The Battle for America

The recent release of diplomatic papers under the 30-year release rule by the Irish government reveals some interesting tales from the Irish Consulate in New York, including one where Irish Northern Aid was compared to the Ku Klux Klan.

Back when activist Irish America and the Irish government were at loggerheads over Northern Ireland, the battle for the hearts and minds of American politicians was not between the British and the Irish, but rather the Irish government and Noraid.

How bitter the battle was can be seen from the exchanges just made public. Then Mayor of New York Abe Beame received an angry letter from an Irish diplomat for supporting a rally in commemoration of dead hunger striker Frank Stagg.

In a blunt letter to Beame, then Irish consul general in New York, Gearoid O Clerigh, told him his attendance at a Mass and demonstration in the city had caused the Irish government great concern.

O Clerigh had already tipped off Dublin about the events and of the involvement of Noraid and other leading Republican groups.

He wrote to Mayor Beame after the event on March 1, 1976,

“In a situation where a religious service and rally in New York were organized mainly by groups and individuals who support or condone violence in Ireland, attendance or participation at such a service or rally, which would otherwise be understood as respect for the dead, is viewed by the public as indicating support for the aims of those organizations or individuals.”

O Clerigh told Beame of the major violence in Ireland that followed Stagg’s death when the government refused to allow his body to be buried at an IRA plot in his native Mayo.

“You will understand, therefore, the concern of my government, whose primary responsibility is for the lives of Irish people,” he said.

O Clerigh continued, “I have thought it proper to express my concern, knowing, as I do, that you would not wish any act of yours to appear to support groups who have been rejected by the overwhelming majority of the Irish people in free and democratic elections.”

Noraid like the KKK?

O CLERIGH was busy during this period, according to the archives. He also informed Dublin that Senator Henry (Scoop) Jackson of Washington, then the near front runner for the Democratic nomination as presidential candidate (he subsequently lost the nomination to Jimmy Carter), had been reported as planning to attend the commemoration.

Jackson had sent a message of solidarity to be read out at the Noraid annual dinner, and O Clerigh wrote that while the senator did not actually support Noraid, he had “got himself into a position where his attitude is seen as somewhat ambiguous.”

O Clerigh contacted Jackson’s campaign manager, Terry O’Connell. He informed Dublin that “O’Connell insisted he (Senator Jackson) was trying to instill reason into the debate within Noraid and absolutely opposed provisional violence. I suggested the senator unlikely to send message, however reasonable, to a Ku Klux Klan function,” O Clerigh noted ruefully.

“Our discussion was very friendly but O’Connell is himself, unfortunately, a Noraid supporter.”

O Clerigh reported that Jackson did not go to the commemoration, which was attended by Stagg’s brother George and brought a crowd

of 3,000 onto the streets, but that he did send a telegram of sympathy, as did Governor Jimmy Carter, who won the presidential election later that year.

O Clerigh was clearly exercised by the issue and said he would get on to Carter’s office about the matter.

Biden’s Irish Roots

SENATOR Joe Biden has just become the latest Democrat to throw his hat into the ring for the 2008 presidential race. The Delaware Democrat announced on Meet the Press on Sunday that he would definitely be a candidate.

Biden’s roots are in Co. Derry. His mother’s name was Finnegan and he is descended from a family that left Derry in the early 1900s to move to the du Pont estate in Delaware to work, as thousands of other Derry people did at the time.

Biden was brought up in Fishtown, the Irish neighborhood of Wilmington, and has always identified himself as Irish in his political career.

Though not on the front line on most Irish issues, Biden has been a reliable voice. In a cover story in Irish America magazine some years ago, Biden stated that he was very mindful of his roots from his grandparents and retained close links to Ireland.

McCain Man of the Year

IRISH American Republicans (IAR) are expected to announce that presidential contender Senator John McCain will be their Irish American of the Year for 2007.

The organization expects to present McCain with his honor either in February or March. McCain has made a major effort on the immigration issue in the past year and has appeared at several Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform events.

Grant Lally of the IAR is also president of ILIR, so it is hardly surprising that McCain will get the nod this year. He has certainly become a strong advocate on the immigration reform issue.