Happy Saint Patrick's Day! My Aunt Ruth Riley always said, after this day, spring is here. In my family, we didn't do too much on this Irish day of celebration. My mother -- who is not Irish -- would dutifully cook a corned beef and cabbage dinner to mark the occasion and we'd have some bakery made Irish soda bread, too.
My Irish ancestors came to Fall River from County Cork, in the later 1800's, living in what is now known as the Corky Row District. John and Catherine Riley and their brood. They were a smart, industrious lot, the women rather bold for their day, attending high school and even college, living singly or divorcing. It was a matriarchal family system, unconventional in that time; my father spent his formative years growing up in a tenement house on High Street, with his mother, uncles, one aunt, sister and grandmother. The aunt toiled in the city's mills, spending long hours winding bobbins and chewing tobacco, which inevitably claimed her life. Eventually, my father and his sister moved to Somerset with his newly remarried mother and there, they left those early rough-and-tumble Fall River memories behind.
As with most emigrant families, the early memories of arriving in this great melting pot quickly fade. The Irish in Fall River -- and all over Massachusetts -- quickly overcame fear and bigotry. Catholic churches were built shortly after the first wave of emigration; St. Patrick's Church, "the Irish church" in Fall River was built in 1875. Irish social clubs were founded. Political influencers were born. My grandmother was a die-hard Kennedy family fan her entire life, forever honoring her roots.
Today is a day to celebrate our Irish heritage as well as recognize the trials and triumphs of all arrivals to this great country.
No comments:
Post a Comment