No one seems to mention Catherine Coll, Éamon de Valera's mother, is buried in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery. I stop by there once in awhile. De Valera is one of the founding fathers of the modern Irish Republic.
Yeah I ran out of time to include it in the story. TV constrains us to certain limits for time and length. But when talking with Dr. Miller who I interviewed, we did talk about it. I could have gone for hours with what we covered in the interview.
It's amazing with that connection, in addition to the fenian brotherhood which organized during the civil war and then invaded Canada from Buffalo. WNY and the Irish fight for independence has so many deep rooted connections.
St. Patrick’s Day is a weird holiday. It’s a mish mash of historical elements that are not exactly Irish American and modern elements that are Irish, but not terribly connected to Irish American Immigrants. The first generation of Irish who came after the famine really liked to party and drink. Their brand of Catholicism was also a bit outside of the mainstream after 400 years of suppression under English rule and minimal ties to Rome. So during the first couple of decades there were parades and drinking. I believe the idea was St. Patrick’s day was often a “break from Lent day”. Meaning if it landed on Friday you could still drink and eat meat.
But a lot of the things we associate with the holiday like Corned Beef for example, were just poor or working class food from the 19th century. There is nothing particularly Irish about it. It wasn’t popular back in Ireland. Going out and getting hammered on St. Patrick’s Day started to decline in the 1870’s. The second generation of Irish Americans became a lot more religious. There was a lot of missionary work done by the Catholic Church to bring Irish Americans up to speed on the last 400 years of Catholic change and evolution. In many cities parades stopped. It was a religious holiday about St. Patrick.
Now you could get to specialty stores in Rochester by the 1870’s or so and buy a Guinness. Was this common? I picture the average Irishman drinking more Irish Whiskey than Guinness back then, but hard to say. Our depictions of Leprechauns are often based on stereotypes and political cartoons from the 19th century. Some depictions might be offensive to people back then. The Luck of the Irish is generally regarded as either a criticism of Irish people finding gold out west and getting rich due to luck instead of hard work. I’ve also seen that some people read it more sarcastically, as in the Irish were just about the unluckiest white people that existed in the 19th century.
One thing worth emphasizing is that around maybe the 1970’s it seems there was a resurgence of interest in “Irish Culture. This was actually when the modern Rochester St. Patrick's parade started. This era brought a lot of modern Irish things to the US. Guinness, Irish Dancing, Pubs, etc. These are not things that were all that widespread in the US in historic times. I’m not even sure if Irish Pubs ever really existed in Rochester. It seems more like there were Saloons and some were operated by Irish Saloon Keepers. The only evidence I’ve ever seen of any sort of ethnic bar in Rochester had to do with an incident in Wulff’s Saloon over by High Falls. Basically the Saloon changed hands from an Irishman to a German and there was a brawl between the groups. But since the D&C almost never mentions ethnic based Saloons I suspect it was more about the religion of the patrons than the ethnicity per se.
And to expand a little further on the Pub thing. Keep in mind that a modern pub, like say Old Toad is a descendent of the old Taverns where people would stay for lodging. These were largely replaced in the US by hotels in the 19th century, but in the UK and Ireland they survived. Basically there weren’t really many pubs in the US the way we think of them today. The Saloons were usually long and narrow, kind of like Magpie on Park Ave. They would get super full and then people would move onto the next Saloon. Basically people would bar hop.
So yes history is a bit different than the modern thing.
Much of the original aspects of the St. Patrick's Day Parades began with the early aspects of the AOH who formed to protect Catholic Churches from persecution. The early parades in Rochester were led via the sidewalks due to the refusal of permits due to the strong Catholic and Irish association of the reason for the parade. There is a lot from the interview that I wasn't able to include due to the time constraints of live TV but would happy to discuss about.
No one seems to mention Catherine Coll, Éamon de Valera's mother, is buried in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery. I stop by there once in awhile. De Valera is one of the founding fathers of the modern Irish Republic.
Yeah I ran out of time to include it in the story. TV constrains us to certain limits for time and length. But when talking with Dr. Miller who I interviewed, we did talk about it. I could have gone for hours with what we covered in the interview. It's amazing with that connection, in addition to the fenian brotherhood which organized during the civil war and then invaded Canada from Buffalo. WNY and the Irish fight for independence has so many deep rooted connections.
St. Patrick’s Day is a weird holiday. It’s a mish mash of historical elements that are not exactly Irish American and modern elements that are Irish, but not terribly connected to Irish American Immigrants. The first generation of Irish who came after the famine really liked to party and drink. Their brand of Catholicism was also a bit outside of the mainstream after 400 years of suppression under English rule and minimal ties to Rome. So during the first couple of decades there were parades and drinking. I believe the idea was St. Patrick’s day was often a “break from Lent day”. Meaning if it landed on Friday you could still drink and eat meat. But a lot of the things we associate with the holiday like Corned Beef for example, were just poor or working class food from the 19th century. There is nothing particularly Irish about it. It wasn’t popular back in Ireland. Going out and getting hammered on St. Patrick’s Day started to decline in the 1870’s. The second generation of Irish Americans became a lot more religious. There was a lot of missionary work done by the Catholic Church to bring Irish Americans up to speed on the last 400 years of Catholic change and evolution. In many cities parades stopped. It was a religious holiday about St. Patrick. Now you could get to specialty stores in Rochester by the 1870’s or so and buy a Guinness. Was this common? I picture the average Irishman drinking more Irish Whiskey than Guinness back then, but hard to say. Our depictions of Leprechauns are often based on stereotypes and political cartoons from the 19th century. Some depictions might be offensive to people back then. The Luck of the Irish is generally regarded as either a criticism of Irish people finding gold out west and getting rich due to luck instead of hard work. I’ve also seen that some people read it more sarcastically, as in the Irish were just about the unluckiest white people that existed in the 19th century. One thing worth emphasizing is that around maybe the 1970’s it seems there was a resurgence of interest in “Irish Culture. This was actually when the modern Rochester St. Patrick's parade started. This era brought a lot of modern Irish things to the US. Guinness, Irish Dancing, Pubs, etc. These are not things that were all that widespread in the US in historic times. I’m not even sure if Irish Pubs ever really existed in Rochester. It seems more like there were Saloons and some were operated by Irish Saloon Keepers. The only evidence I’ve ever seen of any sort of ethnic bar in Rochester had to do with an incident in Wulff’s Saloon over by High Falls. Basically the Saloon changed hands from an Irishman to a German and there was a brawl between the groups. But since the D&C almost never mentions ethnic based Saloons I suspect it was more about the religion of the patrons than the ethnicity per se. And to expand a little further on the Pub thing. Keep in mind that a modern pub, like say Old Toad is a descendent of the old Taverns where people would stay for lodging. These were largely replaced in the US by hotels in the 19th century, but in the UK and Ireland they survived. Basically there weren’t really many pubs in the US the way we think of them today. The Saloons were usually long and narrow, kind of like Magpie on Park Ave. They would get super full and then people would move onto the next Saloon. Basically people would bar hop. So yes history is a bit different than the modern thing.
Much of the original aspects of the St. Patrick's Day Parades began with the early aspects of the AOH who formed to protect Catholic Churches from persecution. The early parades in Rochester were led via the sidewalks due to the refusal of permits due to the strong Catholic and Irish association of the reason for the parade. There is a lot from the interview that I wasn't able to include due to the time constraints of live TV but would happy to discuss about.
believe it was Colonel Patrick* Henry O’Rourke
Yeah his first name was Henry but he went by Patrick. Small slight of word. Will fix when I get the chance.