‘Emerald Thread: The Irish in Buffalo,’ by Tim Bohen

This article was originally published on March 3, but with St. Patrick’s Day weekend approaching, we thought it was time to revisit it! Note some of the events mentioned have already passed.

By Robert J. McLennan

Author Tim Bohen knows the stories of the Irish in America, and especially in Buffalo. 

When millions of Irish were fleeing their home country and emigrating to the United States, the establishment of Protestant power brokers loved exploiting them for the low-wage work they could get out of them.  Many were maimed or killed working on the Erie Canal, for instance.  

But the Irish weren’t really wanted in civilized society.  They were considered sub-human, riddled with disease, nothing but a bunch of lazy scroungers and criminals.  Sound familiar? 

“No Irish Need Apply” was the catchphrase to keep them out of any reasonable job.  They had to work the worst, most dangerous jobs.  

Of course, 21^st century America is just as ruthless; CEOs have no problem with exploiting undocumented workers in today’s world.  While undocumented workers are being threatened with arrest or expulsion, we’ll never see the businesspeople who lured them here and hired them punished for breaking the law. 

In a recent interview, Bohen discussed the parallels to present day controversies about immigrants. 

“The Irish faced discrimination for being Catholic, were often poor and some arrived speaking only Irish.  At the time pseudoscientific theories even labeled the Irish as genetically inferior to Anglo-Saxons,” he said.  “It’s a story we see repeated throughout history.”

In today’s politics there is always a big emphasis on whether newcomers to this country are documented or not.  It has never been a cut-and-dried issue without gray areas.  This writer’s Scottish grandfather sneaked into Nova Scotia and traveled to Windsor, Ont., crossed into Detroit and then arrived in Buffalo with no luggage to start fresh his new life in Buffalo.  There was not a big concern about his documentation. 

Bohen said, “It’s hard to say exactly how many Irish immigrants in Buffalo were undocumented but we do know that some, like the parents of General William ‘Wild Bill’ Donovan, helped illegal Irish refugees sneak in from Canada.  Donovan recalled his First Ward home serving as a safe house, though as a child, he and his siblings were forbidden from speaking about it.”

It’s those kinds of stories that add depth to Bohen’s books about the Irish in Buffalo. 

The Irish love their traditions and stories, their history of resilience in the face of all of that, their pride in their heritage, the traditions of St. Patrick’s Day and the Irish festivals that are held every year in Buffalo.  

This is the starting point for Bohen, the stories of a people just trying to survive and create a better life for their children and grandchildren, the never-ending saga of migrants on the move throughout the world.

Bohen’s new book is “Emerald Thread: The Irish in Buffalo.”  Bohen also wrote “Against the Grain: The History of Buffalo’s First Ward.”  

But this new book is not just about the Irish immigrants in the First Ward and South Buffalo.  Bohen highlights Irish communities from the Canal District, West Side, Black Rock, North Buffalo and the suburbs, as well.  

In the early decades of their arrival, the Irish stuck together in their neighborhoods and their churches but eventually they settled all over Western New York.  In fact, this writer’s Irish ancestors on his mother’s side, the Doughertys, first settled in the lower West Side in the 1860s on a street that no longer exists because that’s where the New York State Thruway now runs.

“Emerald Thread” is a bit different than the usual non-fiction history book. I asked Bohen about his strategy for putting the book together.  

“Covering 200 years of Irish history in Buffalo was a massive undertaking. The first and last chapters are chronological, but in between, I organized the book by topics — entertainers, journalists, politicians, sports figures, war heroes, etc. — so readers can jump around and explore what interests them most.”  

He added, “The book launched in November and had strong Christmas sales. I’ve been invited to speak at various Irish and community events in Buffalo and Rochester. The feedback has been positive, and I encourage people to read the book in whatever order interests them most — there’s something for everyone.”  

Bohen emphasized that this book is about Buffalo connections. 

 “Every chapter focuses on the Buffalo Irish,” he said. “Even the chapter on Irish Independence highlights how Buffalo’s Irish community contributed to Ireland’s struggle for freedom.”

And the topics in this 326-page book, plus appendices, chronology, bibliography and index, are plentiful:

• From Samuel Wilkeson creating Buffalo’s harbor in 1821 to the Erie Canal to the Fenian Invasion of Canada in 1866 to the Great Strike of 1899, when Irish laborers shut down shipping on the Great Lakes. 
• Chapters on Buffalo Irish entertainers such as Chauncey Olcott, Michael Shea, Joe Conley (of the TV show “The Waltons”), bassist Billy Sheehan and the traditional band, Crikwater. 
• Writers and media figures such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tim Russert, Margaret Sullivan and the Investigative Post’s Jim Heaney and much more. 
• Politicians, including a sub-chapter on scoundrels  but also the better ones such as Brian Higgins, Tim Kennedy and the only Buffalo native to become a U.S. Senator, James Mead (who almost nobody remembers).  I know of Mead because Branch 3 of the National Association of Letter Carriers’ local was named after Mead at one point. Joe Crangle, Congressman Max McCarthy, Jimmy Griffin and Kathy (Courtney) Hochul and many more are included.
  
  Bohen covers the political rise of the Irish in Buffalo.  Bohen said, “Since the Irish arrived earlier, they took control of the Democratic party and held significant influence in the Catholic church.  However, they weren’t always eager to share these positions with later Catholic immigrants like the Poles and the Italians.”
  
• Buffalo Irish athletes are covered, such as Baseball Hall of Famer Jimmy Collins, boxer Jimmy Slattery (the song, “Slats,” written by Buffalo singer songwriter/ historian Tyler Bagwell, appears on the album “Irish Songs and Tunes” by Bagwell and Sally Schaefer), many Irish Buffalo Bisons, Buffalo Bills General Manager Bill Polian (whose father was born in Ireland) and Bills Hall of Famer Jim Kelly. 
  
  Kelly’s Irish heritage comes primarily from his mother’s family, the McGinns.  Jim Kelly’s grandfather Patrick McGinn, born in County Down, was put in prison in the 1920s by the Black and Tans, who accused him of activities against the British. They also arrested six of McGinn’s brothers on the same charge, but they all escaped from prison and Patrick fled Ireland for Pittsburgh.

Bohen writes about parades, festivals, the Catholic church, pubs and saloons, Irish architecture, the Famine memorial, the Fenian memorial, Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams’ visit to Buffalo and Buffalo’s connections with Irish independence. 

That connection to Irish independence resulted in Clan na Gael, the sister organization to the Irish Republican Brotherhood, holding its national convention in Buffalo in 1888.  The Sinn Féin League of America hosted its founding convention in our city in 1908.

Buffalo was prominent enough as an Irish destination that the great Irish labor leader James Connolly visited Buffalo three times, in 1902, 1909 and 1910.  

In 1902, Connolly spoke to a crowd of 300 on Genesee Street asking Irish workers in America to help their suffering brothers in Ireland, struggling under British rule.  

In 1910, he returned to Wallworth’s Hall at Chenango and Ferry Streets, discussing socialism in Ireland and America.  Buffalo was lucky to hear from this legendary labor leader, who was executed after the 1916 Easter Rising.  

On May 12, 2023, Eugene V. Debs Hall and the Ancient Order of the Hibernians, Erie County Division #1, unveiled a historic marker at 496 Main Street in downtown Buffalo. The marker honors Irish freedom fighter Connolly. The marker states:

“James Connolly, radical labor activist and leader of the Easter rising of 1916 that set the stage for Irish independence, spoke here on January 24, 1909.”  Connolly was a labor agitator and fighter for a free Ireland who, with others, led the Easter Rising of 1916.  496 Main Street was once the home of the Columbian Knights Hall, where Connolly spoke on the labor movement in America and Ireland on Jan. 24, 1909. The site of 496 Main Street is the only Buffalo building still standing where Connolly is known to have delivered a speech.

In the 18^th,19^th and 20^th centuries, nearly 10 million Irish came to this country, documented or not.  They went everywhere, New York City, Boston, Chicago, the midwest, San Francisco; I always thought Butte, Mont., was an interesting destination for them.  But they went where the work was, mining in Montana, building the railroad cross-country and everything in between.  And that meant that Buffalo, the western end of the Erie Canal, became a destination. 

Indeed, Buffalo was a destination for Tim Bohen’s ancestors, the Bohanes and the Driscolls from County Cork, near Skibbereen.  They arrived in the 1870s but they must have gone through hell in the decades before that during the great Irish famine.  Skibbereen was devastated by hunger and death, memorialized in the haunting song, “Skibbereen”  by Sinead O’Connor.   

Most of Bohen’s ancestors were farmers, fishermen and laborers, like most of ours, but one story that has been passed down concerns his great, great, great grandfather Daniel Driscoll.  

Bohen elaborated, “He was arrested for anti-British activities during the 1860s right around the peak of the Fenian period in Ireland and the United States.  Daniel Driscoll was from County Cork, which was the hotbed of Fenian activity.  He was sent to prison in England and his family had to move to Liverpool.  His wife emigrated to Buffalo’s First Ward in 1871 with their daughter, my great, great grandmother.”  

On Bohen’s mother’s side, they arrived even earlier; the McDonnells arrived in 1835 and the Hughes family in 1852.

One of the areas covered in the book is the rise of the Know-Nothing Party in the 1850s.

The Know-Nothing party had a significant presence in Buffalo.  It was a rabidly anti-immigration party and they hated the Catholics, so they had no use for the Irish.  

Bohen said, “The fact that Buffalo’s Millard Fillmore ran for president in 1856 on the Know-Nothing ticket speaks volumes about him.  This was the most anti-immigrant party in U.S. history and they had their national convention in Buffalo in 1855.”

I asked Bohen if later generations of Irish-Americans have lost sight of their roots, even though they’ve hung on to their traditions.  

“Absolutely, many Irish-Americans today are several generations removed from their immigrant ancestors,” he said. “That’s one of the reasons I wrote ‘Emerald Thread,’ to shine a light on the struggles of the Irish Buffalo and add to the discussion about immigration today.”

Emerald Thread can be found at local stores such as Dog Ears, Fitz Books, Talking Leaves, the BFLO Store, Vidler’s, The Bookworm, and the Buffalo History Museum. You can also find it at all Barnes & Noble locations and online at www.bn.com

There is always more to learn about the history of the Irish, as well as all the other ethnic groups that have contributed to our way of life, not only in Buffalo but throughout the United States.  

Unless you’re a Native-American, you came from immigrant roots.  Ours is a country built on an idea of how we will govern ourselves; we’re not based on a particular group of people or a religion.  For hundreds of years, we’ve managed to assimilate people from all over the world and build the strongest, most diverse and dynamic nation in the world. 

“Emerald Thread: The Irish in Buffalo” tells the story of a particular strain of Celtic peoples that found their way to Western New York, but the story is also similar in tone and meaning to all human beings who struggle to make a better life. 

Robert J. McLennan is vice president of The Buffalo Hive Board of Directors.