| Letters It’s
a Classic
Congratulations on your 20th Anniversary Special Edition. It’s a
Classic!
Frank Cull
Irish Echo - Retired
Chestnut Ridge, New York
Congratulations
Your 20th Anniversary issue was excellent, not only in content but also
in appearance.
Congratulations.
Neal Powers
San Marino, California
Uniquely Eileen
Congratulations on your 20th Anniversary issue. I received a gift subscription
several years ago and have been a loyal reader. The issue looked very
neat, and what a beautiful article you featured on Eileen Collins. I loved
how you were able to capture some of the subtle nuances that are uniquely
Eileen.
Anne Kelly
Houston, Texas
Malloy’s Girl Was Irish
I enjoyed Joseph McBride’s 20 best movies about Irish-Americans
in your October/November issue, especially his write-up on True Confessions
and the interaction between the brothers, one a priest and the other a
detective, which I found to be extremely poignant. I thought the link
between the movie Shane and Irishness to be weak as well as that of part
Irish-American boxer, Muhammad Ali. Also, where did Mr. McBride ever get
that business about Terry Malloy’s (Marlon Brando) girlfriend (Eva
Marie Saint) being a WASP in the movie On the Waterfront? An important
part of the movie was how her poor hardworking Irish-American longshoreman
father saves his pennies to send her to school with the good nuns.
Jim Lundrigan
New Haven, Connecticut
Joseph McBride responds: One of the most deeply suppressed
facts about Irish-American history is the extent to which Irish-Americans
intermarried with African-Americans in nineteenth-century America. It
has been said that this could be the true origin of the term “black
Irish.” One contemporary American with such roots is Muhammad Ali.
In 2002, the Clare Heritage Center in Corofin, Ireland, confirmed that
Ali had an Irish great-grandfather, Abe Grady. Grady emigrated from Ennis,
County Clare, to the U.S. during the 1860s.
As the Columbia (University) News service reported, Abe Grady “landed
in New Orleans and worked his way up along the Mississippi as a laborer
before settling in Kentucky and marrying an African-American woman.”
According to Antoinette O'Brien, a Clare Heritage Centre genealogist,
“Their son John married and had a daughter, Odessa, who married
Cassius Clay Sr. in the 1930s. Those were Muhammad Ali's parents. Ali
was born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. but changed his name when he converted
to Islam in 1964.”
Ali proudly discussed his Irish great-grandfather on a visit to Ireland
in 1972, but his comments were not widely reported. Some Irish-Americans
may not have been eager to claim Ali as a brother because he was a controversial
figure then for opposing the Vietnam War. But today we should be equally
proud to claim this great man as one of our own.
As for Edie Doyle in On the Waterfront, Mr. Lundrigan is correct in
pointing out her Irishness. However, I would add that Edie has a somewhat
“WASPish” persona, partly due to the casting of the patrician-looking
blonde actress Eva Marie Saint. As the memorable scene of Terry Malloy
(Marlon Brando) trying on one of Edie’s dropped white gloves suggests,
her importance in his life is partly due to the way she represents “class”
to this lower-class Irish-American “palooka,” who so earnestly
aspires to acceptance in mainstream American society that, like screenwriter
Budd Schulberg and director Elia Kazan, he becomes a government informer.
And as for SHANE . . . well, isn't Shane an Irish name?
Joseph McBride
Berkeley, California
Hello from Sioux Falls
I was excited and pleased when I opened the Oct/Nov issue to see mention
of the Irish Festival in my hometown, Sioux Falls, South Dakota in Tom
Deignan’s article on how Irish America has changed. My daughter
enjoyed scanning the crowd to see if she was pictured. As always we enjoyed
reading through your magazine together and learning more about our Irish
heritage.
Keep the good work coming.
Jennifer McNamara Miller
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Mistaken Identity
Congratulation on your 20th! I’ve subscribed since Volume I, Number
1.
However, I believe the photo caption on page 44 of the issue should
read: “Keeping abreast of latest developments in Northern Ireland
from outside Belfast’s City Hall.” I can’t recall seeing
a Union Jack flying over Dublin’s Custom House in the past 83 or
so years.
Ed Doherty
Received by E-mail
Ed. Note: Mr. Doherty is correct. As several of our readers pointed out,
we mistakenly identified Belfast City Hall as the Custom House in Dublin.
A Bard Remembered
The late Village Voice bard Joe Flaherty, mentioned by the letter-writer
Bill Browne (Aug./Sept. issue), was my mentor and friend. I decided to
become a writer because of him.
He was also the funniest man I ever met. One time a well-known novelist
who had suffered from writer’s block for years was moanin’
and groanin’ at the Lion’s Head pub in Greenwich Village about
how he’d brought a bottle of vodka home the previous night —
for his morning pick-me-up — and how he couldn’t find the
vodka in the morning.
“I’ve looked everywhere,” he said.
“Did you look in your typewriter?” asked Flaherty.
I’ll pass the magazine on to his widow, Jeanine.
Dermot McEvoy
New York, New York
Dermot McEvoy is the author of Terrible Angel: A Novel of Michael Collins
in New York.
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