GOP’s Rick Santorum knows nothing about America’s immigrant heritage

Rick Santorum (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Specifically, I recommend to the Republican presidential candidate a much heralded debut novel by Lyndsay Faye entitled The Gods of Gotham.

The book is set in the 1840s, just as the Famine Irish were pouring into New York.

Needless to say, not everyone was pleased at this influx, and Faye includes snippets of the most vile anti-Irish, anti-Catholic writings of the day.

“The popish countries of Europe are disgorging upon our shores, from year to year, their ignorant, superstitious, and degraded inhabitants, not only by tens, but by hundreds of thousands, who already claim the highest privileges of native citizens, and even the country itself.”

So claimed a tract entitled American Protestant in Defence of Civil and Religious Liberty Against
Inroads of Popery.  This is just one sample of several Faye includes in her book, to capture the wild fear Catholic immigration struck into the hearts and minds of native-born Americans.

As a devout Catholic (as he is all too willing to remind us), you might think that Santorum would be slightly sensitive to the kind of bigoted thoughts that drove nativists back in the 1840s.

You might think that, but you’d be wrong. Because Santorum is hanging around with folks on the campaign trail whose intolerance seems right out of the good old anti-Catholic days of the Know Nothing party of the 19th Century.

Last week, while campaigning in Louisiana, Santorum was introduced by a wonderful Christian named Reverend Dennis Terry.  Here’s what Terry had to say:

“This nation was founded as a Christian nation...there’s only one God and his name is Jesus. I’m tired of people telling me that I can’t say those words.

“If you don’t love America and you don’t like the way we do things, I’ve got one thing to say -- get out! We don’t worship Buddha. I said we don’t worship Buddha. We don’t worship Mohammed. We don’t worship Allah.

“We worship God. We worship God’s son Jesus Christ.”

Some of us do.  Others, alas, don’t.

Santorum was there on the stage as this guy said this.

Why stop there, Reverend Terry?  Fifty years ago it would have been perfectly fine to add something like: “And we don’t kiss the ring of anyone sitting in a palace in Rome wearing a fancy hat.”

That’s exactly the type of anti-Catholic garbage Al Smith faced on the campaign trail in 1928.  Even in 1960, John F. Kennedy heard that America was simply not a place for certain types of religion.

Undoubtedly, Terry and those like him would not have had much use for Santorum’s Italian immigrant grandfather and his “popish” ways.

But did Santorum condemn Terry and his intolerant ravings?  Hardly.

“If the question is, do I agree with his statement that America shouldn’t do that? No, if he was speaking for himself he’s obviously allowed to believe what he wants to believe but, obviously I believe in freedom of religion and all religions are welcome and should be,” Santorum said afterwards.

Of course Terry is “allowed to believe what he wants to believe.”  No one doubts he and many others are free to think like pinheads.

The question is this -- does Santorum honestly believe that he should be sharing a stage with a man who trashes America’s long, gloried history of immigration and assimilation, one of the things that made this nation great and strong?

In particular, as a Catholic – a group despised unlike any other not too long ago – does he not see that bashing one religious minority eventually leads to the bashing of all?
Santorum did offer up a defense for himself.

“I didn’t clap when he said that. I do remember him saying that, I said, well, I wasn’t quite sure he was saying it for himself, I wasn’t quite listening to everything to be honest with you.

“But I wasn’t sure whether he was speaking for himself or speaking generally, but I didn’t clap when he said that because it’s not how I feel.”

Good grief.

Not clapping and claiming to not listen now serve as a rousing defense of America’s melting pot heritage.  Well played, Mr. Santorum.  Your grandfather would be so proud.

Next time someone asks Santorum how he feels about America’s immigrant heritage, he should just say he knows nothing.

(Contact “Sidewalks” at facebook.com/tomdeignan)

Irish grinches need not apply - Irish in America don’t need to be told how to celebrate their heritage

Maureen O'Hara and John Wayne in 'The Quiet Man'

There are two types of people you hate to come across every St. Patrick’s Day season.

First, of course, is the once-a-year Irishman.  You know, the type of guy that doesn’t know the Gate Theatre from Guinness, yet hums a tune about the overalls in Mrs. Murphy’s chowder and tells anyone unlucky enough to be near him all about his Irish roots.  And it may be he’s even telling the truth about some of this stuff.

The once-a-year Irishman is up there with a host of other annoying holiday types.  Ash Wednesday just passed, so some of you surely came across the folks you rarely see in Mass on any given Sunday, yet are front and center when it’s time to dole out the ashes. 

Same thing come Palm Sunday.  Ashes and Palms. Which makes them “A & P Catholics.”

We can take some comfort in the fact that the once-a-year Irishman has been thoroughly criticized already.  In fact, he is often criticized by another holiday annoyance, a figure who has been the subject of less attention, but is possibly even more obnoxious.

Let’s call them Irish Grinches.  You know they type.  The kind of person so steeped in authentic Irishness that he has nothing but contempt for St. Patrick’s Day and all of its attendant “Oirish” traditions and customs.

They will sneer at the very mention of The Quiet Man or corned beef.  They will probably lecture you on “true” Irish culture, and offer some preachy words about Beckett or Bobby Sands or At Swim-Two-Birds.

Or they may simply wash the green off of their hands entirely.

“I am of Irish descent,” Catherine Poe wrote in a blog entry on The Washington Times web site on March 17.  “But I do not mist up on St. Paddy’s Day. ‘Danny Boy’ is maudlin treacle, even on a bagpipe. Corned beef and cabbage is only eatable with lots of mustard.”
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She later adds, “Spare me that hyphenated Irish American stuff. I am an American. We all came here to become Americans and we should have left the hyphens on the boat.”

That’s pretty much what Woodrow Wilson and other staunch patriots said back in the 1910s, decrying the supposed foreign influences caused by the heavy immigration of the late 19th and early 20th century, from Ireland and elsewhere.

It makes you realize that some people put way too much thought into what are and are not appropriate ways to express your Irish heritage. 

Yes, there are some things we can all agree on.  I should hope that most people find those green hats and T-shirts with references to drink and vomiting quite tasteless. 

It’s not that an Irish joke about drinking can’t be funny.  But when that is the only thing you link to Irish culture, well, it’s not so much offensive as it is boring and lame.

On the other hand, standing up as a defender of all that is precious and authentic about the Irish can be nearly as obnoxious.

It gets to the point where, though you may consider yourself quite versed and sophisticated when it comes to matters of Irish culture, you are also hesitant to admit a few inconvenient facts.

Such as: I loooooove Irish soda bread.  Almost as much as I love a fatty, greasy slab of corn beef!
With or without mustard, thanks very much. 

I don’t like them because they are Irish.  God knows if they even are.  I like these things because they are tasty and, yes, because they are part of a larger tradition. 

A fake, false, fabricated tradition?  Perhaps.  But a tradition nevertheless.

The Irish in America don’t need to be told what they should or shouldn’t be doing to celebrate their heritage. 

Yes, an unfortunate consequence of this is the annoying once-a-year Irishman.  But the grumpy Irish Grinches who moan about all that is inauthentic about St. Patrick’s Day really aren’t much better. They simply want to seem smarter and more sophisticated than most other Irish people. 

And if that makes them happy, more power to them.

Me?  Sure, I’ll take a copy of Finnegan’s Wake or At Swim-Two-Birds.  But I want some corned beef and soda bread on the side.

(Contact “Sidewalks” at facebook.com/tomdeignan.  Visit youtube.com to see Tom Deignan discuss the history of “The Irish on Mott Street.”)

The Irish boys of summer - “The Emerald Diamond” and how the Irish transformed baseball

Charley Rosen

It's that time of year again when baseball fans can all feel equally hopeful that this is finally the year for their team.

And that this is finally not the year that all the rich teams (like the Yankees) will ultimately dominate the season and make it to the World Series in October.

This year will be a different one in baseball. League officials have added yet another playoff team to the mix, so when all is said and done 10 teams will have a crack at the World Series.

There is a tendency to gripe about changes like this, but for all the talk of tradition in the so-called national pastime, change has always been an integral part of baseball.

In fact, it was 141 years ago this St. Patrick’s Day that plans were set in motion which would ultimately make Co. Cavan native Andy Leonard one of the first great Irish-born stars of American baseball.

It was on March 17, 1871 that representatives from the National Association of Base Ball Players met to form what is considered by most to be the first organization dedicated to American baseball.

At the time, the Irish were a central part of the game. This is what author Charley Rosen explores in his new book The Emerald Diamond: How the Irish Transformed America’s Greatest Pastime (Harper).

In the book, Rosen explores how the Irish shaped and influenced the game of baseball in its earliest days, when the boys of summer on the diamond often had parents back in tenements who had to come from Ireland during the Famine.

The Irish in the earliest days of baseball are a story full of future Hall of Famers and forgotten heroes.

Inevitably, the sports also reflects broader themes in Irish American history.

Consider the career of 1870s star Jim O’Rourke. Known as “The Orator,” O’Rourke was a standout outfielder for the Middletown Mansfields of Connecticut, one of 10 teams which made up the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP).

O’Rourke was then wooed by the rival Boston Red Stockings, who were willing to pay handsomely for his services.

There was just one catch.

O’Rourke “would have to conceal the obvious Irishness of his name by dropping the 'O' and playing as Rourke,” Rosen writes.

O’Rourke would later claim that “a million dollars would not tempt me.”

O’Rourke was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in 1945.

Of course, by and large, things weren’t always so tense. This allowed Irish American players to change the game in many ways.

During the NABBP’s first season, the Philadelphia Athletics were crowned the league champions, and they were led by Tyrone native Fergy Malone, a catcher who hit a whopping .343 for the year.

William Arthur “Candy” Cummings, meanwhile, is generally “credited with being the first pitcher to throw a curveball,” Rosen notes.

During the 1874 campaign, Rosen adds, a group of NABBP players got together to bring the game across the Atlantic. Jim O’Rourke, Andy Leonard and a host of other players participated in a three-week tour of England, which included a two-day stop in Dublin.

Antrim native John McMullin and Cork-born Tim Murname were also on the squad, which was led by manager and Donegal native Dick McBride.

The large numbers of Irish on baseball’s earliest teams made sense in many ways.

Though it is often considered a pastoral, rural game, the fact is baseball has been exclusively a big-city sport until recent years.

Having Irish players on the field made it more likely that Irish immigrants and their children in Philly, New York, Boston and Chicago would pay money to see games.

As the 19th century wore on, the Irish shined even brighter on the diamond.

Mike “King” Kelly was one of the most exciting players in the 1880s. Pitcher and Cork native Tony “the Count” Mullane won 30 games numerous times in a season, while St. Louis native James “Pud” Galvin won over 300 total games and was elected to the baseball Hall of Fame.

Of course, Galvin also ingested Brown-Sequard Elixir, a 19th century performance enhancement derived from monkey testosterone.

So, maybe the Irish are also to blame for baseball’s steroids scandal.

(Contact “Sidewalks” at facebook.com/tomdeignan)

An unlikely Irish rebel - Barney Rosset utterly transformed American culture

Barney Rosset

Barney Rosset may not strike you as a particularly Hibernian name. In fact, it might not even strike you as a familiar name.

But make no mistake about it – Rosset, who died late last month at the age of 89, was an Irish rebel who utterly transformed American culture.

Thanks to Rosset, we can talk much more frankly about topics such as sex without fear of being arrested.

So, we should perhaps also blame Rosset for all the cheap, tacky sex talk we see in music and all over TV these days.

Along the way, Rosset helped expose American readers to daring Irish writers such as Samuel Beckett and John Kennedy Toole, and was at the center of one of the most explosive censorship trials since the battle over James Joyce’s Ulysses.

Either way, Rosset credited his Irish roots for his rebel streak.

"I'm half-Jewish and half-Irish, and my mother and grandfather spoke Gaelic," Rosset once said.

"From an early age my feelings made the IRA look pretty conservative. I grew up hating fascism, hating racism."

He also despised conformity, perhaps even rules in general.

No surprise then, that three years after buying Grove Press publishing house in 1951 for a mere $3,000, he introduced American readers to an Irish writer who, himself, had little use for rules -- Samuel Beckett.

Grove was the first U.S. publishing house to release an edition of Beckett’s classic play Waiting for Godot.

"Grove Press was three titles and maybe a hundred copies of each, enough to fit in a suitcase," Rosset told NPR in 2009. "No financial records, no nothing."

No other American publisher was interested in Beckett in the mid-1950s. Rosset admitted that Beckett’s wordplay and existential angst were not exactly what he got into the publishing game for.

"When I started publishing, I most definitely would have liked to have published Hemingway and Faulkner and Fitzgerald," he said, "but they were already published."
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Rosset is perhaps best known for publishing and distributing copies of D.H. Lawrence’s banned, erotically-charged novel Lady Chatterley’s lover. The book was originally published in 1928 but had a history of being censored and suppressed because of its ribald language and steamy scenes between working class men and upper class women.

In 1959, Rosset went to court to battle charges that he was peddling smut. The Lady Chatterley’s Lover case is considered by many one of the most important tests of American artistic boundaries since the famous 1933 decision to allow Joyce’s classic Ulysses to be published in America.

Even after winning the Chatterley case, Rosset faced an uphill battle publishing the book. American culture was still tame, with TV, radio and the movies playing things extremely safe.

Needless to say, just a few years after Americans finally got their hands on Lawrence’s novel, they would be left yawning by mere prose. By the late 1960s, it seemed as if bold sexuality was everywhere.

Rosset himself moved onto publishing another pioneer of erotic literature, Henry Miller.

Indeed, that is why Rosset’s impact on American culture is both a blessing and a curse.

Yes, it seems reasonable to read Lawrence’s novel, and perhaps even the musings of Henry Miller. But Rosset helped kick open the floodgates, so much so that it sometimes seems as if we should finally take a break from our culture’s obsession with sexuality.

Meanwhile, Rosset’s role in the Chatterley case obscures some of his other work with brilliant Irish writers.

Yes, there is Beckett. And then there is the saga of John Kennedy Toole.

Famously, Toole – the author of the cult classic Confederacy of Dunces – committed suicide before his book was published. It was Toole’s mother who brought a messy copy of his manuscript to LSU press. 

The book went on to win the Pulitzer Prize.

Rosset and Grove Press would later publish a novel Toole had written at a much younger age called The Neon Bible.

In the end, Barney Rosset may have upset as many Irish Catholic readers as he enlightened. But America would not have been the same without him.

(Contact “Sidewalks” at facebook.com/tomdeignan)
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Irish American duo at forefront of 21st century war on drugs

Illegal Drugs

Singer Whitney Houston’s death brought with it a whirlwind of emotions -- shock that an artist of such skill and passion would leave us so soon; confusion that a life of such promise could end amid reports of booze and prescription pills; and sadness, for the family, fans and apparently troubled young daughter she left behind.

And, let’s face it, there is anger, too. Very few of us can understand what it means to live a life of glamour and privilege.

And that, of course, is the point. Celebrities can go on and on about the pressures and expectations of such a life.

The rest of us, the 99 percent, can’t help but focus on the fact that these people have made enough money to literally do anything they want.

Most of us spend our lives toiling for just a precious few moments of freedom.

And yet, many troubled celebrities swap their hard-won freedom for the fog of booze and pills.

Of course, it is not just the rich and famous who O.D. on oxycodone. The abuse of prescription pills has exploded in recent years.

Enter Terence J. O’Leary and Bridget Brennan. The Irish American duo are at the forefront of the 21st century war on drugs.

Late last year, O’Leary, a graduate of Loyola College in Maryland and Seton Hall University School of Law, was appointed the head of the New York State Health Department's Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement (BNE).
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O'Leary had served as a prosecutor for the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor for the City of New York, which just so happens to be run by Brennan.

"Crimes involving the illegal use and distribution of prescription drugs are a public health threat that demands the investigative and prosecutorial experience that Terence O'Leary brings to this position,"
Governor Andrew Cuomo said at the time of O’Leary’s appointment back in November.

"He has a proven track record in fighting illicit drug trafficking and an understanding of the need for new public health strategies to combat these crimes."

The BNE is charged with protecting the public by identifying the use and trafficking of illegal prescription drugs. It is also designed to help doctors and other prescribers prevent the distribution of controlled substances.

According to Cuomo’s office, O'Leary, 36, will be expanding the Department of Health’s initiatives to combat the theft of prescription drugs.

For nearly 15 years now, Brennan has served as New York City’s top narcotics prosecutor, with her office handling nearly 3,000 drug cases a year.

Brennan served as O'Leary's supervisor while he served at the Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s office. Brennan has said, "Terry O'Leary is an extremely intelligent and experienced attorney with a strong background in investigative work.

“During his 10 years at the Special Narcotics Prosecutor's Office, most recently as senior investigative counsel, Terry followed the highest ethical standards and demonstrated true dedication and commitment to his work."

Brennan and O’Leary will continue working together on certain city-state cases.

It goes without saying, they have quite a challenge ahead of them. While pill-popping celebrities tend to garner lots of headlines, the street level use of prescription drugs is truly shocking.

From 1999 to 2008, deaths related to painkillers more than tripled nationwide from 4,000 to 15,000, according to an editorial published last week in the New York Daily News.

“In 2009 alone, prescription abuse produced almost 500,000 emergency room visits,” the paper adds.

In New York City, “pain medication abuse ballooned 40% … from 2002 to 2009. Across the state in 2010, doctors wrote an astonishing 22 million pain reliever prescriptions — a number that exceeded the entire population of men, women and children by three million.”

Perhaps the most notorious case is that of Dr. Stan Xuhui Li, who reportedly wrote up to 120 prescriptions as day, leaving as many as 10 patients dead.

In short, Brennan and O’Leary have their work cut out for them.

(Contact Sidewalks at tomdeignan@earthlink.net or facebook.com/tomdeignan)