatin America during its wars of independence. side Ogden is missionary Sister Noreen Walsh, who “These countries suffered the same problems the says her cousin Rory Lavelle of Galway has spent Irish faced – foreign domination, foreign control,” years researching John Riley’s roots. “He [Riley] was he says, his desk bordered by the flags of Mexico very aware of injustice and oppression and I think it and the European Community. Fouere recites the was easy for him to change over and fight with the names of the Irish liberators: Daniel Florencio Mexicans,” Walsh said. “I’m speculating, but I think O’Leary in Venezuela, Simón Bolívar’s chief lieuJohn Riley must have had some sense of God as well, tenant and biographer; Admiral William Brown, a and some sense of humanity.”

Cork man who founded the Argentine navy; and

ABOVE: Part of the art market in San Jacinto Plaza in colonial San Ángel of Mexico City.

FAR LEFT: The Churubusco monastery at the height of the 1847 Battle of Churubusco, during which the Batallón de San Patricio was captured, painted by James Walker.

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RIGHT: Hanging of the San Patricios, following the Battle of Chapultepec. Painted in the 1840s by Sam Chamberlain.

PHOTO: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS.

RIGHT BOTTOM: Commemoration plaque to the Batallón de San Patricios, Placa en honor a los soldados irlandeses, who fought on the side of Mexico during the unjust American invasion of Mexico 184648. It lists 71 names of those captured, killed, or executed by the Americans in 1847. In all, 50 Saint Patrick’s battalion members were officially executed by the U.S. Army. Collectively, this was the largest mass execution in United States history.

The plaque is displayed on a wall of the Plaza San Jacinto, San Ángel quarter, Mexico City, and was erected in 1959 in gratitude by the Mexican state.

ABOVE: Reconstruction of the battalion’s flag, as described by John Patrick Riley.

Bernardo O’Higgins, the liberator of Chile. ‘‘The San Patricios were in the same tradition,” Fouere says. “The majority were executed for their pains, but they became a symbol of Mexican independence and defense against imperialism.”

An Unpopular War

By most accounts, the U.S.-Mexican war was a pure and simple land grab. President James K. Polk and other expansionist politicians believed Mexico stood in the way of a U.S.-dominated continent from the Atlantic to Pacific coasts. Ironically, the so-called doctrine of Manifest Destiny was formulated by John O’Sullivan, the Irish-American editor of the Democratic Review, who wrote: “It is our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence of our yearly multiplying millions.”

After winning its independence from Mexico in 1836, Texas claimed that its southern border was the Rio Grande, while the Mexicans insisted it was the Nueces River, 150 miles to the north. Ten years later, spoiling for a fight, Polk ordered Gen. Zachary Taylor’s army to encamp on the banks of the Rio Grande.

When a skirmish developed with Mexican troops, the clarion call was sounded: “American blood has been spilled on American soil!” Congress declared war and from Sacramento, California to Veracruz, Mexico was invaded by five U.S. armies of occupation.

Anti-war sentiment was strong. Abraham Lincoln vigorously opposed the conflict and challenged Polk to show him exactly where American blood had been spilt. Ulysses S. Grant called it “the most unjust war

ever waged by a stronger over a weaker nation,” and former president, then-congressman John Quincy Adams died of a heart attack on the floor of the House while urging U.S. soldiers to desert rather than serve.

Labor historian Philip Foner reported that Irish workers demonstrated against the war, and in New England a workingmen’s association announced their refusal “to take up arms to sustain Southern slaveholders.” Yet thousands of destitute immigrants enlisted when offered 100 acres of public land and three months’ advance pay to help support their families.

The jingoists, however, shouted loudest and had their way. The New York Herald trumpeted, “The

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universal Yankee nation can regenerate and disenthrall the people of Mexico in a few years... We believe it is a part of our destiny to civilize that beautiful country.” According to historian Cecil Robinson, Mexico was seen as a petty dictatorship – as “a stronghold of Roman Catholic superstition and the dwelling place of a racially inferior people who needed to be conquered by a superior country.”

In the end Mexico’s poorly prepared conscripts were no match for the better-trained and -equipped U.S. forces.

From the battle at Palo Alto near Fort Brown, Texas until the final siege at Chapultepec, the Yankees outflanked and outgunned their opponents. Still, as the editors of the Chronicles of the Gringos conclude, the war was hell for both sides: “The Americans...did not like the army, they did not like war, and generally speaking they did not like Mexico or the Mexicans. This was the majority: disliking the job, resenting the discipline and caste system of the army, and wanting to get out and go home.”

Organizing the Battalion

Of all the characters in the Mexican-American War, John Riley remains one of the most colorful. Described as tall, blue-eyed, broad-shouldered, and fearless, Riley first deserted from the British army in Canada.

Later he joined Gen. Zachary Taylor’s U.S. forces, ordered by President James K. Polk to occupy a disputed border area in Texas near the Rio Grande. This provocation led to the outbreak of hostilities and to a declaration of war against Mexico on May 13, 1846.

After six months in the U.S. Army, Riley organized more than 150 deserters and persuaded the Mexican forces to accept them as a foreign legion. During the war, their number grew to more than 450. Most were Irish, but there were other immigrants with names like Vinet, Schmidt, Klager, and Longenheimer.

Riley dubbed them the San Patricio Battalion and fashioned a flag emblazoned with a crudely drawn figure of St. Patrick, a shamrock, and a harp. Several motives are given for the U.S. Army’s nine-percent desertion rate during the war, the highest in U.S. military history. Anglo-American officers often treated their subordinates with contempt, cruelty, and racism.

A common punishment for trivial offenses was “bucking and gagging,” or hanging a soldier by his wrists with a gag in his mouth. George Ballentine, an Englishman in the U.S. Army, cited this as one reason why the San Patricios deserted. Discipline was lax, and scores of drunken volunteers from Arkansas, Tennessee, and Texas had to be sent home after rap-

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cio, he might have won the war. When the convent / fortress fell, scores of San Patricios lay dead. Eighty-five were captured and 72 underwent trial at two separate court martials. Gen. Scott authorized capital punishment for 50 prisoners, pardoned five men, and reduced 15 sentences, including John Riley’s, from hanging to branding and whiplashing, since they had deserted before war was declared.

Historians recount that during their trials none of the San Patricios gave ideological or religious reasons for deserting, blaming their actions instead on drink or coercion by the Mexican army. But these scholars fail to explain both the nature of their legal defense and the kinds of testimony the court would permit. Peadar Kirby notes in his book Ireland and Latin America that the defendants were obviously trying “to make desertion less of a crime than it might appear.”

During a short armistice, Mexican military authorities and the archbishop of Mexico City pleaded on their behalf, but Gen. Scott turned down both petitions. In his book Sword and Shamrock, Robert Miller quotes an eyewitness account of the floggings and executions by Captain George Davis. Wondering why the men had PHOTO: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS. not died under the whiplashes, Davis compared their backs to pieces of raw beef, “the ing women, pillaging, and burning entire Mexblood oozing from every stripe as given.” ican villages, including churches. Meanwhile, Later, he observed the hangings of 16 prisoners morale deteriorated with harsh living condiat San Angel. Two men with nooses around tions on the South Texas plains: leaky tents in their necks stood in each of eight mule-drawn the cold winter, searing summer heat, insect wagons under a wooden scaffold. At the tap of bites, diarrhea, and dysentery. More than 1,000 a drum, the carts lurched forward, swinging the men died of these diseases even before Taylor’s men off. Meanwhile, five priests prayed for army crossed the Rio Grande. and administered last rites to seven who were The Mexican generals, conscious that 50 perpracticing Catholics. Afterwards, Riley helped cent of the U.S. troops were Catholic immibury several companions under the gallows. grants, sent handbills to Fort Brown (now the Two days later, with the hanging of 30 more border town of Brownsville, Texas) urging the San Patricios and the fall of Chapultepec Castle, men to join the Mexican army, offering them the war concluded. Months later, with the signbetter pay and a promise of 320 acres of land. ing of a peace treaty, Riley and his mates were Riley and his companions were among the earset free. After the war the battalion regrouped liest deserters. Their first recorded combat was into the Mexican army as two infantry units and in the defense of Monterrey, now one of MexRiley, now a colonel, became involved in a ico’s most industrialized northern cities. Later, failed attempt to topple the government and as artillerymen, they spearheaded a column of spent a few months in jail.

Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna’s army that Eventually, the battalion was disbanded and engaged the Americans at Buena Vista, a few several members left Mexico from the port of PHOTO: OSIONI / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS miles south of present day Saltillo.

Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico. Others settled Twenty-three men from the battalion died in in Mexico, but left few records. According to the encounter – at least five were decorated for bravery. The Mexicans Miller, Riley remained in the army until 1850 when he was diswere winning, but for some unexplained reason, General Santa Anna charged in Veracruz with $800 in back pay. There his trail ends, and suddenly withdrew his forces, ceding the victory to the Americans. one can only speculate whether or not he returned by ship to his naFrancisco Ollevides, the 80-year-old Dean of Saltillo’s historians, said tive Galway. sternly, “We don’t know what happened with Santa Anna, but one Despite the verdict of many historians, who consider the Batallón thing is certain – Mexico has never repaid its enormous debt to the de San Patricio a bizarre aberration in U.S. military history, these Irish. After all, they gave their lives for Mexico.” men have earned a prominent place in the hearts of the Mexican A year after Buena Vista, fortified by more deserters, the San people. Perhaps Gonzalo Maninez, a prominent Mexican film diPatricios helped defend the Churubusco convent against Gen. rector, best summed up those feelings. Standing recently near the Winifred Scott’s advance into Mexico City. The Mexican soldiers, embattlements of Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City, Martinez said, unable to withstand the gringos’ withering artillery fire, attempted “In every dirty war, there are a few good men who stand up for what to surrender. But each time they raised a white flag, Riley and his is right. The U.S. invasion of Mexico was such a war, and the San IA men pulled it down.

Patricios were those kind of men.” _______________

Capture and Punishment

Later Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna insisted that if he’d had a few hundred more men like those of the Foreign Legion of San Patri-

This article originally appeared in Irish America’s May / June 1993 issue.

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window on the past |

Hugh Daily A tenacious one-armed pitcher who overcame his disability but not his temper.

ABOVE: Hugh Daily in 1882 when he played for the Buffalo Bisons.

RIGHT: The Buffalo Bisons, 1882. Daily is circled.

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by Ray Cavanaugh

one-armed Irishman with a bat... It just sounds problematic. And baseball player Hugh “One Arm” Daily was indeed a problematic guy. His predicament made it impossible for him to succeed as a hitter, but despite his handicap, he managed to have a career as a pitcher in baseball’s major leagues.

Far more than a curiosity, he was for a couple of years a top-tier pitcher whose achievements included two 20-win seasons along with throwing a no-hitter and striking out 19 batters in one game – a record that lasted for a century.

Aside from triumphing over disability, Daily was known for his truculence. His verbal abuse of umpires and opposing players was legion, and he once punched his own catcher while on the field. Because of such antics, many spectators loved him. But he kept getting traded, as few others could tolerate his presence.

Daily was born on July 17, 1847.

Most sources list his birthplace as an unspecified part of Ireland, but Baseball-Almanac.com says that he was born in County Kerry. The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) reports that when he was four his family emigrated to the U.S., settling in Baltimore.

When he was around age 13, Daily was working as a carpenter’s apprentice at a local city theater. At that time, the Civil War was taking place, so this theater doubled as a Union armory. Details are now quite sketchy, but while young Daily was engaged in horseplay with a loaded musket, an accident took place that resulted in the loss of his left hand.

It’s unclear if Daily continued with carpentry, but we know for certain that he resumed playing baseball, however dubious a serious future in that sport was for him.

Adding to the unlikeliness of his major league career was that, after pitching for many years in semiprofessional leagues, his performance began to decline severely. In 1878, when he turned 31, he finished with five wins and 20 losses (according to SABR). Such a record for a 31-year-old in semi-pro ball is an obvious sign that it’s time to quit and find something else to do. But Daily wouldn’t take the hint. So, with his one good hand, he clawed his way out of pitching futility.

72 IRISH AMERICA MARCH / APRIL 2019

He was almost 35 years old – an age when many players have already retired – when he made his major league debut on May 1, 1882, with the Buffalo Bisons (now a minor league team, but back then a member of the National League).

Listed at 6’2” and 180 pounds, Daily batted right and threw right. A custom-made pad covered what would have been his left hand. When making a fielding play, he would try to trap the ball between the pad and his bare right hand, as described on BaseballLibrary.com. He could typically handle ground balls, but pop-ups with heavy spin were a challenge.

In today’s more (ostensibly) sensitive culture, “One Arm” probably wouldn’t take flight as a nickname. But the media in Daily’s era was plenty willing to use it, even though the appellation was inaccurate: Daily lost his left hand, not his whole arm. Either situation, of course, is typically an insurmountable obstacle to playing professional baseball. And Daily was the first pitcher with such a condition to make it to the majors.

His stellar rookie season finished with a winning record and an ERA of fewer than three runs per game. But instead of being celebrated as someone who overcame the odds, his penchant for outbursts – both verbal and physical – saw him shunned. So toxic was his presence that, at one point, his “teammates” were sabotaging their quality of play in an effort to make him lose the games he pitched and compel team management to release him.

In his second big-league season, Daily pitched for the Cleveland Spiders, for whom he threw a no-hitter on September 13, 1883. Back then, five-man starting pitcher rotations were nonexistent; in fact, teams tended to rely on just two starting pitchers. So, as his team had a double-header the day after his no-hitter, Daily pitched once again, and surrendered just one run. He finished the 1883 season with an ERA of 2.42, which was fifth-best in the league. And yet the Cleveland Spiders did not bring him back for the 1884 season.

For that matter, no team brought back Daily for a second consecutive season. But during the brief period they could tolerate him, teams ran his pitching arm into the ground. Some 96 percent of his pitching starts were complete games, which is a National League record. When at one point he voiced objections to being worked so much, his boss threatened to withhold his pay. When Daily’s overused pitching arm led to a decline in his performance, teams had scant reason to keep him around. Indeed, they found it hard enough to tolerate him even when he was good.

Subsequent to his final big-league start on August 21, 1887, Daily spent the ensuing six years as a semi-pro baseball player, constantly changing

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teams, just as he had done in the major leagues. By the end of the 1890s, Daily – who had so detested umpires during his pitching career – was reportedly working as one in Indiana.

As turbulently conspicuous as his playing career was, there is virtually no information about his postbaseball life. This is curious for multiple reasons: A 6’2” one-handed man tends to stand out, especially circa 1900-or-so, when men of such stature were less common. Also, his combative personality would likely have left an impression on many, if not put him in the local police blotter. But this once-volatile man seems to have eked out a quietly banal existence.

In the early 20th century, Daily lived in Philadelphia before returning to Baltimore, where he worked as a night watchman and resided with his two unmarried sisters. His name vanished from the city’s phone book in 1922. It is unknown if he left town, or if mortality had dispatched him – along with his one good hand and relentless spirit – to the next world’s field of dreams. IA

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Rainy Day Comfort Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain.

– Anonymous

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Edythe Preet

hen people who live elsewhere than Los Angeles phone me and ask “How’s the weather?” I often reply, “What do you mean ‘weather’? We only have sun.”

Call me an ingrate for grousing about the bounty of sunny days we experience, but constant sunshine has a real downside. Drought.

The natural climate in Southern California is semi-desert, and it would have always remained that way but for the aqueducts that carry water to the region from sources located hundreds of miles distant. That solution was engineered more than a century ago by the brilliant Irish immigrant, William Mulholland, who must have pined for the

An Irish Rain Vocabulary

People who live in a place where one natural element plays an important role in their lives have multiple words for its various forms.

The Eskimo people have dozens of words for types of “snow.”

Likewise, the Irish have many descriptions of “rain.”

Mist — tiny raindrops you can barely see or feel, like damp air.

Grand soft day — grey clouds, misty, not too cold, might rain later.

Drizzle — soft, misty rain that soaks through clothing.

Wetting rain — very thick mist that requires an umbrella.

Sun showers — short bursts of heavy rain intermixed with sunshine.

Cloudburst — a sudden, heavy shower that does not last long.

Lashing rain — heavy raindrops that bounce off the ground.

Trying to rain — solid cloud cover and heavy air, as if it might rain.

Driving rain — rain that beats against the windows, harsh and steady.

Rotten rain — steady rain that requires an umbrella.

Spitting rain — intermittent showers with medium raindrops.

Pelting rain — large raindrops that soak clothing and sting skin.

Pissing rain — heavy rain that requires fast windshield wipers.

Torrential rain — relentless rain that wipers can’t keep up with.

Pouring rain — continuous, heavy rain that challenges umbrellas.

Heavens opened — a sudden, heavy rain shower.

Downpour — a sudden, heavy, and long-lasting rain shower.

Thunder shower — a sudden heavy rain shower with lightning.

Shocking rain — heavy rain that runs off the land in rivulets.

Bucketing rain — sudden heavy downpours that can cause floods.

Raining stair rods — big, fat raindrops coming straight down and

really hard.

Hammering rain — non-stop, heavy rain.

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green hills of his childhood.

The other reason I kvetch about too much sunshine is quite mundane: I find it boring. I was raised on the East Coast, where the weather varies from season to season, and even day to day. Add to that my genetic memory that stems from ancestors in Italy and Ireland, where the weather also fluctuates, and it’s not very surprising that when it rains here I am delighted.

For several years, rain has been so rare in So-Cal that in 2018 my humongous fig tree, which with even moderate precipitation produces more than 1,000 fruit, bore none at all. In the first six weeks of 2019, however, we’ve seen more rain than in the past 2 years combined. Woohoo! I am one happy gal. The heavens are watering my garden. The fig will produce plump sweet fruit. I feel cozy indoors and happily splash in puddles like a big kid outdoors. Most important of all to this foodie, I have reasons to cook hearty meals.

For most of the year, I rely on my Italian ancestry for “Mediterranean Diet” recipes. But when it rains, I go full-bore Irish. The cooks of the Emerald Isle, where it’s chilly and rainy more than most places, get top marks for preparing delicious, stick-to-yourribs “comfort food.”

In January, when L.A.’s record-breaking deluges began, the first meal I yearned for was Dublin’s most famous dish, Dublin coddle. A traditional Saturdaynight specialty, coddle consists of bacon rashers,

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sausages, onions, potatoes, and a savory broth that are slow-baked in a low-temperature oven. With minimum fuss, busy housewives could always be sure that a hot dinner would be ready when their men came home after a few pints in the pub, no matter the hour. When I decided to make the coddle, I called a Dublin pal who now lives in L.A. and invited him to dinner. His response was: “Coddle?!? I could eat the Bee-jazus out of a plate of that!” And he did.

A few weeks later, another round of righteous rain saw me longing for a bowl of Irish stew. Determining the difference between “soup” and “stew” is like defining shades of green. Soups tend to be more watery, have finely cut ingredients, and have drinkable broth, while stews are thicker, the ingredients are chunky, and they are eaten with a spoon. Once the potato was added to Ireland’s soup pot in the 16th century, hearty Irish stew became such a mainstay of the Celtic kitchen that it now vies with corned beef and cabbage as Ireland’s national dish. For my money, the best Irish stew is made by adding a splash of another Irish treasure: Guinness. Being more of a beer fan, I don’t especially care for the dark, somewhat bitter brew (apologies to its millions of devotees), but adding Guinness to a beef stew brings out flavor that would make even the angels smile.

In between our heavy rains, we’ve seen consistent scattered showers. Yesterday it even rained while the sun was shining – a Los Angeles miracle!

Tonight, the weather guy forecasted three more storms rolling in on Pacific low-pressure systems that promise rain will fall for most of the coming week. Color me giddy with glee!

This time, I’ll be making yummy shepherd’s pie.

Traditionally, the dish is made with lamb (think shepherds and sheep). Another version made with beef is called cottage pie. Basically, the dish consists of meat cooked in an onion gravy that is placed in a pie pan, covered with mashed potatoes, and baked until the potatoes become crusty. The earliest cookery books say the meat was typically bits of any leftover roast and the pie pan was also lined with mashed potatoes, like a real pie crust. These days, cooks usually start by sautéing minced lamb or beef with onions, plus a bit of flour and broth to make a gravy, then follow through with the mashed potato topping. Some cooks also add chopped carrots, celery, and peas to the meat and gravy mixture. A similar method can be followed for chicken or fish. There’s even a vegetarian variation called shepherdess pie.

One thing is certain: whichever of Ireland’s favorite “comfort foods” you serve for dinner on a blustery, wet day, you can be sure that everyone’s IA taste buds will be dancing with joy! Sláinte!

sláinte | good cheer

RECIPES Dublin Coddle

⁄2 pound thick bacon slices cut in 3” lengths 1 pound Irish pork sausages 11⁄2 pounds potatoes, peeled and sliced 1⁄2” thick 1 pound onions Salt and pepper to taste 1

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Boil a kettle of water. Put the bacon and sausages in a saucepan and pour in enough boiling water to cover.

Bring back to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for five minutes.

Remove the bacon and sausages to a greased oven-proof casserole dish and save the liquid. Place the potatoes and onions on top of the sausages and bacon. Pour in enough reserved boiling liquid to cover.

Season with salt and pepper. Cover tightly with aluminum foil or a lid.

Place casserole in the oven and bake for one hour. Serves four.

Irish Beef Stew

1 pound beef cut in bite-sized chunks 1 cup flour mixed with salt & pepper Olive oil 3-4 large carrots, peeled and cut in bite-sized chunks 2-3 large potatoes, peeled and cut in bite-sized chunks 2-3 onions, skins removed and cut in eighths Water to cover 1 ⁄2 cup Guinness

Dust beef generously with flour mixture. Heat some olive oil in a large soup pot. Brown beef.

Add carrots, potatoes, and onions. Cover with water and Guinness. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to low and simmer at least two hours until beef is tender. Add salt to taste. Serves four. (Accompany with crusty bread to soak up every drop of the gravy!)

Shepherd’s Pie

Note: This is technically cottage pie. To make true shepherd’s pie, use ground lamb instead of beef.

4 11⁄2 1 2 2 1 2 2 1 1 2 1 1 ⁄2

cups mashed potatoes lbs ground lean beef medium onion, diced carrots, diced stalks celery, diced cup peas (frozen is fine) garlic cloves, minced tbsp flour tbsp tomato paste cup beef broth tsp Worcestershire tsp fresh thyme leaves tsp salt (or to taste)

Preheat oven to 400ºF. Sauté beef in a medium skillet over medium heat until browned, 7-10 minutes, then remove to a bowl. Add the onions, carrots, celery, peas, and garlic to the beef drippings in the pan and cook until soft. Reduce the heat to medium and add the tomato paste and flour. Sauté until the flour is completely moist. Return the beef to the pan. Add the broth, Worcestershire, and thyme. Simmer 5-10 minutes, until the gravy thickens.

Add salt to taste. Transfer the meat mixture into a greased 8”x8” baking dish. Spoon the mashed potatoes over the meat mixture and smooth, especially at the edges, to keep gravy from bubbling over. Place the dish in the oven on a sheet pan to catch any drips and cook for 20-30 minutes or until the mashed potatoes are golden. Let stand 5-10 minutes before serving. Makes four servings.

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review of books | recently published In the Galway Silence FICTION

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By Ken Bruen

he Galway Tourist Office must just brace itself every time there’s a new book out by Ken Bruen. For every delight that Galway is known for, Bruen has the down-atheel, dark-side alternative version.

Quirky shops? Dead swans. Lovely pubs? Out-and-out alcoholism. Friendly locals? Corrupt guards.

Great party vibe?

Vicious murder and brutality. But maybe they’re missing a trick.

Maybe the time has come for Galway to celebrate Bruen and his Jack Taylor series, and do one of those city tours incorporating all of the Taylor hot spots – Garavan’s pub, Mill Street Garda station, Eyre Square, College Road, etc. Taylor, of course, would absolutely hate it, but it’s not hard to imagine the softly-spoken Bruen getting quite the kick out of it.

In Galway Silence, Bruen’s fourteenth in the Taylor series, Jack is somewhat settled into domestic contentment with his girlfriend and her young son. He’s still drinking too much, and doing a bit of other stuff too, but he’s largely keeping himself to himself. When he’s hired by a wealthy Frenchman whose twin sons have been brutally murdered, it opens the door to some of the most unsettling characters imaginable.

And in a Jack Taylor novel, that’s something!

As murder continues to stalk the streets of Galway, the reader can’t help but wonder about this seedy underbelly in the City of the Tribes.

Not one for the faint-hearted, but rather for those who like their crime novels gritty, grimy and pure, pure Galway. There’s never much redemption in a Jack Taylor novel – but there seems be even less of it this time around, as the tale ends on a decidedly down note.

– Darina Molloy

(Mysterious Press / 288 Pages / $26)

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Maeve in America

By Maeve Higgins

aeve Higgins was reasonably well-known in Ireland as a comedian and television show host when she decided, at the age of 31, to head for pastures new. She is now making a go of it in New York City, hence the subtitle of her new book: Essays by a Girl from Somewhere Else. Higgins’ trademark wit is very much to the fore throughout the book, as she explores her feelings about (among other topics) dolphins, small talk, and other people’s children. She laments her poor track record in dealing with her personal finances: “Money feels like a tide that comes in and out, controlled by a moon I can’t reach.”

Her Irish name, as you’d expect, causes problem in her new home: “In this country of millions of people and this city of a thousand cultures, not many people know my name, or how to say it.” (Top tip: it rhymes with ‘brave.’) There’s also a lovely essay referencing Annie Moore, the first immigrant through the new Ellis Island processing center, and Higgins’ own journey from Cork to the U.S., when she was invited to the Kansas City Irish Fest. She subsequently wrote about the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Queens for the Irish Times newspaper.

Particularly in these turbulent times, Higgins acknowledges her good fortune in being able to live and work in the U.S. “I’m very lucky to get that chance to feel at home here, and even luckier to go back and forth freely between the two countries.

For most people around the world, America is a fortress. Forget about moving here; for huge swaths of the global population it is impossible even to visit.”

As is evidenced by these charming essays, she is a welcome addition to the country.

– Darina Molloy

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(Penguin Books / 256 Pages / $16)

Irish Above All

By Mary Pat Kelly

he third in Mary Pat Kelly’s historical fiction series based on her great-aunt, Nora Kelly, begins with Nora, as always, in the thick of things – in this case, back at home in Chicago from a years-long stay in Paris. She comes home to attend to a family crisis, but quickly gets wrapped up in the politics and culture of an increasingly diverse Chicago in the 1930s.

Her cousin, Ed Kelly, has big plans for the city’s landscape that she is only too happy to support him in, through the inevitable series of obstacles set by pushers of greed, intimidation, and anti-Irish sentiment that litter the community. Among them is Republican mayor Bill Thompson, historically notorious for his disinterested attitude toward the needier of Chicago’s citizens, and spouting worrisome, nativist rhetoric that is disquietingly familiar to contemporary readers. Nora remains by Ed’s side as he takes a turn as the white knight of Chicago by filling in as mayor, opening a whole new can of worms for the Kellys to face with their characteristically Irish determination and ingenuity.

Nora’s feisty temperament and progressive sensibilities lead her into trouble, as well as incredible opportunity: meetings with President Franklin Roosevelt, Joe Kennedy and his young son John, and a trip to Derry with First Lady Eleanor are just two of the ways she keeps her finger steadily on the ever-thudding pulse of a national and global narrative, leading through the Depression and World War II, all the way to a lovely surprise in the home of her ancestors.

Author Mary Pat Kelly’s easy weave of personal and historical conflict make this yet another informative and heartstring-tugging read, providing a tutorial on Irish and Irish-American influence that is both entertaining and absolutely necessary.

– Mary Gallagher

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(Forge Books / 508 pages / $28)

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roots |

by Mary Gallagher

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The Ferocious and Fascinating

FROM TOP: Hugh O’Neill Owen Roe O’Neill Henry Nelson O’Neil’s painting Eastward, Ho!

embers of the O’Neill Clan (anglicized from Ui Néill, “Neill” meaning “champion”) can trace their origins back to Niall Noígíallach “of the Nine Hostages” (c. 361-452). Niall united all the provinces under his rule, using hostages as a way to get power and influence. He also was up for a spot of kidnapping and that’s how the Welsh lad with Roman parents – whom we now know as St. Patrick – ended up in Ireland. Niall was known as the Irish Genghis Khan of his day; geneticists at Trinity College believe that he may have up to three million descendants worldwide!

He is said to have had 18 sons with 10 different women and 59 grandsons in his male line alone.

It’s no wonder then that the Ui Neill dynasty that descended from Niall split into two septs, northern and southern, at the beginning of the fifth century.

Today the existing line is officially attributed to Nial Gluin Dubh (870-919), “Niall of the Black Knee,” another warrior king who managed to bring the two septs together under his power and whose grandson Domhnall adopted the surname we recognize today.

Variants include O’Neil, O’Neal, ONeile, Onele, and Oneal.

One epithet the O’Neills bore was “Creagh,” derived from the Irish craobh, meaning “branch.” This is attributed to their tradition of disguising themselves as foliage for the advantage against Norse invaders. However, it could also derive from the legend of three O’Neill brothers who, after achieving victory in battle, were awarded laurel branches for their feat. Each allegedly took the name “Creagh,” to remember their triumph and their prize.

Among the many offerings of the O’Neill family to modern Ireland is the iconic, and controversial, symbol known as “The Red hand of Ulster” – an image lifted from the O’Neill family crest. The symbol comes from yet another legend of a competition between two chiefs for the territory of what is now either Tyrone or Ulster – whoever touched the shore of the land in question first would win control over it. When one, touted in some versions of the story as an O’Neill clansman, saw that he was going to lose, he reached for his sword, cut off his hand, and threw it to land on the shore and win the territory in a gruesome triumph of creativity. (Today,

78 IRISH AMERICA MARCH / APRIL 2019

the Red Hand has become associated with loyalist paramilitaries.) The O’Neills who ruled the territory afterward were inaugurated as “Ua Neill Mór”, or “the Great O’Neill.” King Aedh “the Stout” O’Neill (d. 1364) was the first to take the open, red (bloody) right hand and employ it on the family crest.

In his and his successors’ capacity as the kings of Ulster, the hand came to represent the entire province.

Hugh O’Neill (c. 1550-1616), who was made “the O’Neill” in 1595, is remembered for his six-year resistance against the British conquest of Ireland. He and his men joined forces with Irish chief Red Hugh O’Donnell and Spanish support to fight the battle of Kinsale in 1601. Their defeat eventually forced O’Neill and O’Donnell to abandon their homeland in what is now known as the Flight of the Earls in 1607.

O’Neill settled in Rome and died there, never to see his home again. (Read more about the end of O’Neill’s life spent in exile in the article by Cahir O’Doherty in our November / December 2018 issue, “Retracing the Footsteps of the Last Gaelic King of Ireland in Rome.”) The earls’ narrow escape set in motion an end to any sense of Irish autonomy, and the fight for the island’s independence was a largely losing battle in the centuries to come. Still, while many O’Neills, like their leader, were forced to leave Ireland, some stayed, keeping the name alive in the vicious battle to reclaim their freedom. The stalwarts split into two groups: the Tyrone O’Neills and Clan Aedh Buidhe, Irish for the “yellow-haired Hughs”.

Owen Roe O’Neill (1599-1649), Hugh’s nephew who fled with him to Europe in 1607, brought further recognition to the O’Neill name for his efforts upon his return to Ireland in 1642. After serving in the Spanish army for over 30 years, he led 300 fellow Irish officers in exile back home to fight in the Irish rebellion that had begun in 1641, and would become known as the Irish confederate wars. He took the reins of the entire Ulster rebel force from yet another O’Neill – Felim O’Neill of Kinard (1604-1652).

Felim was known for his take-no-prisoners method, which he took literally. With some of Owen Roe’s men in his command at Benburb, he ordered his troops to kill every enemy they encountered, rather than hold any captives. Felim and Owen continued to wage war for Irish independence, their love of competition spurring them on, and making encouraging gains in an ultimately unsuccessful rebellion. Keeping things in the family, Owen Roe’s nephew, Hugh Dubh O’Neill (1611-1660) made a name for himself by defeating Oliver Cromwell’s New Model Army a total of three times, notably at the defense of Clonmel in 1650, where a quarter of Cromwell’s men were lost. Hugh Dubh’s father, Art Óg O’Neill (1580-

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O’Neills

1643), was another exile who made the most of his time away, with a career in the Spanish Army of Flanders after the Battle of Kinsale.

The Hill of the O’Neill is located near Dungannon in Tyrone. It was claimed for its strategic value as a lookout point – all nine counties of Ulster were visible from its summit, enabling the O’Neills to keep track of their land. It is not far from Tullaghogue Fort, inauguration site of new O’Neill leaders. The site was later occupied by British forces in the 1900s, used to monitor rebellion during the Troubles.

The O’Neills arriving in America offered their services as well: roughly 175 men bearing that surname enlisted in the Continental Army, including Captain James O’Neill (b. 1738), whose efforts impeded a British surprise attack after the Battle of Brandywine.

Even the town of O’Neill, Nebraska, is named after founder General John O’Neill (1834-1878) an Irishman who fought for the Union during the Civil War, and led three of the Irish-driven raids attempting to remove Canada from British control.

By the early 1900s, the O’Neills had ventured into politics as well. Thomas Phillip “Tip” O’Neill, Jr. (1912-1994) was a passionate, fiery Democrat whose 13-year tenure as Speaker of the House was one of the longest in U.S. history. He was also an early Irish America interview. Paul O’Neill (b. 1935) was the 72nd United States Secretary of the Treasury during President George W. Bush’s administration. Richard Neal (b. 1949), the Democratic representative from Massachusetts’ 1st Congressional District, has supported Irish issues since 1988 when he was first elected to the House. He is an at-large whip for the House Democratic caucus and the Democratic Leader of the Friends of Ireland Caucus.

O’Neills have also offered their skills in the creative arenas. Henry Nelson O’Neil (1817-1880) was a painter of historical scenes. Among his beloved works are Eastward, Ho! and Home Again, along with a number of evocative pieces illustrating the deaths of Mozart and Raphael.

Eugene Gladstone O’Neill (1888-1953) brought esteem to the family name as a renowned playwright.

Born in New York City, he was the son of Irish immigrant James O’Neill (1847-1920). Eugene’s first published play, Beyond the Horizon, won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1920. In 1936, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. The father, James, became a successful theatre actor upon his arrival in the United States best known for starring in The Count of Monte Cristo. He was born in New Ross, County Wexford, where the Irish America Hall of Fame resides at the Dunbrody Famine Ship Replica exhibit.

Kevin O’Neill (b. 1953) is a celebrated comics il-

lustrator who has provided art for children’s comics along with several science-fiction series, including ABC Warriors, Nemesis the Warlock and Metalzpic.

He is best known for illustrating the comic series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

The O’Neills made the entertainment industry into a family business, as well. Ryan O’Neal (b. 1941) started out as a boxer and worked his way into film and television, breaking out in the soap opera Peyton Place, and earning an Oscar nomination for his lead role in Love Story (1970). O’Neal’s children embraced the world of show business as well, his daughter Tatum O’Neal (b. 1967) becoming the youngest ever to win a competitive Oscar at age 10 for her part in Paper Moon, which they had starred in together.

The iconic associations of the O’Neill name were even recognized in a short-lived television series, if a variant spelling can be forgiven. The Real O’Neals, starring Martha Plimpton and Jay R. Ferguson, centered on an Irish-Catholic family in Chicago, whose attempts to reconcile their traditional values with marital break-ups, homosexuality, and atheism drove the plot of the show. Though the series was cancelled after its second season, it showed a step toward acknowledging the unique space occupied by Irish Americans in the United States today.

Another O’Neill of renown is actor Ed O’Neill (b.

1946), known best for his roles in the ensemble casts of sitcoms Married...with Children! and Modern Family. O’Neill developed his niche in the workingclass, gruff characters he has portrayed over the course of his career of over 50 years, and has had his caliber as a comedic actor recognized with multiple awards and nominations. (Find Patricia Harty’s interview with Ed online at www.irishamerica.com) Topping off our list of reputable O’Neills is New York City’s Police Commissioner, James P. O’Neill (b. 1958), one of Irish America’s Hall of Fame honorees, and the face on the cover of this issue – read about him in our profile on page 56. O’Neill’s 36-year career in law enforcement and efforts to secure public safety make him a perfect representative of the O’Neill dedication. That dedication is what made them an iconic Irish dynasty centuries ago, and IA remain committed contributors today.

FROM TOP: Thomas Phillip “Tip” O’Neill, Jr. with President Ford.

Kevin O’Neill Ryan O’Neal Tatum O’Neal (Photos: Wikipedia)

MARCH / APRIL 2019 IRISH AMERICA 79

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photo album | Patrick Joseph Killen

My Grandfather the Diver M

TOP: Patrick Killen and Violet Johnston, Brighton Beach, N.Y., 1923.

RIGHT: (1934) Patrick Killen with his daughter, Margaret and son, Joseph Patrick.

80 IRISH AMERICA MARCH / APRIL 2019

y grandfather, Patrick Joseph Killen, (“Pop”), was born in Downpatrick, County Down, in 1897. He sailed with his sister Margaret for America in 1911, and arrived in New York on his 14th birthday. Many of his family were already here, but, sadly for him, his older sister Mary stayed behind, and he would not see her again for 57 years.

In 1920, Patrick received his Certificate of Service to Able Seaman and began his career as a salvage diver and an underwater welder. He worked on the piers and bridges around Manhattan until his retirement in 1966.

In 1925, Patrick married Violet Johnston, the love of his life.

They had two children, Joseph and Margaret (my mother).

He enjoyed his job as a diver, though it was dangerous work.

Decompression sickness, also known as “the bends,” was one of the hazards of the job. If a diver rose too quickly to the surface, it could cause nitrogen bubbles to form in the bloodstream and the tissues of the body, and in serious cases, it could lead to unconsciousness and death. Patrick always wore his diver’s pin to let people know that if they came upon him in an unconscious state, he should be taken to the decompression chamber at the Navy Yard – not to the hospital.

In 1943, during WWII, Patrick worked on the salvage operations of the S.S. Normandie, the flagship Art Deco luxury liner of the French. It was being re-fitted as a troop transport ship when it caught fire and sank in the Hudson River.

Joseph “Joe” Killen, Patrick’s son, fought in WWII. He joined the 47th Infantry, 9th Division when he was 18, and received the Silver Star and two Purple Hearts for heroics during the Battle of Remagen. Patrick, himself, was part of the U.S. Navy salvage operations helping to rebuild the U.S. naval ports in Greece after WWII. Patrick worked as a diver for 46 years. His last job, before retiring in 1966, was on the construction of the Verrazano Bridge, which marks the gateway to New York Harbor.

In 1968, Patrick flew to Old Woking, England, to see his sister Mary, who was then 81. He hadn’t seen her since she had hugged him goodbye in 1911.

Patrick was truly dedicated to his family, his Irish heritage, and his Catholic faith. He also knew how to have fun, and he’d laugh so hard that tears would run down his cheeks.

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TOP LEFT: Patrick Killen tending to a diver.

CENTER: Patrick’s Compressed Air Worker’s pin.

ABOVE: The S.S. Normandie lies on its side in the Hudson River after a fire aboard ship.

He and I had a special bond.

It was Pop’s passion and love for the sea that inspired me to create highly specialized protective fabrics; specifically, the Marine Corp F.R.O.G (Fire Retardant Operational Gear), and the Army and Marine Corp P.U.G. (Protective Undergarment) designed to protect military personnel from the damaging and life-threatening impacts of blast wounds caused by IED explosions and shrapnel in combat.

Pop passed away in 1975, and I inherited his diver’s pin, which I treasure. To me, it embodies the hard work, sweat, and determination of all immigrants who, like Pop, came to America wanting a better life for their families, and went on to leave their mark on the landscape of the country.

Thirty years after Pop died, on a beautiful October day, I drove to Fire Island to surf fish for the day. Later, before heading home to Pennsylvania, I decided to stop by the Fire Island Lighthouse, which has special meaning for the Killen family. It was just before sunset when I parked. And as I looked over to the car parked next to mine, I recognized my cousin, Jim Killen. We had not seen each other in many years.

“Do you know what day it is?” Jim asked in greeting.

“Yes. It’s a remarkably beautiful Sunday in late October,” I replied.

“It’s Pop Killen’s birthday,” Jim said. Goose bumps ran down my spine. It was as if our grandfather was there with his two grandsons. We went and had a few beers and toasted Pop. IA

– Submitted by George Kelnhofer

LEFT: (1968) Patrick and his sister, Mary McAllister, meet up after 57 years.

TELL US YOUR STORY Please send photographs, along with your name, address, phone number, and a brief description to Patricia Harty at Irish America, 875 Sixth Avenue, Suite 1606, New York, NY 10001. If photos are irreplaceable, then please send a good quality reproduction or email the picture at 300 DPI resolution to submit@irishamerica.com.

MARCH / APRIL 2019 IRISH AMERICA 81

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crossword | ACROSS

4 Irish-produced movie about the Jamie Bulger case (10) 6 (& 29 across) Iconic Mayo mountain (6) 10 Early Irish law (6) 11 North Mayo’s national park and Dark Skies location (9) 13 _______ Falls is one of the newest national landmarks to turn green for St. Patrick’s Day this year (8) 15 ________ Causeway has been rated the top tourist attraction in the North of Ireland (6) 16 Irish for “heavy” (4) 18 See 15 across (8) 20 (& 40 across) “Digging” and “Mid-Term Break” are among the best-known of this late poet’s work (6) 22 This Dublin cemetery is a must on any visitor’s to-do list (9) 24 The Irish Emigration Museum in Dublin is known as ______ (4) 27 Guinness is this type of beer (5)

By Darina Molloy

28 In a new or different way (4) 29 See 6 across (7) 31 Home of poet and writer Patrick Kavanagh (8) 35 (& 39 across) The protagonist of Douglas Kennedy’s newest novel, The Great Wide Open, who spends time in 1970s Dublin (5) 37 Well-known Dublin coffee shop (7) 38 Of, or pertaining to, the country (5) 39 See 35 across (5) 40 See 20 across (6)

DOWN

1 A principle or value that one actively pursues as a goal (5) 2 Christy Moore wrote a song about this County Clare town (12) 3 A conversation where questions are asked and answers are given (9) 5 A large, unruly crowd (3) 7 See 21 down (7) 8 (& 23 down) Irish star of Outlander (9) 9 A species of palm tree cultivated for its fruit (4) 12 See 26 down (7)

Win a subscription to Irish America magazine

14 Snug and comfortable (4) 17 See 30 down (7) 19 Ireland’s cricket team played their first test match against this country (8) 21 (& 7 down) Quinoa originated on this continent (5) 23 See 8 down (5) 25 A glaze, sauce, icing or pastry filling made from chocolate and cream (7) 26 (& 12 down) Ireland’s Tánaiste, or deputy prime

Please send your completed crossword puzzle to Irish America, 875 Sixth Avenue, Suite 1606, New York, NY 10001, to arrive no later than April 12, 2019. A winner will be drawn from among all correct entries. If there are no correct solutions, the prize will be awarded for the completed puzzle which comes closest in the opinion of our staff. The winner’s name will be published along with the solution in our next issue.

Xerox copies accepted.

Winner of the January / February crossword: Allan Goldberg, Brooklyn, NY 82 IRISH AMERICA MARCH / APRIL 2019

minister (5) 30 (& 17 down) This Irish American actress plays a “red” in Orange is the New Black (4) 31 Hardly major (5) 32 Well-known Druid Theatre director

______ Hynes (5) 33 Offaly home of this well-known castle (4) 34 Irish jello (5) 36 Clash of the _____ (3) 37 Academic degree in science (1, 1)

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