New Debate Over Old Horror

Sidewalks with Tom Deignan

New Debate Over Old Horror

April 2, 2008

by Tom Deignan

THIS past Monday, March 31, acclaimed Irish writer Joseph O’Connor gave a talk at the Tenement Museum on Orchard Street, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The basis of the talk was a new project which he will release this summer.

O’Connor is writing a book about the Moore and Meehan families, Irish immigrants who actually lived in the building which, today, houses the museum.

O’Connor is one of the great historical novelists working today. His works include a panoramic look at a coffin ship, Star of the Sea, and his recent epic novel of the Irish in the U.S. Civil War, Redemption Falls.

So, we can expect his book about the Moores and the Meehans to be very good.

The Moores and Meehans lived on the Lower East Side in the 1860s, just a few years after the worst horrors of the Famine. Perhaps they came over in Black ’47. One thing we do know is that they survived.

And – a hot new debate is suggesting – perhaps they survived thanks to the good deeds of New York’s Protestant community.

Huh? Didn’t the rich WASPs look down their noses at the Irish, and help arrange the election of nativist mayors such as James Harper, who wanted to boot all the Irish Catholics out of Manhattan?

And didn’t the poor WASPs regularly damage, even destroy, New York’s Catholic churches, as symbols of the Irish?

All true enough. But writer Peter Duffy has ignited a new debate about New York’s Protestants and the Irish.

In an opinion article published in The Wall Street Journal on St. Patrick’s Day, Duffy wrote, “The Irish Catholics of New York should do something that would’ve been unthinkable even a few years ago — raise a toast to the Protestants.”

Duffy notes that while “the city’s WASP establishment had been far from friendly to the rising numbers of Irish Catholics who had arrived here over the previous decades,” they donated money and other assistance once the Famine worsened in 1846 and 1847.

Duffy continues, “On Monday evening, February 15, 1847, a large crowd gathered at the Broadway Tabernacle, a Congregation-alist church on Worth Street. They were there ‘for the purpose of affording relief of the Irish people,’ according to an account in the Freeman’s Journal and Catholic Register, an Irish Catholic newspaper published in New York.”

According to Duffy, the local Famine relief committee reported that it had collected over $68,000 in a month – “the equivalent of more than $1.5 million in today’s money.” John Jacob Astor gave $500, while “a few poor Christians in Brooklyn” offered $10.

Duffy is right to note that “considering Ireland’s scarred history, the Protestant response is perhaps most noteworthy.”

And certainly the days of thinking of the Brits and New York Orangemen as merely seething haters of all things Irish and Catholic should be long past.

Still, Duffy – the author, most recently of The Killing of Major Denis Mahon: A Mystery of Old Ireland (HarperCollins) – might lead this debate into unfortunate places. Consider a letter written to The Wall Street Journal a few days after Duffy’s piece appeared.

Rabbi Marc D. Angel, Rabbi emeritus of Congregation Shearith Israel in New York wrote, “I would like to add that the Jewish community of New York also was involved in Irish Famine relief efforts.”

Certainly no good deed should go unnoticed. Yet, this all comes close to creating the impression that the Irish were greeted with a wave of interdenominational benevolence.

And yet, New York, in fact, was a hell for most Famine Irish. Which is to say, it was a vast improvement when compared to their ravaged, native island.

Duffy acknowledges that donations dried up as the Famine worsened, in part because of “disastrous British relief policies.” He adds, however, “this doesn’t absolve New York’s Irish from recognizing the generosity shown to them by a historical enemy.”

Fair enough. But it is also fair to say that the Famine Irish could have said: “Keep your money, but get these stone-throwing bigots out of my face.”

At the time of the Famine, the tensions between Protestants and Catholics were not “historic.” They could not have been more current and urgent.

So, Duffy’s points are valid. But it’s not exactly a crime of history that the Famine relief efforts of John Jacob Astor and New York Protestants were insufficiently recognized. At least they had assistance to give.

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