Hard labor ahead of Christine Quinn - New York Mayoral hopeful to fight on topics of paid sick leave and NYPD’s “stop and frisk” policies

New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

This Wednesday, March 27, the newly renovated New York City Department of Records Visitor’s Center is hosting an event celebrating the contribution Irish American men and women have made building this great city.

Irish Consul General Noel Kilkenny and City Council Speaker and mayoral candidate Christine Quinn were among those expected to attend and talk to the audience. The event is co-sponsored by the New York City Department of Records and the law firm of O’Dwyer and Bernstien.

The Irish have indeed been building up New York City dating back to the 1600s.  Waves of immigrants walked the streets as cops, dug tunnels as sandhogs and took to the skies to build the Empire State Building in the 1930s -- not to mention the new Freedom Tower in the 21st century, with second-generation ironworkers such as Tommy Hickey and Mike O’Reilly playing a prominent role bringing life back to the former Ground Zero.

It is fitting, then, for mayoral candidate Quinn to celebrate Irish labor in New York City.  She may well bring the long, celebrated tradition of Irish American New York mayors into the 21st century.

Her Irish roots are firm and strong.

Her immigrant grandmother grew up in Cork, but then famously boarded a certain ship called the Titanic.  Quinn’s grandmother survived that treacherous voyage, and the rest is New York City history.

But Quinn has quite a rough ride ahead for herself.  In recent days, she has been forced to confront two particularly prickly labor-related issues.  Where Quinn stands on these issues now may well define whether or not she stands outside of City Hall in January 2014, and takes the oath of office as New York City’s first Irish American governor since William O’Dwyer in 1950, and New York’s first female (not to mention openly gay) mayor ever.

First, Quinn has riled some labor advocates -- not to mention other Democratic mayoral candidates -- by holding off on a vote which would force businesses to grant employees paid sick leave.  

“The only obstacle to this legislation is the speaker, who’s blocking this bill with an iron fist,” said former New York City comptroller and mayoral candidate Bill Thompson.

Obviously, many working class New Yorkers lose precious money when they fall ill and are unable to work.  Quinn, however, has said that many small businesses might be harmed if they are forced to grant as many as five paid sick days a year to workers.  

Quinn is being forced to decide if she will stand with workers or with small business owners, an easily-forgotten group trying to make a living in a shaky economy, and in a city seemingly overrun by Starbucks and CVS.  This includes New York’s many Irish bar and restaurant owners.

Perhaps more explosively, Quinn has also supported an independent monitor for the New York City Police Department.  Supporters say the NYPD is out of control, abusing its power and excessively stopping and frisking black and Hispanic New Yorkers.

The main police union, not surprisingly, feels otherwise.

This puts Quinn on a collision course with fellow Irish American big wigs Ray Kelly (police commissioner) and Patrick Lynch (head of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association).

Independent oversight of the NYPD has been a lightning rod in New York politics for decades.  Back in 1965, when Mayor John Lindsay proposed independent oversight of the then heavily-Irish NYPD, the ensuing backlash was intense. Lindsay’s critics eventually placed a ballot measure before voters which did away with any effort to independently monitor the police, giving Lindsay a black eye.

Nearly 50 years later, could Quinn face a similar backlash?  

Here’s hoping the leading mayoral candidate enjoys celebrating the glorious past of New York’s Irish labor heroes.  Because the future looks a lot more unsettled.

(Contact “Sidewalks” at tdeignan.blogspot.com)

30 years on Irish barman Joseph Patrick Sullivan recalls gang murder of Queens bar owners

Richard Godkin, co-owner of the 
Shamrock Bar, was killed in 1981.

It took 30 years, but the Irish bartender from the Shamrock Bar on Jamaica Avenue in Queens has finally remembered who shot two of the owners dead on that fateful night back in April of 1981.

The nature of the killings -- involving several reputed organized crime figures -- apparently had something to do with the bout of amnesia Joseph Patrick Sullivan endured since the grisly slayings.

“I was afraid,” Sullivan reportedly admitted during testimony last week.

For years, Sullivan had claimed he didn’t know anything about the killings that left Shamrock owners Richard Godkin and John D’Agnese dead after an altercation with three men turned violent.

When asked on the stand why he lied for so many years, Sullivan said, “Two men were dead over a spilled drink. That was reason enough to be afraid. I didn’t want to get hurt.”

Even the victims in this case had interesting, if not criminal, connections.  D’Agnese was said to be dating a girl named Linda, whose bold-faced last name was Gotti.  She was also present at the Shamrock that evening.

Linda Gotti -- niece of late, long-time, Queens-based crime boss John Gotti -- also suffered from amnesia following the Shamrock Bar killings, though she too was also expected to testify in the ongoing federal case against Bartolomeo Vernace, believed to be one of the triggermen who left Godkin and D’Agnese dead.

For years, it is said that various Gotti family members, uh, encouraged Linda to think really hard about what she may or may not have seen that night.

Now, though, the gruesome events at the Shamrock Bar are coming into clearer view, thanks to the passage of time.

All involved agree that April 11, 1981, was “western night” at the Irish watering hole on Jamaica Avenue in the Richmond Hill section of Queens. 

It was the bad old days in New York.  There were over 1,800 murders in the city that year.  There were 414 murders in 2012.

“A girl was making a scene,” the 55-year-old Sullivan testified last week, following the infamous spilled drink. “She started going into a big tirade about how her dress was forever ruined.”

The woman’s boyfriend was named Frank Riccardi.  In certain circles he was known as “The Geech.”

Riccardi as well as Bartolomeo Vernace and Ronald (known as “Ronnie the Jew”) Barlin were long rumored to be the ones who settled the score over the spilt drink.  They confronted the patron who supposedly did the spilling.

Godkin and D’Agnese -- who was just 22 at the time -- intervened. They were shot and killed.

Way back in 1981, two Irish American cops at the precinct on 118th Street, Lieutenant Dan Kelly and Detective Bill Gill, said several witnesses had identified Barlin as one of the accomplices.  Barlin, who had previously been arrested following the shooting of an FDNY lieutenant in 1960, was arrested and detained, but none of the charges against any of the three could stick.

Sullivan had a chance to put Vernace behind bars at the 1998 trial for the killings of D’Agnese and Godkin.  However, Sullivan could not help but notice certain men sitting in the courtroom.

He described them as “big” with “slicked-back hair.”  He also noticed they seemed to have “no neck.”

That and various other hints scared Sullivan, and he chose not to testify against Vernace.

Even law enforcement officials were sympathetic to Sullivan’s plight.

According to the New York Post, an unnamed NYPD detective suggested that Sullivan change his phone number.

“He said he had children my age and . . . he didn’t want to see me get hurt,” Sullivan recalled. “So he said, ‘I’ll tell them I couldn’t find you.’”

As Sullivan finally told the truth on the witness stand this week, Richard Godkin’s widow was also in the courtroom, crying.  Godkin was a Vietnam vet and he, as well as D’Agnese, had deep ties to their local Queens community. 

At the time of their death, both worked for the South Queens Boys Club, which today is the South Queens Boys and Girls Club on Atlantic Avenue.

Now that bartender Joseph Patrick Sullivan has stared down his demons and belatedly testified, the victims’ families can maybe, maybe, put this tragic story from New York’s bad old days behind them.

Contact “Sidewalks” at tdeignan.blogspot.com.

Why not a nun for a Pope? Demoralized Catholic Church needs serious change from the Vatican down

Irish American Sister Pat Farrell

Why stop at female priests?  Has it occurred to anyone that maybe, just maybe, it would be a good thing for the next pope to be a woman?

And while it appears that New York’s own Timothy Cardinal Dolan might actually have a small chance to sneak into the Vatican, perhaps there is another Irish American who might be an even more inspired choice?

This week, the cardinals are congregating in Rome to elect a new pope and there is much muttering about serious changes. 

Will the next pope be a conservative looking to shore up a dwindling but committed flock?  Or a reformer, hoping to send a message that the church is willing to change in order to attract those who have left the church as well as new followers?

One of the issues that must be dealt with -- especially in countries like America -- is the dwindling number of priests.  Just in time for this contentious topic, Catholic intellectual Gary Wills has just released a new book entitled Why Priests? A Failed Tradition. 

Wills argues that there is no historical or even theological basis for maintaining the priesthood in the Catholic Church.

“As this (papal) election approaches, some hope that the shortage of priests, and their damaged reputation and morale, can be remedied by adding married priests, or women priests, or gay priests. But that misses the point,” Wills wrote last month in The New York Times.

“Whatever their sexual status, they will still be priests. They will not be chosen by their congregations (as was the practice in the early church). They will be appointed from above, by bishops approved for their loyalty to Rome, which will police their doctrinal views as it has with priests heretofore. The power structure will not be changed by giving it new faces.”

Wills makes some fine points, but he’s so critical of so many aspects of Catholicism that it’s hard to avoid calling him what he appears to be -- a Protestant.

If priests aren’t going away, is there much reason to believe we might see married or female Catholic priests in our lifetime?

Not likely -- and that’s a shame.  It is starting to feel like this is a rare moment for truly radical thinking with the Catholic Church.

Well, how’s this for radical -- how about Sister Pat Farrell, former president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), for pope?

Okay, yes, Sister Pat is, indeed, a woman.  And while rules say that any Catholic can technically be elected pope, the rules also say that that the pope must be a male.

Well, we know where this has gotten us.

Meanwhile, Sister Pat’s central point is one that 21st century Catholics can no longer ignore.  How in God’s name can the leadership of the church continue to ignore the talents, energy and contributions of half of the people on the planet?

“I think there are many issues in the Catholic Church right now that could leave the faithful somewhat demoralized,” Sister Pat told NPR radio this month.

“And I think that the climate of scandal and abuse is one piece of that. The declining membership is another piece. The great and deep spiritual hunger of our time is another issue.”

She later added, “In other parts of society the roles for women have expanded. So the places where young women today can experience greater leadership typically are not within the Catholic Church.”

It is worth adding that in the wake of 9/11, many pointed out that one fundamental weakness of heavily Muslim countries was their inability to tap the potential of their female citizens.

Can’t the same be said for the Catholic Church?  The extensive contributions of nuns at the parish level only makes the case for expanding their role in the church stronger.

Fittingly, rather than seek LCWR’s advice and input, Sister Pat and LCWR have been singled out as radicals by the church hierarchy.  Which is particularly interesting because she is so clearly asking moderate, rather than radical, questions. 

There are many who believe those like Sister Pat should be much more confrontational.  And who knows?  If the next pope does not seriously consider some of the issues she’s raised, more radical voices may yet rise up.

Or, worse, perhaps no one will care any more. 

Maybe the church will finally be seen as a lost cause.

(Contact “Sidewalks” at tdeignan.blogspot.com)

Donnie Wahlberg's 'Boston’s Finest' - the Beantown police department then and now - VIDEO

The cast of TNT's new show 'Boston's Finest'

He plays a New York Irish cop on the TV show Blue Bloods, but anyone who knows actor/singer Donnie Wahlberg knows that his heart is in Boston.  So it is fitting that the new cop show Wahlberg has produced is set in Beantown -- and spotlights several real-life Irish American cops.

The show, called Boston’s Finest, can be seen Wednesdays on the TNT cable channel, and even features music by Irish rockers the Dropkick Murphys.

Interestingly, this show hits the airwaves just as one of the most notorious incidents in Boston policing history -- the subject of an angry song by none other than the Dropkick Murphys -- is gaining new attention.

As for the stars of Boston’s Finest, there’s Sean Joyce, “a big friendly Irish guy,” according to show producers. Then there’s rookie Irish American Mike Burke, an ex-Marine “learning how to be a cop” who “can't wait for his younger brother – currently in the academy – to join him on the force.”

If Boston’s Finest sheds light on the travails of big city cops in the 21st century, a new book takes a disturbing new look at one of the Boston Police Department’s low points -- the notorious strike of 1918.

Once the Boston police went on strike, the streets of the city descended into anarchy.  Even worse, the city elders -- quite a few of them elite Brahmins whose disdain for the Irish Catholics who dominated the force was well chronicled -- relied on volunteers from Harvard (of course) to help keep the peace.

The Boston police strike has gained new attention thanks to a new book from best-selling author Amity Shlaes.  Her previous book, The Forgotten Man, was a revisionist look at the Great Depression.  Part of that book involved resurrecting the generally poor historical reputation of President Calvin Coolidge.

Shlaes was so taken with Coolidge that her new book is a biography of the 30th president, who served from 1923 to 1928.

Well, guess what catapulted Coolidge to national prominence?  He was governor of Massachusetts at the time of the infamous Boston police strike.

Shlaes applauds the hard line Coolidge took against the police.  In an interview with National Review Online, Shales said, “At a time when the president, Woodrow Wilson, was waffling over militant union demands, Coolidge showed the strikers, and the nation, that he...would not be blackmailed by unions.  Coolidge stated categorically, in a telegram to union leader Samuel Gompers, that ‘there is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anytime, anywhere.’

“Americans all sighed with relief when they heard or read this. Coolidge made sense and called a halt to the progressive madness.”

In case you missed the point that she has no use for organized labor, Shlaes adds, “One of the consequences of the brave governor’s decision was that there were fewer public-sector strikes in the decade that followed. Union membership also dropped in the 1920s.”

Well, that certainly is one way to look at it.  Another way might be to point out that pay and working conditions for the heavily Irish Boston police force were absolutely horrendous. 

It did not help that many of powerful movers and shakers in Boston were elite Protestants who never had any use for the Irish or their pushy unions.

Look, obviously a police force going on strike is a dangerous measure.  But perhaps Coolidge should have helped address the cops’ low pay and poor working conditions.  Rather than, you know, seize this as an opportunity to stop the “madness” of cops trying to make their jobs slightly less horrible.

For a much more interesting view of the Boston police strike, check out Dennis Lehane’s epic novel The Given Day.  It may not be as angry as, say, the Dropkick Murphy’s song “We Got the Power.”  (“A city in terror on the thin blue line/A thousand-plus walked off the job to support their brothers' cause/The anti-union prohibition clause/Demanded loyalty at any price.”)

But Lehane at least gives us a fuller portrait of the Boston Irish cops and their troubles back in 1919.
The stars of the new Boston’s Finest TV show will be glad most of those troubles are gone.

Too bad we can’t say that same about governors who have convinced themselves that everything would be great if unions and their members just went away.

(Contact “Sidewalks” at tdeignan.blogspot.com)

Checkout the promo for 'Boston's Finest' on TNT here: