Posted on 03/17/2005 7:53:19 AM PST by Mr. Silverback
I thought it would be a great St. Patrick's day activity to highlight the many Irish folks who have been American heroes. I'll start with a guy from my state, Butch O'Hare. Don't let the St. :ouis thing fool you, Butch was a Chicago boy, that's why they named the airport after him. I got the text of this citation from The Army's Medal of Honor Site so if you folks want to go over there and check for more Irish heroes, let's honor them today.
O'HARE, EDWARD HENRY
Rank and organization: Lieutenant, U.S. Navy.
Born: 13 March 1914, St. Louis, Mo.
Entered service at: St. Louis, Mo.
Other Navy awards: Navy Cross, Distinguished Flying Cross with 1 gold star.
Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in aerial combat, at grave risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty, as section leader and pilot of Fighting Squadron 3 on 20 February 1942. Having lost the assistance of his teammates, Lt. O'Hare interposed his plane between his ship and an advancing enemy formation of 9 attacking twin-engine heavy bombers. Without hesitation, alone and unaided, he repeatedly attacked this enemy formation, at close range in the face of intense combined machinegun and cannon fire. Despite this concentrated opposition, Lt. O'Hare, by his gallant and courageous action, his extremely skillful marksmanship in making the most of every shot of his limited amount of ammunition, shot down 5 enemy bombers and severely damaged a sixth before they reached the bomb release point. As a result of his gallant action--one of the most daring, if not the most daring, single action in the history of combat aviation--he undoubtedly saved his carrier from serious damage.
I never heard of him admitting he was Jewish. Did you make that up?
So his dad was a practicing Jew?
His grandfather was Jewish and committed suicide in some hotel in Boston.
NYFD Battalion Chief John Moran (Freeper BCM) Perishes In World Trade Center
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/539734/posts
He was Catholic. That's why I said Jewish by blood.
We'd run out of bandwith to detail all of Audie Murphy's heroics.
Sadly, there were men close to his stature in Vietnam and today in Iraq but once the MSM declared war on the military, we never hear of their great deeds anymore.
All we get is pictures of dudes with panties on their heads.
If anyone is in MD today...go see the Donnegal Express in Baltimore. The best Irish bar band you've ever seen!
IRISH. Natives of Ireland were among the first settlers in Spanish-ruled Texas, and the story of the Irish in Texas is in many ways coincident with the founding of the republic and the development of the state. The heritage of the Irish seems in retrospect to have peculiarly suited their migration to a new land, for the English dominance of Ireland must have been to the new colonists in Texas a close parallel to the oppression they eventually found in the new country. It is not surprising that as many as twenty-five Irishmen probably signed the Goliad Declaration of Independence, that four signed the actual Texas Declaration of Independence, and that 100 were listed in the rolls of San Jacinto, comprising one-seventh of the total Texan force in that battle. Probably the first Irishman in Texas was Hugo Oconór, who became governor ad interim of Texas in 1767. Though his national origins are uncertain, Oconór was almost certainly Irish, as his name suggests. His success in reinforcing San Antonio against raiding Apaches was a notable contribution to the further settlement of that region. Philip Nolan, a native of Belfast, Ireland, was said to be the first Anglo American to map Texas. Whatever his real mission in Texas, Nolan's activities so aroused Spanish authorities that he was killed by a force sent to arrest him in 1801. James Hewetson and James Power, along with John McMullen and James McGloin, were the first Irishmen to receive empresario contracts from Mexico, successfully settling the areas now comprising Refugio and San Patricio counties. Hewetson accompanied Stephen F. Austin to Texas on his first trip in 1821, and many Irishmen were counted in Austin's Old Three Hundred. De León's colony at Victoria also included several Irish families, and it should be noted that all of these contracts, except that to McMullen and McGloin, called for the settlement of Mexican as well as Irish families, specifically Catholics. Some writers have maintained that the southern grants were made only to the Irish to form a buffer zone of devout Catholics between Mexico and the northern Anglo settlements, but it now seems clear that the McMullen-McGloin colony was adjacent to the Power and Hewetson colony only by sheer coincidence. During the days of the republic the two colonies were on the frontier that saw the worst possible hardships for settlers. In the Texas Revolution such Irishmen as Francis Moore, Jr., John Joseph Linn, Thomas William Ward and the four empresarios named above all played important roles. James Power used his influence to seat Sam Houston at the Convention of 1836. Eleven Irishmen died at the battle of the Alamo and fourteen were among those with James W. Fannin, Jr., at the Goliad Massacre. Appropriately, Refugio and San Patricio counties were among the first established in Texas after the revolution; the date was March 17, 1836, Saint Patrick's Day.
GRANDPARENTS
4 Frederick A ... Kerry, shoe merchant, b. as Fritz Kohn at dwelling 224, Bennisch, Austria [now Horni Benešov, Severomoravsky province, Czech Republic], 10 May 1873, birth recorded among the Jewish births on the last folio (folio 77) of vol. VII (1866-1873) of the Roman Catholic birth records of the Bennisch parish, baptized along with his wife and infant son Erich at the Pfarrkirche St. Othmar in Mödling, Austria, on 9 Oct. 1901 (Erich had been born at Mödling, Feldgasse 67, on 26 Feb. 1901), by decree of 17 Dec 1901 of the Austrian Statthalterei in Vienna the name Kohn was officially changed to Kerry (for Fritz, his wife Ida, geb. Löwe, and their son Erich) at which time Fritz was listed as born in Bennisch but originating from Freudenthal, and currently working as a supplier for a shoe factory in Mödling (the name change was ordered in Austrian Silesia on 17 March 1902 at Troppau), sailed (with his wife and son Erich) on the Koenigin Luise departing from Genoa, Italy, on 4 May 1905 and arriving in New York (Ellis Island) on 18 May 1905, filed a Declaration of Intention for naturalization in the Circuit Court of Cook Co., Ill., on 21 June 1907, and a Petition of Naturalization in the same Court on 6 Feb. 1911, d. (suicide by pistol shot to the head in the men's lavatory of the Copley Plaza Hotel, 487 Boylston Street) Boston, Mass., 23 Nov. 1921, age 48y 6m 13d, bur. Holyhood Cemetery, Brookline, Mass. 25 Nov. 1921
m. Mödling 9 Jan. 1900
5 Ida Löwe, b. Zoltán utca 2, Lipótváros district, Budapest, Hungary, 22 Feb. 1877, d. Sarasota, Fla., 19 Jan. 1960, bur. with her husband in Holyhood Cemetery, Brookline, Mass.
6 James Grant Forbes, international lawyer and banker, b. Shanghai, China, 22 Oct. 1879, d. Paris 24 Apr. 1955 [New York Times 1955 Ap 26, 29:2]
m. 10 Walnut St., Boston, Mass., 28 Nov. 1906
7 Margaret Tyndal Winthrop, b. ... , Mass., 23 Feb. 1880, d. St.-Briac-sur-Mer, Brittany, 7 July 1970 [TFH 115; WFA 405; IFR 646; New York Times 1970 Jl 9, 37:6]
Interesting. His grandfather was born a Jews and baptized as a Catholic along with his family. That makes Kerry's father a Catholic.
No, he was forced to admit his grandfather changed the name to Kerry and converted to Catholisim. When questioned he did admit to the truth. Try a Google search.
R'8, may interest.
Mike Moran, FDNY.
"Osama bin Laden, you can kiss my royal Irish ass...b*tch!"
My Grandfather. He came here at age 11 from Ireland with nothing, married my Grandmother who came from Italy at age 9 with nothing, and successfully raised a family of 10.
BTTT!!!!!!
A fictional account is available of Brian Boru's life. Nice easy read.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0812553993/102-7282614-2672135
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