Posted on 03/17/2005 7:53:19 AM PST by Mr. Silverback
Happy St. P day to you also.
I have some Irish in me among a petri dish of many other nations.
Not quite.
Along the way, Eddie O'Hare developed both a friendship and a real estate partnership with a Chicago Rackets Court Judge named Eugene J. Holland. Just as an indicator of the kind of guys O'Hare ran with, in one 15-month period, Judge Holland dismissed gambling charges against 12,624 defendants, while finding only 28 guilty.But where Edward J. O'Hare may have been the personification of the corrupt lawyer, he was a doting father whose love for his offspring knew no bounds. His daughters were raised as if they were some kind of Irish-American Princesses. And for his son, Butch, there was nothing that he would not and could not do.
Educationally, it was only the best schools of the day for Butch. Recreationally, the senior O'Hare always found time to spend time with his son, whether it was at a sporting event or a poetry reading or a theatrical production or just shooting cans off the back fence with a six- shot .38.
In conversation, the senior O'Hare's favorite phrase seemed to be, "My son, Butch…"
When Butch was about to graduate from high school, he told his father of his burning ambition to go to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis. If money had been the only problem, Eddie would have dipped into his pocket and sent the boy off to Maryland without a second thought. But, then as now, entry into Annapolis required the blessing of a would-be midshipman's local representative in Congress.
At the time, Al Capone was hot and getting hotter. It was known that the Feds were closing in on him with a unique new form of prosecution based on violations of the Federal income tax statutes. It was also widely known that Capone and Butch O'Hare's dad were deeply involved in a variety of joint enterprises, some criminal and some only quasi-so. What O'Hare knew about Capone's day-to-day criminal activities was the stuff that the typical Federal prosecutor's dreams are made of.
To make that dream a reality, all that was needed was the timely intervention of a St. Louis Post Dispatch reporter who was in the odd position of being both a personal friend of Eddie O'Hare and the best buddy of one of the key people on the prosecution team. The reporter, John Rogers by name, knew that O'Hare wanted very badly to get his young son into Annapolis.
Rogers first went to his pal on the Capone prosecution team, who took the pitch up the line to the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, who then went to Congress with the plan, which then found its way over to Annapolis, with the word coming back down to Eddie that Butch was in - if only the senior O'Hare would tell everything the Feds wanted to know about Scarface Al Capone.
He did. The Feds made excellent use of the information. Capone went down for 11 years, with the first two years being served behind the bars of the Federal penitentiary in Atlanta, and the rest spent locked up on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay.
In 1937, the year that Butch O'Hare graduated from Annapolis, his father received a piece of mail from an ex-con who had been in Alcatraz with Capone. In simple, declarative sentences, the note read: "Capone is mad. He is enraged. He will kill you."
"Irish Heros Thread ping!!"Thank you"Texkat"!!!Happy good day strong Irlandia Happy Holiday America!!!Thank you all
Cuchulainn, and Gen. Patrick Cleburne (Brigadier Gen CSA). Oh yeah, also the 5 Sullivan Brothers.
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Thank you:}}}}}}}}}}}}}}
You pretty much said it...
Now there's one fine Irish hero!!
HERO:MY GRANDFATHER
TRAPPED MEN IN MINE
ENTRY STIRRED REGION
INCIDENT BEGAN NOVEMBER 8, 1932
TWO RESCUERS AWARDED MEDALS
Two of Pennsylvania's most courageous were honored for their work in rescuing Thomas A. Coleman, 37, miner, and Louis J. Doran, 45, mine laborer from a cave in a mine at Avoca, PA. On November 8, 1932. They are ROBERT HUGHES 50, AND JOSEPH P. TIGUE, 43, both miners of Avoca.
When no other men offered to aid the two men buried under shale in a cave in an abandoned entry, Hughes and Tigue descended by means of windlass rope and shoveling shale with there bare hands, extricated Coleman and saw him hauled to safety. After working all night, Doran was removed injured so badly he died. Hughes and Tigue, injured themselves by falling rock and were taken out before Doran was freed.
It was a 29-hour ordeal beginning on November 8, 1932 on a hillside in Avoca when two men were trapped in an old abandoned mine entry. Within minutes the alarm was sounded and many people hurried to the site, and mineworkers began making preparations cutting timber, etc.
Joseph P. Tigue, 49, married and the father of three children, resident of 916 William St., Avoca, and Robert Hughes, 50, of 806 South St., Avoca, also married and the father of three children, went to the scene hurriedly. No one else volunteered to go into the hole, which had a narrow opening, but Tigue and Hughes did. They worked feverishly with their hands when they got to the bottom the hole. They found "Hick" Coleman standing buried up to his neck. Louis Doran was underneath Coleman, completely buried. Tigue and Hughes dug as fast as they could scraping the dirt from Doran to provide him with breathing space. They then placed boards over his face to protect him from any additional slide. First one extricated was Coleman, and with great difficulty, h e was raised to the surface as thousands of spectators cheered. Then Tigue and Hughes went about the task of extricating Doran.
Doran was freed after a major effort by the two men Tigue and Hughes following 29 hours in the hole. He walked to the opening and was assisted through the hole by John Timlin and John Berry who had entered the shaft previously. Doran died seven hours later at Taylor Hospital.
Rev. Edmund Langan, then stationed at St. Mary's Church, Avoca, and later pastor of St. John the Evangelist Church, Pittston, entered the shaft twice to bring religious solace to the two trapped men prior to their release. There was an interim period while Tigue and Hughes went home for a short rest, after getting Doran up to a sitting position. The two were exhausted. In that period, others entered the shaft to keep tabs on Doran and do what they could to further the rescue. Among them were Thomas Boylan, William O'Hop, James Dwyer, Paul Koltenski, Thomas Brunton, William Naughton, Vincent Calvey, William Meehan, John Wisniskie, Thomas Frew, Thomas Richens, Joseph Feeney, James Lester, Carmine Lizzio and Martin Horan.
After a short rest, Tigue and Hughes returned and completed the task of extricating Doran. The Avoca Burgess Michael Healey at the time, was present at the opening throughout the ordeal as were scores of officials and mining operation experts. As a fitting sequel to the above members of the McPhillips-Widdall Post, Number 607, American Legion Avoca Borough, petitioned the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission for recognition for the men who in spite of grave danger to their lives, made the sacrifice of putting forth every effort at their command to save their fellowmen.
A thorough investigation of the case was made by skilled investigators of Carnegie Hero Fund Commission and it was found that this case came within the scope of their activity. Accordingly, on the evening of Tuesday, August 28, 1934, in the presence of over 2,000 neighbors and friends assembled in Memorial Park, corner of Main and Hawthorne Streets, Avoca Borough, Bronze Medals and checks in the amount of $1,000.00 each were presented to Joseph P. Tigue and Robert Hughes.
The ceremony was sponsored by McPhillips-Widdall Post, Number 607, American Legion, Avoca Borough. Joseph Harding, post adjutant, was chairman of committee on arrangements. Attorney John R. Reap, of Avoca Borough, presided over the formal program. Invocation was offered by Rev. Henry P. Burke, pastor, Saint Mary's Church; presentation of awards was made by Burgess Michael J. Healey in the absence of Rev. Doctor Edmund J. Langan who was unavoidably out of town; benediction was offered by Rev. James Moore, pastor, St. John's Primitive Methodist Church, Avoca. Musical selections were offered by john D. Stark Post, American Legion Band, Number 547, Pittston, under the direction of Dr. Rufus Bierly.
I'm from Dublin 2!
Oh neat!! That little cartoon will have special meaning to you, LOLOL.
John Forges Kerry-Kohn :
http://pro.lookingat.us/FakeIrish.html
a nice selection of Irish tunes...
They are of Irish ancestry....what do you have against the Scots...besides haggis?
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