A chairde —
We’re still a little
short of news — everybody seems to want to read the newsletter, but nobody
seems to want to tell us what’s going on!
That means you’re stuck again with hearing about everything (printable)
that I’m doing. Admittedly it’s
fascinating . . . for you, but where does that leave me?
By the way, see if you can guess who that is. Be very ashamed if you don't recognize him.
Beannachtai!
Michael
Disclaimers
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individual authors and may not reflect those of other SIG members or the SIG as
a whole. Nothing in this newsletter
should be taken as an official position of Mensa. Mensa as a whole has no opinions.
You have received this newsletter because you either signed
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Contents
Announcements
Organization,
Publication and Membership Information
Letters
News and Reports
Articles
The Fourth Page
Announcements
As a newsletter, we rely on you to tell us what’s going
on. If you have an announcement for an
upcoming event, please let us know. Just
keep in mind that we try to publish on the 17th of every month, so
get your announcements in at least a few days before that. Otherwise, consider sending it in as a report
or a news item for the subsequent month.
• The Usual Nagging
Announcement. We still have a number
of subscribers who are probably wondering why they’re not getting the
newsletter. It’s because they haven’t
verified their subscriptions by clicking on the link in the e-mail Google sent
to their specified e-mail address. If
you subscribed but have not received the newsletter (which means you’re
visiting the blog and are reading this there), it’s an easy matter to
correct. Enter your e-mail address
again, and Google will send you another verification e-mail.
• Your SIG Coordinator, Michael D. Greaney, recently
published an original book, So Much
Generosity: An Appreciation of the Fiction of Nicholas Cardinal Wiseman, John
Henry Cardinal Newman, and Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson. Searching under that name on Amazon and
Barnes and Noble will bring up all you want to know about that book, and a
couple dozen others.
• Your Coordinator was also invited to submit a journal
article to the American Journal of
Economics and Sociology on economic crises from the perspective of binary
economics. This will, no doubt, garner
him a Nobel Prize in economics.
• The Encyclopedia of
Politics in the American West was recently published with more than 20
articles by your Coordinator. Somebody
must have been impressed, for I recently got an “emergency editorial call” from
the editor of another encyclopedia asking me at the last minute if I could
please fill in with three articles for which they had not been able to locate
articles. The first has been completed
and submitted, and the other two should soon be finished. As soon as I finish this newsletter. . . .
• Finally, the editor of the newsletter for the Western
Province of the Dominicans in the U.S. asked me for an article on how the
understanding of “distributive justice” has been corrupted, to the great
detriment of Thomist philosophy.
Aquinas, of course, was a Dominican, so they have something of a vested
interest.
Organization, Publication and
Membership Information
What We Are
Litir Scéala an tSIG
Gaelach is the newsletter of the Irish Special Interest Group of American
Mensa, Ltd. More information about the
SIG and this newsletter may be accessed by clicking
on this link.
Resources
We are preparing to put together a list of
resources and organizations that might be useful to our members. Due to the global scope of our readership, we
are trying to limit the list to organizations that extend beyond a purely local
constituency. This is a matter of simple
logistics, due to the immense number of organizations out there. If you’re looking for a local group to get
involved with — and we encourage that — do an internet search. You may be both amazed and pleased at what
you will find. We expect to list resources
as we rebuild our membership, but right now . . . oh, you know the rest.
Who We Are
No new members this month, etc. (That’s ET cetera, NOT
“eck” the way so many people want to pronounce it.) We have an increasing number of visitors and
casual readers, — no, really — but that’s not going to get the SIG reactivated
officially, however gratifying it may be personally. We’re thinking of having a “feeler” sent in
to the Bulletin. When we get around to it, of course. . . .
Anyway, here’s this month’s membership report:
5 Members of
Mensa
2 Other
1 Institutional
Member
26 Newsletter
Subscribers
34 Total
Circulation, although four of them have not “validated” their subscription
(This does not include forwarded newsletters or visitors to the website who
have not signed up for the newsletter — over 1,000 to date.)
Letters
No letters again this quarter. Received, that is. We’ve sent quite a few out, though. Possibly because most of the quarter was winter,
people may have been too busy to write.
News and Reports
Members of the Irish SIG don’t usually belong only to the
SIG, but to other groups with an Irish orientation as well. This is all to the good — the more society
becomes more social, the better
chance we have of influencing our institutions in a positive way and carrying
out “acts of social justice” aimed at improving the common good for
everybody. We want to encourage your
community participation and then report on local events in which SIG members
took part.
• The Center for Economic and Social Justice is working on
obtaining funding for “Justice University,” intended to be a free university
over the internet that will not engage in job training, only teaching and
learning.
• For a couple of months Ye SIG Coordinator has been working
on a draft of a book tentatively titled The Assassination of G. K.
Chesterton. Only a few days ago what
looks like the final outline was completed, and work can now proceed. We should have more exciting news about this
in the next issue — there is a strong Irish connection via the notorious
“McGlynn Case” of 1886-1892. I’ve
included a brief extract from the draft, below, to whet your interest. It should be a bestseller when
published. No, really.
• Our good friend Father Edward Krause, C.S.C., Ph.D., son
of Notre Dame’s famed Athletic Director, “Moose” Krause, now at Notre Dame and
in residence at Holy Cross House, reports that he has had a conversation or two
with the noted legal authority, Dr. Charles Rice, also at Notre Dame. Father Krause has been reading a preliminary
draft of The Assassination of G. K.
Chesterton, and is looking to see if he can surface a grant or two to
finance its completion. As I hinted, the
book has the potential to be a doozy.
It’s amazing what you can dig up by reading late 19th century
newspapers.
Articles
Feature Article: Henry George and
the Irish of New York City
In 1886 Laurence Gronlund and other socialist leaders
persuaded Henry George (photo, right) to run for mayor of New York City on the United Labor Party ticket.
At that time, New York was, to all intents and purposes, an Irish-Catholic
city, at least politically. Anyone who wanted to gain public office in New York
needed to secure both the Irish and the Catholic votes, there not being too
much difference between the two.
In 19th century New York, that usually meant
working hand-in-glove with the largely Irish gangs of the Five Points district
of lower Manhattan. These included groups with such colorful names as the Dead
Rabbits, the Shirt Tails, the Chichesters, the Original Hounds, and others.
Their names might sound amusing, but the business was deadly serious.
Traditionally, the gangs supported the Democratic Party with
their ward heelers (low-level politicians) and shoulder strikers (thugs),
voting early and often, making up voting lists from the cemeteries, and other
such tactics. Gang members might not be too clear on what it meant to be
“Catholic,” but, as the old joke has it, they were willing to fight you to the
death for it.
George and the Irish
George had been making overtures to the Irish (a political
necessity) since moving from San Francisco. He weighed in on matters of concern
to those of Irish birth or descent at every opportunity. Possibly in an effort
to establish his credentials, especially in light of the fact that he was of
English descent, George made a trip to the United Kingdom a few years after he
arrived in New York in 1880.
While in Ireland in 1882 George managed to get himself
arrested briefly for advocating his brand of socialism; his influence on the
founders of the soon-to-be-formed Fabian Society (1884) was well known. In 1883
George also paid a visit to Henry Edward Cardinal Manning (1808-1892) in
London (photo, left).
George inserted himself into the internal politics of the
Irish National Land League. This had been reformed in 1882 as the “National
League” after the National Land League was suppressed in October 1881.
George exacerbated a difference of opinion between League founder
Michael Davitt (1846-1906), and Charles Stewart Parnell (1846-1891), the
League’s most effective spokesman, and Parnell’s ally, William O’Brien
(1852-1928, photo, right), editor of The United
Irishman, the League’s journal, on the issue of nationalization of land.
This caused a significant amount of internal dissension, and eventually weakened
and split the Irish nationalist movement.
The socialist and non-socialist factions of the movement
were eventually able to come together and work toward a common goal with each
other and groups that were unaligned with either faction. The seeds of
conflict, however, had been sown. The 1916 Easter Proclamation contained an
equivocal statement that the people of Ireland had a right to own Ireland, but
it was carefully not stated whether this meant individual private ownership, or
collective ownership.
Ironically, it was the British who ensured that the Irish
nationalist movement would not be torn apart by the differences George had
aggravated. By executing all the leaders of the Easter Rebellion except Eamon
de Valera (1882-1975), they made “Dev” the sole focus of the nationalist
movement. De Valera was at the time still an American citizen, and it would not
have been politically expedient to kill him in view of the British desperate
need to have the United States enter the war on the side of the Allies.
The later split in the movement over the Treaty, while
effective for British purposes, was a specific issue, not a philosophy, and
easier to resolve. Nevertheless, Irish nationalism to this day retains elements
of socialism, particularly in Sinn Fein and the Provisional IRA.
A Plea for Peasant
Proprietors
The position of Parnell and O’Brien was very close to that
of William Thomas Thornton (1813-1880). Thornton implied as much in 1874 in his
revision of his most important work, A
Plea for Peasant Proprietors, originally published in 1848.
Thornton contended that had his proposals been adopted in
the 1840s, “Fenianism” (Irish nationalism) would not have gained so much
support. Thornton was a very strong supporter of widespread ownership of all
forms of capital, and an opponent of the “scarcity economics” and population
theories of the Reverend Thomas Malthus.
Unfortunately, in common with many economists and
politicians down to the present day, Thornton was locked into the “slavery of past
savings.” This had been embedded into public policy in the United Kingdom with
the British Bank Charter Act of 1844, and in the United States with the
National Banking Act of 1863 (reformed 1864).
Thornton’s Plea was
written in response to the Great Famine in Ireland (1846-1852). In it, Thornton
detailed a feasible proposal to create widespread ownership of landed capital
among the Irish. His On Labour in
1869 (revised 1870) laid out a similar proposal for other forms of capital.
Parnell’s (photo, left — did you recognize him?) agreement with Thornton (and disagreement with
George) may account for George dismissing Thornton’s proposal for widespread
ownership on the grounds that Thornton did not understand the difference
between land and capital. Reading any of Thornton’s books will quickly disabuse
the discerning reader of this accusation.
George did not bother to prove
that Thornton did not understand the alleged difference between landed and
non-landed capital. He simply asserted, ridiculed Thornton and other economists
foolish enough not to agree with the georgist program, and moved on.
An Important
Endorsement
Getting detained by the Royal Irish Constabulary was useful
for George, although not as useful as it might have been had he spent any time
in jail. The moment Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898, photo, left) heard
about the arrest, he telegraphed that George was to be released immediately.
The socialists, after all, had powerful friends whom
Gladstone could not afford to antagonize over something so trivial as the
arrest of an American tourist, however obnoxious. Consequently, George was not
able to make much political hay out of the arrest or the subsequent
surveillance by the RIC.
What did help, as far as many New York Irish Catholics were
concerned, was the fact that George received an endorsement from Davitt (photo, right).
Davitt’s support of George may account for the rage later exhibited by George’s
followers when they realized that the other, more prominent and effective
leadership of the League, Parnell and O’Brien, did not share Davitt’s opinion
about the nationalization of land. They were, in fact, strongly opposed to it.
Parnell and O’Brien were disinclined to endorse or promote
George’s program because they were against nationalization of land, both being
in favor of small, peasant proprietorship. George’s interference thereby
weakened the solidarity of the League. This became critical a few years later
when the Kitty O’Shea affair came to light.
While not actually an endorsement by the League (although
George made it sound as if it were), Davitt’s support appeared to link the
cause of Irish nationalism to georgist socialism. This was an impression
Parnell and O’Brien worked hard to counter, and George worked even harder to
cultivate.
Politics and Religion
To his credit, George refused to give in to New York
politics as usual. He had nothing to do with the Irish gangs of the Five Points
as such. Still, he had to accommodate to their prejudices, and those of the
laboring classes from which the gangs drew their members.
That meant catering to the cause of Irish nationalism,
however vaguely the cause might be understood. It also meant paying lip service
to Catholicism, that not a few nominal adherents understood even less than they
understood the cause of Irish nationalism.
George did, in fact, sympathize to some extent with a
liberal version of Catholicism that had taken root in the United States.
Loosely and somewhat vaguely termed “Americanism,” Leo XIII condemned this
heresy in 1899 in his “Apostolic Letter” Testem
Benevolentiae Nostrae, “Concerning New Opinions, Virtue, Nature and Grace,
with Regard to Americanism.”
“Americanism” covered a multitude of sins, and quite a few
things that weren’t sins at all. It could mean anything from a proper respect
for and love of the United States as one’s native or adopted country, to the
belief that religious practices and even doctrine would have to change to
accommodate to the unique American character.
George’s wife was Catholic, and he raised his children in
that faith. He may have had some influence on the Catholic novelist and former
Confederate Major, Nathan Chapman Kouns (1833-1890) who either resided for a
time in San Francisco, or had very close ties in that city. Kouns’s socialist
“Early Christian Romances,” Arius the
Libyan (1883), and Dorcas, the
Daughter of Faustina (1884), seem to have convinced a number of people that
they present authentic Catholic doctrine. Arius
was described as “a 400-page sermon.”
Bad as Kouns’s novels are in contrast to his “rich and
imaginative” short stories, they enjoyed good sales into the 1920s, although
they are almost forgotten today. In the opinion of science fiction historian
Sam Moskowitz (1920-1997), Kouns should have stuck to his supernatural and
horror stories in which his fantasies were in no danger of being mistaken for
fact.
The Fourth Page
The Geraldines of
Ireland, XV: The First Desmond War
Desmond XIII, although
he reigned from 1540 until
1558, does not appear to have done much either in the way of rebellion or
advancing the English interests in Ireland. Principal sources used in compiling
this short chronicle give nothing other than the date of his death and the fact
that he was the thirteenth Earl. He was succeeded in 1558 by his son by his
second wife, Maud, the daughter of Moelrony O'Carroll, the Chief of Ely
O'Carroll. For some reason not made clear, his older half-brother, Thomas
Rufus, was passed over for the succession.
This fourteenth Ear of Desmond, Gerald FitzJames FitzGerald,
became known to history as "The Rebel Earl." He was the last vestige
of any form of Norman power in Ireland, albeit thoroughly assimilated and Irish
in everything but name and title. Desmond XIV puts the historian into a
difficult position. On the one hand, he has gone into myth and legend as the great
defender of Irish independence against foreign intrusion. On the other hand,
until the end, none of his actions seem to have motivated by anything other
than a desire to maintain his own position, rights and privileges. He held back
from assisting his cousin when aid would have brought the Second Desmond War to
a quick, decisive and victorious conclusion for the Irish. After his cousin's
assassination, he was forced by circumstances, his own failure to confront the
situation and the English into prolonging the Second Desmond War past all hope
of victory, a war no one wanted, and which ended with his death and the
emasculation of the southern FitzGeralds as an effective force for advancing
Irish interests.
The stage was set by a continuation of the ancient feud
between the FitzGeralds and the Butlers (Earls of Ormond). In 1565, Desmond XIV
and Thomas "Black Tom" Butler, Ormond XI, met in battle at Affane.
The fight was a disaster for the FitzGeralds. Over three hundred Geraldines
were killed, and FitzGerald himself was left behind on the battlefield, with
his right hip broken by a pistol ball.
Although he was down, Desmond XIV was definitely not out.
When the Butler men lifted him up on their shoulders to carry him off hostage,
they jeered, "Where now is the mighty Earl of Desmond?" His reply may
have stopped some of the jokes at his expense: "Where he belongs—on the
backs of the Butlers."
Although none of the participants in this skirmish seemed to
have viewed it as anything more than the usual private affair between private
armies and no one else's concern (it was, incidentally, the last such
"private war" in Europe where the rulers themselves took an active
role in the fighting), it made Elizabeth's advisors furious. Both earls were
ordered to London immediately. It is not clear how Ormond's liberty was
curtailed, but, as he and his family were traditionally in favor with the crown
and could blame FitzGerald for being the aggressor, he was probably placed
under a loose form of house arrest.
Not so with Desmond. Contrary to the usual Anglo-Irish lord,
FitzGerald hated London and only went there under duress. He much preferred his
own 800,000 acres in Ireland—the single largest landholding in Europe, royal
and imperial lands only excepted. Elizabeth's advisors lodged the Earl in the
Tower. While his money held out, he kept court with approximately one hundred
retainers in the Irish fashion. However, Elizabeth's advisors refused to allow
him to draw on his rents for revenue, and he was soon reduced to an allowance
from the queen's purse which was clearly not enough to keep him, his wife and
his two children in anything approaching comfort or even decency. After six
months in the Tower, he was placed under house arrest, being secretly lodged in
the home of an English gentleman, Warham St. Leger, who had connections in
Ireland. The policy seemed to be to hide the earl from the public, and this
succeeded so well that by 1567, many of Desmond's people thought he had died in
the Tower. Elizabeth's advisors also took the precaution of arresting Desmond's
brothers, Sir John and Sir James FitzGerald, probably to forestall any rescue
attempt or agitation for his enlargement.
St. Leger, in contrast to the usual example described in
such terms, was a gentleman in more than name. He contributed to FitzGerald's
upkeep and comfort as well as he could, straining his own resources, and
provided as much as possible during the birth of his second son. It is assumed
that St. Leger connived at FitzGerald's escape attempt after being held three
years without trial and without being charged, but nothing was ever proven. The
attempt failed, and FitzGerald was almost immediately brought to trial and
convicted of high treason.
A conviction for high treason would normally have meant
either the block or the cutting knife within the traditional fourteen days, but
there were reasons for keeping Desmond alive. Although Elizabeth's advisors
coveted FitzGerald's broad acres, some of the richest land in the world, a
bargaining chip was needed due to the rebellion throughout Ireland led by
Desmond's cousin, James FitzMaurice.
Somehow, during the prior three years of imprisonment,
Desmond had found the means to communicate with some of his kinsmen or
retainers, and passed a message to them appointing his cousin James as his
deputy during his absence. Geraldine family chroniclers reported that James
FitzMaurice was "well-known for his attachment to the ancient faith, no
less than for his valor and chivalry. Gladly did the people of Earl Desmond
receive these commands, and inviolable was their attachment to him who was now
their appointed chieftain." As acknowledged Captain of Desmond, although a
more accurate title would have been the ancient honor Ducis Bellorum, "War Leader" (from whence we derive the
rank of "Duke"), James FitzMaurice was in a good position to defend
his cousin's interests and protect his people, as well as carry out his own
program for the defense of the Faith (some historians with a modernist slant
characterize him as a "fanatical Papist," apparently assuming that
any deeply-held or sincere belief qualifies one as a fanatic).
FitzMaurice's rebellion, known as the "First Desmond
War," was not directly caused by the Earl's imprisonment. The direct cause
was the sheer stupidity of Sir Peter Carew, President of Munster and leader of
the English planters and settlers who swarmed like locusts into the south as
part of Elizabeth's advisors' program to displace the Irish and their Norman
and native lords with Englishmen. Immediately upon the attainder of Desmond and
the confiscation of his lands, landless men and fortune hunters began to
"acquire" land, generally by the simple expedient of either killing
or driving off the current inhabitants, many of whom had lived in the same places
for centuries, but who, of course, often lacked a recorded deed to the
property. During this period, FitzMaurice was apparently carrying out a low
level of activity, but not in such a manner as to excite retribution. That,
however, was to change.
