The Fighting Irish and evolution of ice hockey in the US

Now they want to blame the Irish for all of the fighting and violence we see in hockey?

Okay, so it’s not quite that simple.  But there’s a theory going around that the Irish played a central role in the evolution of hockey, and in particular the sport’s infamous acceptance of violence.

It’s been a tough week for hockey fans in the New York area. 

First the New York Rangers – led by Irish American captain Ryan Callahan and Massachusetts-born star Brian Boyle – were bounced from the Stanley Cup playoffs after a stellar season as arguably the best team in the league.

Then, in the Stanley Cup finals, the New Jersey Devils went down three games to none to the Los Angeles Kings.  The Devils fought back, winning two games, before getting spanked 6-1 in Game six, giving the L.A. Kings their first hockey title ever.

Either way, it is worth noting that the Stanley Cup battle was fought between two American teams.

This even though hockey is the quintessential Canadian sport. 

Not only that, but it is the only sport in which, even today, fighting plays a more or less acceptable role. 

Yes, whenever two players throw down the gloves and start hammering each other, they will face a penalty.  But not before someone is declared a winner, and both understand they will probably be fighting again someday soon.

The question has lingered: Why does hockey have this casual attitude towards fighting?  That’s where the Irish come in.

Those attempting to untangle this relationship between hockey and fighting inevitably go back to the roots of the game.  The most intriguing theory of late comes from author and New Yorker magazine writer Adam Gopnik. 

Gopnik, a Canadian, suggests that fighting on the ice was a result of broader ethnic tensions in Canada.

“The first organized hockey games were played (in Montreal) in 1875 by English-Canadian rugby players looking for a winter sport,” The New York Times noted back in December, in a report about Gopnik’s theory.

_________________
Read More:

Ireland’s youngest Olympic medal prospect - 19-year-old swimmer Grainne Murphy

BiG 12 looking like a nice fit for Irish
_________________

 “For the first 20 years or so, the players were mostly members of Montreal’s English and Scottish elite; French Canadians joined in the 1890s, when the Catholic Church in Quebec started to drop its resistance to sports. Montreal’s Irish, as English-speaking Catholics, occupied a kind of middle ground between the Protestant Anglo-Scots elite and the Catholic French majority.”

Naturally, international politics manifested itself on the ice.

The Times noted, “They all had their own hockey clubs, some of whose names are still etched on the Stanley Cup: the Scottish, represented by the thistle on Montreal’s flag, had the Victorias; the English, with the rose, had the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association; the Irish had the Shamrocks; and the French, of the fleur-de-lis, had the National and the Montagnards.

“The Shamrocks often allied with French clubs against the English and the Scottish in disputes over who would be allowed into the top leagues.”

And so, since these ethnic groups hated each other on the national stage, it makes a certain kind of sense that if you handed them sticks and had them skate at each other at high speeds, they might start brawling.

On the other hand, others believe Gopnik’s theory might be a little simplistic.

Historian Michel Vigneault is considered the first scholar to link hockey violence with Canada’s ethnic tension.  He did so in his 2001 Laval University doctoral thesis.

Now a teacher at the Université du Québec à Montréal, Vigneault has suggested that the actual roots of hockey violence might lie in lacrosse. This was Montreal’s most popular sport in the mid-to-late 19th Century.

“In lacrosse then, fights were legendary,” Vigneault told the Times. “Most of the hockey players were lacrosse players then.” 

Others have even suggested, as the Times notes, that “ancient Gaelic field games Irish hurling and Scottish shinty…sometimes played on ice, contain the seeds for hockey’s violence.”

Perhaps.  Though that’s no comfort, right now, to Devils and Rangers fans.

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

Don’t forget the Irish rabble rousers - 'Activist New York'

Activist New York  exhibition opens at Museum of the City of New York    

The year was 1981.  It was early May, the weather was turning warm, and the New York Yankees were on their way to another World Series – though not before Major League Baseball players went on strike, resulting in a short, strange season.

On May 5, 1981, Irish New Yorkers poured out into the streets when news came out of Belfast that Republican hunger striker Bobby Sands had died. An estimated 10,000 people closed off several blocks in Manhattan near the British consulate. 

On the waterfront, longshoremen called for a one day boycott of British shipping, while others proposed a national boycott of British Airways. Finally, Transit Workers Union head John Lawe called for members to drive with headlights on all day to acknowledge Sands' death.

In these days of Occupy Wall Street and gay marriage, protest and the change it spurs is very much in the news.  So much so that the Museum of the City of New York recently opened a new exhibit called “Activist New York.” 

The exhibit, according to organizers, “explores the drama of social activism in New York City from the 17th century right up to the present. In a town renowned for its in-your-face persona, citizens of the city have banded together on issues as diverse as historic preservation, civil rights, wages, sexual orientation and religious freedom.”

The issues the exhibit explores are undoubtedly important. But it would have certainly added an interesting dynamic to the exhibit if it also explored the way various immigrants have championed their national causes and the way ethnic enclaves around New York responded.

Needless to say, Irish New York rabble rousers have had their share of moments in the “Activist New York” spotlight.

There was, of course, the moment when Sands’ death shed light on the problem of The Troubles in the North.  That was at the start of the 1980s. 

By the end of that turbulent decade, a Belfast fellow named Joseph Patrick Thomas Doherty -- and his many supporters --made Northern Ireland an important issue in the 1989 race to be New York City mayor.

Doherty was arrested while working at a Manhattan bar, accused of serving as an active IRA soldier.
The British wanted him returned to the U.K., and while serving as U.S. attorney in charge of the case, Rudy Giuliani earned many enemies in the Irish community.

That Northern Ireland would become a flashpoint in the 1989 race for New York mayor was unlikely, to say the least.  That year, crime and racial tension were spiraling out of control. 

David Dinkins was aiming to become New York’s first African American mayor.  And yet, both Dinkins and his opponent Giuliani were forced to have “full-fledged policies about the former Irish Republican Army guerrilla,” The New York Times reported at the time, adding that “the 'Doherty issue’ … could sway votes in the mayoral election.”

This, of course, was a testament to Irish organizers harnessing the network of Irish American support across the five boroughs.

Then again, perhaps this should be no surprise because the Irish have been loud and proud members of “Activist New York” for decades.

Many Irish New Yorkers were fierce in their support for the 1916 Easter Rising, and nationalist rallies in venues such as Madison Square Garden attracted upwards of 20,000 Irish American supporters.

Visits by the likes of Eamon de Valera were also popular – and controversial. 

After all, during the World War I era, many criticized the notion of “hyphenated Americans” who could feel loyalty for both Ireland and the U.S.

After World War I, Irish-born activists in New York used their political skills to found the Transit Workers Union. 

The Irish are a particularly interesting study in activism because subsequent visits by nationalist leaders – think Bernadette Devlin in the late 1960s – rallied support in some parts of the Irish American community, but also alienated many others.

So, if you go to visit “Activist New York” at the Museum of the City of New York, realize that it tells a good story. But it is only part of the story.

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

Rockers and politics out of tune - Republican Jeff Fitzgerald versus Dropkick Murphy’s 'Shipping up to Boston' - VIDEO

Dropkick Murphys

When will they ever learn?

When will politicians figure out that they should never mix rock ‘n’ roll with their campaigns?

Sure, it makes them seem cool at first. But ultimately, it makes them look clueless.

The latest example is an Irish vs. Irish affair involving Wisconsin Republican big wig Jeff Fitzgerald and rabble rousing, left-leaning Irish punk band the Dropkick Murphys.

The band is best known for its rollicking tune “Shipping Up to Boston,” which was used in the Martin Scorsese movie The Departed.

Fitzgerald took a liking to the song and started using it at campaign events.

As the Wisconsin State Journal eventually noted, “After the Irish American punk band from Massachusetts heard about Fitzgerald's song choice, the rockers promptly posted a scathing statement on the band's Facebook page.”

The posting read, "We just got word that Wisconsin State Rep. and Speaker of the State Assembly Jeff Fitzgerald used 'Shipping Up to Boston' as his walk-on song at the Wisconsin GOP convention in Green Bay. The stupidity and irony of this is laughable.

“A Wisconsin Republican U.S. Senate candidate -- and crony of anti-union Gov. Scott Walker -- using a Dropkick Murphys song as an intro is like a white supremacist coming out to gangsta rap! Fitzgerald: if you and your staff can't even figure out your music you might wanna give up on the politics!!!!! We stand beside our union and labor brothers and sisters and their families in Wisconsin and all over the U.S!"

Fitzgerald, to his credit, later said he would stop using the song. Of course, he’s not doing that because he’s a nice guy.

The last thing Fitzgerald needs is his Republican pals taking a closer look at some of the more radical lyrics by Dropkick Murphys. If they did, they might dropkick Fitzgerald out of the state and out of the Republican Party.

The most famous example of an Irish American politician being out of tune with a famous musician, of course, was Ronald Reagan. Back when the Gipper was running things, he tried to harness the popularity of a certain crooner from New Jersey named Bruce Springsteen.

As you might recall, Springsteen released a mega-smash album during the Regan years entitled Born in the U.S.A. The title track is a rousing anthem, one that certainly compels the listener to feel a certain kind of patriotism. Just not the patriotism Reagan had in mind.

“Born down in a dead man’s town / the first kick I took was when I hit the ground / End up like a dog that’s been beat too much / Til you spend half your life just to cover it up.”

And that’s just the first few lines of the Springsteen song. Not exactly “Morning in America,” the sunny vision Reagan was selling at the time.

Look, this stuff is complicated. I vividly remember hearing that Springsteen song when it was first released and welling up with feelings of patriotism. The chorus is a thunderclap and was made to be shouted, chanted, bellowed.

Here’s the thing -- I was 13 years old when I felt that way. It wasn’t long before I was old enough to see that the song is a lot more complex.

Which is not to say it is unpatriotic. Far from it.

But it just asks us to take an honest look at some hard problems. That, generally, is not the game politicians are into, whether we are talking about Ronald Reagan or Jeff Fitzgerald.

There is, of course, a broader issue here about the Irish in America.

Generally, this kind of conflict occurs between a right wing politician and left leaning artist.

This simply reflects an ongoing split amongst the Irish in America. There are those who believe the Irish have survived great trauma in the U.S. and should be allowed to revel in their hard-earned middle-class status. These folks are generally Republican, Catholic, law-and-order types.

And then there are those who believe the only way the Irish obtained that status was by comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable. So they continue a more radical strain of Irish activism.

Surely, this debate will continue. And, yes, it can get ugly.

But, if nothing else, we’ve learned one thing over the centuries: Politicians – stay away from rock ‘n’ roll!

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

The Dropkick Murphys' 'Shipping Up To Boston':

The Catholic Civil Warrior - Patrick J Reilly, president of the Cardinal Newman Society

Kathleen Sebelius (FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/GettyImages)

He's the most influential, confrontational, controversial Irish Catholic you’ve never heard of.

He makes Maureen Dowd of The New York Times angry.  He makes Bill Donohue of the Catholic League stand up and cheer.  And each and every May he reignites what some have come to call the “civil war” in the American Catholic Church.

His name is Patrick J. Reilly.

Reilly is the founder and president of a Washington group called the Cardinal Newman Society.  For better or worse, Reilly is widely credited for pressuring Catholic colleges that invite speakers who may be Catholic but do not strictly adhere to church teaching.

The lighting rod this year is Kathleen Sebelius, who was invited to take part in Georgetown University’s commencement ceremonies.  The Irish American Sebelius (born Kathleen Gilligan in Cincinnati, the daughter of former Ohio governor John Gilligan) is currently Health and Human Services secretary and was the public face of the Obama administration’s efforts to compel employers – including those who work for the Catholic Church – to pay for medical coverage which might include contraception. 

The conflict outraged conservative Catholics, who slammed the Obama administration for assaulting religious liberty.  The controversy catapulted New York’s Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan to the
national stage. 

Just this week, Dolan led a coalition of Catholic dioceses and colleges in a court challenge to the Obama administration.

The same sides of that debate were up in arms again this week, either defending or blasting Sebelius’s selection as a speaker at Georgetown University, the oldest Jesuit institution in the U.S. 

As David Gibson noted, writing for Religion News Service, “The Washington archdiocese issued a statement (calling) the Sebelius invitation a ‘shocking’ action that undermines the Catholic Church and supports the administration in what the hierarchy says is an unprecedented attack on religious freedom ... ‘It's practically a civil war,’ Michael Brendan Dougherty, politics editor at Business Insider and a Catholic, wrote on Wednesday.”

That would make Patrick J. Reilly a civil warrior. 

Those seeking change in the church, or hoping at least for debate on controversial issues, target the
Cardinal Newman Society as a defender of an excessively rigid theology that has alienated many Irish American Catholics.

“The latest kooky kerfuffle was sparked by the invitation to Kathleen Sebelius,” Dowd wrote in the Times this week. “The silver-haired former Kansas governor is a practicing Catholic with a husband and son who graduated from Georgetown.

“But because she fought to get a federal mandate for health insurance coverage of contraceptives and morning-after pills, including at Catholic schools and hospitals, Sebelius is on the hit list of a conservative Catholic group in Virginia, the Cardinal Newman Society, which militates to bar speakers at Catholic schools who support gay rights or abortion rights.”

As leader of the Newman Society, Reilly is surely glad to count Dowd as an enemy.  And it is understandable that conservatives want to draw a line, lest Catholicism become so watered down we might as well all become Protestants.

So of course they shudder when they hear someone like Mario Cuomo say, “Christ is my religion, the church is not.” 

Reilly and others argue that the church and its teachings are timeless, and thus should not bend. 

The problem is, the church has always bent and wavered and changed.  And to say the Catholic Church is devoid of political debate and maneuvering is just silly. 

There are many debates within the Vatican before the Pope speaks for all of the world’s Catholics.
The pope himself is selected via a political process.

Meanwhile, here in the U.S., liberals and conservatives have to decide what kind of church will remain vibrant and relevant in the 21st Century. 

The only way to do that is to engage in debate and discussion, and that includes inviting a diverse range of speakers to Catholic institutions.

Otherwise, there will barely be enough Catholics left to have a debate.

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

Movies, photos, posters, and literature - What objects define Irish America?

Billy the Kid

For celebrated writer Pete Hamill, you have to include a photo of Billy the Kid, “an Irish American from the Five Points who took Horace Greeley's advice and  went west.” 

For New York Times columnist Dan Barry, you must include movie posters from the  many 1930s films which focused on Irish American life, such as Angles with Dirty  Faces, The Roaring Twenties and The Fighting 69th.  

And to novelist Peter Quinn, an ironworker’s gloves and Eugene O’Neill’s desk are too important to ignore. 

Two weeks ago I wrote a column noting that there is worldwide interest these  days in trying to tell the story of a culture through a handful of physical objects.  

From Ireland to the U.K. to America, books have been written, museum  exhibits established and debates held over how certain objects can define a  culture. 

So I asked the question -- what objects define Irish America?  Boy, did I get a  lot of answers. 

Aside from Billy the Kid, Hamill, whose parents came from Belfast, suggested copies of sheet music written for the Irish in America, highlighting  tunes such as "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen."  

Hamill also suggested Jimmy  Cagney movie posters, tickets stubs from a John McCormack concert, Thomas Nast’s  infamous anti-Irish cartoons and Mike Quill’s Transit Workers Union I.D. card.   

Campaign buttons from Al Smith and JFK, the covers of James T. Farrell’s Studs Lonigan books, a Pogo comic strip by Walt Kelly, a photo of gangster Owney  Madden and (of course) press credentials from great Irish American journalists  were other items Hamill (quite a journalist himself) suggested. 

Gene Kelly

Quinn, author of Banished Children of Eve and Looking for Jimmy, suggested the following -- a grand marshal's sash from the Fifth Avenue St. Patrick's Day Parade, "Wild Bill" Donovan's Congressional Medal of Honor (housed in the 69th Regiment Armory on Lexington Avenue), the banner of the Irish Brigade, a bucket and scrub brush, O'Neill's desk, a nun's habit, sheet music from Harrigan and Hart, ironworker's gloves, a union pin (“or the sash my grandfather wore to lead the 1904 New York City Labor Day parade”), Gene Kelly's dancing shoes, the cap James Cagney wore in Yankee Doodle Dandy, a First Communion boy's arm band/girl's dress, a shovel or spade, Grace Kelly's riding outfit from Philadelphia Story, a fireman's helmet, Bing Crosby's bow tie, a bottle shard from the Five Points, a cop's billy club and (finally) Legs Diamond's pistol. 

It wasn’t just ink-stained wretches like Hamill and Quinn who responded. Reader Damian McShane of the Bronx, responding through Facebook, suggested a fight poster of famous boxer John L. Sullivan as well as Congressman Tip O’Neill's gavel. 

Maureen Duffy, of Salt Lake City, added, “You would of course need to find one of the signs that my great-grandfather and great-uncles saw again and again when looking for work in New York and Connecticut in the 1860's -- the signs that said Help Wanted: No Irish Need Apply. 

“And then, of course, there's the police van  which became termed (and still is) the ‘Paddywagon’ from its use in, supposedly,  picking up drunk and fighting Irishmen from the streets of New York and  depositing them in the ‘clink’ or ‘pokey’ (which are both slang phrases used by  the Irish designating gaol).” 

New York Times columnist Barry also wanted Irish American pop culture represented.  

“I would suggest something from George M. Cohan -- some sheet  music, perhaps. I know there's a statue of Cohan in the Fox Point section of  Providence, at the top of Wickenden Street. 

'Yankee Doodle Dandy' ad which starred James Cagney

“You might also consider a Warner  Brothers movie from the 1930s, one that captures that New York Irish  sensibility. There are plenty, whether gangster or military, starring Jimmy  Cagney, Pat O'Brien, and Frank McHugh. The Fighting 69th, Angels With Dirty  Faces, The Roaring Twenties.” 

Tom Murphy, who heads up the retirees chapter of the United Federation of Teachers (and also happens to be my cousin), suggested a host of more domestic  items, such as front door holy water fonts, lace curtains, St. Patrick’s Day  cards, women's tam-o-shanters and scarves, rosary beads/scapulars/crucifix, a  racing form or OTB ticket or the Irish Sweepstake receipt and prayer cards from  wakes.  

Murphy also suggested a voting booth, a photo of JFK, a Cead Mile Failte  plaque and (finally) last year’s palms, to be burned to ashes. 

Historian and author Thomas Fleming appreciated a suggestion I made two weeks  ago -- a copy of a famous book by Cotton Mather, which mentions the execution of Irish Catholic immigrant and accused witch Goody Glover, whose religion and  ethnicity made her a target. 

“In the tradition of Goody Glover,” Fleming wrote, “I'd suggest a picture of  Lyman Beecher, father of Harriet B. Stowe and Henry Ward Beecher. He crusaded  for decades against the Catholic (mostly Irish) menace. 

“He's got a face that emanates prejudice, a sort of permanent scowl.” 

Former Irish Voice reporter Georgina Brennan, replying from Ireland, wanted to  highlight Irish music. 

"A copy of McNally's Row of Flats by Mick Maloney, which contains some of the  best Irish children’s songs long, long ago forgotten." Readers Dick and Kit Wheatley also had music on their minds, reserving a special  place for the pipes played at funerals and any songs which long for “home.” 

Author and historian Kevin Baker went back to the 19th century, saying any story  of the Irish in the U.S. could not be told without a Union army field cap from  the Civil War or a banner representing the San Patricios, who fought on the side of Mexico in the Mexican-American war. 

Baker also suggested, “A growler, with which to talk about the constant, disastrous attempts by the codfish aristocracy to ‘tame’ the Irish through  temperance. A pair of tap shoes, Dagger John Hughes’ clerical robes, the  rusty-colored old priest’s frock Francis Cardinal Spellman liked to wear when he was pretending to be a simple country prelate around The Powerhouse and, finally, the spikes of Mike “King” Kelly, the first real Irish, team-sport  superstar.” 

Matt Patterson, a dentist working on the Duffy’s Cut archaeological project in  Pennsylvania, said we should “include a piece of railroad track and an item from a canal boat or mule harness that pulled canal boats.  

“The Irish built the  Eastern railroads and canals, and the Duffy’s Cut Project historians say that  for every mile of railroad and canal in this country, there's a dead Irishman.”

Reader Michael Brennan also had Pennsylvania on his mind. He suggested “company ‘money’ paid to the Irish in the Pennsylvania coal fields, good at the company store or bar but not the train station.”

Irish Brigade Civil War banners (from the North and South), a nun with a ruler  in her hand and a film clip showing George M. Cohan, played by Cagney, in  Yankee Doodle Dandy were also important to Brennan. 

What’s clear from all of this is that the story of the Irish in America is a  rich and diverse one.  

Gathering all of these artifacts would be quite a task.  Then again, compared to surviving in the U.S., it doesn’t seem so daunting.  

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

Liberal attack on Mitt Romney is wrong - Larry O'Donnell attacks the Mormon faith

Lawrence O’Donnell

Liberals love to say that right wingers hijack religion and exploit it for political purposes. Maybe.  But liberals also made it very easy to do so.

For a group of people who – rightly – like to take credit for defending people’s rights, liberals still have a blind spot when it comes to religion in general and Christians in particular.  This is particularly troubling because the liberal Christian tradition in America is so strong.

The latest lefty to fall into this trap is Irish American MSNBC talk show host Lawrence O’Donnell.

Last month, O’Donnell, who once worked as a close aide to sainted Irish American Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan, was doing what liberal talk show hosts always do -- bashing Mitt Romney.

Nothing wrong with that.  In fact, Romney’s charge that Barack Obama is trying to “establish a religion in America known as secularism” is desperately in need of correction.

But what did O’Donnell do?  Instead of taking Romney to task for wildly exaggerating Obama’s dedication to an anti-religious agenda, O’Donnell went after the Mormon faith.

“Religiously, Mitt Romney lives in the glass house of American politics,” he said.

O’Donnell then added, “Mormonism was created by a guy in upstate New York in 1830 when he got caught having sex with the maid and explained to his wife that God told him to do it. Forty-eight wives later, Joseph Smith’s lifestyle was completely sanctified in the religion he invented to go with it, which Mitt Romney says he believes.”

First of all, as O’Donnell later admitted in an apology, this is inaccurate.  Most scholars believe Smith had his religious awakening prior to the scandal involving the maid.

But that is far from the most important point here.  Irish Catholics, in particular, should be quite wary of pointing out the peculiarities in a given religion as proof that a candidate is somehow unfit for office.

After all, O’Donnell used to work with Moynihan, who was not only a senator but a first-rate scholar of the kind of bigotry Irish Catholics faced as they climbed the social ladder in America.  More than that, Moynihan worked for the first Catholic president!

Lord knows, back in 1960 many people said things like this, “John F. Kennedy believes in a religion led by a guy who wears a funny hat, who never gets married, and claims to be infallible.  They also decided that it’s OK to eat meat on Thursdays and Saturdays, but not Fridays.  They also put ashes on their foreheads once a year.”

Every religion is open to criticism such as this. Which is why O’Donnell should not have attacked Romney the Mormon.

Instead, he should have attacked Romney the Republican.  Or Romney, the exploiter of religious fear, which is what the Republican candidate was doing by implying that Obama -- who many

Republicans still believe is a Muslim -- holds anti-religious views.

Yes, it is true that O’Donnell ultimately apologized, but it really never should have come to that.  There have been countless times where people on the left side of the political spectrum, who show respect and stand up for the rights of Jews and Muslims and atheists, nevertheless bungle the matter when it comes to Christians of varying stripes.

The reasons are obvious.  Liberals tend to view conservative Catholics and Protestants as part of the power structure.

And, since they are in favor of taking on the power structure, liberals generally believe they are acting
bravely when they tackle issues cherished by religious conservatives.

But there are some problems here.  First of all, in the case of Romney, he is, by every definition, a member of a religious minority.

To slam aspects of his faith, but then give others a free pass -- like, say, all those Democrats who call themselves Catholic but support abortion and the death penalty -- is unfair.

More importantly, liberals and their inability to debate religion well have created a truly bizarre scenario -- Christians who feel persecuted in the United States!

Yes, we have this state of affairs partly because right wingers are so savvy at exploiting this.

But they’d have nothing to exploit if O’Donnell and his colleagues didn’t consistently make such blunders.

If attacking Romney the Mormon is the Democratic plan for success in November, it’s going to be a long campaign.

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

What objects define Irish America - defining a culture through a handful of physical items

President John F Kennedy

It is all the rage to attempt to define an entire culture through a handful of physical objects. 

Late last year, the American edition of the British book A History of the World in 100 Objects was published, following a hugely successful exhibition at the British Museum.

Similarly, acclaimed commentator Fintan O’Toole has been telling the history of Ireland in 100 objects, in conjunction with the National Museum of Ireland. 

O’Toole has cited a wide range of objects going back centuries, from a Mesolithic fish trap (5000 B.C.) to coins from the 1200s and 1400s.

All of this begs the question -- if we were going to try and tell the story of the Irish in America, what kind of objects could we look at?

This would be a vast undertaking which would require much more space than this single column.  It would also require the collective brainpower of most, if not all, of the 40 million Americans who claim Irish heritage. 

Please make your own suggestions.  (See contact information below)  Here are some of my own:

1) A copy of Cotton Mather’s 1689 book Memorable Providences Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions. It seems downright treasonous to use such a fiercely Protestant book to tell the story of a heavily Catholic people, but that, of course, is the point. 

Mather’s book gives an account of the persecution of one Goodwife “Goody” Glover, an immigrant and devout Catholic who spoke the Irish language.  This did not help her when she was targeted as a witch, when four of her children fell ill.  She spoke Irish on the witness stand and was eventually hanged. 

Mather’s account is a harbinger of all of the trouble the Irish would face in New World in the coming centuries.

2) Along the same lines, I would also include George Templeton Strong’s diaries from the middle 19th Century. 

Though a rabid bigot, Strong’s account of the New York City Draft Riots and other key events during the heaviest periods of Irish immigration are invaluable.

3) Buttons, a pipe, a beer bottle, a bone tooth brush, pottery and more have been excavated by archaeologists digging at the site of the former Seneca Village in Central Park.  Located at 85th Street and Central Park West, Seneca Village was destroyed to make way for the famed park. 

Before that it was home to Irish immigrants as well as many African Americans.  The simple objects, and the diversity of the inhabitants, show that different people in New York City were not always at each other’s throats. 

The destruction of their homes also shows that life was never easy for an immigrant, even after you believed you’d found a new place to live.

4) A collector of political memorabilia recently spent $106 for a 7-inch ribbon from 1928 which reads: “Tammany Hall: Smith and Walker.”

In terms of saying a lot in just a few words, this artifact is priceless.  Tammany Hall, for all its corruption, nurtured Irish American political power for nearly a century. 

Al Smith, that rare creature, a loyal Tammany Man untainted by corruption, ran for president in 1928.  He faced a wave of bigotry led by the resurgent Ku Klux Klan. 

And Jimmy Walker?  Well, the playboy mayor of New York proved every stereotype about Tammany politicians true.  At least he also showed that not all Catholics were disturbed by adultery.

5) Irish-born sculptor Augusts Saint Gaudens statue of Abraham Lincoln in Chicago’s Lincoln Park.  This shows not only a great (and very American) cultural contribution by a prominent Irish artist, but also would lead to discussion about the very complex relationship the Irish had with perhaps the greatest U.S. president.

6) A membership list from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).  Since there is no ignoring the Catholic element of the Irish story in America, there is also no way to ignore the revelations of the last 15 years or so.

7) JFK’s top hat.  There is such a glut of Kennedy stuff, ranging from the tragic to the sentimental.  The hat he wore on inauguration day in 1961 (housed at the JFK Library in Boston) strikes me as perfectly playful, and, no, not particularly Irish.  Which means the poet Robert Frost was right to tell the president he should be “more Irish than Harvard.”

What objects do you believe represent Irish America?  Write your suggestions to  tomdeignan@earthlink.net.