Inside the Kennedy White House

JFK's election brought Irish-American Catholics to the center of U.S. power

"They have since become a close-knit, highly professional team that is known in Administration circles as the Irish Mafia.'" - Time cover story, September 1, 1961

Now that Barack Obama has officially moved into the White House, many feel a sense of optimism, despite the vast challenges facing America.

Such feelings, naturally, recall January of 1961 when, on a bright, frozen Washington morning, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was inaugurated, declaring that "the torch has been passed to a new generation - born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage."

It wasn't just Kennedy's speech, youth and good looks that gave people a reason to feel optimistic. It was also the undeniable history of the occasion.

Kennedy was the descendant of an Irish Famine survivor and America's first Catholic president. So, awareness of this "ancient heritage" was inevitably going to trickle down and change the kinds of people at the center of American power.

As a trailblazer himself, Kennedy opened doors for those who might otherwise not have made it to the corridors of power.

Specifically, Irish American Catholics played a central role in early 1960s Washington.

Who were these movers and shakers who were so close to Kennedy, so Hibernian in background and temperament that they came to be called "the Irish mafia"?

The Irish "Murphia"

Of course, there had been Irish powerbrokers in Washington before Kennedy. Both James Farley and Thomas (the Cork) Corcoran were close aides to Franklin Roosevelt, while Mike Mansfield (the son of Irish immigrants) was elected to the Senate the same year JFK became president. However, the Irish - even when they achieved great power in New York, Boston and Chicago - generally ruled over their native cities, rather than Washington.

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