Letter, From: P.A. Sharkey, June 17, 1918.
[p.1] […]1 2 CHURCH OF ST. ANTHONY OF PADUA 1605 MIDLAND AVENUE, 3 SYRACUSE, N.Y.
June 17, 1918
[…]4
The “Irish Press5” issue of June 8th is a particulary6 fine one and the pity of it is it reaches so few. Could you arrange any plan to have at least the Hibernians7 in the various Division’s order the paper and pass it along. That the Buffalo8 Divison9 do this with some issues but I do not know how they are faring now. I am sending for a list of the family addresses of the soldiers and sailors of this place and a small enclosure $5oo to send the issue of June 8th and any other you can afford - to them. If you write Fr Ward 259 Fourth St Niagara Falls10 and ask for the same places he may do so. If you could get at least one man in each district or parish to send you the list and anything he could afford to help the […]11 I feel that you would be doing great work. The “Irish Press” can thus forestall and defeat the campaign so well described by John Devoy12. It is a time of sacrifice at home and we should endeavor to impress on Irishmen here that they must make sacrifices here to makeup the complement of what the men home cannot reach or fill.
Last November I made the proposal to the Roscommon13 men that they build up a big fund to hold in trust for investment in home industries when the pschological14 hour arrives. I had many letters from people who were willing to do so of course I could do no more
[p.2] than make the suggestion as the enclosed copy of letter will explain. a copy or two of the letter reached my home town – Strokestown15 – and immediately they caught the suggestion and the priests-(one a class-fellow the other the man who went home in my place when I could not get a passport)- started the movement for a community-owned corn mill They took up the work and established the industry. shareholders came forward gladly share payable in two instalments,16 and the work is going good. I have not seen much attention called to the work, and heard of it only through letters and a local paper - so that I expect that many other districts are acting on like manner. I could send you 100 copies of the large picture (
Transcribed by: Jennifer Mauser 02/27/12
Letter, From: P.A. Sharkey, June 17, 1918.
[p. 2 cont.]19
He is soon giving over to you in Philadelphia and I have to move along so that your best policy will be to keep from getting into any kind of controversy. and as Father Hurton knows him well, and he really is alright if not driven by purse-holders as in Buffalo. You should be
[p.1 cont.]20 able to play Dr Valera’s21 game and finally win him over. He gave me a good letter and I told him he would yet come to see that a Sinn Fein […]22 the only true American. He laughed and we parted. I was lucky in the change and like this place […]23 much better so you see every cloud has a silver lining. With grace + the Gael’s6 God Bless You […]24 P.A. Sharkey25
1 Docketed by: “1918” 2 Printed Letterhead; 3 Syracuse (N.Y.) 4 Gaelic greeting 5 The Irish Press, a weekly newspaper, published in Philadelphia [Pa.] by The Celtic Press from 1918-1920s. 6 Misspelled; particularly 7 Ancient Order of Hibernians. ; ". . . an Irish Catholic fraternal organization.. . " Ancient Order of Hibernians. Wikipedia. Accessed 1 May 2012.
Letter, From: P.A. Sharkey, June 17, 1918.
24 Farewell in Gaelic 25 Sharkey, P. A. (Patrick A.) ; "Statement of Rev. Patrick A. Sharkey of Syracuse." The Irish Question. Hearings before the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives ... December 12, 1918. United States. Congress. House of Representatives. Committee on Foreign Affairs. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1919, p. 130. Internet Archive. San Francisco, CA. Accessed 1 May 2012.
Transcribed by: Jennifer Mauser 02/27/12