Michael H.J. Kane's Posts - The Wild Geese2024-03-29T07:28:41ZMichael H.J. Kanehttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/MichaelHJKanehttps://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/68531475?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blog/feed?user=03hudtkzqt7lh&xn_auth=noThe Irish Families of Elmhurst, NYCtag:thewildgeese.irish,2016-03-22:6442157:BlogPost:1864962016-03-22T19:30:00.000ZMichael H.J. Kanehttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/MichaelHJKane
<p><span class="font-size-5"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84716547?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84716547?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="250"></img></a></span> <strong><span class="font-size-5">W</span>hen I entered the University of Notre Dame in 1965, the first thing</strong> I had to do was make some close friends. Notre Dame has no social fraternities and in 1965 no women. So one had to fish around your residence halls and classes to find some friends with mutual interests.</p>
<p>During the…</p>
<p><span class="font-size-5"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84716547?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="250" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84716547?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="250" class="align-left"/></a></span><strong><span class="font-size-5">W</span>hen I entered the University of Notre Dame in 1965, the first thing</strong> I had to do was make some close friends. Notre Dame has no social fraternities and in 1965 no women. So one had to fish around your residence halls and classes to find some friends with mutual interests.</p>
<p>During the initial period, I kept hearing strange tales of how the guys from Queens, New York, were an odd bunch. Coming from Pittsburgh, I was Irish-American with 12 years of Catholic school behind me. However, our suburban school had Irish, Italian, German, Polish, and French families. There was no special Irish clique.</p>
<p>Well, at Notre Dame, I began making friends and I latched on to Bobby O'Mara From Elmhurst, New York, who had my same major. Later on in our relationship, Bobby moved off-campus, and within a few months his landlord kicked him out. He immediately approached me to see if he could sleep on my couch until semester's end. After a little arm-twisting, I convinced my two real roommates that Bobby wouldn't cause any trouble and in four weeks he would find a new place They grudgingly assented, despite his eccentric reputation. He was obsessed with General George Armstrong Custer and had read every book in the library about the cavalry hero.</p>
<p>After he moved in one evening when we were alone, I asked Bobby to explain the Elmhurst Irish.</p>
<p>He immediately began illustrating this with his parents' courtship. His father, Chris, was a tall good-looking Irishman, who resembled Tyrone Power. Strangers walked up to him on the street and said, "Hey kid, are you related to that movie star, Tyrone Power?" Chris would state no but each compliment jolted his ego up a notch.</p>
<p>Finally, by chance, Chris met a really beautiful red-haired Irish girl named Maureen, and he began dating her. In 1940's tradition, they went ice skating, and walking while looking deep into each other's eyes. Finally, Chris was overwhelmed and asked Maureen to marry him.</p>
<p>"You'll have to get my family's approval, Chris." Maureen replied. "But if everything is OK, I'd love to marry you." They set up a date for Chris to meet her family.</p>
<p>A few weeks later, Chris bounded up the steps with Maureen, and she opened up the door, revealing her parents sitting on the couch listening to the radio. Her father was reading the box scores for the Dodgers' last game from a newspaper.The middle-aged man glanced from his paper, stood up and shook Chris' hand. "We know why you're here, but you'll have to talk to Granny first. She's in the kitchen. Maureen, show Chris where Granny is and come out and wait here."</p>
<p>Chris found himself ushered into a small room with a stove and a lace-covered table. Sitting behind the table was a very thin elderly lady with a large book in front of her. Granny immediately made introductions in an Irish accent as thick as swath of peat.</p>
<p>After Maureen left, Granny said to Chris, "I'm going to need the surname of your parents and grandparents -- including your grandmother's maiden name. Let's start with O'Mara, and go from there. She thumbed through the book to O'Mara and muttered, "That's a good start."</p>
<p>Chris provided Granny with each of the other surnames from his family. Each time, Granny turned the book to the family page and read about each name, nodding and smiling at each name.</p>
<p>Finally, she said, "Chris you come from good Irish stock. No soupers, I hope?"</p>
<p>Chris shook his head no!</p>
<p>"Well, I think you're ready to join our family now!"</p>
<p><em>* Names are changed for some people.</em></p>The Mystery of the 69th Pennsylvania's Irish Flagstag:thewildgeese.irish,2014-04-24:6442157:BlogPost:902032014-04-24T16:00:00.000ZMichael H.J. Kanehttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/MichaelHJKane
<p><strong><span class="font-size-7" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84705603?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84705603?profile=original" width="750"></img></a> O</span>n the afternoon of July 3, 1863</strong> Pickett's Virginians charged the Bloody Angle at the Gettysburg battlefield. This was the main confederate attack to crack the Union line. Defending the left side of the Bloody Angle was the 69th Pennsylvania, a volunteer Irish regiment from…</p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-7" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84705603?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84705603?profile=original" width="750"/></a>O</span>n the afternoon of July 3, 1863</strong> Pickett's Virginians charged the Bloody Angle at the Gettysburg battlefield. This was the main confederate attack to crack the Union line. Defending the left side of the Bloody Angle was the 69th Pennsylvania, a volunteer Irish regiment from Philadelphia, dubbed the "Gallant 69th" by General Joseph Hooker for the regiment's work on the Virginia peninsula in 1862.</p>
<p>Captain Cowan was ordered to bring his New York artillery battery into the Bloody Angle. As Cowan and his men were gearing up, Cowan heard an Irish private named Billy Smith, nicknamed "the Wild Irishman" exclaim as Smith lifted himself up in his stirrups, waving his whip with wild excitement, shouting "Hurrah for the 'ould flag." Smith had spotted the green Irish flag of the 69th Pennsylvania in the middle of the Blood Angle. </p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84705538?profile=original"><img width="350" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84705538?profile=RESIZE_480x480" height="174" width="216"/></a>Today on the 69th's monument (<strong>below-right</strong>), the highest motif is a large Maid of Ireland (<strong>left)</strong>. Was this the 'ould flag and what did the flag look like? </p>
<p>Turning to Mc'Dermott's book he described the flag "painted with the Coat of Arms of Pennsylvania on the reverse side with three Irish symbols: the wolf, round tower and sunburst, on the obverse side" That settled that or did it? I could not ignore the large Maid of Ireland flag as the highest symbol on the monument. More research was on my plate.</p>
<p>Then another complication the 69th was a three year regiment and would surrender its flags before reorganizing as the 69th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers. So there would be two sets of flags. Major Davis surrendered the first set of flags to Philadelphia about April 18-20,1864 . There would be a second set of flags issued for the Veteran Volunteer regiment. Later a salient item appeared: Major, later Colonel Davis was an ardent Fenian, holding a Lt. Colonel's commission in the Fenian Brotherhood. Then it clicked----the sunburst on the flag! The sunburst was the universal symbol of Fenianism. Perhaps Davis used his influence to have the Sunburst placed on the second flag. McDermott was Davis' protégé and McDermott was and a Fenian,too. If my theory were true, I would have to track down some description of the first flag.</p>
<p>In the Irish-American of March 1, 1862, "Arangements are being made by the ladies of this city (Philly) to present the <a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84705545?profile=original"><img width="300" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84705545?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="300"/></a>69th Pennsylvania Regiment,Colonel Owen commanding, with a stand of Irish colors. The regiment has now been nearly in service and in all that time has carried their own National flag."</p>
<p>Irish-American newspaper April 22, 1862, "Their friends in this city (Philly) , being some of them our leading Irish-Americans , are about presenting them with a beautiful green flag trimmed in gold the old Irish Harp representing upon one side 'Presented to the 69th Pennsylvania Regiment by their friends :"upon the reverse is the Coat of Arms of the State."</p>
<p>In early May near Fortress Monroe, Virginia the flag was taken to the regiment and accepted by Colonel Owen with great ceremony.</p>
<p>Sadly to say, the regiment's Irish flags were stolen from Liberty Hall before 1870. However the first Irish flag waves over the battlefield at Gettysburg---no longer in silk----but in granite---on the 69th Pennsylvania's monument.</p>
<p></p>
<p><span class="font-size-1"><em>Top: Painting by Don Troiani (<a href="http://www.historicalartprints.com" target="_blank">HistoricalArtPrints.com</a>)</em></span></p>Color Sergeant Michael Brady: The Luckiest Irishman in America's Civil Wartag:thewildgeese.irish,2014-02-21:6442157:BlogPost:789472014-02-21T18:30:00.000ZMichael H.J. Kanehttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/MichaelHJKane
<p><strong><span class="font-size-6"><a href="http://images.static-bluray.com/reviews/4261_4.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="http://images.static-bluray.com/reviews/4261_4.jpg?width=400" width="400"></img></a> <span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;">I</span></span>f you have seen seen the movie "Gettysburg,"</strong> you might notice that during the climatic Pickett's Charge, behind the Union line at the Bloody Angle are two flags, the Regimental stars and stripes, and the state flag--green with a gold trim. This green flag was the only Pennsylvania flag not…</p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-6"><a href="http://images.static-bluray.com/reviews/4261_4.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://images.static-bluray.com/reviews/4261_4.jpg?width=400" width="400" class="align-right"/></a><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;">I</span></span>f you have seen seen the movie "Gettysburg,"</strong> you might notice that during the climatic Pickett's Charge, behind the Union line at the Bloody Angle are two flags, the Regimental stars and stripes, and the state flag--green with a gold trim. This green flag was the only Pennsylvania flag not colored Blue with a gold Maid of Erin motif on its surface. Recently I had some inquiries from the family of 2nd Sergeant David Kiniary, who carried the green flag. After some research into his background, I found that the Color Sergeant carrying the U.S. flag was Color Sergeant Michael Brady. Brady was born in Cavan city, but emigrated to Philadelphia where he joined one of the prominent Irish militia companies, the Hibernia Greens before the war.</p>
<p><strong>Picture right, from the 1993 film "Gettysburg," courtesy of Turner Pictures</strong></p>
<p>When the war broke out, Brady enlisted in the 24th Pennsylvania and served for 90 days without seeing any action.</p>
<p>Returning to Philadelphia, Brady enlisted in C Company, 69th Pennsylvania Volunteers. David Kiniary, a prewar member of the Emmett Guards militia company and native of county Cork, also enlisted in C Company, 69th Pennsylvania where he became close friends with Brady.</p>
<p>The 69th Pennsylvania saw heavy action during the Peninsular campaign , Antietam, Fredericksburg and Second Bull Run. While the regiment fought, Brady and Kiniary kept getting promoted. March 18th, 1863, Michael Brady was promoted to Color Sergeant. David Kiniary was promoted to second sergeant, and William Cooney to first sergeant.</p>
<p>The upshot of these promotion meant that on July 3, 1863, Color Sergeant Michael Brady would be the focal point of every Virginian charging the copse of trees looking to shoot down the Stars and Stripes. During the charge, First Sergeant Coogan was killed, but Brady and Kiniary didn't get a scratch.</p>
<p>Kiniary was wounded in 1864 during the Wilderness campaign and spent the rest of the war in Philadelphia hospitals. Both Kiniary and Brady had reenlisted as veteran volunteers for three more years in early 1864.</p>
<p>Brady continued to serve through out the Petersburg campaign until the end of the war. The most amazing part of Brady's service record is that he never lost a day of service----never wounded , sick or through desertion. ( I read his service record and pension file in the national archives.) When the 69th returned to Philadelphia in July 1865, less than 80 men from the original 1,000 survived. Every one else was KIA, WIA, deserted or a POW. But of those 80 men, the luckiest Irishman in Civil War, Michael Brady, exited the train.*</p>
<p>*Color Sergeant Brady is interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.</p>