Action Alert -- St. Brigid's Church

The Committee to Save St. Brigid's has an URGENT call for help on their website. They are seeking landmark status for the Lower East Side Famine Church, built in 1848 by Irish shipbuilders fleeing the ravages of famine in Ireland. To this task, they ask us to send a request for evaluation by fax to the New York City Landmarks Commission, attention: Mary Beth Betts, Director of Research, (212)669-7960.

The form can be found on their website at: http://www.savestbrigid.com/www/documents/stbrigiddoc2.pdf

Photo courtesy of the Committee to Save St. Brigid's, Patti Kelly, Photographer

You can add pictures to your submission. The Committee's website has some beautiful photos that they have provided as downloads. To see more information, go to

http://www.savestbrigid.com/www/

Patricia Jameson-Sammartano,

Culture Editor/Wild Geese Today.com

Summer's End

Autumn is almost upon us, and with it, we are again given many opportunities to attend lectures and public presentations in various aspects of Irish studies. this week, City University's Institute for Irish-American Studies presents "Irish Immigration in the US. Today" with guest speaker Kelly Fincham, Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform, Wednesday, September 20, 7 p.m., Lehman College, Faculty Dining Room(the Bronx) and "Irish American Participation in American Democracy" - A Commentary by the Honorable Paul A. Crotty, United States District Court Justice and Bob Kerrey, President of the New School. The latter lect;ure will take place at 5:30 P.M., Thursday, September 21, at The New School's Lang Student Center, 55 West 13th Street, Manhattan. Both programs are free; RSVP to (718)960-6722 or email cunyiias@lehman.cuny.edu.

Also on Thursday, at 7 p.m. at Glucksman Ireland House, Mike Young, the creator of the children's PBS show "Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks" will present an episode of the half-hour award-winning show, followed by a discussion on the origin of the show and, with Professor Marion Casey of New York University's Irish Studies Program, a discussion on the issues of ethnic identity raised by this episode as they relate to contemporary Ireland and America. Admission is free to the NYU community. Glucksman Ireland House is located at One Washington Mews, Fifth Avenue at Washington Square Park. RSVP to (212)998-3950 or ireland.house@nyu.edu.

These are only a few of the many stimulating programs being offered this fall.

Patricia Jameson-Sammartano
Culture Editor/Wild Geese Today.com

Larry Kirwan Reflects on 9/11

Rocker Larry Kirwan, the founder and front-man of Irish rock mainstay Black 47, had a close-up perspective on the mayhem of 9/11. He shared the following reminscence of that day with subscribers to the band's newsletter last week. (Kirwan mentioned to readers that the excerpt is based upon a chapter from his memoir, "Green Suede Shoes.") As oral history, it is raw and immediate -- like its subject. While songwriter, author and playwright Kirwan is rarely at a loss for words, the excerpt displays his struggle with the day's traumatic events. Groping for words to make sense of the unreality, he paints a vivid portrait.
-- Patricia Jameson-Sammartano, WGT Culture Editor

Above photo courtesy of Black47.com

"I'm usually not lost for words but, in this case, words don't seem to do justice. It's been exactly two weeks now - to the hour since the attack and yet I stopped writing a moment ago, and had to restrain myself from running to the window, when a low flying plane passed overhead. I live quite close to the World Trade Center and was having breakfast that morning when the first plane droned ominously by. It seemed so unusually close that I actually ducked my head and waited -- for what I don't know. A couple of seconds later, there was a sickening thud -- very unlike the screech and tearing of crashes in movies -- more like the sound of a sledgehammer hitting thick concrete.

"It was a beautiful morning, the sun splitting the rocks, as they say, and when I went downstairs, people were shading their eyes, looking up past the rooftops but no one seemed to know what had happened. On the roof of my building, which is five stories tall, it was a different story. It was, indeed hard to take in the sight, much less process it -- a gaping hole about 2/3rds of the way up the Westward tower, ugly black smoke pouring out, and within small tongues of flame licking away quietly at the darkness. At the time, of course, we all assumed that some small plane had lost control and swerved into the tower by accident. Some minutes later, however, we were rudely disabused of this notion, when the second plane hit the Eastward Tower.

"As I was looking downtown from the North, I did not see the impact as you would have witnessed it on TV. There were no flames, just another gaping, smokey hole and then a confetti of glass and paper seemed to explode outwards and hang in the air around the two buildings. I ran downstairs and brought back up a pair of high-powered binoculars. I trained these on the Eastward building, praying that I wouldn't see any falling bodies. But large black pieces of debris were sailing through the glassy confetti. Suddenly, a cloud of brown smoke and dust erupted and the building began to collapse to the ground in an almost orderly but surreal manner. So much so, that I couldn't believe my eyes and put down the binoculars. But, unfortunately, it was no mirage. The building disintegrated downwards in a couple of awful seconds and a great cloud of smoke and dust arose, to my mind, almost like a shroud. People were screaming on all the rooftops. A number of women cried hysterically, most of the men cursed loudly in anger and disbelief. There was a general state of shock.

"All around, the city seemed paralyzed. It was as if time stood still. Everyone assumed that the building had been blown up by bombs placed in the basement; there was a general feeling that these unidentified bombers were invincible and could do as they would with the city.

"I stayed on the roof for another couple of minutes trying to piece together any thoughts and emotions that I might have had, but everything seemed utterly changed, and I don't mean just the purely physical. The Westward building was still standing but it looked violated. In truth, I suppose we were all violated. I got the distinct, sickening feeling that the gaping hole in that tower was like an ugly smoking wound that would not be healed. There was a general panic in the air and a feeling of "what's coming next?" As I trained the binoculars on the tower, it seemed so close, and we on the rooftops seemed particularly vulnerable -- my building is about 1,200 meters from the WTC. I had an awful premonition that the remaining tower would explode outwards and this time shower us with the glassy confetti (wrong, as it turns out), and so I went downstairs and watched on TV, as the second Tower collapsed in the same sickeningly neat manner.

"It's very hard to put into words the feeling of vulnerability in the next hours as rumors, both true and false, flew around the city: new planes were headed in for more attacks, the tunnels had been booby trapped, the "bombs" contained biological and germ warfare devices, etc. And then soon after, Air Force jets banked over the city, causing widespread panic before they were identified.

"I headed down onto Canal Street and decided to walk towards the WTC area, knowing that it would be blocked off within hours. People were streaming up Broadway, dazed and glassy-eyed, some formally dressed, some in casual attire, but most with a covering of a fine white powder. After 5 or 6 blocks, however, the smoke and dust became too dense and I turned back and watched emergency vehicles speed down Broadway, while a mass of shocked people streamed up towards Canal Street.

"I can only recall a couple of details. A Glasgow Celtic supporter told me that he had permission to show up an hour late for work, because of a domestic crisis, and thus had been saved. And the sight of a large black man, whose shirt had either been blown off or removed. He must have been about 6'4"and he was covered from head to toe with that fine white dust. He was moving up Broadway with a purposeful stride. I looked in his eyes. There was no shock -- just a fierce, but calm, determination to get home, get out of that area, get back to some kind of sanity. I watched him until he faded off into the distance of Broadway.

"This city is in a state of shock that I have never seen before. There is a mass depression in the air. No doubt, that underlying cockiness and confidence, particular to New York, will return, but it's absent right now. And yet, everyone is picking up the pieces admirably, trying to attend to day-to-day business. Everyone has lost someone or knows someone who has lost someone. Our brave firefighters are decimated. Our police force and emergency workers have taken a fierce hit. And what can you say about all the regular, innocent New Yorkers whose lives were destroyed on a beautiful morning in their workplaces? So many gone but we will never forget them.

"This city will continue to pick itself up, get on with the business of living and become itself again, but there will exist in all of us a small dark cloud that will forever raise its niggling head, down all the joyful moments in the years left to us." -- Larry Kirwan, www.black47.com

Remembering a Staunch Friend of Irish Culture

In Memoriam, Lewis L. Glucksman

A memorial service will be held at New York University on Friday at 2 p.m. to honor Lewis L. Glucksman, who died July 5 at his home in County Cork. Funeral services were held in Ireland privately, but this is a public memorial for friends and family.

Photo courtesy of NYU

Dr. Glucksman was a Hungarian-American Jew who made his money on Wall Street and gave generously to philanthropic causes. After a career with Lehman Brothers, Glucksman served as a trustee of New York University -- his alma mater -- and was a distinguished professor of business administration there. He also received an honorary doctorate from the National University of Ireland in 2002.

Dr. Glucksman's passion for Irish literature led to the funding of first a chair in Celtic Studies at NYU. Then in 1993, with his wife, Loretta Brennan Glucksman, helped found and fund Glucksman Ireland House and NYU's Irish Studies Program. Ireland House, in an 18th century townhouse at One Washington Mews, has become a friendly place to confer, a scholarly haven for anyone interested in Irish studies, and one of Dr. Glucksman's most enduring legacies to the Irish-American community.

We convey our deepest condolences to Loretta Brennan Glucksman; to Lew’s daughters, Mary Glucksman and Jane Glucksman; to his step-children, John Cooney, Christopher Cooney and Kate Cooney Picco; and his grandchildren, Alexa and Ian Groueff and Liam Oscar Picco.

For additional information on the memorial, call (212) 213-1166.

Patricia Jameson-Sammartano, Culture Editor, WGT

Bronx Cheers for New York Mayor as Sligo Dedicates Monument to 'Fighting 69th'

By TheWildGeese.com

BALLYMOTE, County Sligo, Ireland - Dozens of anti-war demonstrators provided a counterpoint to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's keynote address helping dedicate a monument here to New York's famed "Fighting 69^th" regiment and its most famous commander.

Left: Demonstrators express their anger at the presence in Sligo of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Joe McGowan photo

"Today, we remember with gratitude all those members of the Fighting 69^th whose sacrifices over the past 150 years helped dig a well deep enough to quench the natural human thirst for freedom, not only in America, but throughout the world," Bloomberg said in prepared remarks at the Aug. 22 unveiling of the memorial.

There were as many as 300 in attendance, along with another 40 or so anti-war protesters demonstrating against the presence of the mayor, an avowed supporter of last month's Israeli incursion into Lebanon and U.S. policy in Iraq. Gardai cordoned off the demonstrators, who were out of sight of the mayor, about 100 yards from the monument. They carried signs, with messages such as "Bush is a warmonger," and "Bloomberg, go home!"

The monument honors both Michael Corcoran, born in Carrowkeel, five miles from Ballymote, and the 69th, the regiment he heroically led during the first few months of America's Civil War. The monument's base mentions significant places in Corcoran's 36 years, including Carrowkeel; Creeslough, County Donegal, where he served in the revenue police; Bull Run, Va., where Corcoran led the 69^th regiment in battle until his capture; and New York, his adopted home.

Billed as "Ireland's national monument" to native son Michael Corcoran and New York's famed "Fighting 69th" regiment, the Ballymote monument, seen below, ignores Corcoran's fierce resolve to overturn British rule in Ireland.

Designed by Fermanagh artist Philip Flanagan, the 7.5-ton column is made of limestone and bronze. According to Sligo-North Leitrim TD John Perry, who guided the four-year monument effort, the project cost $200,000, with about $12,000 coming from U.S. sources, and the balance from Ballymote Enterprise Co., a local nonprofit. Though he billed it as "Ireland's national monument," he said in a Sept. 7 interview that the Irish government provided little financial assistance, without offering specifics.

At the unveiling, in prepared remarks, Perry stated: "Today's occasion is all about the centuries-old relationship between Ireland and the United States. That relationship has been nurtured and nourished over the years by the millions of Irish who left this country to make their home in America. They brought with them their love of their native culture, language and arts. One of the most profound features of the Irish American story is the way that the love of Irish culture and heritage has been passed from one generation to the next."

With that Perry acknowledged the presence of dancer and choreographer Michael Flatley, whom Perry called "one of the great exemplars of that tradition in Irish America."

Corcoran and Tipperary native Michael Doheny helped found the 69th in 1851, and it became part of New York State's militia force. The 69th recruited heavily from the tide of Famine refugees teeming into Manhattan's newly minted Irish neighborhoods. Part of the regiment's draw was its explicit promise that recruits' military experience could be used to strike a blow for Ireland's freedom.

The mayor arrived in Knock Airport in the morning and left from there in the afternoon. Security was extremely tight as the protestors, including local Sligo County Councillor Declan Bree, demonstrated by the unveiling site. No such security had ever before been seen in Sligo, with road closures adding significant time to local travel, locals said.

Those demonstrating were equally dismayed. “It’s not just about knowing in your heart that the slaughter of innocents in Lebanon, Iraq and Palestine is wrong – it’s about expressing these sentiments in public,” said Tim Mulcahy, of the Sligo Anti-War Group, in a news release. ... "The destruction visited upon Lebanon, supported by Mayor Bloomberg, cannot be justified. In this context we in Ireland must show the strength of our opposition to those vested interests who have promoted war.”

The monument – and the day's activities – avoided reference to Corcoran's dedication to physical-force revolution to free Ireland from British rule. Corcoran, while serving as a revenue policeman in Donegal before he immigrated in 1849, reputedly joined the insurgent Ribbonmen. In America, he became a founder and leading military figure of the Fenian Brotherhood, an organization that in 1866 invaded British North America, today known as Canada, in an attempt to secure Ireland's freedom.

In October 1860, Corcoran refused an order to march the 69^th for the Prince of Wales, who was visiting the city. Corcoran, a Famine refugee himself, explained in a letter to his commander that he "could not in good conscience order out a regiment composed of Irish-born citizens to parade in honor of a sovereign under whose reign Ireland was made a desert and her sons forced into exile."

At Corcoran's death by stroke in December 1863, he was renowned throughout the United States and Ireland as a courageous and undoubted American military hero. Less well-known, he was ranked first on a Fenian Brotherhood military roster compiled during the Civil War, and a likely candidate to command an anticipated rising against British rule, supported by thousands of Irish-American Civil War veterans. In 1867, the Fenians, by then in considerable disarray, did lead a failed uprising in Ireland.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg holds Alaska, a bald eagle from a local bird sanctuary, accompanied by Fine Gael TD John Perry, left, and Perry's young son. Photo courtesy of nyc.gov

In the phone interview, Perry acknowledged the omission of Corcoran's Fenian activities from the commemoration, suggesting that "North-South relations" in Ireland might make them a sensitive topic. "There's a whole new Ireland here now," he said. "The tone (of the project and monument) was getting it right, getting it delivered, getting it unveiled," he added. "There's all the time in the world to analyze Corcoran, if they want. This monument is only a start."

It was unclear that Bloomberg was aware of the rebel roots and history of Corcoran and the 69th, though he did quote in his prepared remarks from "The Memory of the Dead," a poem by John Kells Ingram. “And I’ve brought with me, too, a poem that a contemporary of Corcoran and (Irish Brigade commander Thomas Francis) Meagher wrote in honor of those United Irishmen," the mayor said. "I think it’s appropriate to read a verse of it today in their honor."

The mayor selected the poem's second verse, which, unlike the poem's first, avoids direct reference to the United Irishmen's bloody struggle against British rule of Ireland. He read as follows:

“We drink the memory of the brave,
The faithful and the few;
Some lie far off beyond the wave,
Some sleep in Ireland too.
All—all are gone—but still lives on
The fame of those who died;
All true men, like you, men,
Remember them with pride.

The U.S. charge d’affaires to Ireland, Jonathan Benton, reminded the gathering that President John F. Kennedy, when he visited Ireland in 1963, presented one of the flags of the 69^th to the Dail, where it still hangs. The 69^th was one of the first military units to respond to the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, and also served a year in Iraq. In acknowledgement, steel from the ruins of the World Trade Center is encased in the base of the new monument. The steel's acquisition was facilitated by Jack and Kathleen Lynch, whose son Michael, died in the towers on Sept. 11, 2001, when 2,819 people, from 91 different countries, perished. Kathleen Lynch's family hails from Sligo.

Present at Tuesday's dedication were Jack and Kathleen Lynch; Sharon Engeldrum, wife of Sgt. Christian Engeldrum, who was one of 19 soldiers from the 69^th slain in Iraq, where the unit served for a year; and Michael Drew, a sergeant in the New York Police Department who served in Iraq with the 69^th. Also attending were former European Union Commissioner Ray McSharry; his nephew Tom McSharry, Mayor of Sligo; Bishop of Achonry, Dr. Thomas Flynn; Irish army Chief of Staff, Lieut. General James Sreenan; Garda Chief Supt. Martin McLoughlin; New York-based Irish consul Tim O’Connor; the Irish army's 58^th Infantry Reserve; and the band of the Irish army's 4^th Western Command. Flatley was with fellow dancer Niamh O˚Brien, and drew enthusiastic applause from the crowd in announcing their engagement. Chieftains' flutist Matt Molloy, whose father hails from Ballymote, performed several tunes, while the U.S. and Irish anthems were sung by Michael Lang.

Drawn from news accounts and the reporting of WGT correspondent Joe McGowan from Ballymote and producer Gerry Regan from New York. To learn more about Michael Corcoran and the epic history and heritage of the Irish, visit TheWildGeese.com.