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Hollywood Irish stars helped end anti-Irish racism

JAMES COLEMAN,

Published Monday, July 12, 2010, 5:59 AM

Updated Monday, July 12, 2010, 6:01 AM

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Maureen O'Hara, Irish Hollywood star

The Irish success in Hollywood during and after the Depression era played a major part in ending the anti-Irish and anti-Catholic ethos in America writer Joe Queenan has stated.

Writing in the Guardian newspaper Queenan said “There can be no denying that the overnight Irish-American takeover of the film industry softened American attitudes towards immigrants, ultimately putting an end to the ferocious anti-Irish, anti-Catholic animus that was a staple of American life well into the 1950s.

"If we are Irish-American, as I am, it is incumbent upon us to admire all our Irish forebears who made such an impact on motion pictures during the Depression: Jimmy Cagney, Maureen O'Hara, Spencer Tracy, Pat O'Brien, Maureen O'Sullivan, Gene Kelly, Tyrone Power and Bing Crosby.”

Queenan quotes author Christopher Shannon who wrote in his book “Bowery to Broadway: The American Irish in Classic American Cinema” that Americans who rejected Irish Catholics in politics," observes Shannon, "embraced them in culture." In general Queenan says this took the form of the gangster movie.

Queenan writes that the central premise of the Shannon book is that Depression-era movies helped persuade Americans to stop despising Irish immigrants.

“According to Shannon, this shift came about not because of the elfin charm or winning smiles of the Irish, but because the films provided Americans with an alternative vision of society, where a sense of belonging to an urban village triumphed over the harsh, Darwinian, every-man-for-himself ethos that had dominated the US since its inception. In all likelihood, the moviegoing public did not realise this at the time.”

Queenan says “there are a lot of Irish-American actors he likes (Sean Penn, Mickey Rourke, Alec Baldwin, Casey Affleck, Bill Murray) and a lot I don't (Ryan O'Neal, Rosie O'Donnell, Ed Burns, Ben Affleck, all the other Baldwins).

“And there are even more I never even think of in ethnic terms (John C Reilly, Mia Farrow, Tina Fey, Dakota Fanning, Chris O'Donnell, Courtney Cox, Brendan Fraser).

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BallinaLass | Jul 16, 2010, 03:44 PM EDT

Tina Fey is half Greek, her mom came from Greece. But Fey, dunno if that's Irish or English or what.

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irishwxman | Jul 15, 2010, 11:15 AM EDT

First of all Irish is not a race. Second, Tina Fey is NOT Irish. She is Greek. Do some research first.

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BallinaLass | Jul 14, 2010, 11:14 AM EDT

Slightly OT, but anyone besides myself wondered why their hasn't been an internationally famous Irish actress since the Maureens: O'Hara and O'Sullivan? We have a whole passel of hot Irish actors (Liam to Jonathan to Cillian) but where are the women? I partly blame the Hollywood actresses who take the female lead in every Irish-themed film, be it Michael Collins, Dancing at Lughnasa, etc.

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hancock | Jul 13, 2010, 11:31 PM EDT

Grow a brain? You want me to grow up. What are you 13.

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hancock | Jul 13, 2010, 07:13 PM EDT

hancock, if you're not already too long in the tooth you might try growing a brain. This is like trying to teach a rebellious child. No, hancock, we don't owe the queen an apology but, as the Head of State of Ireland's closest neighbor and most important trading partner, we should make the effort to act like adults and welcome her - and treat her with the respect that her office deserves - as Britain has extended to the Irish Head of State. As a matter of fact, a large majority of the Irish intend to do just that. We are beginning to grow up, though it's going to be a slow and painful process for some.

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hancock | Jul 13, 2010, 11:54 AM EDT

Should the Irish apologize to the Queen ?

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hancock | Jul 12, 2010, 09:22 PM EDT

MaryM232, you and I have clashed a bit on the AZ law issue but I find myself largely in agreement with your two posts below. We Irish have played the victim far too well and too long. In Ireland our primary school history books were all about the cruel wrongs inflicted on us by John Bull. Indeed, every misfortune to befall 'Dear oul Ireland' was laid at England's doorstep. Yet, as a child, my father and half the fathers of Ireland worked in England to keep their families at home from going hungry. I have often said in these pages that a genetic weakness we seem to have is a failure to grow up and become adults. Of course, that would mean that we have to accept responsibility for our own failures, which we are loathe to do. Although in Ireland, finally, we are beginning to come to grips with this, Old John Bull remains a convenient scapegoat. By the way, there really were signs in America that said "No Irish Need Apply." This is well documented - but, as my mother would say, those with 'get-up-and-go' were not be discouraged in the least.

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Searlit | Jul 12, 2010, 04:48 PM EDT

My grandmother was born in Connecticut in 1890 and she remembered signs posted that said "Irish Need Not Apply". She was very affected by the stigma. Her father taught other Irish people in the area how to read and write, but she always had trouble accepting her Irishness. It was so opposite to the way I felt.

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MaryM232 | Jul 12, 2010, 04:00 PM EDT

There's a very famous photograph taken in Boston in the '70s, of a man using a flag pole, as a spear, and thrusting it at the chest of a black man. It was taken during the infamous busing desegregation days in the city, and the point of interest, the reason I'm commenting on it here, is the man seeking to use a US flagpole as a weapon, against a black man, was an Irish man. Not an American of Irish ancestry, but a man with a brogue so thick, he could have been fresh off the boat. Let's lay the facts straight out on the table, shall we? Starting with that moron "IrishEddy", the Irish have always been white, let's can the Stalinist blame games, shall we? The Irish have not been on the great receiving end of misery in the US, there never were signs up that stated "no Irish wanted", etc.. in fact that urban myth has been blown out of the water. Were poor Irish who came here, still poor? Sure, just like every other poor American, black, brown and white was poor. You don't get sympathy, because you had to muck in, same as every body else. What's more, the Italians who came here poor, weren't out bawling like babies about being poor, and their descendants today, and Italians in Italy, aren't boo-hoo, hooing that no one met them at the boat and feted them as kings. Let's face it, the poverty they left behind, was far worse than the poverty here, what's more, the American bosses were lot's fairer, than the horrible Irish ones (my very Irish Catholic granny was as vocal about the corruption of Irish Catholics back in the old country, and how cruel and abusive the bosses were)

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MaryM232 | Jul 12, 2010, 04:00 PM EDT

I've got a friend who's of Irish ancestry, and he's on the police force. He met one of your Irish actresses, Fionnula Flanagan at a charity event a few years back, right after Bertie Ahern's scandal, and Flanagan was asked why Irish people were coming to the US illegally, and he said, she'd been talking with an almost completely American accent, until she answered the question, whereupon she put on a brogue, and said in an emmy award winning gravely serious tone, that "it is because of the terrible poverty". He said he lost all respect for her, and the issue after that point. As though we think the famine never ended. The reason Ireland is in the soup at present, is because you have never dealt with your own wrongs, and dealt with them. You're country's greed and corruption is an embarrassment, especially to those of us whose grandparents, good and decent, salt of the Earth types, would have done a heck of a lot more than given you an ear full after reading this palaver. Stop hiding behind lies and distortions, if the Irish in Irelan have been a victim of anything, it's been of their own ego and vanity.

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IrishEddy | Jul 12, 2010, 02:49 PM EDT

People seem to forget the Irish did not become "White" until 1920.

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irishimport | Jul 12, 2010, 01:57 PM EDT

Well they still call police vehicles "paddy wagons" so we still have a bit to go!

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eileend | Jul 12, 2010, 01:44 PM EDT

My addition to the list would be the obvious: Barry Fitzgerald and Victor McLachlen.

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irishfez | Jul 12, 2010, 12:19 PM EDT

Good old Maureen...

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donal1951 | Jul 12, 2010, 10:58 AM EDT

I love old gangster movies, especially those starring James Cagney, and Westerns with John Wayne, especially those costarring the great Maureen O'Hara. I confess I never thought how they may have improved my lot over that of my father, who stepped off the boat at Ellis Island in 1928, filled with never-realized dreams. It's an interesting premise and I certainly can see how films such as The Bells of St. Marys and Going My Way, along with Father Flanagan's Boys Town, put the church in a good way and helped end blatent anti-Catholicism.

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