Monthly Archives: February 2013

Obama declares Irish-American Heritage Month

President Barack Obama has declared March as Irish-American Heritage Month.

Generations of Irish left the land of their forebears to cast their fortunes with a young Republic. Escaping the blight of famine or the burden of circumstance, many found hardship even here. They endured prejudice and stinging ridicule. But through it all, these new citizens never gave up on one of our oldest ideas: that anyone from anywhere can write the next great chapter in the American story.

Here’s the full proclamation.

From Downpatrick to Tampa, St. Patrick and St. Francis

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Dr. Tim Campbell, left, director of the St. Patrick’s Centre in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland, visited the Franciscan Center in Tampa, Florida, on Feb. 27. He is shown here with blogger Mark Holan, a member of the Franciscan Center’s board of directors.

Campbell was on a week-long tour of the United States to promote the County Down centre dedicated to Ireland’s patron saint, and to encourage more charitable activity among “Friends of St. Patrick’s” groups.

During his Tampa visit, Campbell met with members of the Center for Catholic-Jewish Studies at St. Leo University, and with Tampa Councilwoman Mary Mulhern and Mayor Bob Buckhorn. His day concluded with a reception at the Franciscan Center.

On March 2 and March 16, the city of Tampa and the Salvation Army, in partnership with the St. Patrick’s Centre, are collecting canned food for the needy in the spirit of St. Patrick. “Homelessness and hunger have been very familiar to generations of Irish immigrants,” Campbell said at the Franciscan Center.

The Milwaukee Irish Fest has led the way for making such charitable activity part of its annual celebration of Irish heritage. Now Tampa is trying to do the same as it prepares for the Mayor’s Second Annual River O’ Green Fest.

Popular politics and agrarian violence in Kerry, 1880s

I just finished Donnach Sean Lucey’s “Land, Popular Politics and Agrarian Violence in Ireland: The Case of County Kerry, 1872-1886.” The link contains a review of this 2011 academic text.

My interest in Lucey’s subject are twofold. First, my maternal great grandfather and great great grandfather leased a 5-acre parcel in Lahardane townland near Ballybunion during the period. Second, I am researching the murder of a nearby North Kerry farmer two years after the period detailed by Lucey.

My maternal ancestors would have been well aware of the Land League and later Irish National League activities in the area, especially in the nearby market town of Listowel. Their level of participation in rent strikes and other protests, if any, remains unclear to me at this point. Property records from the Irish Valuation Office indicate great great grandfather William Diggin was evicted from the farm during the 1884-1899 period, but his son John Diggin is shown as occupier of the same parcel from 1900 forward.

Agrarian violence, euphemistically called “outrages,” was widespread during the period, especially in the north-central Kerry triangle between Listowel, Tralee and Castleisland. The activity ranged from maiming cattle to murder. As Lucey writes:

By the end of 1882 Kerry had become synonymous with agrarian violence and was one of the most disturbed counties in Ireland.

He goes on to detail how the violence was driven by complicated and overlapping motivations, including Fenian-inspired nationalism, anti-landlord rent disputes and family feuds. Not surprisingly, most of the violence was perpetuated by young, unmarried men who did not own or lease land and were not their family’s oldest son and thus in line to inherit such a role. They were late 19th century rural gang-bangers, called “moonlighters,” causing alcohol-fueled trouble for kicks as much as for any social or political reasons.

Which brings me to the case of farmer John Foran (Forhan, in some documents), who was shot to death near Listowel in July 1888. His trouble started in 1883, when he obtained the farm of another man who fell a year behind in his rent. The community shunned, or boycotted, Foran and his family to such a degree that it was reported he could not obtain a coffin to bury is wife.

Foran’s situation reached the attention of the English Parliament in London two years before his murder, and it was propagandized in anti-Irish home rule political fliers during the 1892 elections, four years after his death. English lawmakers continued to discuss the Foran murder as late as 1909, when the original tenant was reinstated to the farm. Foran’s daughter Nora, who immigrated to Pittsburgh, continued to seek remuneration for her father’s death as late as 1925.

Readers with information about the Foran murder or other late 19th century political activity and agrarian violence in North Kerry are encourage to contact the blog. Meanwhile, thanks to Donnach Sean Lucey for his excellent and enlightening work on the subject.

A tale of two pubs

The latest issue of Irish America features two stories about pubs. The mag doesn’t make a connection between the two, but we do.

The first story notes that Pat Cohan’s bar in Cong, County Mayo “where John Wayne and Victor McClglen brawled and raised pints in John Ford’s ‘The Quiet Man,’ ” has been put up for sale.

The place was a shop until being transformed into a bar about five years ago, but it seems the visiting tourists haven’t bought much drink.

I A’s second story details how a new version of the American television sitcom “Cheers” is going to be produced on Irish language network TG4.

One of the creative directors said the new show will be “set in a picturesque town in the West of Ireland” rather than a city like Dublin or Boston, home of the original.

Seems like they might find a set ready to go in Mayo. Sláinte!

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Ireland joins world reaction to Pope Benedict’s abdication

Ireland joined the rest of the world in reacting to Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to step aside at the end of the month.

Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny had nothing but praise for the 85-year-old pontiff.

“Pope Benedict has given strong leadership and great service to the Church and her people for many decades,” Kenny said. “I know that all of their thoughts and prayers will be with the holy father at this time, and also with those who will shortly gather in conclave to choose his successor.”

That’s quite a change of tune from July 2011, when Kenny made headlines with his biting criticism of the Vatican’s handling of priest/child sex abuse scandal in Ireland. He accused the Holy See of “dysfunction, disconnection, elitism — the narcissism — that dominate the culture of the Vatican to this day.”

Last September, Kenny drew criticism for checking his mobile phone during a meeting with the pope.

The Irish Times provided additional reaction from Irish leaders about the pope’s decision.

Benedict never visited Ireland, though it was rumored he might attend the 50th Eucharistic Congress in Dublin last June.

“It’s a pity he never made it to Ireland,” David Quinn, director of the Iona Institute writes in a thoughtful reflection on the pope’s legacy in Ireland. “Had he come here I am convinced that no matter how much controversy there might have been in the lead-up to his visit, he would have won most of us over once he arrived…”

There’s never been an Irish or Irish-American pope. Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, at 25-to-1 odds, is considered to have the best chance of being elevated among cardinals from Ireland or of Irish descent.

New report links Irish state to Magdalene laundries

Irish and U.S. media are swarming with coverage of the latest government report about the notorious Magdalene laundries. The news here is state collusion with the Irish Catholic Church in running the abusive laundries.

Here’s a description from Time:

The laundries — a beneficent-sounding word that helped hide the mistreatment that took place inside their walls — were operated by four orders of Catholic nuns in Ireland from 1922 to 1996. Over 10,000 young women, considered a burden by family, school and the state, spent an average of six months to a year locked up in these workhouses doing unpaid, manual work. Some were kept there against their will for years. Their numbers were made up by unmarried mothers and their daughters, women and girls who had been sexually abused, women with mental or physical disabilities who were unable to live independently, and young girls who had grown up under the care of the church and the state. The laundries were “a mechanism that society, religious orders and the state came up with to try and get rid of people deemed not to be conforming to the so-called mythical, cultural purity that was supposed to be part of Irish identity,” [said] Irish historian Diarmaid Ferriter.

The horrors of the Magdalene laundries have been know about for years. Here’s a 1999 video report by 60 Minutes. Now “the Maggies” are waiting for an official apology from the Irish government.

Lest anyone think such abuse of children is unique to Irish or Catholic institutions, take a look at the excellent reporting of the Tampa Bay Times about the sordid history of the Florida School for Boys.

Irish-American population in the U.S. hits 34.5 million

The U.S. Census Bureau this week released new Irish-American demographic figures in advance of St. Patrick’s Day.

The data show Irish-Americans are older (39.3 years to 37.3 years); wealthier ($57,319 median income to $50,502) and better educated and more successfully employed than the U.S. average.

It’s a long way from the days of “No Irish Need Apply.”

Foreign trade statistics show the value of Irish imports in 2011 topping $39.4 billion, with medical, dental and pharmaceutical preparations leading the way at $27.8 billion. Alcoholic beverage imports totaled a mere $538.1 million by comparison.

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