By Tom Deignan

On St. Patrick’s night, when the New York Kelly Gang of high profile Irish American movers and shakers takes over Michael’s on West 55th Street, a good time will surely be had by all.

But, just as last year’s Kelly gathering had a serious side, so does this year’s.

This year, according to teamster-turned-novelist Tom Kelly, the clan is honoring Sergeant Ryan Kelly, an Arizona native who lost a leg in Iraq. Sergeant Kelly and other severely injured veterans of the Iraq war have been been working with an advocacy group called The Wounded Warrior project.

Sergeant Kelly is flying into New York this week with his wife and will be marching up Fifth Avenue with New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. The Kelly gathering may generate as much as $50,000 for the Wounded Warrior project.

“First of all, his name is Kelly,” explained Tom Kelly, whose new historical novel Empire Rising has been getting rave reviews and is racing up the bestseller charts.

Kelly also noted that last year’s gathering was also dedicated to a casualty of the Iraq war.

Last St. Patrick’s evening, funds were raised for the family of Washington-based columnist and editor Michael Kelly. Kelly was in Iraq covering the war when he was killed following a roadside bombing.

Kelly’s wife Madelyn and his two young sons, Tom and Jack, were on hand for last year’s event, as were Kelly’s parents Thomas and Marguerite, both journalists themselves.

All in all, over $30,000 was raised for the young Kelly boys, according to New York Post media columnist Keith Kelly, another member of the gang, which began informally about six years ago. That was when Jim Kelly was named editor at Time magazine and Ed Kelly was named president at American Express.

Police Commissioner Kelly, also in attendance last year, alongside his son Greg, a Fox News correspondent, signed on, and suddenly the Kelly Gang was a high profile crew meeting regularly.

St. Patrick’s Day, of course, was a required get-together occasion.

Mike Kelly was based in Washington but he met up with the Kelly crew several times in New York and made quite an impression. It certainly didn’t hurt that Mike Kelly was born on March 17.

Kelly was planning to attend the St. Patrick’s Day meeting in 2003, but went off to cover the Iraq war instead. Three weeks later he was killed.

So, Donald Trump, TV talkmeisters Bill O’Reilly and Tina Brown, and a gaggle of opinionated writerly types set their egos aside and contributed to a fund for Kelly’s wife and children.

This year, the same crowd will be helping 24-year-old Ryan Kelly. In July 2003, Kelly was in a Humvee when it was blown up by a roadside bomb. According to reports, a chunk of shrapnel about the size of a TV remote control cut Kelly’s right leg off below the knee.

Since then, Kelly has dedicated his time not just to recovering but also to highlighting the difficulties of those who suffered similar injuries while in Iraq.

These people face not only monumental challenges learning to do things with prosthetic limbs. They also face poverty because they are physically or emotionally unable to earn a living.

Indeed, Sergeant Kelly has noted that while the physical injuries are what the general public and elected officials often hear about, they forget that there are many bills to be paid during the time of recuperation.

Recently, Kelly and the Wounded Warrior project lobbied lawmakers to get behind the idea of creating a new insurance plan which would award $50,000 to severely disabled soldiers before their other benefits kick in. That money, from the Veterans Affairs Department, can sometimes take a year to arrive.

“It would immediately relieve all the financial strains on the family and service member,” Kelly told the Associated Press recently. “To have that alleviated, it allows the family to focus on the rehab.” 

As its website explains, The Wounded Warrior project “seeks to assist those men and women of our armed forces who have been severely injured during the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other hot spots around the world. Many of the injuries are traumatic amputations, gunshot wounds, burns and blast injuries that will retire these brave warriors from military service.”

This St. Patrick’s Day, the Kelly clan will be doing their part for these heroes. Visit www.woundedwarriorproject.org for more details.

(Contact Sidewalks at tomdeignan@earthlink.net.)