The Irish diaspora brought us The Great Shame and -- for many -- much better lives

Looking for some especially depressing books to read during St. Patrick's Day week, I chose The Great Shame, and the triumph of the Irish in the English-speaking world by Thomas Keneally. Keneally is an Australian of Irish descent who wrote such great books as Schindler's List, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith and To Asmara. I've met Keneally several times and he looks a bit like a leprechaun (see book jacket). A leprechaun who can write!

It's an old story. Irish peasant gets sideways with his landlord, goes to jail and is convicted, and eventually is deported to Australia. Hugh Larkin was his ancestor who was shipped away in chains and, strangely enough, into a better life. He missed the Great Potato Famine, for one thing. There were jailers and landlords in Australia but not nearly so many. A man with grit and wit could make it there.

That's what so many Irish found during the diaspora. If they survived.

Thomas O'Shea, who somewhere along the line changed his surname to Shay, was born in County Clare, Ireland, on Dec. 20, 1815. He died in Clear Creek Township in Johnson County, Iowa, on May 14, 1879. According to his very precise gravestone at St. Joseph's Cemetery in Iowa City, he was "63 years, 4 mos, and 24 days." Not sure about the hours and minutes.

His wife was Ann (Anna, Annie) Agnes Burns, born somewhere in Ireland about 1825. My daughter Annie bears her name. My daughter was born on March 9, 1993, in Cheyenne in County Laramie, USA. Wonder how much of the Irish Annie is in our Annie? She's stubborn as hell and beautiful and smart. I wonder if she would have made it to the U.S. intact from famine-ravaged Ireland. I think so.

Annie and Thomas emigrated around 1850. It could have been earlier. But the cause is clear -- threat of starvation. The 1850 New York census shows Thomas Shay, 30, and Annie Shay, 23, living with their three children in Brockport in Monroe County, just a bit west of Rochester. The family left for Iowa about 1859, just in time to avoid most of the Civil War.

The 1870 federal census records show that Thomas Shay owned real estate worth $4,000 in Clear Creek Township, Iowa. It was 96 acres. He and Annie, 43, now had eight children. The youngest was Michael, 6. The family owned three horses, four mules, four milk cows, four "other cattle," and 18 swine. He and his family farmed wheat, corn, oats and (of course) "Irish potatoes." They harvested 15 tons of hay and produced 300 pounds of butter and 30 gallons of molasses.

Beats the hell out of eating weeds or grass, the only crops growing in the Irish countryside. Not an easy journey across the ocean and across half of the country. But, in the end, Thomas probably thought it was worth it.

Ann Burns Shay was buried next to her husband in 1909. By then, her youngest son Michael's first-born son Raymond was 16. Raymond's son Thomas was born in 1923 and, after he married Anna Marie Shay in February, 1950, I was born 10 months later.

There are many family stories mixed in with the data. And so many relatives named Michael and Patrick and Molly. Show a little imagination people! Our names are traded like baseball cards. My father was named after his great-grandfather Thomas from Ireland and his uncle Thomas, who died in 1918 from the Spanish flu. He was in the Iowa National Guard at the time with his older brother Ray. They were in France with the AEF. More Johnson County boys died of the flu than died in battle during World War I.

My middle name is Thomas. I have a younger brother Thomas. We call him Tom or Tommy. I have a nephew Thomas who is trying to get into medical school. My sister Molly is his mother.

We've done pretty well here in the States. My parents never traveled to Ireland to look up relatives. Neither did I. Maybe we're beyond that. The Republic of Ireland, until recently, was known as the Celtic Tiger and some Americans of Irish descent traveled back to The Old Sod to work. They may be back soon.

Happy St. Patrick's Day on Thursday.

I'll raise a pint to the dear departed -- here's to you, Pat! -- the living, and all those Michaels and Annies and Patricks and Mollys yet to come.

Ashes to ashes -- now take the bastards down!

So Ash Wednesday was yesterday. This marks the beginning of Lent. I wore ashes on my forehead for most of my life. I miss them, but I can no longer stomach the Catholic Church and its bigotry against the LGBT community and women. And hypocrisy on child sex abuse by priests. I do like the Pope's cool shoes.

As Lent begins, I also think of St. Patrick's Day and the holiday's importance in our Irish-Catholic family. Many of those memories involve drinking and toasts to The Old Sod where I've never been and to where my Irish grandfather never wanted to return. It'd odd to be nostalgic for a place I haven't visited. But it's in my blood and I grew up with the stories. I credit some of my storytelling and writing skills to DNA and a certain spirit that travels down the generations. My parents, both terrific readers, get a lot of the credit. So do the nuns and priests and public school teachers who educated this lad.

Irish have a creative side, a drinking side, a dark side, a feisty side. I was thinking of that when I watched this Dropkick Murphys song as accompaniment to videos of the worker protests in Madison, WI. "Take the bastards down." Has a good ring, don't you think? As a public service to me and my readers, I'm going to track down the origins of this song. The Murphs are known for their ass-kicking shows. Maybe this is an original. Maybe an old union song. I will let you know. Meanwhile, here's the vid:



UPDATE: Here's a post from the Dropkick Murphys web site (with cool T-shirt):

Hey Everyone -- the Dropkick Murphys would like to take a moment to acknowledge the struggles of the working people of Wisconsin and to pledge our support and solidarity by releasing the song “Take Em Down” from our upcoming album. We think it’s appropriate at the moment and hope you like it.

We have also created a limited edition “Take ‘Em Down” t-shirt which will be available for sale shortly at www.dropkickmurphys.com/merch. Proceeds from the “Take ‘Em Down” t-shirt sales will benefit Workers’ Rights Emergency Response Fund (https://afl.salsalabs.com/o/4002/wi-response).

Which Side Are You On?

Dropkick Murphys rock out an old union song. And remember the struggles of the Irish in America.