Category Archives: History

JFK’s next to last resting place

There was plenty of attention last year about the 50th anniversaries of John F. Kennedy’s 1963 trip to Ireland and assassination in Dallas. Today I was abruptly reminded of the later event.

My wife (@AngieHolan) and I attended the Saturday vigil Mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C. I was walking up the center aisle to receive Holy Communion when I noticed the marble plaque on the floor just before the sanctuary:

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“…People come to the cathedral from across the country and around the world, with many wanting to stand at that very spot,” Catholic News Service reported last year. I hope to visit the JFK gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery in the near future.

Also worth noting at the Cathedral in terms of Irish America is the lunette mural above the main entrance. It’s titled “Saintly and Eminent Personages of the Americas.”

Click here for key to figures on church website.

Click here for key to figures from the church website.

Among the figures depicted on the mural are The Most Reverend John Carroll, the first bishop and archbishop in the United States and the founder of nearby Georgetown University, the nation’s oldest Catholic university; and James Cardinal Gibbons, the first cardinal of Baltimore.

Carroll was from a prominent Irish-Catholic family with roots in counties Laois, Offaly and Tipperary, according to this story in Irish America. Gibbons parents were from Tourmackeady in County Mayo.

As chairman of the American Commission on Relief in Ireland, Gibbons helped lead efforts to aid Ireland during the Irish War of Independence. In this March 2, 1921, letter published in Catholic newspapers, he wrote:

I need not urge upon the Americans of Irish descent their special duty to their own flesh and blood; they have given generously to all other suffering people, they will not forget their own. … The whole Catholic church of America is most deeply indebted to the Irish people. It is not too much to expect that in every parish of our land effective means be taken to collect funds for the relief of the suffering in Ireland.

Gibbons died a few weeks later on March 24, 1921, before the end of the war and year of civil war that followed.

Easter Rising: The view from Washington, D.C.

I recently Tweeted:

Dueling Risings? I’ve just discovered & Followed @1916Centenary and @lrishRepublic. Both are nice adds to other centennial sites. #history

I received reply Tweets from both micoblogs, which are each dedicated to the upcoming 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising. In that spirit, and still less than one week into my move to Washington, D.C., I decided to dive into The Washington Post‘s coverage of events in Dublin on 24 April 1916. (I can’t link here due to proprietary archive service.)

The Post‘s first story appeared on 26 April, in the top left corner of the front page. Here are the multiple headlines:

Battle in Dublin streets;

Rebels hold parts of city;

Grave Irish revolt begun

British Admit 12 Killed, 18 Wounded;

Losses of Revolutionists Said to

Be Several Hundred.

Postoffice and Many Buildings Seized by Revolutionists and Are Used as Forts — Troops are Hurried From Military Camps Nearby, and More May Be Sent From England — Uprising Regarded as Climax of Movement Engineered by Sir Roger Casement — Spread to Southern Centers Is Now Feared in London.

The story was datelined from London on 25 April. It began:

Almost coincidental with the capture of Sir Roger Casement, leader of the separatist faction in Ireland, while he was attempting to land arms from Germany on the coast of Ireland, there has occurred in Ireland a revolutionary outbreak of considerable proportions.

The Post published an early 20th century view of Sackville Street on page 2, taken before the Rising, to point out the rebel stronghold at the General Post Office, described as “an imposing stone structure … admirably built to serve as a fortress if properly manned by guns.”

The GPO in the aftermath of the 1916 Easter Rising.

The GPO and Nelson’s Pillar in the aftermath of the 1916 Easter Rising. (This is not the image that appeared in the Washington Post.)

A good description of the building and the situation, but there is a problem with the picture Post readers viewed in April 1916. The black and white image appears to have been flopped, a common error in early 20th century and later newspaper reproduction. The photo shows the [Daniel] O’Connell Monument in the foreground with Nelson’s Pillar further beyond in the center of Sackville Street. The GOP is shown to the right side of the image. Correct me if I’m wrong here, but the GPO should be on the left side of the street in an image taken with the photographer’s back to the Liffey.

I’ll delve more into the Post‘s coverage of the Rising in future posts.

Now blogging from metro Washington, D.C.

Mark Holan’s Irish-American Blog has relocated to metro Washington, D.C.

I am living about five miles west of the Irish Embassy in the Virginia Square section of Arlington, Va. St. Patrick Catholic Church is less than seven miles to the east. Both places are within easy walking distance of the Orange line Metro stops. (More of a hike from Green line stations.)

My condo is about halfway between Ireland’s Four Courts and Ireland’s Four Provinces. Both pubs are sponsoring fundraising events to support Washington, D.C.’s 43rd Annual St. Patrick’s Parade on March 16.

I have joined Irish Network DC and look forward to making new friends in the Irish-American community here while exploring the many contributions that Ireland’s sons and daughters have made to America.

Better late than never

There’s a hint of an earlier age to this story, like those recently discovered unopened 18th century letters from Irish people living in the Bordeaux region of France.

Kinealy

Kinealy

In this second week of January 2014 I received a tri-fold piece of mail informing me that Christine Kinealy, an authority on the Irish famine, “has been appointed director of the newly created Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute at Quinnipiac [University, near New Haven, Conn.] … The Institute will build upon the work of Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum … while providing a forum for developing new scholarship about, and new engagement with, this tragic period in Ireland’s history.”

That’s great. I enjoyed my March 2013 visit to the An Gorta Mor archive collection and separate museum. Both are important stops for anyone interested in Irish history.

The only problem with the postal piece? Kinealy’s appointment was announced in August.

Here’s the Spring 2014 schedule of programs at the museum.

Big storms, then and now

Ireland was being battered by huge storms on Jan. 6, including winds of up to 100 miles per hour. It’s the latest in several rounds of rough weather across the country and Western Europe. Irish Central reports:

Islands off the Irish coast have been worst hit by the relentless pounding so far with a resident of Inishbofin of the Galway coast describing the weather as “the worst in living memory. … Thundery rain will lead to major flooding according to the national weather service, Met Eireann, which issued an orange storm warning. Towns and villages recovering from last week’s storms are now bracing themselves for another battering with high seas in excess of 40 feet expected on the south and west coasts.

By coincidence, the storm comes at the 175th anniversary of the “The Night of the Big Wind,” as detailed in this fine piece by Turtle Bunbury at The Wild Geese.

On 6th January 1839, the entire island of Ireland was subjected to a tempest of such ferocity that it became the date by which all other events were measured. The Night of the Big Wind – known as ‘Oiche na Gaoithe Moire’ – was the JFK assassination or the 9/11 of the 19th century. It was the most devastating storm ever recorded in Irish history and made more people homeless in a single night than all the sorry decades of eviction that followed it.

Untitled image from The Wild Geese.

Untitled image from The Wild Geese.

Here’s a link to a site that contains two screens of period news coverage about the storm, including a report from north Kerry that “that monument of Antiquity, Ballybunion Castle, is a heap of ruins.”

Kay Caball of My Kerry Ancestors notes the storm became an important demarcation when old age pensions were instituted in the early 20th century. She writes:

In 1909 the British government, which was still ruling Ireland, instituted a system of old age pensions. When dealing with the rural population of Ireland, where the written records might be scanty, the ferocious storm that blew in from the north Atlantic 70 years earlier proved to be useful. One of the questions asked of elderly people was if they could remember the “Big Wind.” If they could, they qualified for a pension.

Best of the Blog, 2013

This is my first annual “Best of the Blog,” a look at some of the most important news stories, historical anniversaries and personal favorite posts of the past year. I am not numbering the list to avoid the appearance of rank. Most links are to my original posts.

Enjoy, and Happy New Year:

  • The most significant personal milestone of the year was the centennial of my grandfather’s May 1913 emigration from County Kerry. I detailed Willie Diggin’s trip in a series of posts and recently published book, “His Last Trip: An Irish-American Story.”
  • The year 2013 marked the 150th anniversary of the Irish Brigades fighting in the Battle of Gettysburg and Irish-Catholic anti-conscription riots in New York City. It was the 100th anniversary of the Dublin labor lockout and the formation of the Irish Volunteers.
  • Ireland also noted the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s return to his ancestral homeland in June 1963. November marked the 50th anniversary of the assassination of America’s first Irish-Catholic president.
  • Ireland liberalized its abortion laws in 2013 after a contentious debate with the Catholic Church, including a controversial appearance at the Boston College commencement by Irish PM Enda Kenny. Kenny won the abortion battle, but his effort to abolish the Seanad Éireann was defeated in a nationwide referendum.
  • The Irish community in Boston was in the news with the trial and conviction of mobster James “Whitey” Bulger, and the election of new mayor Martin J. Walsh.
  • The Irish Independent obtained recorded telephone conversations between former Anglo Irish Bank executives that revealed the depth of deception leading up to a government bailout of the failed financial institution. The Irish banking scandal and property bust reached all the way to Tampa, where I have covered problems with a retail and entertainment complex called Channelside Bay Plaza.
  • The Gathering Ireland 2013 focused on increasing visitors to their ancestral homeland. Project officials said it delivered more than a quarter million overseas tourists as of Dec. 23.
  • RIP: The passing of Seamus Heaney, 1939-2013, was probably the most significant death in Ireland during the year. Watch New York Times video tribute. The death of Margaret Thatcher also caused quite a stir on the island, though hardly as affectionate.
  • U.S. President Barack Obama and other global leaders attended the G8 Summit at County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, something that would have been unthinkable a generation ago. Nevertheless, as the year ended, U.S. envoy Dr. Richard Haass and Northern Ireland political leaders were still trying to finalize on agreement to solve ongoing problems with flags, parades and the past.
  • The past year was the 125th anniversary of the murder of Kerry farmer John Foran, a victim of the agrarian violence so widespread across Ireland in general and Kerry in particular during the last quarter of the 19th century. I look forward to doing more research and writing about this episode and the period in the new year.
This image of Kerry was used to illustrate a New York Times story headlined "Lost In Ireland. I've had it posted at my desk since it was published in October 2010. In 2014, I'll be moving to Washington, D.C. and look forward to seeing what's beyond the hill.

This image of rural road in Kerry illustrated a New York Times story headlined “Lost In Ireland. It was published in October 2010. I’ve kept the picture posted at my work desk ever sense. In 2014 I’ll be moving to Washington, D.C. and look forward to seeing what’s beyond the hill.

Fenian, O’Rossa archives at Catholic Univeristy

I’ve been fortunate this year to visit three Irish/Irish-American archives:

In March, I visited Quinnipiac University’s An Gorta Mor (The Great Hunger) archive and museum in Hamden, Conn.

In September, I viewed the Allegheny County Ancient Order of Hibernians archive at the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh.

And now in December, I’ve spent a few hours at the Fenian Brotherhood/O’Donovan Rossa collection at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Timothy J. Meagher, curator and archivist at The American Catholic History Research Center & University Archivist, and his staff were most helpful during my brief visit. Meagher has written extensively about Irish America.

Among the items that caught my eye was a pamphlet by Rev. C. F. O’Leary reflecting his October 1884 lecture in New York titled, “The Church and Irish Revolution.” In the speech the priest worried that efforts by the hierarchy to suppress grassroots Irish nationalism would “leave the people without hope and tyrants without restraint.” Fr. O’Leary also dismissed church criticism of the agrarian and republican secret societies associated with the land war of the period.

In conclusion, he said:

The Church does not condemn the bonding together in secret societies for a true and just cause. … Secrecy is necessary to success in Irish revolution; and, even if that secrecy is oath-bound it is not thereby sinful. No Irish revolutionist swears to anything not based on truth, justice and judgement. He swears to nothing that is not already defined. He but swears to what every Irishman swears in his heart, that he would be willing to strike for Ireland.

Thus do we stand before the Church and the world claiming in sight of high Heaven our long-lost rights, and having but the one elevated and avowed aim to give our country her rightful place among the nations of the earth. Thus do we stand, as we have stood for centuries, determined to fight the battle over again for freedom and right –– resolved that on the cause must go, emanating from the nation’s will.

“O’Bama” cuz pulls the prez

Since I’ve written about JFK and Ronald Reagan over the past few weeks it seems only fair to link to this Politico Magazine story about the shrewd young Irishman who has made the most of Barack Obama’s Irish “roots.”

Henry Healy has made himself a minor celebrity in Ireland and the U.S. by exploiting his uncle’s genealogy research that traced Obama’s great-great-great grandfather to the village of Moneygall in County Offaly.

All in good fun and hospitality, of course.

Obama visited the village in May 2011, naturally tipping a pint at the local pub. I did a drive-by visit with my wife and some Irish friends in May 2012, seeing the outside of the ancestral home and sticking my head in Ollie Hayes’ place. Pictures below:

Plague

Outside

Letters offer glimpse of 18th century Ireland, France

Some of the 125 previously unopened letters written by Irish residents living in the Bordeaux region of France during the Seven Years War are now on display at New York University’s Bobst Library.

The letters were discovered two years ago by NYU professor Thomas M. Truxes, and most have been opened and reproduced in a companion book, “The Bordeaux-Dublin Letters, 1757 Correspondence of an Irish Community Abroad,” Edited by L. M. Cullen, John Shovlin, and Truxes.

One of the unopened letters from 1757.

One of the unopened letters from 1757.

In a release, NYU says:

The themes are universal: There are students asking their parents for money, and fathers chastising their children for being disobedient or lazy. There are love letters, letters filled with petty gossip, and letters expressing the frustrations of Irish prisoners of war languishing in French jails.

The Bordeaux-Dublin Letters “reinforce a common humanity across time — the people we see in these letters are no different from people we know today . . . so once you get beyond the handwriting, 250 years just melts away,” remarks Truxes, clinical associate professor of Irish studies and history, who was researching overseas trade in colonial America when he made his fortuitous archival discovery.

The exhibition runs through April 1.

Thanks to J. McConnell for bringing this item to my attention, MH.