Irish America
Abdon Moriarty Pallasch
March/April 1998
The truth would have made a great story: Catherine O'Leary, successful Irish immigrant businesswoman. She had five cows in her dairy and her husband Patrick was gainfully employed as a lathe-worker. As Catherine and Patrick slept on that dry October night in 1871, someone started a fire in their barn. The blaze grew into the Great Chicago Fire, killing 300 people, leaving … [Read more...] about Mrs. O’Leary Exonerated
October 2, 2021 Newsletter
In a rare television interview from 1983, Michael Flannery speaks with Niall O'Dowd for a PBS show based in San Francisco called Irish Magazine. Michael Flannery fought in the Irish War of Independence. He joined the volunteers when he was 14 years of age. “I was as tall then as I am now, and no one asked,” Flannery says in this interview with Niall O’Dowd taped in … [Read more...] about Rebel With A Cause
By Martin E. Dempsey
Summer 2021"I'm not ready to give up on the anthem and the ritual of standing while its played." During operation desert storm, after Iraq’s Republican Guard had been forced out of Kuwait, my brigade set up a checkpoint on the only highway from Kuwait to Baghdad. We established a medical treatment facility and raised the American flag. It was a signal to the oppressed … [Read more...] about Last Word: 90 Seconds Together
The Irish in Colorado are seeking to honor immigrants buried in unmarked graves. These were desperate, transient, uneducated, unskilled, and mostly young people. The poorest of these immigrants, without any resources or family were buried in the“Catholic” free section of the cemetery, with a crude wooden slab to mark their burial. The wooden slabs have long since rotted and … [Read more...] about Remembering Colorado’s Forgotten Irish
By Ray Cavanaugh
Tracing the origins of Memorial Day can become rather convoluted. After all, about two-dozen U.S. communities claim to have held the first such commemoration. On a less contested level, Gen. John A. Logan was the man who established an official day to honor military persons who made the ultimate sacrifice.
Born on Feb. 9, 1826, in Jackson County, Illinois, … [Read more...] about The “Woke” General
Who Launched Memorial Day
