Blackness and Transatlantic Irish Identity Routledge Research in Race and Ethnicity 1. Racial Discrimination Institutional Patterns and Politics Masoud Kamali 2. Black Masculinity and Sexual Politics Anthony J. Lemelle, Jr. 3. Represent Art and Identity Among the Black Upper-Middle Class Patricia A. Banks 4. Blackness and Transatlantic Irish Identity Celtic Soul Brothers Lauren Onkey Blackness and Transatlantic Irish Identity Celtic Soul Brothers Lauren Onkey New York London First published 2010 by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10016 Simultaneously published in the UK by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2009. To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk. © 2010 Taylor & Francis All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereaf- ter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trade- marks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Onkey, Lauren. Blackness and transatlantic Irish identity : celtic soul brothers / by Lauren Onkey. p. cm.—(Routledge research in race and ethnicity ; 4) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Irish Americans—Ethnic identity. 2. Irish—Race identity. 3. African Americans— Relations with Irish Americans. 4. Race discrimination. 5. Group identity. I. Title. E184.I6O55 2009 305.891'62073—dc22 2009030962 ISBN 0-203-85989-8 Master e-book ISBN ISBN10: 0-415-80189-3 (hbk) ISBN10: 0-203-85989-8 (ebk) ISBN13: 978-0-415-80189-8 (hbk) ISBN13: 978-0-203-85989-6 (ebk) Contents Acknowledgments vii 1 Introduction: “Aren’t We a Little White for That Kind of Thing?” 1 2 “A Representative Americanized Irishman”: John Boyle O’Reilly 32 3 Melees 63 4 Bernadette’s Legacy 100 5 Ray Charles on Hyndford Street: Van Morrison’s Caledonian Soul 136 6 Born Under a Bad Sign 159 Conclusion: Micks for O’Bamagh 189 Notes 193 Works Cited 207 Index 217 Acknowledgments Writing may be a solitary activity, but nothing much comes of it without a supportive community. The Irish American Cultural Institute, the Ball State University Offi ce of Research and Sponsored Programs, the Ball State University Offi ce of the Provost, and the Ball State English Department all provided generous research support for this book. Special thanks to the Boston College Irish Studies program for a 2004 summer research fellow- ship and to Harris Manchester College at Oxford University for a research fellowship in 2000. Librarians at the New York Public Library, the NYPL’s Billy Rose Theatre Collection, the John J. Burns Library at Boston College, and the Boston Public Library provided prompt, professional assistance and suggestions. The Ball State University Library Interlibrary Loan staff patiently tracked down materials from around the world. In addition to research time and conference travel support, the Ball State English Depart- ment provided funding for many graduate and undergraduate research assistants who helped me to fi nd and organize materials: I thank Rachel Baumgardner, Shannon Coogan, David Dunham, Wendy Bruce Hammer, Aaron Housholder, Krista Quesenberry, and Rebecca Wheeler for their hard work. Karen Neubauer’s sharp editing skills were essential at the fi n- ish line. I’m grateful to my editors at Routledge, Benjamin Holtzman and Max Novick, for their enthusiasm and support. This book contains material reprinted from the following original sources: Onkey, Lauren. “‘Not Quite White?’: Black 47’s Funky Ceili,” New Hiber- nia Review: A Quarterly Record of Irish Studies 3.1 (March 1999): 45–60, published by the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. Onkey, Lauren. “Ray Charles on Hyndford Street: Van Morrison’s Caledo- nian Soul,” in The Irish In Us: Irishness, Performativity, and Popular Culture, Diane Negra, Ed., pps. 161–195. Copyright 2006, Duke Univer- sity Press, all rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of the publisher. viii Acknowledgments Onkey, Lauren. “James Farrell’s Studs Lonigan Trilogy and the Anxieties of Race,” Eire-Ireland 40.3–4 (Fall/Winter 2005): 104–118. Copyright (c) 2005: Irish American Cultural Institute, 1 Lackawanna Place, Mor- ristown, NJ 07960. Reproduced by permission of the publisher. Onkey, Lauren. “Celtic Soul Brothers,” Eire-Ireland 28.3 (Autumn 1993): 147–158. Copyright (c) 1993: Irish American Cultural Institute, 1 Lack- awanna Place, Morristown, NJ 07960. Reproduced by permission of the publisher. Letter from John Boyle O’Reilly to Edwin P. Whipple, 20 March 1878, ms.219; letter from John Boyle O’Reilly to Epes Sargent, 9–10 March 1880, mss.Acc.2594; letter from Oliver Wendell Holmes to J. B. O’Reilly, 2 October 1878, mss.Acc.623 (7). Courtesy of the Trustees of the Boston Public Library/Rare Books. Lyrics from the songs “History of Ireland, Part I,” “Touched by Fire,” and the Five Points,” by the band Black 47, published by Starry Plough Music, courtesy of Larry Kirwan. Lyrics from the song “Time To Go,” by the band Black 47, courtesy of Chris Byrne. All Souls by Michael Patrick MacDonald. Copyright © 1999 by Michael Patrick MacDonald. Reprinted by permission of Beacon Press, Boston Excerpts from EASTER RISING: An Irish American Coming Up from Under by Michael Patrick MacDonald. Copyright © 2006 by Michael Patrick MacDonald. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Miffl in Har- court Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Excerpts from World Without End, Amen reprinted by permission of SLL/ Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc. Copyright by James Breslin. Tom Hayden, Irish on the Inside, © Verso, 2002. Many colleagues in Irish studies have been source of inspiration and resources over the years: thanks to Margot Backus, Elizabeth Butler Cullingford, Catherine Eagan, Luke Gibbons, Michael Patrick Gillespie, David Gleeson, Katie Kane, James Rogers, Karen Steele, John Waters, Steve Watt, and Anne Owens Weekes. I am especially grateful to the fac- ulty in the Boston College Irish Studies program for helping me to focus and contextualize the project: Kevin Kenny, Marjorie Howes, Robert Savage, Vera Kreilkamp, and Ruth Ann Harris. Jim Smith’s friendship, support, generosity, and intellectual rigor have helped to guide my career Acknowledgments ix since 1990. I am grateful to him for constant encouragement and chal- lenging questions. Colleagues at Ball State University gave me room to pursue research that was off the beaten path. Thanks to Warren Van der Hill, Tom Koontz, Patti White, Linda Hanson, and Paul Ranieri for helping me create an aca- demic home. Joe Trimmer and the students in my Virginia Ball Center for Creative Inquiry seminar taught me how to collaborate and a healthy disre- spect for disciplinary boundaries. Thanks to Robert Habich for sharing his expertise on Boston literary history and tracking down those O’Reilly let- ters. I would not have fi nished without Jill Christman’s trenchant insights on the writing process—not to mention her devoted friendship. The Read- ing Groupies carefully read fragments of this manuscript over many years and offered detailed, challenging advice (and nourishing food and drink): thanks to Adam Beach, Patrick Collier, Joyce Huff, Kecia McBride, Debo- rah Mix, and Rebecca Stern. To my many Muncie pals, thanks for the fellowship around the table: Tim Berg, Barbara Bogue, Dave Concepcion, Carolyn MacKay, Paul McBride, Mark Neely, Jackie Grutsch McKin- ney, Todd McKinney, Klaus Neumann, and Frank Trechsel. Cindy Collier always kept things going with a pan and a plan. And thanks to Ella Neely for pointing out that there was no monkey on my back. Friendship with Jerry Weber and Elizabeth Price created a northwoods haven that offered the space and quiet to get down to what was really real—here’s to many more years on the lake. The Strat online community transformed my writing. Dave Marsh, Craig Werner, Danny Alexander, and Daniel Wolff especially pushed me to write like I meant it—thank you fallitinme. Thanks to Terry Stewart of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and Mary Davis of Case Western Reserve University for inspiration to free fall. Pat Okker, my sister jukebox graduate, sustained me with road trips, incisive readings, wristbands, and complex meals. She forged the big river on this project one cold New Year’s Day—it’s a debt I’ll enjoy owing for many years to come. Thanks to my parents, Rita and William Onkey, for support and love, and to my sister, Ellen Fajfar, for all the encouragement, and all the music. And fi nally, to my husband, Robert Nowatzki, for reading drafts and offering advice, for his expertise on nine- teenth-century American literature and the history of minstrelsy, for help at all the archives we visited over the years, for encouragement, for steadiness. But mostly for his everyday love, patience, and comedy.