Irish vs. Blacks in America.

I cover much of the Irish attitude in the 19th Century toward African-Americans. In the mid 19th Century, most African Americans were enslaved and in the Southern States. Very few were in New York or Boston. The African Americans that were there in many cases competed with Irish fleeing the Famine for jobs.

Read the novel by Kevin Baker called Paradise Alley. It is about the 1863 Draft Riots in New York City. The Federal Government had to start a draft. A wealthy man could spend $300 and purchase a replacement. (Theodore Roosevelt's father did just that).

This was in July, 1863, just after the Emancipation Proclamation. Poverty stricken Irish saw it as they were going to fight and die to free African-Americans, who would then come North to take their jobs.
Just that simple at the time.

Some Blogs
From the Boston Globe

From the Library of Congress

Racial Attitudes

In the book, you will see an awful lot of politically incorrect racial attitudes. Lest you think I am some sort of retrograde racist, keep something in mind. People really had such attitudes in the 19th Century. When I mention people such as the Boston Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, he would have been a major libreral for his day. Today, you would even consider Abraham Lincoln, the great emancipator a bigot. So you will see in my book some very severe racial attitudes. Keep in mind the attitudes and the times.

The Potato Famine vs. Hurricane Katrina

While I wrote the book, I thought of this. Moriarty thinks the British were happy to drive the Irish out and the evidence is sort of there.
Why sort of?

With both the Potato Famine and Hurricane Katrina, I don't think the powers that be "planned" the depopulation. With both situations, the powers that be may have been happy that the respective places were depopulated.

In the Potato Famine, Irish farming could be made more "productive." In New Orleans, the population changed.

Not sure myself what is true. I am just throwing it out there.

Other Troubled World Regions.

Today I met a bunch of young men from the Southern Sudan. They survived a journey of hundreds of miles from villages where their families were murdered. Much more traumatic than the Potato Famine. Through them, I was trying to put myself in the shoes of someone not having the luxuries of an American and having to live through what these guys went through or what Famine victims went through six generations ago. If you live in a well off place, it sort of makes any problem you may have seem rather small by comparison.

Famine victims may not have been shot at and bombed. They died more slowly. Neglect rather than straight murder. Does not mean there is no "trauma" of some sort.

James "Whitey" Bulger.

Wikipedia Article about Whitey

Whitey was the last of the major Irish American gangsters. You can read more about him in T.J. English's Paddywhacked and several of Whitey's former "employees" have now written books.

There is an entire Whitey cottage industry. Click on Amazon for all sorts of Whitey connected
books. Click on Google for the 94000+ hits connected to him.

I am being lazy. Those with interest can head for said links. Why am I mentioning Whitey here? Because unwittingly my Moriarty character has many of the same traits. Taking care of Irish people while he commits crimes. Again refer back to Nature vs. Nurture. Also read Michael MacDonalds book All Souls to get an idea about this.

Why Whitey? Again, I did not intend this. I cannot help thinking about Whitey though. My wife's family is from that neighborhood, the Boston, Massachusetts section of South Boston

Originally, I just knew I wanted to create a Moriarty character who wasn't a "cardboard" cutout as someone stated on the 6/6/06 radio show. (Hmmm 6/6/06 show. Where is this going? LOL)! I made the Famine and his rage his purpose. In other words, he could kill a man, then head straight to the nearest church and confess. My Moriarty does not like to kill fellow Irishmen, but he also does not like "rats" and incompetents. So many end up dead.

It is said Whitey is a student of history. If he reads this he may or may not approve. I would though be curious for anyone from Massachusetts to throw in their two cents.

Is the Potato Famine the Dominating Theme for the Irish?

You will have to take the following from whence it comes. It was something I found in an obscure Irish Marxist journal (how many of us pay attention to Marxism)? :-) What caught my eye was the information about the Famine. The article claimed psychologically the Famine is the one thing that unites all Irishmen worldwide.

I'd have to agree the Famine more than say the Book of Kells. (How many Irish know what the Book of Kells are)? What about St. Patrick? Surely he is up there in the pantheon of Irish awareness.

I've been to Poland and stayed with colleagues and friends of my father. For Poles, there is no question what the most defining thing in their history. Pope John Paul. He outranks Copernicus.
Anyone following the news saw what it was like when the Pope died last year.

What is it for Ireland though? St. Patrick has influence obviously because of Christianity. I leave it to you the reader to determine how much influence the Famine has and how much did it change Irish culture.

Tucson's Founding Irishman

Tucson is my home after being raised in Brooklyn, New York. Tucson was founded in 1775 by the Spanish Army, led by one Hugo O'Conor.

Hugo, O'Conor? Well, the first name sounds Spanish. General O'Conor, as with many displaced Irish were known as the Wild Geese. They felt persecuted in Ireland, because of their Catholocism and would fight in "Catholic" armies, Spain, France, Habsburg Empire, etc.

Until the 19th Century, dynasty not nationhood could sometimes be more important. It was not strange for Scots for example to be serving as far away as Russia. Therefore, there was nothing out of place about Hugo O'Conor leading a Spanish troop in the Arizona wilderness. Troops were needed. The Apaches tended not to approve.

Our main library has a plaque from Irish Republic Mary Robinson to honor this event.

Another Segment for You.

The peace love and security of my childhood home was broken and violated! The door burst open! Six huge redcoats burst in the door with a tall arrogant looking aristocratic officer behind them. The were huge powerfully built men. At least two of them were over six foot so they towered over us. I had never felt such fear in my life. The officer actually ordered the soldiers to fix bayonets and they herded the three of us, mother, father and me into the corner of our main room far from the fire. “Stand still, my men will shoot anyone who moves,” the officer said in a tone that was commanding, but not loud and definitely cold. My mother’s piercing blue eyes stared straight up at the officer. She slapped him in the chest for she could not reach his face. A soldier with black hair and eyes, gritted his teeth in front of me as he held the point of the bayonet at my chest. My parents taught me not to show fear, but it was hard to do in this situation.

“How dare you?” Mother spat the words. “How dare you invade the sanctity of my home as you and your charging animals have?”

“Madame, if you do not restrain yourself, my men will tie you up,” the officer said coldly.

Mother slapped him again. “No one speaks to me that way in my house!” She drew the phrase “in my house” out very slowly.

“McGuinness, tie the woman and gag her. You need not treat her as a lady.” One of the soldiers, a great big strong man grabbed a handkerchief and a thin rope. He grabbed my mother around her waist from behind and mistakenly or not he touched her breast.

Mother kicked back, but McGuinness was so large she could not hurt him no matter how many blows she landed. “Oh my boy a son of Ireland your mother must be so ashamed.

McGuinness responded with an evil leer. My mother was a Derry prostitute who died. The army is me mother and father.”

“God help us all,” were the last words mother got out before she was bounded gagged and placed on the floor hands tied across her knees. Father was not acting to defend us only because he was knocked down and hit with the butts of the soldier’s rifles. The soldiers clearly were trained and knew their dirty business. The officer struck him across the face with a riding crop. Then, the officer took out an official looking document, looked down his arrogant, aristocratic nose and began reading James Moriarty, you are hereby charged with violating the Queens Peace through smuggling and treason. The redcoat guarding me moved his rifle, threw me to the floor and helped to grab father and hustle him out the door. Luckily, they did not search the house and find fathers shotgun. I was going to need that in a short time.

The beginning of what would become the rest of my life began that terrible night, October 15, 1848 with the dying embers of the fire and a cold in the house that was just more than a dying fire. I was thirteen years old and was going to become a man just like that.

I want the world to get an idea where I came from. I want the world to understand how I succeeded in spite of the English in not dying in my native and beloved Ireland and becoming an educated and wealthy man in spite of the barriers placed in my way.

I grew up in Southwestern Ireland with my back to the Atlantic, in County Kerry. The English could only drive us into the sea or as with many other Irish, abroad. We spoke a mixture of English and Gaelic but we were careful not to speak the Gaelic near the English. Remember what bloody Cromwell said two centuries earlier, “To Hell or Connaught!”

How the Irish Conquered Massachusetts.

Without an army etc, surely you are mad! Mr. Charton, sir. Where did you get this?

Massachusetts is the most Irish state in the United States. How did it get that way?

There is a book by historian William Shannon called the American Irish. He dedicates two full chapters to the Boston Irish. He states the Irish landing in Boston could not have picked a worse place to go except for maybe Charleston, South Carolina.

Why Boston? It was less expensive than New York or Philadelphia. Only New Orleans was cheaper and the Irish had to be "tricked" into going there. More on that later.

Thousands of Irish famine survivors landed in Boston, much to the horror of the Boston Brahmins. The Brahmins were the descendants of the Puritan founders. People with names such as Adams were still prominent. They did not like Catholics and saw they had been buried under this mass.

According to Shannon, In cities such as New York and Philadelphia, the Irish grabbed political power through skill and unlike other immigrants already speaking English. In Boston, it was sheer numbers. The Brahmins retreated into their clubs hoarding their money. Basically the deal was, "you can be elected to office, but we control the money." The present Mayor of Boston, Thomas Menino is the first non Irish Mayor in 90 years.

When I moved to Boston from New York in 1982, I saw things that had become rare in New York. In South Boston, at Broadway and F Streets, there was a mural of IRA fighters. There was money collected for the IRA and some gun running. After all, Boston is a port. For more on that read T.J. English's book Paddywhacked.

Which leads me briefly to how Irish showed up in NewOrleans. Simple. They were tricked into going there, being told it was not that far to New York and Boston. The Irish died like flies in sub tropical New Orleans, getting the worse jobs. Slavery was still going on and slaves were property. Their lives at the time were considered "more valuble." Amazing, huh?

What does this have to do with my Moriarty character? I have a chapter take place in Boston.