Letters
Lest We Forget
I welcomed Marian Betancourt’s article on the Jeanie Johnston in your October issue. My grandmother Annie Euckion and Philip McGovern were born in Counties Leitrim and Cavan respectively and emigrated to New York in the 1890s. I’ve followed news of this memorial ship since its construction.
On a misty July 14 morning three generations of my family saw her sails in the distance as she slowly made her way into Port Jefferson’s harbor. The sight sparked an emotional reverie and outpouring of affection for this grand symbol of the Irish emigrant. To our small seaport village, 50,000 visitors broke all previous tourist records to gain a glimpse of their ancestors’ perilous voyage to America. It made us remember our Irish heritage and the hardships endured by ancestors long ago.
Many thanks to the dreamers who brought this ship into reality with their lest-we-forget notion. Thanks to the editors of Irish America for publicizing this worthy Irish heritage project.
Philip Griffith
Port Jefferson,
New York
Redeeming Bing
Your excellent article “Redeeming Bing” by Bob Lydon brought back a flood of memories of my dear grandmother, Honora (Nora) Moriarty Burns Galvin. Nora emigrated from County Kerry as a young girl in 1880 and settled in Newport, Rhode Island where she married and raised a family of ten children and two grandchildren.
Nora, a devout Catholic, never went to the movies. When she was in her mid-eighties, however, a son persuaded her to go see Going My Way with him. She thoroughly enjoyed it, and forever thereafter no one could convince her that Bing Crosby was not a real priest!
I am very proud of my paternal and maternal Irish heritage. You may be sure that I look forward to the bimonthly “fix” provided by your outstanding magazine! Keep up the good work!
John W. (Jack) O’Neill
Captain, U.S. Navy (Retired)
Chula Vista, California
Thank you so much for your article on Bing Crosby. Bob Lydon did an excellent job of laying out the facts of America’s greatest entertainer. How Crosby can hold so many major achievements in the music, film, radio and television industries and then be left out of some of the so-called lists of twentieth century entertainers is appalling. The facts speak for themselves. No one came close to Crosby’s accomplishments. I attended the Bing Crosby conference in Hofstra and at Gonzaga University and we also held a celebration here in Milwaukee. Crosby’s Irish records during the 1940s were as popular as any U2 song. Incidentally, at the Hofstra conference Paul McGuinness, the manager of U2, also expressed his admiration of Bing Crosby in a letter to the conference organizers.
Crosby celebrated his Irish heritage all of his life. We owe him a debt of gratitude and articles such as yours go a long way to insuring his place in American history.
Barry Stapleton
Director
Ward Irish Music Archives
Milwaukee Irish Fest
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
I enjoyed the article on Bing Crosby. He was clearly the greatest singer and entertainer of the 20th century.
Crosby has been credited with inventing the modern style of singing. He introduced jazz to mainstream music and Frank Sinatra said there was not a singer alive who didn’t owe something to Bing. Country music legend Eddie Arnold even credited Bing for the success of country music.
Crosby was number one in record sales, movie box office, and radio for extended periods. He provided equal opportunities for blacks at a time when it was an extremely unpopular thing to do, and he was arguably the most generous contributor to charities in the history of show business.
It’s troubling that our national media has contributed to the devastation of Crosby’s reputation while distorting or ignoring his unparalleled accomplishments.
Haigh Casey
Telford, Pennsylvania
Your article on Bing Crosby was superbly written and long overdue. Crosby has been maligned unscrupulously and untruthfully. He was a very generous and loving man and the greatest entertainer ever produced in this country.
I was particularly pleased that the author, Mr. Lydon, raised the issue of anti-Catholicism. I believe that anti-Catholicism is the real motive for much of the attack on Crosby as well as on the Kennedy family. Regrettably, the Catholic community exhibits an appalling lack of concern about the prejudice exhibited against them. I suggest that your readers read The New Anti-Catholicism (subtitled The Last Acceptable Prejudice) by Philip Jenkins (published by Oxford). All Catholics, laity and clerical, need to begin speaking out against anti-Catholicism.
Jack Callahan
Glen Burnie, Maryland
Magdalene Sisters
I have just seen The Magdalene Sisters, a powerful film, but why was the reviewer (Patricia Harty/Aug.-Sept. issue) surprised at the cruelty of the nuns? Ireland has always been a sexually repressed country, denying the fact that we are all in this world because of that sin.
It’s too bad these poor innocent girls had to suffer. The wonder of it is that there were not more of these unfortunate victims incarcerated.
Ann Marron
(Ex-Catholic)
Newark, Delaware
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