State rights and wrongs on immigration- know-nothing laws and shrivelling economies

John Kavanagh

On June 24, 1875, the steamship Ethiopia sailed into New York harbor, after a long journey from Glasgow, Scotland.  Little is known about the ship’s passengers, other than the fact that many were looking to start new lives in New York or other states, or perhaps even Canada. 

Suffice to say, the odds that there were Irish passengers on board the Ethiopia are very high.

After all, the Irish had been coming in great numbers to thriving ports for many reasons, one of them being that cities from New York to Boston to New Orleans had established systems for accepting (and sometimes rejecting) immigrants. 

And while they had to deal with problems created by immigration – from crime to rabid nativist movements – they also reaped the benefits and became thriving, first-class cities.

The ship masters of the Ethiopia well knew that once they docked in New York, they were required, by local laws, to report the name, birthplace, last residence and occupation of every emigrant on board the ship.  They also had to pay a fee for each emigrant, or issue a bond, which could hold the ship masters financially responsible for the emigrants down the road.

The ship masters were fed up with this system.  So they took the mayor of New York City to court.

Ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously decided that the hodge-podge of local statutes which made up American immigration law were unconstitutional. 

Following the decision in Henderson vs. the Mayor of the City of New York, states would no longer oversee immigration law.  Instead, the federal government was now in charge.

Now, we may be turning back the clock.  Hostility towards the federal government is fierce.  Immigration may be another issue that falls under a renewed “states' rights” movement.
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To those states – and anti-immigrant activists – hoping to relieve the federal government of its duties related to immigration, I would say this -- be careful what you wish for.

This week, the Supreme Court will begin hearing arguments about Arizona’s infamous immigration laws, which, among other things, empower local police officers to inquire about a person’s immigration status and detain those suspected of being undocumented.

The Obama administration has criticized the laws.  A supporter of the Arizona laws is an Irish American, a Queens-born, former Port Authority cop turned Arizona lawmaker named John Kavanagh.

Let’s forget, for a moment, whether or not Irish Americans in general should be more supportive of a sane, tolerant immigration policy, given their own history in this country.  When asked where his own people came from, Kavanagh – and many like him – proudly say two things: “from Ireland” and “legally.”

Of course, it is ludicrous to believe undocumented immigrants are some kind of 20th century invention.  Nevertheless, they are at the heart of the current battle being waged by Kavanagh and his crowd. 

The term “states’ rights” in the U.S. rightly makes people nervous.  To some, it means local hotheads and bigots can pass nasty laws and the federal government can do nothing about it. 
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However, there is a theory going around now that even pro-immigrant activists should hope these states get exactly what they want.

“Laws like Arizona’s are such bad policy that, left to their own devices, they will die a natural death — and their supporters will suffer the political consequences,” Peter J. Spiro wrote in The New York Times this week, arguing that anti-immigrant laws choke a state’s economy.

It’s no mistake that today, as well as when the steamship Ethiopia sailed into New York, states that had sane immigration policies also had vibrant economies.  Those that target immigrants, um, don’t.

So, let the Kavanaghs of Arizona have their know-nothing laws and watch their economies shrivel.

There’s only one problem with this. How many immigrants -- or U.S. citizens for that matter -- will get trapped in an immigration nightmare in the meantime?

Immigration, so intimately tied to the economy, may be the hot issue of this looming election.  The Supreme Court may well cool things off – or throw gasoline on the fire.

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

Art and sound at Ground Zero - 9/11 FDNY victim’s family calls for return of Koenig sculpture

Captain William Burke

Captain William Burke was a 20-year veteran of the FDNY who died on 9/11.  Remembered by friends for his dedication and his “Irish charm,” Burke’s father was also a firefighter, a deputy chief in the Bronx.

During a service at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Edward Cardinal Egan noted that Burke had "a good relationship" with his six brothers and sisters.

Ten years later, Burke’s brother is doing battle with a powerful government agency over an issue which was also important to Captain Burke -- art.

This battle comes just as the city mourns the loss of another firefighter, Lieutenant Richard Nappi, who died from heat exhaustion at a Brooklyn fire.  

This also comes as a TV special this week reintroduced us to a truly sick woman, Tania Head, who rose to prominence as a high-profile 9/11 survivor, only to have her story exposed as a sham and a fraud.

All the more reason to take seriously the legacy of those who truly sacrificed on 9/11.

It is well known, by now, that the Freedom Tower is rising fast and furious at the former Ground Zero site.  The 9/11 Memorial also opened to the public to great fanfare last year.  

But there are still artifacts of 9/11 downtown, artifacts untouched by new construction and not located behind a glass wall.

Look no further than Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan.  The vast waterfront park is a cherished green space amidst the concrete jungle, and also one of the most historically significant spots in downtown Manhattan.  

Among other things, it is the former site of the Castle Clinton immigration depot, which is where vast numbers of Famine Irish arrived in New York, a good 50 years before Annie Moore arrived from Ireland on January 1, 1892.

Not far from a remaining Castle Clinton structure, near the Bowling Green subway station in Battery 

Park, is a true work of art -- Fritz Koenig’s 25-foot Sphere, which had originally been placed in the plaza between the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center.  The structure had originally been commissioned for that site, where it was placed in the early 1970s.  

What is fascinating today about Koenig’s Sphere is that it survived the attacks with minimal damage.  

Six months after 9/11, the Sphere was placed just south of Ground Zero – along with an eternal flame – in Battery Park.

To this day, the battered bronze work of art is a major tourist attraction, and seems so vastly out of place in the park that it seems…well, absolutely a perfect fit for the park.

True, even at the time, it was believed the placement in Battery Park would be temporary.  And now, it appears as if the Port Authority is ready to move the Sphere to a site with not quite as much history as Battery Park: a hangar at JFK International Airport.

Here’s where Captain William Burke’s family comes in.  His brother Michael started a petition objecting to the move, which by now has gotten over 7,000 signatures.

“Why not return it to where it was? Where it was a symbol of world peace for 30 years. Where it survived the attacks that took place and was embraced as an icon of the resiliency, the perseverance, the strength of America and peace and cooperation?” Burke told CBS Radio.

Personally, I think the Sphere should stay where it is: in Battery Park.  Part of the beauty of New York is the city’s ability to adapt and bend without breaking, its utterly improvisational nature.  

The Koenig sculpture works in Battery Park precisely because it was not designed to fit there.  Awful circumstances forced its relocation there, and its placement – and the visible damage, and its eternal flame – is an authentic reminder of that terrible day.

But if the Sphere must be moved, Burke and his supporters are absolutely right.  

Port Authority executives have argued that they might place the Sphere at a new park, Liberty Plaza, south of the former Trade Center site.  Others have suggested there’s no room in the memorial for the Sphere.

But if you’re going to move this authentic survivor of 9/11, why would you shoehorn it into as-yet unopened park?  Especially when it has found such a poignant home in Battery Park.  

Michael Burke is right.  If you are going to move the Sphere, it should go back to its old home.

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

Faith of the future - Christian Rick Santorum may represent their best chance

Rick Santorum, yesterday or tomorrow’s man?

A headline in this past Sunday’s New York Times screamed “Divided by God.”  The article, by Op-Ed columnist Ross Douthat, argued that it is “tough to pull together as a nation” with all of the religious diversity and tension out there.

This is understandable.  Archbishop Dolan is out there butting heads with the Obama administration, while Rick Santorum continues his culture wars crusade.

To me, however, the real headline should have said something about how religious rage is, in fact, at an all-time low in the United States.

A second headline might add that while many suggest that Santorum and Dolan are stuck in the past, they may well represent the future of the Catholic Church.  Just how many people will stand with them? Well, that’s a tough question.

From Ireland to America, it is true that we have had a lot of bickering about theological matters lately.  More on them later.  For now, I invite readers to visit old St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Mott
Street in downtown Manhattan.  It’s a beautiful old church, but you don’t even need to go inside to grasp an important point.  Take a look at the sturdy brick wall surrounding the church.

It was constructed to keep violent, anti-Catholic mobs at bay.  There was a time when folks thought it would be neat to torch churches and other religious institutions.  Groups like the KKK would later make arguments that America should never allow a Catholic or a Jew or a Mormon to run for president, much less sit in the White House.

That, to me, is true religious conflict.  To some degree, I think things seem so tense these days because so many people are present at the debate.  The worst kind of lunatic fringe bigots have finally been shamed into the darkest corners of the Internet.

That being said, there is anger in the air and the Catholic Church is at the center of many of today’s thorniest debates.

Out of Dublin, there are reports that the Irish Association of Catholic Priests is "disturbed" by the news that its founder, Father Tony Flannery, is under investigation by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.  Flannery supposedly got himself into trouble because of writings which suggest that the church re-think its position on female priests, birth control and celibacy.

Here in the U.S., there was New York’s own Archbishop Cardinal Dolan on Meet the Press this past Sunday, talking about both John F. Kennedy and Rick Santorum, the latter of whom famously suggested that JFK’s speech on the separation of presidential faith and policy made him want to vomit.

This is not the only public spat Dolan, who has also been battling Obama over health care and birth control, has endured in recent weeks.

Just before Easter, a New York member of Catholic Charities’ board quit over the church’s teachings on homosexuality.

In many of these debates, it is very tempting to say that the Catholic Church and its most conservative allies – such as Rick Santorum – are on the wrong side of history.  The world is changing and if the church continues to oppose homosexuality and birth control, and investigate certain members for their political beliefs, it will doom itself to extinction.

It certainly appeared as if the church had begun that process already, given in its horrendous handling of the abuse scandals of past years.

A common theme among critics is that the Catholic Church must become more Christian – as in inclusive, respectful, remorseful and humble.

Perhaps.  I suspect, however, that Dolan and others believe becoming more Christian would mean becoming less Catholic.  Church officials themselves may not want to acknowledge an important fact: that super-devout followers such as Rick Santorum may represent their best chance at viability not only in the 21st Century, but also the 22nd.

Accommodating a broader, intellectually diverse Catholic flock takes an awful lot of work.  Why not focus on a smaller, more obedient flock?

This, of course, may mean alienating a vast number of Catholics.

But, hey, haven’t they been doing that for years now?

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

Tammany Hall’s favorite Yankee “Big Bill” Devery

Yankee Stadium

If not for a colorful Irish American duo, Derek Jeter, A-Rod and the rest of the New York Yankees might be playing their home games in Baltimore this year.

Frank J. Farrell was an underworld fixture known for his gambling prowess.  “Big Bill” Devery was a controversial top cop with close ties to Tammany Hall.

Devery publicly clashed with former New York City police commissioner and future president Teddy Roosevelt, a spat described in the much-praised new book Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt’s Doomed Quest to Clean Up Sin-Loving New York.

“Above all, New York reigned as the vice capital of the United States, dangling more opportunities for prostitution, gambling, and all-night drinking than any other city in the United States,” author Richard Zacks notes in Island of Vice. 

“A man with a letch, a thirst, or an urge to gamble could easily fill it, night or day.  Saloon owners such as Mike Callahan, tossed their keys into the East River and never locked up.”

Mike Callahan was not the only Irishman who made Teddy Roosevelt’s New York such a colorful place – not to mention a nearly impossible place to cleanse of crime. 

One reason New York was such a difficult place to police was because of, well, the police.

That’s where “Big Bill” Devery comes in.  He “grew up neck deep in New York City vice, at least an Irish version of it,” Zacks writes, noting that an uncle who was not above making a buck on the wrong side of the law employed numerous members of the Devery clan. 

Nevertheless, Devery went on to join the New York City Police Department.  (More than likely, he bribed a Tammany operative in order to obtain the job.)

This is fitting because Devery would not only go on to become (as Zacks puts it) “the Tammany police captain,” he also fended off charges that he himself was not above making a buck on the wrong side of the law.

For what it’s worth, police officers often took bribes, in part, because it was so costly to attain the job in the first place. 

Devery, who was born in 1855, began his career as a bartender in watering holes on the Bowery.  He joined the police force in the late 1870s and in just over a decade he was a captain. 

He was stationed in one of Manhattan’s most notorious districts and he took advantage of it. It was said that he partnered with a tailor and if you wanted a favor, all you had to do was purchase one of the tailor’s suits – for $1,000!

It didn’t take long before reformers targeted Devery and numerous other Tammany operatives. 

Here’s where things get complicated.  While it was clear that Devery and others were corrupt, it was also clear their enemies were not merely interested in cleansing the city of voice. 

Often, anti-Tammany forces of reform dripped with barely-concealed derision, even anti-Irish, anti-Catholic sentiments.  Nevertheless, Tammany officials did not help the matter, engaging in blatant criminal activity.

Roosevelt and Devery had their most public clash in 1896.  By this time the Lexow Commission investigating police corruption had laid out its case against Devery in particular and the NYPD as a whole.

Devery managed to avoid charges, thanks in part to his selective memory on the witness stand.  Still, by the time Roosevelt had become head of the Board of Police Commissioners, he decreed that Devery not march in an annual, closely-watched police parade.

Nevertheless, not only had Devery evaded official charges, he decided to defy Roosevelt and march in the parade.  He was, naturally, received warmly by the pro-Tammany crowd.

“The parade was a dark episode for (Roosevelt),” NYPD historians James Lardner and Thomas Reppetto have written.

When Tammany regained City Hall, Devery was named police chief, a post he held until 1902, when he lost the post under corruption charges.

Devery remained active in Tammany politics, but his legacy is most alive today up in the Bronx. 

In 1903, Devery partnered with Frank Farrell to purchase a Baltimore baseball club for $18,000.
They moved the team to New York and renamed them the Highlanders, a name they kept until they were purchased by Colonel Jacob Rupert in 1915.

They went on to become the New York Yankees. 

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

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)