/ Tag: Irish History
Posted on May 20, 2011 in Irish History by aohgreenville
by Mike McCormack, AOH National Historian
Each year around March 17, the name of St. Patrick appears in every major publication in the civilized world – sometimes with honor and sometimes with scorn – often due to the conduct of those who celebrate his memory at affairs which bear his name. Of the many things written about this holy man, some are true, some misleading, and some false. St. Patrick was Italian; St. Patrick drove the snakes from Ireland; St. Patrick was the first to bring Christianity to Ireland – all of these statements are false!
Let’s take them one at a time. Some claim St. Patrick to be Italian because he was born in Roman occupied territory, and his name was Patricius. Sadly, the mists of time have clouded the exact location of his birth, but what is concluded from available evidence is that he was born somewhere in Wales around 386 AD. Patrick himself wrote that the scene of his youth was Banavem Tiburniae (possibly the town of Tiburnia near Holyhead in western Wales), where his father was a member of the governing body. Other Welsh sources suggest southern Wales near the Bristol Channel at the mouth of the Severn River. Although Wales was part of the Roman Empire at that time, it was a Celtic country and its people were one race with the people of Ireland, Scotland, Brittany, Cornwall, and the Isle of Man. As for his Italian sounding name, it was given to him when he was consecrated Bishop and assigned to the mission in Ireland. Before that time, our patron Saint’s name was Succat, a Celtic name meaning victorious. There is, therefore, more evidence to suggest that Patrick was Celtic, than any other nationality. He even identified himself as such in his letter to the British prince, Corocticus.
As for the snakes, although a popular legend, it is geologically known that there never were any in Ireland to begin with. His connection with that legend stems from the Viking misinterpretation of his name. Paud in the old Norse language meant a toad, and when the Vikings heard of a Saint called Paud-rig, who had lived in Ireland before their coming, they concluded it meant toad-expeller. That was only the beginning, because the legend was reinforced by the Church’s representation of the Devil in the form of a serpent, and statues of Patrick driving the Devil out of Ireland in that form. The fact that there were no snakes led to the question, “what happened to them,” and the answer was easily found in St Patrick’s traditional statue. However, Patrick is more revered for what he brought to Ireland, than what he drove away. Yet he was not the first to bring Christianity . . . he was however, the most effective.
The story began when Patrick was about 16 years old, and Ireland’s High King, Niall of the Nine Hostages, sent warriors to raid the coast of Wales for slaves. Among the hostages taken was the youth, Succat. According to tradition, he was taken to Mt. Slemish, Co. Antrim, where he tended the flocks of either a Druid or a Chieftain, according to Ludwig Beiler’s The Life and Legend of St. Patrick. After six years, Succat escaped following a voice that he heard in his dreams. He fled to Wexford, found passage, and eventually returned to his family. There he received his vocation for missionary work in Ireland in three separate dreams – the most notable was one in which the voice of the Irish called to him, “Holy youth, come again and walk among us.”
Succat received religious training at monastic settlements in Gaul, Italy, and the islands of the Tyrrhene Sea. He was ordained a Deacon by Amator, Bishop of Auxerre about 418 AD, and was consecrated Bishop – receiving the name Patricius – in 432 AD. At the time, there were a few Christians already in Ireland, but without a central authority and in such isolated areas as an island in Wexford harbor where St. Ibar had established his church and school.
In any case, it is certain that Patrick was in Auxerre in 431, when St. Germanus selected Palladius, a contemporary of Patrick’s, as the first Bishop of Ireland, but that mission was short-lived. According to the memoirs of Tirechan, a cleric in Meath about 690 AD, Palladius died or left within a year. Patrick was assigned to replace him in 432. Working to his advantage was the fact that Patrick knew Irish customs and language from his years in captivity, and the fact that he was a Celt. Patrick never condemned the Irish as idolatrous pagans, but appealed to their pride. He explained their traditions in terms of Christianity and was eventually accepted as one of their own. He converted key people among the nobility, and recruited a native clergy.
He began his missionary work in Ulster, built his first Church at Saul, two miles from Downpatrick, and from there journeyed across the land. Patrick’s own writings, and the writings of his contemporaries, show him to have been a missionary of extraordinary zeal, energy, and courage, careless of his own safety in his fervor to `spread the nets for God‘. In his own writings, he mentions this `divine impatience‘ as well as describing himself as one of the Irish. For 29 years, Patrick labored among his beloved Irish, converting and baptizing them by the thousands until his death on March 17, 461 AD. Tradition establishes that he was buried at Downpatrick where he shares the same grave with Saints Bridget and Columcille who were later interred with him to protect their remains from Viking raiders. He was recognized as a saint in the 17th century by the extension of his feast day to the universal Church calendar.
However, by all accounts, the most momentous part of his legacy is the form of Christianity he left in Ireland for it inspired a life of sacrifice for the sins of man. That sacrifice, which became known as ‘white martyrdom’ included prayerful solitude, fasting, tedious transcription of sacred documents, abstinence from worldly pleasures which to some meant dressing in coarse garments and sleeping on hard beds with stone pillows, and most importantly, missionary activity. It was this devotion which led to Ireland becoming the Isle of Saints and Scholars, the University of Europe and the Lamp of the West; and it was his fervor to spread the nets for God that led future generations of Irish monks to travel the continent as missionaries, bringing the light of learning back into the abyss after the Dark Ages and saving civilization.
This then is the man – the Saint – that we honor in March, and it our duty to see that nothing but praise and reverence are attached to his name. We may celebrate his memory with joy, but remember his love for the Irish, the tremendous gift of faith that he bestowed upon us and the inspiration he provided which benefitted civilization, and celebrate with reverent joy. We can begin by replacing all references to Paddy’s Day with the proper name of Saint Patrick’s Day for the difference between Paddy’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day is the same as the difference between the office Christmas Party and Midnight Mass.
by Mike McCormack, AOH National Historian
Posted on April 16, 2011 in Irish History by aohgreenville
Irish Charlestonians loyally supported the Confederacy, and several Charleston Irish-American companies joined the Confederate Army. The Charleston Meagher Guard named for a famous Irish-American soldier, changed its name to the Emerald Light Infantry when Meagher became a general in the Union Army. McGowan’s Brigade was the first Confederate colors to enter Gettysburg. The Irish Volunteers fought valiantly in numerous battles. It is said they were the first company to volunteer for the duration of the war. William H. Ryan, a native of Charleston, served as first lieutenant of the Irish Volunteers and then as captain of the Charleston Battalion. He was a hero of the Battle of Secessionville but was killed in the brutal assault on Battery Wagner.
Irish Charlestonians also served on the submarine Hunley, which one historian claims was designed by an Irishman, J. R. McClintock. The crew of the ironclad Chicora included a McCarthy, a McGovern, a McQuinn, a Noonan, a Scanlon, a Conrad, a Cleary, and a Kelly. Captain John C. Mitchell of the First Regiment, S. C. Artillery, was an Irish-American whose dying words at Fort Sumter on July 20, 1864, inspired his comrades: “I willingly give my life for South Carolina. Oh, that I could have died for Ireland.”
The Charleston Irish community was especially proud of the Irish Volunteers. The students at the Academy of Our Lady of Mercy made a flag, which the bishop, Patrick N. Lynch, presented in the Cathedral. It was described as follows:
The ground of its face is white, watered silk, in the center of which is the emblem of Old Erin — the Irish Harp wrought most exquisitely in raised gold work adorned with brilliants. Encircling the harp is a wreath of needlework, representing the oak, the olive and the native shamrock of Ireland … over the wreath … eleven stars — the number [of] states in the confederacy, and above in gold letters are the words ‘Erin Go Bragh.’ The reverse was a green field with a palmetto and crescent in white.
Posted on April 16, 2011 in Irish History by aohgreenville
Bishop Patrick Lynch was the spiritual leader of South Carolina’s Catholics at the time of the Civil War. Born in Ireland, Bishop Lynch immigrated to South Carolina in 1819. In 1840 he was ordained as a priest in Rome. In 1857 he was appointed vicar-general and was consecrated bishop in 1858. He was bishop in Charleston for twenty-four years, and he served as the Confederacy’s special envoy to the Vatican.
Patrick N. Lynch was consecrated as the Catholic bishop of Charleston on March 14, 1858 in the Cathedral of St. John and St. Finbar on Broad Street, which burned in the Great Fire of 1861. It was the first consecration of a new bishop in Charleston.
Bishop Lynch’s appointment was a popular one. He had been a priest for eighteen years and was a favorite speaker. “Father Lynch preached and his sermon impressed me profoundly,” William T. Sherman, then a lieutenant, wrote home from Fort Moultrie in the 1840′s.
The Catholic community staunchly supported the Confederacy. “Long years of menace, insult, outrage and unconstitutional aggression have been at last brought to a close by the event — the election of a Black Republican President” the diocesan newspaper, the “U.S. Catholic Miscellany,” editorialized on Lincoln’s election.
Bishop Lynch was active in support of the Confederacy. He said a mass for the Meagher Guard at Castle Pinckney on December 26, 1860. He presented the Irish Volunteers with their new flag, saying as he did so, “Peace is a blessing. It is a blessing for which we all pray to heaven; while it is a blessing not always granted. When granted we return our thanks for it; when it is withheld, we bow before the will of heaven, and strive to do our duty.”
The Great Fire of 1861 burned the Catholic Cathedral. The siege of Charleston forced Bishop Lynch and his secretary to move to St. Joseph’s in Ansonborough. St. Mary’s Church, on Hassell Street, the mother church of Catholicism the South, was struck by Federal shells on several occasions. Few parishioners could attend church in downtown Charleston.
When Jefferson Davis visited Charleston in November 1863, Bishop Lynch accompanied him on his tour of fortifications. The bishop had been particularly active and helpful in the exchange of prisoners between Charleston and the Federal forces on Morris Island. Dr. Slaven later recalled the exchange in a book: “The Bishop had been extremely kind in receiving the blessings of our boys, who spoke in warm terms of his Christian humanity. So far as I could judge from the specimen, our wounded had not anything to complain of in their treatment. At least nothing which the necessities of this situation rendered unavoidable.”
In 1684 Bishop Lynch was asked to come to Richmond to discuss with the Confederate Secretary of State, the possibility of obtaining the Vatican’s recognition of the Confederacy. The bishop accepted the assignment and left Charleston for Rome with the title Special Commissioner of the Confederate States of America to the States of the Church. He ran the blockade from Wilmington in April, 1864; Conrad Wise Chapman, on furlough to visit his family in Rome, was a fellow passenger. Lynch reached Rome in June, 1864, and met with Pope Pius IX. The Pope, however, felt he “could not say anything directly to conform and strengthen slavery” and would not give diplomatic recognition to the Confederate States, so Bishop Lynch’s mission failed. Before he could return from Rome, the war was lost.
Posted on April 16, 2011 in Irish History by aohgreenville
Why The Harp?
The harp is the ancient symbol of the Irish State. It is to Ireland what the bald eagle is to America.
In Irish lore it is associated with Dagda, the Celtic fire-god (the good god), whose playing brought about the change of seasons. Dagda’s harp played a key role in his defeat of the Fomorians when he put the opposing army to sleep.
An ancient legend of the origin of the harp is that a woman walking along the beach came across the skeleton of a whale with the wind singing so sweetly through its sinews that she was lulled to sleep. Her husband, finding her so, observed the principle of the enchanting sound and made a harp to imitate it. Although its origins are lost in antiquity it is clear that as a symbol the harp is decidedly Irish.
The harp has been recognized as the symbol of Ireland for at least eight hundred years. Historical documents rate it as one of the ten oldest emblems. During the many years of ferment “the Green Flag” (Gold Harp on a green field) has consistently been raised to unite Irishmen in their revolutionary struggles and has represented Irish units fighting in foreign armies. (Check out the flag of “The Fighting 69th” or the “Irish army scene” in the movie Braveheart).
The harp as the Irish National emblem is based on the “BORU” harp which is displayed in Trinity College, Dublin. The harp is the official seal of the Irish State and was found on the obverse (tails) of Irish coins. (Ireland now uses the Euro as the official currency, while Northern Ireland still uses the British Pound.) The harp is also used on the cover of Irish passports, on the front of government buildings, and is the official flag of the President of Ireland. It is the only national emblem in the world that consists of a musical instrument.
Harpers played an important cultural function as oral historians and held a place of honor in ancient Ireland. Such a symbol of the Irish is the harp that at various times in history harpers (and harps) have been outlawed by the colonizing English. Queen Elizabeth I gave orders “to hang the harpers wherever found”. Cromwell actually set out to destroy every harp in Ireland and, if caught, he had the harper’s fingers cut off.
The Irish Harp signifies the unyielding spirit of the people of Ireland who have a long proud history of resisting tyranny while in search of freedom and liberty for all people. Is it any wonder that AOH Division 1, Greenville, SC incorporates the harp in its logo and motto: “THE HARP AND SHAMROCK DIVISION”?
Posted on April 16, 2011 in Irish History by aohgreenville
The Irish people have done much to advance culture around the world throughout the ages. This is especially true in the United States and here in the South. The State of South Carolina has a wealth of history that is directly attributable to the Irish people.
The Harp & Shamrock Division is proud to acknowledge the work of the Division Historian Frank Corden. Most of the history we are presenting here is a result of his tireless work. In a note to me Frank mentions that practically all of the Irish information in South Carolina relates to Charleston.
The newest additions to our site are regarding Bishop Patrick Lynch, Bishop of Charleston and Irish-American Charlestonians and the Civil War.
Of particular interest that Frank forwarded to share was a statement by Bishop John England, the first Catholic Bishop of the Carolinas and Georgia. It isn’t clear to whom this statement or address was made nor in what form but it is rather interesting nonetheless.
“I am no renegade to Ireland; but I am now an American…Where upon your approach to the polls, any person address you as an Irishman, or Frenchman, or an Italian, or by any appellation but Carolinian or American, his language is distraint and offensive. He is either ignorant, or supposes you to be so, or has some sinister view.
There is a bribery of the affections. There is a bribery in reminding you of the bravery and the patriotism and the generosity of the Irish. And all this is the more insulting as the object of the adulation, or the familiarity, is too plain to be mistaken. I warn you of your solemn serious obligation, that in giving your vote, you recollect that you are an American! A Carolinian!”
Bishop John England
First Bishop of Charleston
When is the last time you heard anyone use the English language as beautifully as this? Or reminded you of the importance of your vote?
Posted on April 16, 2011 in Irish History by aohgreenville
In Ireland, nine men were captured, tried, and convicted of treason against Her Majesty, the Queen during what has been referred to as the “Young Irish Disorders”, in 1848 or thereabouts. The nine, who were sentenced to death, were Pat Donahue, Charles Duffy, Michael Ireland, Morris Lyene, Thomas McGee, Terrence McMannus, Thomas Meagher, John Mitchell and Richard O’Gorman.The judge asked if there was anything any of them wished to say before being sentenced. Meagher, whose response summed up the attitude of them all, replied, “My Lord, this is our first offense, but not our last. If you will be easy with us this once, we promise on our word as gentlemen, to do better next time, sure we won’t be fools to get caught.”
The judge, outraged rather than amused at Meagher’s remarks, indignantly decreed that the defendants should be hanged until dead, and drawn and quartered. Passionate protests, however, influenced Queen Victoria to commute the sentence to banishment for life and transportation to far, wild Australia.
In 1874, an astounded Queen Victoria received word that the Sir Charles Duffy who had been elected Prime Minister of Australia was the very same Charles Duffy who had been transported there some twenty-five years earlier. curious about the fate of the other eight young Irishmen convicted with Duffy, the Queen demanded that the records of those transported and banished from England during the incidents of 1848 be researched and revealed. This is what they found:
Thomas Meagher Governor of Montana
Terrence McMannus Brigadier General, U.S. Army
Patrick Donahue Brigadier General, U.S. Army
Morris Lyene Attorney General of Australia
Richard O’Gorman Governor of Newfoundland
Michael Ireland Attorney General of Australia
Thomas McGee Member of Parliament
Minister of Agriculture
President of Council, Dominion of Canada
John Mitchell Writer and prominent New York politician
His son became Mayor of New York City
