News Briefs: Louisville marks its own ‘Bloody Monday’

On August 6, 1855 — an election day — Nativist mobs stormed through a number of immigrant neighborhoods mostly inhabited by Irish and German Catholics.
In the riots, at least 22 people were killed and dozens injured.
Rioters, determined to stop the new immigrant voters, rolled cannons up to the doors of one church, searched the Cathedral of the Assumption and St. Patrick’s Church for arms, and burned a row of buildings known as Quinn’s Row – with the inhabitants barricaded inside.
The horrific events bloody Monday will be recalled this Saturday, August 6 with bus tours, a panel discussion that will include members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, a mass at the cathedral and other activities including a reception jointly hosted by the AOH and Louisville’s German American Club.

DEATH OF BRIAN MCGINN
Brian McGinn, one of the key figures in the securing of posthumous U.S. citizenship for 28 Irishmen killed in the Korean War, has died after a long battle against cancer.
McGinn was the primary moving force behind websites devoted to the Irish-born who died in both the Korea and Vietnam conflicts.
“The securing of posthumous citizenship for those Irishmen would not have been accomplished with the ease that it was but for Brian’s intelligence and know how,” said John Leahy, the Kerry-born Korean War veteran who initiated the campaign.
A tribute on the Korean and Vietnam websites described McGinn as “a rare combination of intellect, common sense, sweetness and fairness. His hard work helped many, not least those families who finally saw their soldiers made posthumous citizens.”
McGinn’s efforts to document the story of the Korea Irish dead arose from his interest in the Irish who fought in Vietnam.
Born in New York, but raised and educated in Ireland, McGinn served with U.S. army intelligence in Vietnam in 1969-70. He later initiated a website called “Irish on the Wall,” a reference to the Vietnam memorial in Washington D.C. This, in turn, led to the Korean War website.
McGinn was laid to rest at Mt. Comfort Cemetery in Alexandria, Va. The Korea website address is www.irishinkorea.org. Donations in McGinn’s name can be made to St. Labre Indian School in Montana — toll free number 1-866-753-5496 — or The American Cancer Society.

CORZINE FETED BY NJ IRISH
The New Jersey Irish American Democratic Caucus is holding a picnic at the Friendly Sons of The Shillelagh Club, 815 16th Avenue, Belmar this Saturday, August 6, from 2 to 6 p.m.
The event is serving as a tribute to the state’s Irish American legislators and labor leaders but the picnic’s special guest of honor will be Senator Jon Corzine.
Corzine has been a strong advocate for the Irish American community in the Garden State, said co-chairs of the event, Joe Cryan and Mary Reilly.
Corzine is planning to reintroduce legislation in the current Congress that will support a national Irish American Museum in Washington, D.C.

MARKING ONE HUNDRED
Fresh from the IRA statement renouncing the armed campaign, Sinn Fein has announced plans to mark its hundredth anniversary with an event in New York.
The celebratory gathering will take place on a date to be announced in November.
Party leader Gerry Adams, together with MPs Conor Murphy and Bairbre de Brun, are expected to attend the New York celebration.
Sinn Fein was founded on Nov. 28, 1905 at the annual convention in Ireland of a group called the National Council.
The name Sinn Fein at first referred to a policy. Over the course of the next couple of years, this policy evolved into a political party.

LAND BATTLE FILM?
A Dublin based film production company is interested in putting a long running New Orleans land battle onto the small screen.
Liberty Films, which produces documentaries for the Irish national television network, RTE, has reached out to Lloyd Patrick Larrieu who has waged a 25-year effort to regain land in the city he claims was stolen from his Irish great-grandmother, Galway native Mary Clarke.
Larrieu recently succeeded in obtaining a series of court judgments of possession pertaining to hundreds of acres of property in the New Orleans area including the airport, shopping malls and City Park, a 1,500-acre botanical oasis in the heart of the Big Easy’s downtown.
Larrieu is currently working on securing local and federal government help to enforce the court orders.
Larrieu’s campaign to regain control of his family’s legacy is now detailed on a website, landtheft.geso.biz.