February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Over the years, the Irish Echo has carried many stories depicting the work and legacy of the American Irish who have stood in the front lines to defend their fellow citizens, and those who have upheld the finer aspects of our laws in that second and bottom line, the courts.
Interestingly, in the course of researching back issues, the MacBride Principles part of this double focus special issue was found on one particular page nudging right up against a story about a family whose line of business was policing, this to the extent that six members were all serving, or had served, in law enforcement agencies ranging from the New York Police Department to the Delaware State Environmental Agency. That was the Nicholson family of Rockland County, New York, and they were featured in the Irish Echo in the spring of 1988.
As much as the Irish have served the cause of law and order in America, it is also the case that political life here has evolved to an extraordinary degree down the years as a result of the work of Irish American legislators at every level, right up to the presidency.
Most of the time the work of these countless men and women has been focused on local issues affecting municipalities and counties. Much of it, however, has been at the state and federal level.
And some of has been on the international stage. The MacBride Principles campaign fits into this latter category.
The MacBride campaign was, and is, a case study into how to affect positive change in a troubled society by bringing to bear the rule of fair law, the practice of unbiased politics and, at times, the imposition of order based on financial and economic clout.
Behind the MacBride effort, at every moment of it, was an Irish America that could draw from a very deep well, one that was filled by generations of work and sacrifice on behalf of what is rightfully required to make a society function and behave rightly.
That well gave us vital agents of our own, American, law and order.
As such, it could be ridiculed and criticized by those who felt threatened by its rightful might.
But, ultimately, it could not be ignored or denied.