A man of the people: Irish Americans remember one of their own

By Harry Keaney and Ray O’Hanlon

Irish Americans were first in line to pay tribute to Cardinal John O’Connor after his passing last week.

"New York lost a great man and the Irish community lost a great friend," said John Dunleavy, chairman of the New York St. Patrick’s Day Parade committee. Dunleavy said he was saddened by the death of the cardinal, whom he described "as a great personal friend and a wonderful supporter of the parade."

Dunleavy first met the cardinal soon after he was appointed archbishop of New York. Dunleavy was accompanied on the occasion by the late Frank Beirne, a Leitrim native who was Dunleavy’s predecessor as parade committee chairman. "I used to meet him regularly," Dunleavy said.

The parade is organized under the auspices of the Ancient Order of Hibernians. As a Catholic group, it staunchly adheres to Catholic church doctrine which teaches that homosexual acts are sinful. Consequently, the AOH has, for the last 10 years, excluded the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization from marching in the parade under its own banner.

Dunleavy said that, contrary to what some people would believe, Cardinal O’Connor "never once in 15 years interfered with the parade or told us what to do." However, Dunleavy accepted that the parade committee was "on the same wavelength" as the cardinal.

"In his sermons, he made quite clear his positions," Dunleavy said. He added, however, that O’Connor, in his homilies, didn’t want anyone to be violent toward another.

Dunleavy recalled that when he and other parade officials approached the cardinal about being grand marshal in 1995, they offered him some time to think it over. However, O’Connor, looking at some of his aides in the room, remarked that if he thought about it, the people around him would talk him out of it. And so he immediately accepted, saying it was an honor to be asked.

Dunleavy said that on a personal basis, he always felt at ease talking to Cardinal O’Connor. "I could talk to him as another human being," Dunleavy said. "He always made people at ease with him. No matter who he was talking to, whether it was the president or just someone he met on the street, he treated them all the same."

The same sentiment was echoed by Martin Kearns, the parade committee’s formation chairman. "He always talked man to man," Kearns said. "Of course, you always had to choose your words, but it was always a nice pleasant atmosphere."

Kearns is a native of Elphin, Co. Roscommon. O’Connor’s ancestors came from the nearby Castlerea area. In 1990, O’Connor visited the ancestral home of the O’Connor clan in Castlerea.

"He was very delighted with his homeland; he was very proud of his Roscommon roots," Kearns said.

Frank Beirne’s wife, Mary, credited O’Connor with having her husband reinstated into the AOH following a feud within the organization a few years ago. She recalled an occasion when she and her husband met the cardinal at a pro-life march in Washington, D.C.

"The cardinal threw his arm around Frank and said he would have him reinstated before he died," she said.

Beirne later became ill himself and shortly before he died, the AOH reinstated him into the organization. "I have to say it was due to the cardinal," Mary Beirne said.

She said that she had met the cardinal on many occasions and when she heard the news of his death she was "literally devastated."

"It hit me so bad I couldn’t even think," she told the Echo. "He was an outstanding man, not only as a Catholic but also with all other religions."

She said she would never forget the cardinal’s kindness in coming to see her husband in hospital in 1996. She said the cardinal also attended her husband’s funeral Mass and spoke about him. "I couldn’t say enough for Cardinal O’Connor, especially for his stance for right to life," she said.

On the other side of the parade fence, Anne Maguire, one of the most prominent members of the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization, sounded a note of regret that the cardinal and the Irish gay group had never managed to reach an agreement with regard to ILGO’s efforts to march in the parade under its own banner.

"It’s a shame he didn’t find it in his heart to resolve this thing when he could have," Maguire said.

When it comes to the archdiocese’s work on Irish immigrant issues, it is often Project Irish Outreach that acts as a liaison with the cardinal’s office. Irish Outreach, part of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York, has its office on the 12th floor of the Catholic Center at 1011 First Ave.; the cardinal’s own office was on the 20th floor.

Irish Outreach coordinator Patricia O’Callaghan, a native of Cork, recalled being on a pilgrimage to Knock in 1988 with O’Connor and former New York Mayor Ed Koch. "We all sat around in the parish priest’s house in Knock. Cardinal O’Connor was very natural. He loved Irish singing," O’Callaghan said.

"I admired his ease with words and his ability to bring a spiritual perspective to political issues," she said.

"He had great sympathy for the work of Irish Outreach, and he took particular interest in the problems of former political prisoners from Northern Ireland when they were married to U.S. citizens."

She also noted his sense of humor, saying "he was great at self-deprecation."

Friend to immigrants, labor

Also saluting the cardinal’s record of concern for Irish immigrants, Pat Hurley, co-founder of the Irish Immigration Reform Movement, said that the group was "very grateful" for the stand that Cardinal O’Connor took on immigration issues.

"He was always very welcoming and accommodating to the IIRM," Hurley said.

The National Assembly of Irish American Republicans said in a statement that Cardinal O’Connor was "grand marshal to New York’s Irish American community every day of the year." New York City Comptroller Alan Hevesi praised the cardinal for his efforts to secure peace with justice in Northern Ireland.

Speaking to the Irish Echo last March when it became evident that the cardinal’s life was in peril, former parade grand marshal Bill Flynn, said that Cardinal O’Connor had graced all of New York by his presence.

"We can’t help but remember in the mid-1980s, when AIDS was first learned about and people who had it were shunned, he was right there asking New Yorkers for a spirit of compassion toward these people and he opened the doors of St. Clare’s Hospital, on the West Side, to AIDS patients," Flynn said.

Flynn, who was grand marshal the year after the cardinal himself led the parade, said that O’Connor had been a strong voice against racism as well as a forceful pro-life advocate. "He founded a congregation of sisters, the Sisters of Life, to carry on that work," Flynn said. He added that the cardinal had been "a great supporter of inner-city schools. "This litany could go on and on," Flynn said.

Fr. Tom Flynn of the Aisling Irish Center in Yonkers, N.Y., a native of Tipperary, said he had met Cardinal O’Connor on a number of occasions in the course of his work as an Irish chaplain.

"He was always very interested in the work I was doing and showed a great sense of gratitude for that work and that I was helping young Irish integrate into a new culture," Fr. Flynn said.

He described the cardinal as "very approachable, very down to earth, a very sincere guy."

Fr. Flynn said that O’Connor was also interested in promoting the peace effort in Ireland. He also used his good offices on behalf of a number of people from Northern Ireland whom the Immigration and Naturalization Service was trying to deport.

Flynn said that on a few occasions, when he was in O’Connor’s residence for meetings, the cardinal would ask him about Ireland and the changes that were occurring there, economically, religiously and culturally.

Cardinal O’Connor was well known as friend of labor and this was acknowledged by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.

"The working men and women of the AFL-CIO mourn the death of Cardinal John O’Connor, even as we celebrate the life of a great ally and genuine friend of working families," Sweeney said. "Cardinal O’Connor grew up in a union household, and it showed."

Brian McLaughlin, president of the New York City Central Labor Council, described the cardinal as a "champion of the underprivileged, the immigrant and all working men and women."