A long journey into “night” - the Irish American author Jennings Michael Burch that still strikes a chord today

Jennings Michael Burch

Sometimes, the students are the ones who teach the teachers.

High school students all across New York City spent last week taking their all-important Regents exams is subjects like algebra, global history and English language arts.

As readers of this column may know, I’m a high school teacher in Brooklyn.  And  so my job last week was to grade literally hundreds of those English language  arts Regents exams.

One part of the exam asks students to read a quotation by a famous person and write an essay about two works of literature related to that quote. And so, not surprisingly, I read essay after essay in which students discussed The Catcher in the Rye, The Scarlet Letter, The Crucible and many other staples of American literature.

But, this year, one title came up on numerous student essays that I’d never heard of.  The book was called They Cage the Animals at Night and, as the students were describing it, the book was about a boy with a series of family problems who ended up in numerous foster homes, some of which were run by the Catholic Church. 

Some of the nuns the boy came across were nice.  Others were not.

A little bit of research introduced me Jennings Michael Burch, the author of They Cage the Animals at Night.  Burch’s childhood, in many ways, was very typical for Irish Americans at the time. 

He was born in New York City in the late 1940s.  His father was named Francis and his mother was named Rita (nee Hogan).  The family moved around, from Queens to Manhattan to the Bronx. 

Burch himself would go on to become a police officer and raise four daughters of his own. But there were things about his youth that were far from typical.  Overall there were five Burch children, and at some point Rita simply became overwhelmed. Jennings entered the foster care system, eventually staying in over 30 different foster homes. 

Thus began an odyssey that very few children could endure.  Burch faced mental and physical abuse. He was temporarily placed with families that were, at best, uncaring and, at worst, criminal. 

Burch’s book manages to vividly convey not only the ordinary traumas of childhood, but the extraordinary challenges he had to overcome to survive. 

They Cage the Animals at Night has drawn comparisons to the trilogy of books (which students devour) about abuse by Dave Pelzer, as well as Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes.

It was satisfying to learn about Burch, his life and his book. There is something to be said here that is possibly corny, but still noble about the power of reading. 

Jennings Michael Burch created a harrowing story about a time and place that many high school students in the year 2013 might not otherwise care about.  And for all of the difficulties he faced, it was another Irish American family, the Dailys, who were finally able to show Jennings the love and guidance he needed.

Then I learned -- you can’t make this stuff up -- Michael Jackson, of all people, had been planning to make a movie based on They Cage the Animals at Night when the famed singer died in 2009. Jackson said he related to Burch’s story. "Michael told me often he felt like he grew up as an orphan, like a foster kid, because he never was in one home," producer, writer and director Bryan Michael Stoller told Reuters a few years back.

"To him every hotel was like a different foster home. He said he used to sit in the window and see kids playing outside and cry because he couldn't be part of that."

Not many 70-somethings can say they managed to emotionally move Brooklyn 17 year-olds as well as the King of Pop. Then I learned one more important thing.

Jennings Michael Burch died earlier this month at the age of 71. He had been battling cancer for some time. 

There was no obituary in The New York Times.  Just a notice in the Putnam County Courier, published in upstate New York, where Burch called home for the final 20 years of his life.

They Cage the Animals at Night may never come out as a movie.  Burch had been working on a sequel, but it’s not clear if he ever finished it.

One thing is clear.  Many of us worry if we leave a legacy on this planet.  Jennings Michael Burch had no such worries. 

(Contact “Sidewalks” at tdeignan.blogspot.com or tomdeignan@earthlink.net.)

The conspiracy theory that won’t go away - Robert F Kennedy and the secrets behind the assassination of JFK

Robert F. Kennedy Jr

Early in Oliver Stone’s hyper-paranoid film JFK, Guy Bannister (played by Ed Asner) grumbles that he hates the fact that, by 1963, African Americans could  more or less vote safely.  He adds, “[Blacks] get together with the Jews and the  Catholics and elect an Irish bleeding heart.”

According to the film, Bannister -- and a whole bunch of other people -- did  something to stop that “Irish bleeding heart.” 

Bannister and the mob and the CIA and Lyndon Johnson and perhaps even Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963.

The Warren Commission later argued that Oswald, in fact, acted alone. But most Americans remain skeptical of the Warren Report.

Bobby Kennedy Jr., it turns out, is one of them.  Earlier this month, JFK’s nephew, as well as his niece, Rory, sat down for an interview in Dallas.

Eventually, Bobby Kennedy’s two children were asked about the conspiracy theories swirling around JFK’s murder. “The evidence at this point I think is very, very convincing that it was not a lone gunman,” RFK Jr. said, though he didn’t elaborate much beyond that. 

He did add that his father, who himself was assassinated in June of 1968, also believed their was another killer aside from Oswald. According to RFK Jr., his father considered the Warren Commission report “shoddy.”

RFK Jr. added, “He publicly supported the Warren Commission report but  privately he was dismissive of it."

RFK Jr. also suggested that the most likely co-conspirators were mafia leaders who were targeted by JFK’s attorney general -- who was none other than Bobby Kennedy Sr.

To quote another famous mafia figure, “Every time I think I’m out...they pull me  back in!”

Things have been quiet on the JFK conspiracy front.  And then, RFK Jr. went and made his comments. 

And then, a few days later, an apartment in Dallas which Oswald called home in 1962 and 1963 was torn down, briefly resurrecting interest in Oswald’s bizarre life prior to being thrust onto the world stage.

And so we have, arguably, the most compelling defender yet of a conspiracy  theory to kill JFK -- his own martyred brother and his crusading son. 

It means nothing to me.  For years I waded into the muck and mire of the JFK conspiracy underworld and emerged unconvinced. 

Yes, there is a lot of evidence to suggest others were involved in the Kennedy killing.  Yes, the Warren report is flawed. 

But I also discovered that most people who buy into the JFK conspiracy do so not only based on facts, but also on something that can only be described as vaguely  religious.

You also see this from those who buy into conspiracies surrounding another  tragedy which hit Irish America hard -- the 9/11 attacks.  Part of the allure of  conspiracy theories surrounding both 9/11 and JFK is that they explain the seemingly unexplainable.  

How could one Marxist loser end Camelot?  How could 20 fanatics with a few hours of flying lessons murder 3,000 people? No, it must have been something larger.

But have you ever noticed that people don’t talk much about conspiracy theories when it comes to plots that more or less failed?

In December of 1960, a man named Richard Pavlick packed his car with dynamite and was going to ram the vehicle into a Kennedy home in Florida.  He chickened out and was arrested. 

Had he succeeded, perhaps great energy would have gone into uncovering a broader conspiracy. Instead, the truth was fairly easy to swallow.  The guy was an anti-Catholic nut who hated JFK.

And why so few conspiracy theories about the 1993 effort to topple the World Trade Center?  Why do theories about rogue government elements, and, yes, even Israel and the Jews, flourish only around the 2001 attack that actually brought the towers down?

It is generally futile to go detail for detail with conspiracy theorists.  They are dogged in their shaping of facts which support their view, and, like the  religiously faithful, defend their organization of those facts. 

As for me, once I read Gerald Posner’s book Case Closed, I was able to accept the fact that Oswald acted alone.

The odd thing in all of this is why RFK Jr. was not asked if he believes Sirhan Sirhan acted alone when he killed Bobby Kennedy in Los Angeles in 1968?  Why not ask that question?

Must be a conspiracy.

(Contact Sidewalks at tdeignan.blogspot.com or tomdeignan@earthlink.net)

Prediction for the New Year - what the world can expect from the Republicans, Catholic Church and more in 2013

Rick Santorum

It's that time of year again.  Assuming all those folks were actually wrong about that Mayan end-of-the-world thing, a new year is upon us.

Let’s gaze into our crystal ball and see what 2013 might have in store for the Irish in America.

First off, we can expect the Republican Party to make some changes. We’ve already seen them make some overtures towards immigrants, in the hopes that their party won’t soon become - you know - extinct. So why not expect more in that direction? 

Next year, the Republican Party will move to banish the constitutional requirement that the president actually be born in the U.S.  (In their minds that was already broken by Barack Obama, right?)  The GOP will then look to nominate an undocumented immigrant for the White House in 2016.

If that seems far-fetched, keep in mind that some people right now actually believe that Republicans will give in when it comes to the gun nuts in this country.

Speaking of institutions facing extinction, what’s in store for the American Catholic Church in 2013? 

First, we can expect the hierarchy to get it over with and excommunicate every pesky nun currently serving in the U.S.  Those ladies have already caused far too much trouble with their yapping about following the example set by Jesus when it comes to love and tolerance. 

Odd how the nuns have also managed to avoid becoming embroiled in, like, even one single sex abuse case.

Rick Santorum, meanwhile, having failed to ride his impeccable Catholic cred to the White House, will announce his candidacy for Pope.  When Santorum hears papal policy regarding the impoverished and oppressed of the world, however, he will announce he is instead running for Pope of America.

No one opposes - or cares.

Finally, the church will stop announcing which Catholic schools are closing.  For simplicity’s sake, they will simply announce which schools will actually remain open.

In the world of showbiz, expect big things from legendary Boston Irish criminal Whitey Bulger in 2013.  Sure he’s disgraced and imprisoned now. 

But with movie stars like Matt Damon and Ben Affleck angling to make a movie about Bulger’s rise and fall, expect authorities to give the old guy a break so that he can serve as a “consultant” on the upcoming film.  (“What’s the guy ever done to prove we can’t trust him?” one FBI official will ask.)
Shockingly, after one day on the set, Bulger will disappear.  In the months that follow there will be
Whitey Bulger sightings from Denver to Dublin.

Ben Affleck, feeling guilty, will then attempt to shoot a fake movie, in the hopes of luring Bulger out of hiding.  It will be called Where Did Whitey Argo?

We couldn’t possibly go a whole column without mentioning Irish boy toy Niall Horan and the rest of the boys in One Direction.  Horan will shock the world in 2013 by calling a press conference and declaring: “Having just spent the last three months counting all of my money, I have decided to retire.  I don’t know what world these British twits are looking at, but in the world I come from these boy bands don’t last very long."

“Boyzone anybody?  Exactly!  I’m getting out of this now, before I start looking like a real weirdo.  I’ll be back when my fans all have children of their own and they have some real money to spend.”

Ex boy-bander Mark Wahlberg will then call up Horan to see if he is interested in playing a child role in the latest installment of the “Irish” Mickey Ward series of boxing films. The title? The Fighter 4: The Son Also Rises.

Also in 2013, Liam Neeson may actually pass on a movie role.  And Daniel Day-Lewis, having wowed audiences as Lincoln, grows pork-chop sideburns to play seventh President Andrew Jackson, whose parents were born Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim.

The expletive-laden script (written by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh) explores Jackson’s bloody rise to power. However, violence breaks out on the set when the notoriously-intense Day-Lewis refuses to break character.  McDonagh becomes frustrated when Day-Lewis requests a particularly ornate horse and buggy carriage to carry him to and from the set.

“It’s f***ing 2013 you weirdo!” McDonagh howls before socking Day-Lewis.

Happy New Year!

Contact “Sidewalks” at tdeignan.blogspot.com or tomdeignan@earthlink.net.

The PJ Clarke’s Irish connection - ‘Tales from New York City’s Famous Saloon’

Helen Marie Clarke

From McSorley’s to the Lion’s Head, there is no shortage of classic New York bars with intimate Irish connections.

P.J. Clarke’s, at 3rd Avenue and 55th Street, is right up there with the best of them.

For well over a century, the squat brick pub and restaurant has welcomed both celebrities and the working class.  Legendary Irish actor Richard Harris loved to quip that when he went to P.J. Clarke’s, he asked for “the usual.” Vinny the barman promptly lined up six double vodkas.

Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, Jackie Kennedy and countless other bold-faced names all had a soft spot for P.J. Clarke’s.  Given the celebrity pedigree of the joint, it may come as a surprise that P.J. Clarke’s was purchased exactly 100 years ago this year by a humble immigrant from Cloonlaughil, Co. Leitrim named Patrick Joseph Clarke.

The history of this acclaimed pub - from its famous patrons to the lesser-known but no-less-fascinating family behind the bar - is the subject of a new book entitled Over P.J. Clarke’s Bar: Tales from New York City’s Famous Saloon by Helen Marie Clarke, whose grandfather was Patrick Joseph Clarke’s brother.

How intimately did Helen’s family know P.J. Clarke’s?  Her father - and his five brothers - grew up in the flat over the bar.

P.J. Clarkes

“Going there as a kid really made an impression on me,” Helen told the Irish Voice this week. 
The bar, meanwhile, has been making an impression on New Yorkers for generations.  Aside from its glitzy clientele, P.J. Clarke’s has been the bar to turn to for famous filmmakers. 

P.J. Clarke’s is one of the stars of Billy Wilder’s classic tale of alcoholism, The Lost Weekend. Popeye Doyle, in French Connection II, orders one of the bar’s famous burgers, and iconic New York Irish journalist Pete Hamill sits down with Al Pacino in P.J.’s in the whistleblower flick The Insider.

But for Helen Marie Clarke, the story of P.J.’s is decidedly more personal.

She recalls a moment as a young girl, walking through the bar with her granduncle Paddy, and looking at the portraits on the wall.  Hanging near the Irish Tricolor, Uncle Paddy noted, were portraits of Irish revolutionaries Robert Emmet and Michael Collins.

Young Helen knew the bearded fellow, Abraham Lincoln, though she did have some questions about the document which blared the headline “Poblacht Na H Eireann.”

Indeed, part of telling the story of her family’s famous bar was exploring the darker side of her family’s deep Irish roots.

“My grandfather wouldn’t talk about Ireland,” Clarke says. 

She came to see that the immigrant generation in her family was reluctant to talk about the past.
Helen chalks this up to the economic hardships they endured in the late 19th century, as well as anger over what the British had done to her family’s ancestral home.

“I wish he would have talked about the bar more,” Helen says, when asked about her Uncle Paddy. 

To write her book, Helen relied heavily on the recollections of her father and her Uncle Joe.

Despite the portraits of Irish revolutionaries and the Irish Republic Proclamation, Clarke didn’t grow up with a particularly strong sense of her Irish roots.  This even though her family lived a very typical New York Irish  life. 

Her own father, John, was a New York City Police officer who, after living above the bar, lived with his family in the Irish stronghold of Woodside, Queens.

Still, not until Helen visited Ireland in 1970 with her husband did she begin to appreciate the importance of her family’s Irish roots.

She met Irish relatives members while visiting in 1970 and returned in 1989, and to this day stays in touch with cousins from Dublin.  In fact, an Irish book editor named Vanessa Fox O’Loughlin helped make Clarke’s book a reality.

“She’s like a sister to me,” says Clarke, whose agent, Paul Feldstein, is based in Belfast.

Clarke, who now lives and teaches in New Mexico, is also working on a novel about the life of famed Irish revolutionary Constance Markiewicz, and is also hoping to publish a second memoir.

For now, she is enjoying the feeling of holding her book about P.J. Clarke’s which, for many readers, is a chronicle of a legendary New York watering hole.

For Helen, however, it is a prized family record of a distinguished Irish American clan.

“I can’t believe it,” she says.

(Contact “Sidewalks” at tdeignan.blogspot.com or tomdeignan@earthlink.net)

Immigration advice for Republicans - post election talk of reform seems superficial and desperate

Senator Linsdey Graham

Well, Republicans, here’s the bad news. Your attempts to suddenly seem immigrant-friendly are awkward at best, and - to put it more bluntly - seem hypocritical, superficial and desperate.
 
On the other hand, there is good news. There is no reason to believe Mitt Romney’s loss to Barack Obama truly represents some kind of final nail in the coffin of the Republican Party. Republicans might actually look at immigration someday as something that benefits them.
 
All you have to do is look at Irish American history.
 
Last week, Republican lawmakers were suddenly busy working to reform America’s immigration policies. That’s not to suggest Republicans have been ignoring immigration.
 
Quite the contrary, as prominent members of the Republican Party have made names for themselves by suggesting that America would be better off sealing up its borders, building walls, or otherwise parroting anti-immigrant nativists from the 19th century.
 
Well, now, Republicans in the House of Representatives have gone and passed a bill which would lure highly educated immigrants to the U.S. GOP members of the Senate, meanwhile, have come up with their own version of the so-called Dream Act, which would help younger immigrants work legally in the U.S.
 
There’s no secret to why Republicans are suddenly embracing immigrants. They see their party going in one direction, and America going in the other direction.
 
Speaking on the TV news show Face the Nation, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham said, 
“[Hispanics are] the fastest-growing demographic in the country, and we're losing votes every election cycle. And it has to stop. It's one thing to shoot yourself in the foot. Just don't reload the gun.”
 
He added, “I intend to tear this wall down and pass an immigration reform bill that's an American solution to an American problem.”

Read more news on Irish immigration issues here
 
Here’s the problem. This is not exactly the way to sway large numbers of Hispanic Americans to vote Republican. That’s because Hispanic voters - like all voters - walk into the voting booth caring about many issues, rather than just one.
 
The biggest problem the Republican Party is facing is not Hispanic voters, but instead where they live.
 
The Republicans continue to get absolutely trounced in urban areas. You know why? Because their policies are profoundly anti-urban.
 
Like it or not, government services - funded by dreaded taxes - play a very important role in the lives of city residents. They understand that without taxes there are no schools for their children, no cops for their streets and no buses or subways to move them around. The Republican obsession with anti-tax, anti-government rhetoric is profoundly out of touch with urban voters.
 
Given his infamous comments about the freeloading 47 percent, the amazing thing about Romney is that he did as well as he actually did in the election.
 
But now there is a feeling among Republicans that if they simply don’t seem quite so hostile on immigration, Hispanics may start voting for them.
 
It is understandable why some Republicans believe Hispanics should be voting for the GOP in greater numbers. They have deep religious and entrepreneurial traditions in America.
 
And yet, shockingly, the GOP’s obsession with abortion and lower taxes for the wealthy has yet to resonate with Mexicans and Dominicans and Puerto Ricans living in and around America’s great cities.
 
Indeed, other than moderating its overall message, if the GOP wants to succeed with these voters, there best tactic may well be to do nothing at all.
 
After all, ethnic Americans living in and around American cities from the 1930s to the 1960 rarely voted for Republicans. Few ever thought they would see the day when large numbers of Irish Catholics voted for Republicans.
 
But once they assimilated more deeply into the American mainstream middle class, they were willing to vote for the likes of Richard Nixon, and, of course, Ronald Reagan. It didn’t hurt that the latter was one of their own.
 
As the saying goes, some Irish Americans turned conservative once they had something to conserve.
 
So, Republicans, the good news is you do have a shot at the Hispanic vote.
 
The bad news? You may have to wait another 30 years or so.

(Contact “Sidewalks” at tdeignan.blogspot.com or tomdeignan@earthlink.net)

Irish strongest lead Hurricane Sandy efforts - NYC’s Sanitation Department on the front line

This Irish flag was recovered by the Sanitation Department in Belle Harbor.
Pictured are supervisor Matt Ryan, sanitation worker Ed Shevlin and supervisor Joe O'Keefe.

Frank O’Keefe has seen a lot in his 20-plus years as a member of New York City’s Sanitation Department -- massive blizzards, hurricanes, even 9/11.

Nothing prepared him for what he saw when he reported for work in the Rockaways after Hurricane Sandy.

“Any pictures you’ve seen do not do it justice,” said O’Keefe, whose parents were born in Kerry.
“It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen.”

O’Keefe, a Sanitation Department superintendent, was dispatched to the Rockaways after the storm. He, along with countless other members of the department, immediately began cleaning up ravaged, heavily-Irish communities such as the Rockaways, Breezy Point and Broad Channel.

The Sanitation Department, known as “New York’s Strongest,” has transformed Jacob Riis Park into a massive trash storage facility. Many of the workers and supervisors cleaning up Queens have not had a day off since the storm hit.

Not long after the clean up got underway, O’Keefe noticed something.  Many key leaders of the department’s Queens clean-up effort are Irish Americans, active in the department’s Emerald Society and Pipe and Drums Band.

The top supervisor on the operation, for example, is Deputy Chief Jim McGovern.  Deputy chiefs Danny O’Leary (an Emerald Society vice president) Roger Leahy (a pipe major) and Keith Woods, as well as Assistant Chief Joe Hickey (a piper with the band) are also key players. 

Sanitation workers on the streets in the Rockaways include Jimmy McGoorty as well as Ed Shevlin, who is well known in Irish circles for his fluency with the Irish language. 

Shevlin has studied Irish in Galway, after wining a grant from the Fulbright Commission, and is working toward a bachelor’s degree in Irish studies. He has said he plans to earn a master’s degree and eventually teach college.

Read more on Hurricane Sandy and the clean up efforts here

Does having all of these Irish Americans help the clean up operation?

“Absolutely,” says O’Keefe. “You have everybody’s cell phone numbers.  It’s easy to get in touch with people.  You know where everybody is.  And maybe there’s even a bit more camaraderie.”

Other key Irish Americans on the clean-up effort include superintendents Timothy Fox, an Emerald Society vice president, and Dennis Cleary, an Emerald Society member, as well as supervisor Joey O’Keefe, a pipe sergeant in the band.

Given all the pain and suffering caused by Sandy, it’s been easy to forget the tremendous job done by all of New York’s Sanitation workers, and what they’ve done to help bring some kind of sense of normalcy back to New York. 

Sandy, in short, gave New Yorkers a chance to sing the praises of New York’s unsung heroes.  (Full disclosure -- my own father retired from “The Strongest” back in the late 1980s.)

Among those working to clean up the Rockaways were many sanitation workers who themselves suffered property damage, lost homes or had family members displaced.

“Coming to work was almost therapeutic for them,” said O’Keefe.  “It took the focus temporarily off of their personal issues.”

Whatever their background, sanitation workers tasked with cleaning up what Sandy left behind faced unprecedented challenges.

“Never ever in the history of the department have we had a clean up like this,” noted O’Keefe, who grew up in the Woodlawn section of the Bronx.

“People had to get together and use their experience and the knowledge they acquired over the years.”

O’Keefe added, “There’s still a lot of work to do, but given what it looked like two weeks ago it’s almost a miracle.”

And while residents have been hit hard by power outages, homelessness and looting, O’Keefe has been blown away by the strength of Queens residents.

“The people here are incredibly resilient.  They have loved us and they’ve really responded to our contribution here,” he said.

The Irish American sanitation workers and residents have actually started looking ahead to the first Saturday in March.  That is the traditional date of the Rockaways annual St. Patrick’s Day parade.

“They want to have it,” O’Keefe said of local Irish residents.  “I think that’s going to be their big comeback.”

And will the Sanitation’s Pipe and Drums band be there?

“Absolutely,” O’Keefe vowed.  “We march in it every year.”

(Contact “Sidewalks” at tdeignan.blogspot.com or tomdeignan@earthlink.net)

No love lost among Irish immigrants for honest Abraham Lincoln - VIDEO

Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln

Bill the Butcher is now Honest Abe?

Daniel Day-Lewis has made several trips to the Academy Awards playing Irish characters in films such as In the Name of the Father and The Boxer.  In 2002 he even nabbed an Oscar nomination for playing the notorious anti-Irish bigot  Bill “The Butcher” Poole in Gangs of New York.

Once again Hollywood is abuzz with Oscar talk for Day-Lewis, who is earning  raves playing the 16th president in Steven Spielberg’s latest historical epic Lincoln. 

The film, set in the waning days of the U.S. Civil War, closely looks at the legislative battle Lincoln and his fellow Republicans waged as they tried to pass a series of Constitutional amendments designed to ensure full citizenship for freed slaves after the war.

Not surprisingly, most critics have noted that Spielberg’s film depicts Lincoln  as a near-God.  Even before the release of this movie, Lincoln was widely regarded as the greatest U.S. president in history and has been the focus of countless fawning biographies. 

The film further solidifies Lincoln’s standing as arguably the most noble American ever, who managed to maintain the union yet was unable to preside over its healing because of that Southern-sympathizing scoundrel John Wilkes Booth, who shot Lincoln in Ford’s Theater on the evening on April 14, 1865.

Given Lincoln’s stature in American history, it’s easy to forget that not everybody loved Honest Abe.  Southerners, for one, believed he was responsible for tearing down their beloved way of life.

And then there was the Irish.  After Southerners, Irish immigrants in the U.S. may well have been the group that most despised Lincoln.

Why?  First, there was politics.  Lincoln ran for president as the nominee of a fairly new group called the Republican Party. 

The Irish, of course, were fierce Democrats.  In cities such as New York and Boston, Democratic machines such as Tammany Hall helped the Irish find food and shelter in the New World.  The machines were corrupt but also effective. 

Many Irish immigrants believed that anything which threatened the Democratic Party – such as Lincoln – was a threat  to their tenuous way of life.

In fact, New York City as a whole was so heavily Democratic and suspicious of Lincoln that there was talk of the city itself seceding from the union.

Then there was the war.  Yes, of course, many Irish immigrants fought nobly for  the Union cause in the Civil War, including the famous Irish Brigade.  And yet, many other immigrants new to America had no interest in going off to fight in a war they knew very little about. 

Consider the bitter lyrics of the ballad “Paddy’s Lament”: “When we got to Yankee land, they shoved a gun into our hands, saying Paddy, you must go and fight for Lincoln.”

The most infamous illustration of immigrant opposition to the war was the 1863 New York City Draft Riots which were depicted so vividly in Gangs of New York.

Anti-Irish bigotry in the Republican Party also fueled Irish disdain for Lincoln. The party during Lincoln’s time was a coalition of different interest groups, among them nativist and anti-Catholic ones such as the so-called Know Nothings. 

Lincoln himself may not have been anti immigrant or anti-Catholic, but many of his supporters were.  In fact, following Lincoln’s assassination and for many years after, conspiracy theories abound that the Vatican or other elements within the Catholic Church played a role in Lincoln’s murder.

Given all of this, you might say that Day-Lewis has portrayed two of the most vilified characters in Irish American history. 

Bill the Butcher was a street level bigot, the kind of guy who threw rocks at immigrants and made it hard for them to obtain work. 

Lincoln, meanwhile, was a great man of power, a symbol of an elite that wanted them in this country only if they were willing to feed the war machine.

Paddy had much to lament, after all.

(Contact “Sidewalks” at tdeignan.blogspot.com or tomdeignan@earthlink.net)

Watch the trailer for Lincoln here:

Religion and politics go perfectly together, but is the church closing their doors to possible parishioners?

Archbishop John J. Myers (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

Tom Moran was “born into a devout Catholic family, the fifth of nine children,” as the Irish American columnist wrote in a column this past Sunday for the Star Ledger newspaper in New Jersey.

Moran, however, now declares himself “a spiritual refugee,” who has “fled a million miles from the church.”

He, of course, is not the only one.

“One in three American adults was raised in a Catholic family, but fewer than one in four identify as Catholic today. No other church has shed so many followers, according to surveys by the Pew Charitable Trusts,” Moran writes.

This bit of soul-searching was prompted by a controversial letter written by Archbishop John J. Myers, the spiritual leader of the Newark Archdiocese.

Myers lengthy pastoral letter on marriage and family encouraged Catholics to vote a certain way in the upcoming presidential election. 

“Catholic citizens must exercise their right to be heard in the public square by defending marriage,” Myers writes. 

In short, Myers is placing gay marriage, as well as abortion, at the center of the 2012 election.  He adds that Catholics who don’t share his views should probably not receive Holy Communion.

Moran and many like him are wondering why such a prominent religious figure would release such a highly-charged document on the eve of the closely-watched presidential debates, and just a month before this hard-fought election, in which religious values have played a central, often contentious, role.

It’s easy to say religion and politics don’t mix, and that Myers shouldn’t go about endorsing candidates, even though Myers never technically mentioned that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan (who is Catholic) are members of a political party whose views match the Catholic Church’s.  Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden (also Catholic) support abortion and gay marriage.

Trouble is, religion and politics have always mixed, like it or not. 

“Dagger” John Hughes, the Irish immigrant who more or less built the New York Archdiocese, openly supported political candidates who joined him in his fight to rid New York’s schools of their deeply Protestant influences. 

John Drina of Massachusetts was a Catholic priest who joined the anti-war movement and actually won a seat in congress in 1970.  He was followed a few years later by Robert John Cornell of Wisconsin, a priest who served in Congress until 1978.

So, if you don’t like mixing religion and politics, that is your right, but it’s been happening for about as long as people have been mixing scotch and soda.

Perhaps the real interesting place to get some thoughts on the archbishop’s priorities is St. Anne’s school in Jersey City.  Or Queen of Angels in Newark itself. 

Those are two of eight schools in the Newark Archdiocese that were slated for closure in an announcement earlier this year.  Yes, Catholic school closures are generally about budgets and finances. 

But across the country, budgets and finances are in bad shape because so many Catholics are indeed
voting.  But not at the ballot box. 

Catholics, instead, are voting with their feet, by attending church fewer and fewer times.  They are voting with their pocketbook, simply unable to pay the high cost of (an admittedly very fine)
Catholic education.

Are people fleeing the church solely because of abortion and gay rights?  No, but most polls show the vast majority of American Catholics disagree with their leaders on these issues. 

And while it is easy to say an institution such as the Catholic Church has little use for polls, it’s going way too far to suggest that the church is some timeless institution that never changes or responds to the political tone of the day.

Myers, for example, is a member of the Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, a body which would probably not exist but for pressure created by victims.

Ultimately, it is perplexing why so many church leaders choose to make abortion and gay marriage the most pressing issue of the day, going so far as to suggest support for these issues precludes Catholics from participating in the sacraments.

Is this an institution that really wants to be closing its doors to anyone at this point?

Doing so may go over well with some on Election Day. But it only creates more and more spiritual refugees.

(Contact “Sidewalks” at tdeignan.blogspot.com or tomdeignan@earthlink.net)

Tell it to the Irish Catholic nuns, Mitt Romney - Government funds vital to helping American people

Sister Mary Rose McGeady

Earlier this month, Sister Mary Rose McGeady died at the age of 84. 

Back in 1990, Sister Mary Rose bravely stepped into what had been a media firestorm. 

Sister Mary Rose was selected to run Covenant House, a highly respected charity which offered shelter to homeless youth.  Covenant House’s original founder,

Father Bruce Ritter, had been hailed as a visionary.  He started Covenant House in the late 1960s, offering little more than two cold-water apartments to those who needed a roof over their heads. 

By 1990, however, Covenant House was serving as many as 30,000 youths in 11 cities across America, as well as in Latin America.  Annual donations were estimated at $80 million.

Then came the sex abuse allegations against Ritter.

It may seem hard to imagine now, but there was a time when such allegations still had the ability to shock.  That, of course, has changed thanks to the avalanche of sexual abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church in Ireland, America and elsewhere since the late 1990s and 2000s.

No charges were ever filed against Ritter, who adamantly denied the allegations. But, as The New York Times noted, an independent investigation commissioned by Covenant House “found that although none of the sexual allegations could be proved, enough evidence existed, including evidence of financial irregularities, to warrant Father Ritter’s dismissal.”

Enter Sister Mary Rose, who picked the organization up off of the floor and made it into a miracle once again. 

She retired in 2003, and Covenant House is now said to be serving 50,000 people in over 20 cities, with annual donations of well over $100 million.

This Irish American Catholic nun’s heroic effort was worth thinking about in the wake of Mitt Romney’s now infamous comments that roughly half of the American population (47 percent) expects handouts from the government. 

It’s not even worth distorting the comments.  Romney did not call people “moochers” or  “freeloaders.” 

His own words need not be twisted.  For they are damning enough. 

We should actually give Romney credit.  We want our politicians to be honest? 

Well, it seems to me Romney was simply being honest. 

Many Republicans are not merely opposed to handing out welfare checks so that drug addicts can get their fix.  Many of them are also opposed to financial aid for college students.  And unemployment insurance. And aid for the elderly. And so on and so forth.

This even as they want to boost military spending, not to get soldiers the kind of medical assistance they deserve, but to purchase a lot of high-tech gizmos which just so happen to be manufactured by corporations that make hefty donations.

Again, give Romney credit.  He simply explained where the Republican Party stands. 

Now voters have to ask themselves – do I know anyone who benefits from financial aid? Unemployment? Medicaid or Medicare?

Where does Sister Mary Rose fit into all this? 

Well, don’t forget, the Republicans were happy a few weeks back when Timothy Cardinal Dolan made an appearance at the Republican convention.  It reinforced the notion that the GOP is the party of God, while the Democrats are Godless. 

As usual, the Democrats did themselves no favors by not welcoming Dolan, and then by leaving God out of their platform.

But if the Republicans are so happy to tout themselves as the party of God, they should have some long conversations with the likes of Sister Mary Rose McGeady, and the thousands of religious people like her toiling to make the lives of the miserable and wretched slightly more bearable. 

In the Republican universe, Covenant House is an exemplary organization.  It is a religious charity that raises its own money, meaning tax money is not required. (Irish American Kevin M. Ryan now runs the organization.)

But Romney, and all the other Christian GOPers, should actually talk to some nuns.  Don’t just prop them up and say, “Look, we actually like Catholics now.” 

For if you actually talk to those toiling with the impoverished and needy, they will tell you government funds remain vital to helping out not just the poor, but working and middle class Americans.

That might even add up to more than 47 percent, Mitt.

(Contact Sidewalks at tdeignan.blogspot.com or tomdeignan@earthlink.net)