By Tom Deignan

Sometimes there are just coincidences in life.

This past week, for example, offered a special opportunity to remember two Irish sons of U.S. cities who rose up the political ranks to become mayor.

One was a controversial boss whose legacy will be debated and felt for decades. The other is a less well-known reformer who once took to the streets to haul trash. 

Both, though, are reminders of the extraordinary role Irish politicians played in 20th Century urban America.

It was in April of 1955 that Chicago’s Richard J. Daley was first sworn in as mayor of Chicago.

More interested in power and influence than lining his own pockets, Daley was a humble, devout Catholic who raised his own family not far from the South Side Irish ghetto where he grew up. 

He would go on to become perhaps the most powerful Irish American mayor ever. Daley became such a key figure in the Democratic Party that he was known as a “president maker” whose support was needed to nominate any White House candidate.

To mark the 50th anniversary of Daley’s first inauguration, friends, historians, journalists and, of course, politicians trekked to Chicago last week. There was a well-attended discussion at the Chicago Historical Society on April 19 followed by a day-long symposium the following day at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

Those gathered mentioned that, in many ways, Daley was actually somewhat progressive, certainly by the standards of his era.

A multi-ethnic town, Chicago required a mayor who knew how to reward all ethnic groups, even African Americans, whom Daley relied upon for delivering votes in segregated black neighborhoods.

Historian Michael Beschloss, himself a native of Chicago, went so far as to say that Daley was the “preeminent mayor of the 20th century.”

Daley’s image was later tarnished by the violent events of the 1968 Chicago Democratic convention. It was then that police were charged with treating protesters brutally. Daley did not seem interested in the complaints.

Neither, for better or worse, were many Chicagoans. In the election before he died in office, at the age of 74 in 1976, Daley received nearly 60% of the vote. 

Among those in attendance at last week’s Richard J. Daley Urban Forum? Richard M. Daley, the mayor’s son who himself was elected mayor in 1989.

Meanwhile, earlier this month, former Pittsburgh Mayor Peter Francis Flaherty died at the age of 80. Flaherty, whose parents were immigrants who ran a grocery store, was the type of politician who actually might have challenged Daley. 

Flaherty was known as a reformer who railed against old-style bosses. It calls to mind Edwin O’Connor’s brilliant novel The Last Hurrah in which an old time Democratic Irish boss is challenged not by some WASP or some up-and-coming ethnic group, but instead by a different kind of Irish American.

When Flaherty ran for mayor in 1969, reformers were all the rage. Flaherty, in fact, came to calling himself “Nobody’s Boy,” claiming that he had no ties to Pittsburgh’s Democratic machine. 

Pittsburgh was a notoriously political city, as has been wonderfully captured in the fiction of Lester Goran, in books such as Tales from the Irish Club.

The figure who hovered like a giant over mid-century Pittsburgh is another son of Irish immigrants, David Lawrence. Elected in 1945, Lawrence was elected to four consecutive terms before becoming governor in 1958.

As for Peter Flaherty (who died of cancer), he has a solid legacy of his own. He was reelected in 1973. 

He was a reformer enough to battle Pittsburgh’s unions, which often got unquestioned support from City Hall Democrats. During a sanitation strike Flaherty even rolled up his sleeves and collected trash himself.

In 1977, Flaherty went to Washington to become a deputy attorney general for the Carter administration.

But this son of Pittsburgh was too much of a local boy and he returned home. Flaherty unsuccessfully ran for senator and twice ran for governor.

In the end, Daley and Flaherty clearly represent two key aspects of the Irish experience in America, particularly when it comes to politics — the machine, and the effort to improve upon the machine.

(Contact Sidewalks at tomdeignan@earthlink.net.)