Vol. XXXI — No. 3 — 2019

The iron industry flourished in northwest- George Keller, born in County Cork in Monte Cristo Cottage in New London ern from colonial times on. 1842, designed Connecticut’s most signif- was the boyhood summer home of Eu- The Beckley Furnace, above, which today is icant Civil War monument, the Soldiers gene O’Neill, the first a museum, was built in 1847 in Canaan. and Sailors Memorial Arch in Hartford. playwright to receive a Nobel Prize for The 1850 U.S. census lists dozens of Irish Keller also designed the U.S. soldiers Literature. Born in City in immigrants, and their families, working as monuments at the battlefields at Gettys- 1888, O’Neill was the son of James furnace men, colliers and miners in Ca- burg and Antietam, and numerous monu- O’Neill, an Irish immigrant actor and his naan and other Litchfield County towns. ments and churches in Connecticut. Irish-American wife Mary Ellen Quinlan. Irish footprints abound from one end of Connecticut to the other

nyone interested in the history of the Irish in Connecticut solutions, a firm that specializes in development of online sites for A should visit www.ctirishheritage.org. It is a new website set non-profit organizations. Rude was assisted by CIAHS Vice Presi- up during 2019 by the Connecticut Irish-American Historical Socie- dent Vincent McMahon, a retired computer and website specialist. ty with the assistance of grants from the Irish government and the Today, our Land of Steady Habits is one of the most Irish of the state of Connecticut. United States because generation after generation of Irish have set- The immediate purpose of the website is to provide online an tled and left their marks as well as their descendants here. Connect- easily accessible album of more than 100 sites of Irish footsteps icut is one of nine states with 17 percent or more of their popula- across Connecticut. Timewise the sites range more than 300 years tions of Irish descent, according to IrishCentral. from the 1600s when Irish were brought to Connecticut as domestic Visitors to the website have the option of sitting comfortably in workers in near servitude to the mid-20th century. The long-range their living room just browsing this heritage website or using the purpose is to preserve the history of one of the largest ethnic pictures and information for historical research or to plan daytrips groups of Connecticut’s history. The website was assembled by Jamie Rude of Humanitects web (Please turn to page 2)

Erin Street in Middletown is near St. John’s Catholic Church. Irish settled there in the early 1800s and worked in the stone quarries along the Connecticut River. In the 1870s & 1880s a number of Irish farm families settled along Dublin Hill Road in Middlebury. Today such markers are not only street signs, but historical landmarks of Irish presence across Connecticut.

(Continued from page 1) or vacations to Irish Connecti- cut. The sites are sprinkled throughout the state in much the same way as were Irish emi- grants over the centuries. One of several mistaken stere- otypes which have dogged Irish- Irish firsts in state history American history is that Paddy and Bridget all settled in cities. he gravestone above in Forest View Cemetery, Winsted, A more accurate picture of their commemorates the first Connecticut volunteer in the choice of location is that they T Civil War: Samuel Belton Horne, a native of in Coun- went wherever there were jobs. ty Offaly, . He enlisted at a town meeting in Winsted on The website corrects that stere- otype by demonstrating that April 14, 1861, one day after the fall of Fort Sumter in South Irish emigrants have always Carolina. The town meeting was held even before President settled not only in cities, but in Lincoln issued a call for volunteers. Residents at the meeting rural hamlets and small towns. voted to start enlisting then and there. Horne was the first to step forward. He served through the entire war and won the On the home page of the web- Medal of Honor for bravery. site is the title “Connecticut Irish The town seal of Berlin, Connecticut, top right, commemo- -American Heritage Trail” in- rates Scots-Irish brothers, Edward and William Pattison, na- scribed on the green, orange and tives of County Tyrone. The brothers immigrated to Berlin in white colors of the flag of the the 1740s and established what is believed to be the first tin- Irish Republic. Beneath that are smith shop in the American colonies. The Pattisons marketed pictures with categories: History their tin products traveling by horse and wagon and becoming of the Irish in Connecticut, Secu- among the first of the Connecticut Yankee Peddlars. lar Structures, Religious Struc- tures, Monuments & Other Sites, Mother Frances Warde, right, a native of County Laois, led six Parades & Events, Societies & other Irish Sisters of Mercy to America in 1843. After estab- Clubs. lishing convents in Pittsburg and Chicago, she accepted in 1851 the invitation of Bishop Bernard O’Reilly of the Hartford Clicking any of the titles brings Diocese and led Sisters M. Josephine Lombard, M. Paula Lom- up individual sites, each illus- bard, M. Camillus O’Neill and M. Johanna Fogarty to Connecti- trated and with a brief written cut where they established the first convents in Hartford and description. By clicking on the New Haven. (more) at the end of the descrip- tion, a viewer will bring to the The son of Irish immigrants who settled in Bridgeport, James O’Rourke, became one of the superstars of 19th century pro- screen a map of the site’s loca- fessional baseball. He began his career with the amateur tion and a more detailed de- Bridgeport Pembrokes, a team named for the street on which scription. By clicking again on the players lived. On May 22, 1876, O’Rourke, playing for the Search, visitors to the site can Boston Red Caps, got the first hit in the first-ever National use a map of the state to find all League game, a 6-5 victory against the Philadelphia Athletics. the sites in each of Connecticut’s O’Rourke went on to a 20-year career, playing the game pro- eight counties. fessionally past the age of 50. During that time, he enrolled in Perhaps the best feature of the the Yale Law School in the off-season. When he retired from new website is that it is not a baseball, he practiced law in Bridgeport, managed that city’s finished product. The 100 or so baseball team in the Connecticut League and became that sites are only a beginning and league’s president. His nickname was “Orator Jim” in recogni- more sites are already being tion of his eloquence with the spoken word both on and off the researched for addition to the field. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1945. Connecticut Irish trail — so stay tuned! 2

Windham County immigrants Scots-Irish colony blossomed in the 1720s …

hile individual Irish came to Con- were John Jameson and his wife, Roseanna, W necticut in small numbers as early who arrived in 1718. Their story and that of as the mid-1600s, the first wave of refugees others is told in North America Family His- from Ireland washed up in the state in the tories, a large collection of colonial genealo- 1720s. That wave was of Scots-Irish Pres- gies on ancestry.com. byterians from the north of Ireland. It was John was born about 1680 in Leith, Midlo- part of a floodtide of about 200,000 immi- thian County, Scotland, and migrated with grants from the province of Ulster. his family to Omagh, County Tyrone, Ire- These Scots-Irish left Ireland for basically land. There he learned the trade of linen the same reason that more hundreds of weaver and in 1705 was married to thousands of Irish of all backgrounds left Roseanna Irwin, an Omagh native. They throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. arrived in America with John’s brother Wil- The Rev. Hugh Boulter, the Church of Ire- liam and his family. William moved to Fal- land archbishop of Armagh, wrote of how mouth, Maine. John and Roseanna settled he watched ship after ship filled with Ulster first near Boston in Milton, Mass. Then in Presbyterians sailing from Belfast harbor to 1726, they purchased land in Voluntown, America. Most of the immigrants, he wrote, Connecticut, where John presumably en- “can get neither victuals nor work at home.” gaged in his trade of linen weaving. Both Boulter said that 3,100 men, women and John and Roseanna died in Voluntown be- children, all Protestants, went from Ireland tween 1731 and 1734. to America in 1727 alone and 4,200 during Voluntown was a 20-mile-long, four-mile- Photograph: Danielle (Perreault) Routh the three previous years. wide strip along the border with Rhode on Find A Grave The reason there were no jobs was that in Island. It had been set aside by the Connect- the latter 1600s, the English government icut General Assembly some years before to shut down what was a growing textile in- be parceled out to volunteers who fought First woman patentee dustry in Ireland to protect its own textile against the Indians in King Philips War in was of Ulster descent industry. Parliament first prohibited the the 1670s. The strip, which at that time was export of woolen goods from Ireland to in Windham County, covered the modern- ary Dixon Kies, whose gravestone England, then the export from Ireland to day municipalities of Voluntown and Ster- M in the Old South Killingly Ceme- English colonies, and finally in 1699, from ling and was described as “rough and hilly tery is shown above, became the first Ireland to any other country. and its soil of moderate fertility.” American woman to receive a patent from Another factor that drove Scots-Irish from Another Scots-Irish family that settled in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Ireland were the penal laws with respect to Windham County was that of Alexander Among the Scots-Irish who settled in religion. The laws were harshest against and Jane Gordon and their children who Windham County in the early 1700s were Catholics, denying them the very right to sailed from Belfast in 1719 on a ship com- three Dixson/Dixon brothers — Robert, practice their religion in any way. The laws manded by a Capt. Dennis. They arrived in Archibald and John. Natives of County against Scots-Irish Presbyterians were less Boston in November that year, lived in Dor- Antrim, they arrived in Boston in 1719. severe, but included such restrictions as chester, Mass., until 1722, and like the John Dixson was a leading farmer and that they must pay tithes for the support of Jameson’s bought farmland in Plainfield citizen in colonial New London, Volun- Church of England clergymen. just west of Voluntown. town and Killingly. He became first select- The largest number of these early Scots- Another family, John and his son Alexan- man of Voluntown and was elected to the Irish immigrants to America settled in der Gaston, who came from Ballymena in Connecticut General Assembly. In 1735, Pennsylvania, but there were clusters of County Antrim, settled in Windham County. he purchased and moved with his family them in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachu- They were ancestors of William Gaston, to a 100-acre farm in Killingly. He pur- setts and Connecticut. One shipload of Ul- who was born in Killingly in 1820 and chased additional acreage and made his ster Scots arrived in Boston on Aug. 4, elected governor of Massachusetts in 1875. living as a husbandman. 1718. Five more shiploads followed in 1719 Adam Kasson, was born in 1681 in Car- A widower when he arrived in Connect- and 1720. rickfergus, Antrim. He learned the trade of icut, John remarried twice. His third wife Among the Scots-Irish who settled in wheelmaker and emigrated to Voluntown (Please turn to page 5) Windham County in eastern Connecticut (Please turn to page 4)

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Puritan settlers were suspicious of Ulster Presbyterians

(Continued from page 3) Billings agreed to preach on Sabbath days The invitation was signed by 30 towns- with his wife Jane Hall in 1722. He died in in the winter of 1721, but then accepted a men and no objection was expressed. In 1752 and his descendants followed his call from another town. Finally, the name fact, a number of residents offered special trade in Windham County for many years. of the Rev. Samuel Dorrance was brought and very practical gifts that would help His son, Adam Jr. born in Ireland, was a to the attention of townspeople. He had Dorrance settle among them: John Smith, major in the Windham County regiment only recently arrived in Voluntown and his 5,000 shingles, Thomas Cole, three pounds during the Revolutionary War. background and credentials were good. money in shingle nails, John Campbell, 200 One of the ships that arrived in Boston In the Congregational custom, Dorrance clapboards, Thomas Gallup, breaking up of from Belfast in 1719 carried a young Pres- was asked to come preach so that towns- two acres of land. Eight other parishioners byterian minister, the Rev. offered their labor. Samuel Dorrance. He was A committee of resi- the son of George Dorrance, dents met with the Con- who in 1663 paid a hearth gregational association tax in Ballaway, parish of in Groton to make sure Desertoghill, in the Dorrance’s credential of Coleraine, Londonderry were examined and all Country, Ireland. was in readiness for his Two of George’s sons, John ordination and settle- and George Jr., immigrated ment, major events in to Boston in the autumn of the life of the new com- 1718 with their brother munity. A fast day was Samuel following in the proclaimed for Oct. 15, spring of 1719. 1723, and the ordina- Born in Ballaway in 1685, tion to follow on Oct. 23. Samuel graduated from the While no opposition University of Glasgow and was expressed initially, there were grumblings received a license to preach This photograph of the historic Dorrance Inn at Sterling, which was formerly in 1711. He crossed the among some settlers a part of Voluntown, was published in 1937 in the book Old Inns of Connecti- ocean in the company of, or who were leery about cut, edited by Marian Dickinson Terry. closely following, not only the Westminster Con- his brothers but members fession of Faith sub- people might assess his pulpit skills, his of the Dixson, Campbell and Kasson fami- scribed to by the minister. In those days of theology and his compatibility with parish- lies. precisely crafted descriptions of faith, the ioners. He did well on all counts and was Westminster Confession was a Presbyteri- In May 1721, in response to the growth in asked to serve as pastor on a trial basis an dogma not pleasing to some Puritan population, the Connecticut colony General beginning in December 1722. So pleased English settlers. Assembly designated Voluntown a munici- with him were townspeople that at a town Thus, when the council of ministers of pality with the privilege of having its own meeting on April 17, 1723, they voted to eastern Connecticut met in the days just government, taxing residents, supporting a ask him to become their permanent pastor. minister and building a meetinghouse. before the ordination, a number of protest- The invitation stated: “We the inhabitants ers submitted a petition in which were At the first town meeting on June 21 that and proprietors of Voluntown, having by ye mingled religious concerns and strongly year, settlers elected a town clerk, select- providence of God had for some considera- nativist opinions. men and a constable. They also voted to ble time ye opportunity to experience your “We whose names are underwritten,” the call a clergyman to minister to the spiritual ministerial gifts and qualifications, by petition said, “do agree that one of our New needs of the town’s 37 residents, a number which we have received such satisfaction England people may be settled in Volun- that apparently meant not the total resi- and are so well contented that it has town to preach the gospel to us, and we dents but the 37 landowners or heads of pleased God to incline us to give you a call will be satisfied, honored gentlemen, that households. Voluntown was in Windham to settle with us in ye work of the gospel you choose one for us to prevent unwhole- County until 1881 when county lines were ministry and in case of acceptance agree to some inhabitants for we are afraid that redrawn and it became part of New Lon- give you 60 pounds a year for the present Popery and Heresy will be brought into the don County. and also 50 pounds in such specifics as land; therefore we protest against settling The first Voluntown efforts to find a pas- shall be suitable to promote your building Mr. Dorrance because he is a stranger and tor were unsuccessful. The Rev. Joseph or settlement.” Watson declined an invitation and a Mr. we are informed that he came out of Ire-

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land and we do observe that since he has can colonists fighting for independence Early victory been in town that the Irish do flock into from England. town and we are informed that the Irish That autumn one of Rochambeau’s top for women’s rights are not wholesome inhabitants and upon aides, Comte Francois Jean de Chastellux, this account we are against settling Mr. came to Voluntown to map out a route (Continued from page 3) Dorrance for we are not such persons as for the French army to follow the next you take us to be, but desire the gospel spring to join Gen. Washington’s Conti- was Janet Kennedy, the daughter of another of the to be preached by one of our own and nental Army in a decisive campaign Ulster Scots-Irish in Windham. They were married not be a stranger for we cannot receive against the British. in the summer of 1751 and their daughter, Mary, any benefit for neither soul nor body and Chastellux brought with him two aides, who was born on March 21, 1752, was the young- we would pray him to withdraw himself one of whom was a 25-year-old Irish est of the family’s five children. from us.” officer in the French army, Capt. Isidore John died in 1759 at the age of 81, and is buried The petition caused ministers in east- Lynch. They spent an evening and the in the graveyard at Oneco. In his will, he be- ern Connecticut to equivocate on the following day at the Dorrance Inn. In his queathed his land to his older children, but left £16 issue. They contacted Connecticut Gov. diary, Chastellux described the occasion. to his seven-year-old daughter, Mary, with the Gurdon Saltonstall and others of the He wrote that Dorrance was an old man stipulation that it be passed along to her only colony’s leading ministers to ask their and a native of Ireland. He admired Dor- when she became 18. opinions. rance’s family and his library of 45 or 50 Mary was married twice, first to Isaac Pike of Those authorities found the call to Mr. books, mostly the works of classical au- nearby Canterbury, and after he died about 1772, Dorrance to be in order and suggested thors. to John Kee/Kies of Killingly in 1797. the question be brought back to eastern The French general also said that he Shortly after the beginning of the 19th century, Connecticut and put before the ministers shared two bottles of wine with Dor- Mary Dixson Kies became one of the first of nu- of nearby parishes in Preston, Windham rance and that “the reading of some Eng- merous American women who began to tear down and Canterbury. Those clergymen point- lish poets and the conversation with barriers that prevented them from equal rights. ed out that no objections had been Messrs. Lynch and Montesquieu and the Her contribution was in the field of industry, spe- raised when Mr. Dorrance was proposed good people of the house, made me pass cifically the textile industry. and suggested that the ensuing opposi- the day very agreeably.” At that time, Killingly was the greatest cotton tion was the work of “the Devil and wick- Most likely some of the conversation manufacturing town in the state of Connecticut ed men.” They ruled that the ordination included recollections of Ireland be- and the largest municipality in Windham County should go forward, and it did. tween the old Irish innkeeper and young with a population of 3,865. Prior to 1790, only Dorrance proved to be a keeper. He the Irish lieutenant. men could protect their inventions in the United served as minister for 48 years, not re- That autumn and winter, a number of States. The Patent Act of 1790 extended that right tiring until 1771. In 1726, he married French officers and soldiers passed to women. Elizabeth, the daughter of John Smith, through Connecticut along that route. In that era, the government had begun to encour- one of the early members of the parish. The Dorrance Inn apparently was a fa- age domestic manufacturing. Straw hats were in The Dorrances had six sons and one vorite for one other Frenchman wrote: demand both for workers in the fields and for daughter. “Coming out of the forest, you reach Vol- dress-up occasions. Their manufacture became an Still standing in the town of Sterling untown … a small group of houses, two important industry in New England. In 1807, one and on the National Register of Historic of which are taverns. Dorrance’s Tavern, of the earliest cotton yarn mills was opened in Places is the Dorrance Inn, also known on the right side of the road as you enter, Killingly. as the Samuel Dorrance House. The inn is the better one; the other one, which is Two years later, Mary Dixon Kies applied for a is thought to have been built in 1722, the on the left on leaving, is called Dexter’s.” patent. Her invention was a method of using silk or very year that the Rev. Samuel Dorrance While it is certain that the French pre- silk thread instead of another piece of straw to came to Voluntown. ferred the hospitality of the Dorrance hold cross hatching on bonnets together. The silk Sterling was the name given for the fireside, it appears that the old Irishman thread was very sturdy and the process was cost northern portion of Voluntown and in who greeted them was not the Rev. Sam- effective making it possible to mass produce hats. 1794, the General Assembly split that uel Dorrance, but another of the numer- The patent for Mary Dixon Kies was signed by area from Voluntown and made it the ous immigrants of his family because President James Madison on May 5, 1809. First town of Sterling. The first town meeting the clergyman’s gravestone in the old lady Dolly Madison is said to have written a com- was in the home of one of the Dixson Sterling burying ground is inscribed that plementary note to Mary for her invention. Scots-Irish immigrants. he “Departed this life November 12th Two samples of Mary’s straw fabric with silk The Dorrance Inn played a role in the 1775 age 90 years.” thread are in the collections of the Danielson Pub- Revolutionary War. In July 1780, a lic Library. 12,000-man French army commanded Mary later went to live with her son Daniel in by Comte Jean-Baptiste de Rochambeau Brooklyn, Connecticut, where she died in 1837. landed in Rhode Island to aid the Ameri-

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Windham County immigrants … Irish-born governor flourished in the 1960s

n January 1960, John N. Dempsey be- pact of the Great Depression. In 1940, he During that term, Dempsey became gov- I came the first foreign-born governor of married Mary Frey, and they had three sons ernor on Jan. 21, 1961, when Ribicoff re- Connecticut since the 1600s when several and a daughter. signed to accept appointment as U.S. secre- Puritan settlers born in Eng- The story goes that tary of health, education and welfare in the land had held that position. Dempsey entered poli- cabinet of President John F. Kennedy. The Puritans probably would tics quite by chance. A Although he arrived in the governor’s have been shocked to think street light near the office without being elected, Dempsey soon that the day would come Dempsey home died demonstrated not only that he was com- when a Celtic Catholic from out and neither phone fortable there, but that he was a prudent, Ireland would sit in the gover- call nor letter led to its creative and trustworthy manager of public nor’s office in Hartford. But, replacement so young business as well as a favorite of the people. they probably also would John went before the In 1962, he won a full four-year term as have eventually come to think town Board of Alder- governor by a margin of 66,175 votes. In highly, as did most Connecti- men. He made such a 1966, he won another four years with a cut people, of the kind of gov- convincing case that margin of 115,000 votes. All told, he served ernor Dempsey became dur- the aldermen not only as governor for nine years, 11 months and ing his 10 years in office. replaced the bulb but 21 days, the longest tenure of any Connecti- Born in the town of Cahir on also suggested that he cut governor since the 1820s. Gov. John N. Dempsey the River Suir in the south of run for alderman. A During the 1962 campaign, the interim County Tipperary, John Noel Democrat, he followed governor cautiously spoke of the opportu- Dempsey was the only son of Edward and that suggestion and was elected in what nities and potential pitfalls of a full term. “It Ellen Luby Dempsey. became just the first step in a 35-year ca- is essential,” he said “that the Democratic Ellen’s father was the proprietor of a boot reer in public service. Party which represents the administration and shoe business in the village. Known as “Politics and government to some people that has given the state responsible and Ned, Edward was a veteran of 21 years are like food and water … Some just revel in forward-looking government for the past service in the British army, including tours the political arena …” wrote Hartford seven years reflect its continuing fiscal re- in India and Africa. He was a sergeant ma- Courant political columnist Jack Zaiman. “… sponsibility … I am convinced this can be jor in the 16th Queen’s Lancers, an outfit That is Gov. Dempsey. All his life he has done and that new programs can be offered stationed at the British barracks in Cahir. spent in politics … He started off when he within our present tax framework.” After his discharge from the Army, Ned was 19 as an alderman in Putnam and he As Dempsey settled into his first four- worked as a supervisor at a flour mill in has been at it ever since …” year term, however, it was evident that his Cahir. Their son John was born at their After serving as a Putnam alderman, goals extended far beyond simply maintain- home on Lower Abbey Street in the town in Dempsey was elected in 1948 to the first of ing the status quo. Years later, Connecti- January 1915. six consecutive two-year terms as mayor of cut’s state historian, Walter Woodward, In 1925, when John was just 10 years old, Putnam. In 1949 he was elected also to the stated, “Gov. Dempsey presided over a com- the Dempsey family pulled up stakes and House of Representatives in the Connecti- plete transformation of our state and its immigrated to Connecticut. Theirs was a cut General Assembly. He served three government.” typical family-chain migration with them terms, two as leader of the House minority, To some degree, the changing times led to following in the footsteps of Ellen’s sister while continuing to serve as Putnam’s that transformation. In the early 1960s, for and brother who had immigrated to Con- mayor. In 1953, he was voted by newspa- example, a U.S. Supreme Court decision in a necticut and had found employment in a per reporters covering the General Assem- Tennessee case led to a U.S. District Court woolen mill in Putnam. bly’s session as the most capable legislator ruling that the House of Representatives in The Dempseys rented a home near St. in the House of Representatives. Connecticut’s General Assembly must be Mary’s Church in Putnam. Ned worked at In 1954, Abraham A. Ribicoff, Democratic reapportioned on a population basis. That the woolen mill and John easily adapted to nominee for governor, picked Dempsey as in turn led to the calling of a Connecticut the public schools in Putnam, starring in his running mate for lieutenant governor. Constitutional Convention in July 1965, and track and basketball as well as debating Ribicoff won, but Dempsey lost for the first a referendum in December that year in and literature. After only one year, he time. After that election, however, Ribicoff which the state’s voters approved by a 2 to dropped out of Providence College in selected Dempsey to be his executive secre- 1 margin the fourth constitution in Con- Rhode Island, and took a $22.50 a week job tary. In 1958, Ribicoff and Dempsey ran necticut’s history. at the Putnam woolen mill because of his again as a team for governor and lieutenant Beyond such an extraordinary case, how- father’s poor health and the financial im- governor. This time both were elected. ever, it was mainly the vision and determi- 6

nation of Gov. Dempsey that drove Not everyone was pleased with the the vehicles of change during his O’Dempsey outfoxed Normans ambitious agenda of the Dempsey 10 years as governor. He forged administration. Some critics com- advances in state involvement in he roots of the plained that the state on Dempsey’s mental health, highway safety, T Dempsey family watch was a sprawling administra- corrections, civil rights, environ- that produced an out- tion that boomed in the good years mental issues, education, youth standing governor of between his start in 1961, when un- programs and drug abuse. Connecticut run 800 employment was high and taxes had Under his guidance, enrollment years deep in the Mid- to be raised, and his retirement in at the University of Connecticut lands of Ireland. The 1971 when unemployment climbed and the four state colleges rose to O’Dempseys — O’Dio- again and taxes had to be raised by 37,000 full-time, and 14,000 part- masaigh in Gaelic — his republican successor, another time students. State spending on reigned in the district Irishman, Gov. Thomas Meskill. all education increased more than of Clanmalire which included the baronies of Dempsey had a way about him, 100 percent and the education , Philipstown and Ballyowan in however, that made friends even of grants to towns and cities doubled. and portions of neighboring County Kildare and those who disliked his policies. Rob- Similarly, it was Gov. Dempsey’s County Laois. The clan’s main castle was at Geashill ert K. Killian, who served Dempsey as Clean Water Task Force that in near Tullamore. attorney general, said, “There was no May 1966 announced six major The O’Dempseys also were one of the few Celtic attitude of confrontation … John proposals and a $150 million state, families that stood its ground against the Anglo- Dempsey created an unusual era of federal and local bond issue to Norman invasion of Ireland in the 12th century. The good feeling. He created it himself; it reverse the pollution of the state’s invasion began in 1169 when 600 Anglo-Noman was the way he lived his life.” streams and drinking water. That mounted knights, foot soldiers and archers landed at On a recorded monologue about initiative won nationwide acclaim Bannow Bay in Wexford. A year later, Richard Fitz- Dempsey, state historian Woodward and Connecticut became one of the gilbert de Clare, known as Strongbow, landed with said, “I am here today to tell you that first states to enact legislation to more troops at Passage East on the County Water- John Noel Dempsey was in fact the deal with environmental issues ford shore. In 1171, Henry II, the Normandy-born real deal, a good man who cared that endangered the health and king of England, came to Ireland with still another deeply about people and who became welfare of Americans. invasion force of 400 knights and 4,000 soldiers. a great governor of the state I love ... Dempsey’s clean water initiative Most of the chiefs of Irish clans throughout south- John Dempsey may have been the won him an endorsement from an eastern Ireland readily surrendered and offered best governor Connecticut had. He unlikely source. The New Haven hostages to appease him. One of the few who refused certainly was one of the most popular Register, which had not endorsed a was Dermot O’Dempsey, the chieftain of the district … He was that rarest of politicians, a Democrat for 30 years, praised of Clanmalire. O’Dempsey would not swear loyalty man who even opponents liked and Dempsey in 1966 both for the to nor even parley with the Anglo-Normans. admired. He possessed great charm clean water initiative and his ef- Responding to O’Dempsey’s stand, Strongbow, and fast wit, was a gifted orator, a forts to assist the struggling New now commander in chief of the invaders, along with tireless worker for causes he believed Haven Railroad. “The governor’s his son-in-law Robert de Quincey, marched a power- in, an extraordinary manager. He was administration may be undra- ful force into Offaly. After plundering and burning a person above all with a great com- matic,” wrote the newspaper, “but the countryside, they retired toward Kildare, but passion for humanity and a sense that it is buttressed both by experience O’Dempsey prepared a trap in a wooded defile. He God put him on earth to do good …” and in the day-to-day operations of allowed Strongbow and the vanguard to pass Gov. Dempsey surprised the entire Connecticut government and by an through, then fell upon the rear division. De Quincey state when in 1970 he announced attitude of general prudence and was slain and his troops were routed with great that he would not run for election practicality as to goals and proce- slaughter. again. He said it was a family decision dures.” “After this,” wrote one historian, “Strongbow made and ruled out a campaign for U.S. no further attempts to subdue O’Dempsey nor does Throughout his tenure as gover- senator or any other office. he seem to have been particularly anxious to repair nor, Dempsey had many irons in Hartford Courant political reporter defeat … The English never held an acre of the terri- the fire to meet the needs of all of Jack Zaiman wrote, “Dempsey is a soft tory during Dermot O’Dempsey’s time …” Connecticut people. He initiated a -hearted, emotional and friendly man. program for elderly homeowners He could be hard and tough when he had to. But, essentially he is warm and sen- who were caught in a squeeze between fruition the economic and recreational po- sitive. These are qualities that reached limited incomes and increased tax levies on tential of one of our great natural resources, down to the people who gave him a Horatio their property. He tackled the special prob- Long Island Sound.” He invited the New Alger political career. We shall miss him.” lems of care and treatment for the mentally York Stock Exchange to relocate all or part On Jan. 7, 1971, those comments were ill and retarded, proposed a state confer- of its operations to Connecticut, and he proven correct when Dempsey left his office ence on human rights, lobbied for a state studied the feasibility of constructing a school of veterinary medicine and for initia- bridge from Connecticut to Long Island. (Please turn to page 8) tives in marine science “to help bring to 7

A few months after retiring, John wrote a political allies. “There was decency in eve- Gov. Dempsey’s legacy letter indicating what he would like most to rything the man fought for, then did …,” be remembered about his administration: said Republican U.S. Senator and Connecti- (Continued from page 7) “For me, the real meaning of government cut Governor Lowell P. Weicker, “I first in the capitol for the final time as governor. has been people, which when translated came into politics when he was governor. into action means … new or expanded facil- His example had as great an impact on me He did so “with tears streaming down his ities for the retarded, the blind, the handi- as any one ... Kindness and decency was his cheeks, his voice cracking with emotion capped, the mentally ill and others who personal style which was translated into and …. he embraced one friend after anoth- must look to their government for the help his legislative bequest.” er as he came down the stairs from the they cannot provide for themselves.” second floor of the capitol from the gover- Gov. Dempsey is buried in the family plot nor’s offices to the revolving outside doors John N. Dempsey died of lung cancer on in St. Mary’s Cemetery in Putnam. His he had use thousands of times as gover- July 19, 1989. He was treated in his last gravestone is yet another memorial to how nor.” months at the University of Connecticut Connecticut has been good to Irish immi- Health Center in Farmington, known as the In retirement, John and Mary lived on grants in their time of need, and how those John Dempsey Hospital because it was one the Connecticut shore at New London. He immigrants have replied in contributions of of his projects as governor. returned to Putnam to fish with friends all kinds to their adopted state and country. from his youth there. And he still wrote to In death, he was praised, as he had been some boyhood friends in Cahir in Ireland. in life, as much by political opponents as

The Shanachie

Published quarterly by the President George Waldron Connecticut Irish-American “We have kept faith Vice President Vincent McMahon Historical Society with the past; P.O. Box 185833 Secretary Patricia Heslin

Hamden, CT 06518 Treasurer Mary McMahon we have handed (203) 392-6126 Membership Chairperson Joan Murphy a tradition www.ctiahs.com Shanachie Editor Neil Hogan to the future.” [email protected] Webmaster Finbarr Moynihan https://www.facebook.com/CT Irish American Historical Society In Ireland, a Shanachie is a folklorist, historian and keeper of the traditions of the people. Padraic Pearse

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