Twelve years ago we published the very first copy of Irish America magazine. Many of those who attended the launch party on October 16, 1985, didn’t give it a prayer. “There’s no there there,” or similar words, were heard. The prevailing thought of the day was that the Irish were assimilated, and cared not enough about their heritage, to support a magazine called Irish America..
Well, here we are 12 years later to prove the naysayers wrong. And what better cover to have on this anniversary issue than Mr. Gregory Peck, a star amongst stars. His gracious gesture of granting us a rare interview, surely a sign that we are here to stay.
There are many stories to be told about our survival, from our humble beginnings, sharing office space with a Jewish couple, David and Roberta, who ran a typesetting business. When they closed down for the evening we used their equipment. It was a crazy setup, as they often worked late to meet deadlines and we tried to get to press with what was then a monthly magazine.
Now, we enjoy the ease of desk-top publishing, and we have a sister publication, The Irish Voice (a weekly newspaper), with whom to fight over deadlines and design time.
Times were tough. (I have always loved the fact that in America one never has to hide humble beginnings — indeed, they must be worn as a badge of honor). But whenever we were about to give up, or reached a really low point, something always happened to encourage us to keep going.
For me one of those times came in May of 1987. (I’m reminded of it again in reading over the interview with Mr. Peck). We had been publishing for about a year and a half, and were still in our 600 foot square office. Though we were low on cash, we decided to send a young writer we’d known in San Francisco, Tom English (who later went on to write The Westies, the book on New York’s Irish gang) to Los Angeles to do a story on the filming of The Dead.
The James Joyce story was being made into a film by legendary director John Huston, with his daughter Anjelica as star.
Tom came back to New York with the story, informing us that Huston was very sick, confined to a wheelchair most of the time, with oxygen tanks and generator constantly by his side, but that he was going to call our office on the following Tuesday at 3 o’clock to answer some more questions.
Needless to say, confident as we were in our magazine, we were also amazed that the great director John Huston would find the time to call our office. But at the appointed time we all hung around waiting for the phone to ring. As fortune (and a quick hand) would have it, I answered the phone.
“Hello, this is John Huston,” he said in those deep tones that I will never forget. It seemed to me that his voice had great confidence, and assurance (he didn’t sound sick at all, but three months later he would be dead). I suppose what impressed me the most was that he didn’t have a secretary put him through. Sick and all as he was, he made the call himself. I remember thinking that if John Huston thought enough of us to make that effort, we really must be worth something.
“Has working with an Irish cast made me nostalgic?” asked Huston, repeating the question put to him over the phone. “God, yes. But nostalgia for Ireland sweeps over me often, not just when I’m working with an Irish cast. I love Ireland and I miss it very much.”
It really was the first time that I fully understood the spirit of Irish America, and the power of our motto Mortas Cine (pride in one’s heritage) and just how much Ireland and having Irish roots mean to Irish Americans.
I knew then that the magazine would succeed, as indeed it has. Over the years the spirit of Irish America has taken us to extraordinary places — interviewing Mr. Peck, (who has great Mortas Cine), for this our 12th anniversary issue, possibly tops them all.
As we go to press Mr. Peck is in Australia. I call to wish him luck. He’s working on a four part TV adaptation of Moby Dick, the film that first brought him to Ireland to work with Huston. We talk of Moby Dick, but it’s The Dead, he says, that is Huston’s best work.
And so, dear readers, especially those of you who have stuck with us right from the beginning, happy anniversary — together we proved that there is an Irish America. That there is a there, there. It was just waiting for the call.
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