Dark History In Two Parts – The Rhode Island House of Representatives took a giant step forward for justice last month when they cleared the name of an Irish immigrant who was hanged on Valentine’s Day, 1845. John Gordon, 29, was convicted of murdering a well-connected mill owner and brother of a sitting U.S. senator in ugly circumstances that reflected the strong anti-Irish sentiment of the day.

The mill owner’s body was found on the banks of Rhode Island’s Pocasset River and police immediately centered on a local tavern owner, the Irish-born Gordon, because he and the mill owner, Amasa Sprague, had feuded over business matters. Gordon was picked up the day following the discovery of Sprague’s body on the basis of his past disagreements with Sprague and brought to trial with little or no supporting evidence.

Criminal trials in the mid 19th century were extremely hazardous venues if you were Irish and had crossed swords with members of the largely Yankee establishment. Catholics were banned from Gordon’s jury, jurors were told to give priority to testimony of Protestant Americans over Irish Catholics. What the prosecution alleged were blood stains turned out to be dye, and a prostitute called as a witness could identify neither John Gordon nor his brother.

Little of that mattered. John Gordon was found guilty of murder and his appeal was denied by the same judges who presided over his original trial.

The resolution of pardon, passed unanimously by the Rhode Island House on May 11 and sent to Gov. Lincoln Chafee for his signature, was introduced by a 70-year-old retired software executive, Peter Martin, who represents Newport in the legislature. He was made aware of the Gordon injustice by Ken Dooley, who wrote a well-received play about the conviction and hanging.
I had a long telephone chat with Rep. Martin who represents a number of Irish Americans and others in Newport. He emphasized that “this isn’t only to do with the Irish. It’s about justice for all, including the underprivileged. John Gordon did not receive proper treatment and his name and memory deserve to be cleared.”

In a history-repeats-itself mode, I wrote and ran a story when I was editor at the Boston Irish Echo in 1982 about Dominic Daley and James Halligan that was researched and brought to my attention by John Carlon of Northampton, Massachusetts. Daley and Halligan were Irish immigrants living near Springfield in 1805 who were charged, convicted, and hanged amidst a rancorous, anti-Irish Catholic climate for a murder they did not commit. Others at the time also lobbied for the exoneration of Daley and Halligan.

There was a similar outcome when that case was properly investigated and the injustice authenticated. Gov. Michael Dukakis pardoned both men in March 1984, some 180 years later.

Historic Irish Houses On The Block – Real estate transactions are fairly prosaic affairs but two recent Irish houses that are changing hands are of a different stripe. The two residences, both selling for over a million dollars —one a mid-19th century “gentleman’s residence” on the outskirts of Derry, the other an art deco house in Templeogue, Dublin -- come complete with intriguing pedigrees.

The Derry house, which was built in the 1800s, hosted the now famous secret peace talks in the early 1970s between the Provisional IRA and the British government. The meetings were held in June 1972 in a home owned by the McCorkell family after an eruption of violence in the North. The talks produced a short-lived truce but soon after, the Troubles resumed in full force with the re-occupation of the Bogside “no-go” areas.

The second house, a 20th century detached Dublin residence priced at $1.8 million, was once owned by Stephen Carroll Held. Held, who had German family ties, helped the IRA of the day come together with the Nazi regime in Berlin to undermine the British. In May 1940, Irish police raided Held’s home at 245 Templeogue Road and found German military clothing, medals, a wireless transmitter, $20,000 in cash, and incriminating documents.

Stephen Held was arrested, convicted and imprisoned following the raid. It was soon discovered that a German SS officer, Hermann Goertz, a spy, had been living in the Held Home believing it to be a safe house. Goertz had arrived in Ireland by parachuting into County Meath a few weeks earlier. Goertz never accomplished his mission: to organize a Nazi invasion of Northern Ireland, and after hiding out for 18 months he was captured and interned for the remainder of the war.

Unionists Attempt Belfast Council Steal – A Unionist bid to freeze out Sinn Fein, the largest party in City Hall, and control the mayor and vice mayor positions for the next four years, has failed ignominiously. As the largest party, Sinn Fein would have earned clout for key council leadership posts but the Unionists -- the powerful DUP and the barely surviving Ulster Unionists — decided to get cute, bury their differences, and try to deprive republican councillors of a fair vote by the rules.

At a special Belfast City Council meeting, the nationalists, in a relatively rare moment of detente, came together. Sinn Fein, the SDLP, and the Alliance party, voting as one, soundly defeated the backdoor Unionist move. It confirmed that political “parties” not political “groupings” would prevail. The good guys win one!

A Good Man, His Work Finished, Goes Home – On May 19 Garret FitzGerald left us, but what a legacy. Twice Taoiseach, Fine Gael Party Leader, a major force in convincing Margaret Thatcher to sign on to the Anglo-Irish Agreement. But above all, Dr. FitzGerald, a patriot, was a man of towering integrity with a remarkable intellect who brought principle, truth and statesmanship to Irish politics. There have been others, of course, but Garret FitzGerald was that sturdy crust of gold that shines uniquely amidst the running river.

Did You Know … that Knock Shrine, Ireland national Marian site attracts some 1.5 million visitors each year? The county Mayo landmark’s history dates back to Aug., 21, 1879 when a group of parishioners, 15 in number, spoke of seeing the Virgin Mary along with St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist at the south gable of the Knock parish church. Pope John Paul II marked the centenary of the apparition with a personal pilgrimage there in 1979. In 1993, Mother Teresa of Calcutta visited the shrine. A modern basilica has been erected that can accommodate 20,000 pilgrims on the 90-acre site.

Politics, Northern Style – The Social Democratic Labour Party (SDLP) took a hit in the Northern Ireland Assembly elections, as did the near invisible Ulster Unionist Party. Both of these moderate parties were run over by the two big brand names in today’s Northern politics, Sinn Fein of Adams and McGuinness and the Democratic Unionist Party with Peter Robinson firmly (if inexplicably) in leadership following Pastor Ian’s departure and elevation to Lords. The two dominant vote-getting parties also scored heavily in the race for council seats throughout the province. In so many words it was a vote for the status quo.

Gerry Adams, the newly elected TD from Co. Louth, somewhat south of his old electoral haunt in West Belfast, had some unusually kind words for the queen’s visit and her address at a Dublin Castle banquet. “I particularly was taken by Queen Elizabeth’s sincere expression of sympathy to all those who had suffered in the course of the conflict.” Adams also expressed hope that the queen’s visit would pave the way for greater cooperation between the two nations.

Adams’s comments, made on a BBC Radio 4 Today program, deftly avoided use of the impersonal proper pronoun “Windsor,” which he and his party press pronouncements used repeatedly when mentioning the queen. And the Irish Republican News, Sinn Fein’s newspaper, was nowhere as welcoming to Elizabeth II, often suggesting that her Irish visit was, among the more temperate chides, “premature.” Oh well, two audiences, two messages. Maybe it’s a strategy!

Finally, one hope’s there is a truce or an end to the Blame Game that has doggedly followed the Irish bailout. The latest to weigh in on the question of who played the game badly in the walk-up to the IMF/EU bailout is the International Monetary Fund itself in its report on European economies. That report roundly criticized the Cowen-Lenihan-Fianna Fail government for its actions in the weeks before the IMF acted. A valid question: Are we seeing a massive CYA effort? It would hardly be a first.
The IMF said that the last Irish government at that time lacked the courage to pass legislation to curb lending and dampen the housing boom. It blamed a lack of “political fortitude” in Ireland for many of the problems, along with poor-quality institutions.

Quotes of Note

“This is a nation that met its responsibilities by choosing to apply the lessons of your own past to assume a heavier burden of responsibility on the world stage. And today, those who once knew the pain of an empty stomach now feed those who hunger abroad. Ireland is working hand in hand with the United States to make sure that hungry mouths are fed around the world...”
-- President Obama speech on Dublin’s College Green

“A civilization flourishes when people plant trees under whose shade they will never sit.”
-- A Greek proverb quoted by Frank Riepe

“In ordering up a study on the causes of sexual abuse by priests, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops may have meant to gain a better understanding of a problem that has unsettled Catholics around the world. But the report that emerged -- offering the peculiar conclusion that the level of abuse surged in the 1960s and ‘70s because of the changing social mores of that era -- is a step backward, not forward.”
-- Boston Globe editorial excerpt, May 21, 2011

Boston College’s Irish Archive Brouhaha – BC’s once- secret oral history project is caught in the cross hairs as the PSNI, the Northern Irish police, have issued a subpoena for tapes by two Provisional IRA veterans who thought they were participating in confidentiality.

In this month’s Irish Reporter readers will find news and an analysis of what’s going on between BC and the Brits. But it must be said here that it seems a damnable double standard when Northern Ireland police can formally request such archival tapes and yet drag their feet on a public inquiry into the Pat Finucane loyalist assassination that happened 22 years ago. And that’s not to mention the Ballymurphy Eleven massacre that has largely drawn British indifference, and the official inquiries by British police investigators Stalker & Stevens that are buried God knows where, and, of course, the $300 million re-do of the original cooked-book whitewash where British soldiers anonymously testified behind curtains. Are these subpoenas necessary?

It’s Not All Grim Out There – Irish tourism in the first quarter of this year, as measured by visitors entering the country, is up a healthy 8 per cent. From January to March, 2011 some 93,000 extra visitors traveled to the Isle as compared to the same period a year ago, which augurs well as we approach the usually tourist-rich summer months.

The added influx of tourists into Ireland came long before the May events with President Obama and the queen and most Bord Failte folks believe that the twin high profile visits televised around the world with goodwill and smiling faces against the scenic backdrop that is Ireland can only burnish the already strong image that Ireland has across the globe as a place to go.
Want to lend a helping hand to the Irish —do yourself a favor and spend a week or two there.

Random Clippings

Things are very dodgy in many parts of the Irish West. Galway Airport is on the government hit list and Sligo’s airport is also reported to be in jeopardy of surviving. … All you need to know about George Mitchell and Richard Holbrooke is that Fox Television News had both on their “do not invite” list. No surprise there. … He was a lousy presidential candidate most days, but give a quiet cheer for Senator John McCain for not caving in to the right wing-nut brigade while contradicting them on the question of torture. He knows what it is even if Rummy & company don’t. … Irish President Mary McAleese’s husband Martin is a Taoiseach pick for the Irish Seanad. He won’t accept any salary while his wife is Pres. … Controls on unregulated turf cutting in special conservation bogs in Ireland is so strict that the government is promising to prosecute offenders who have been digging turf to keep warm for decades. … Belfast, in looking ahead to the 2012 anniversary (no, not a celebration) of the launching of the huge ocean liner, is building a $160 million signature building in the Titanic Quarter that they hope will equal other landmark global attractions. … It may not affect those of us in the US, but the Irish passport office is overwhelmed with record number of increased applications. Tell cousins there who plan to travel this summer to get moving.

Peter Robinson is on an ecumenical surge. First he said he could attend Catholic funeral services (which won him no plaudits from his co-religionists) and when the queen was in Ireland he was heard speaking Irish. … The Rose Kennedy Greenway is in summer mode: The water fountains are on; the Grenway Carousel is up and running at the Wharf Parks all day Sunday through Thursday; and the Boston Public Market with food and fun is now open Tuesday and Thursday through November 11 from 11:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

… A roundup of world press reaction to Obama’s Irish visit ranged from broad approval to suggesting he “won the hearts of the Irish nation.” … Irish Labour Party Leader and Tanaiste Eamon Gilmor, pointing to the $1.3 billion in Irish-UK trade each week, strongly predicted that the Irish Corporation Tax rate will not change. … In Ireland recently, BBC Radio 3 broadcast a first rate documentary on the school kids at the Ardoyne’s Holy Cross School and their lives amidst the conflict. It would be nice if WGBH or WBUR radio got a tape and ran it for local consumption. … Everyone’s doing it so why not Father Sean McManus (INC), who launched his memoirs in Washington a month ago. Titled “My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland” it’s on Collins Press, Cork.

With Osama Bin Laden and his now uncollectible $25 million reward off the books does that mean that James J. Bulger, formerly of South Boston now of parts unknown, will go to the head of the “Ten Most Wanted” class with his $2 million reward? … Thanks to the Boston and Lawrence Hibernians for keeping the faith with their annual An Gort Mor (Great Hunger) commemoration at memorials in those two cities. … There is not yet any news of a replacement being named for Declan Kelly, the departed economic envoy to NI. Wonder why? … Eamonn McCann, a Belfast Telegraph columnist who often doubles as an activist, has been awarded the Amnesty International Media Award for his writing on the Bloody Sunday inquiry. … The word is that incoming new IMF chief Christine Lagarde is a tough lady and no special friend of Ireland. … the Irish Seanad is an endangered species. FG’s Enda Kenny is saying bye, bye after this 24th session. … The British royal wedding (the gene pool is looking up since Kate) drew a huge Irish television audience numbering 1.3 million. Women checking the fashions, men checking Kate? … Irish Parliament (Dail Eireann) deputies in a new poll are down to 12 percent in trustworthiness. Even the U.S. Congress was at 17 percent the last time I looked.

HAVE A GRAND SUMMER —AND VISIT THE COUSINS.