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Birth of Thomas Fitzsimons, U.S. Merchant & Statesman

Thomas Fitzsimons, Irish-born American Founding Father, merchant, banker, and politician, is born in Ireland on October 11, 1741. His birthplace is variously given as Nobber, County Wicklow; Limerick, County Limerick; the north of Ireland; and Edenderry, County Offaly. He represents Pennsylvania in the Continental Congress, the Constitutional Convention and the United States House of Representatives.

In the mid-1750s, Fitzsimons’s family immigrates to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where his father dies soon thereafter. He has enough education that he begins work as a clerk in a mercantile house. He marries Catherine Meade on November 23, 1761, and forms a business partnership with her brother George. Their firm, which specializes in the West Indies trade, operates successfully for over 41 years.

The firm is soon hit by the new revenue measures created to help support the finances of the British Empire, including the much reviled Stamp Act of 1765. Concerned with these ideas, Fitzsimons becomes active in the Irish merchant community in Philadelphia. He is a founding member of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick in 1771 and later, in 1774, a steering committee organized to protest the Coercive Acts.

When Pennsylvania begins mobilizing and organizing a militia to fight the British, Fitzsimons is soon involved. He serves as captain of a company of home guards under the command of Colonel John Caldwalader. Initially his company serves as part of the soldiers who man posts along the New Jersey coast. His unit later serves as part of the reserve at the Battle of Trenton in 1776. Later in the war, he serves on the Pennsylvania Council of Safety and heads a board to oversee the newly formed Pennsylvania Navy.

Fitzsimons enters active politics as a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1782 and 1783. He is a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1786 until 1795. He is also a delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention in 1787. Although not a leading member of that convention, he supports a strong national government, the end of slavery, the United States Congress‘s powers to impose a tariff on imports and exports, the granting the House of Representatives, and power in equal to the United States Senate in making treaties. He is one of only two Catholic signers of the Constitution of the United States, the other being Daniel Carroll of Maryland.

After the Constitution is established, Fitzsimons serves in the first three sessions of the House of Representatives as a Federalist, where he favors protective tariffs and a strong navy, co-drafting the Naval Act of 1794 authorizing the original six frigates of the United States Navy. He fails to win re-election in 1794. This is partially attributed to public opinion turning against the Federalist Party over the forceful suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion. Although he never holds elective office again, he serves in 1798 as head of the committee of merchants overseeing the subscription-loan to build a warship at private expense for use in the Quasi-War.

In 1796, Fitzsimons, along with James Innes of Virginia, is appointed by President John Adams to serve as one of two American members on the five-man debt commission charged under Article VI of the Jay Treaty with examining the claims of British subjects unable to collect debts incurred by Americans prior to the American Revolution. Fitzsimons, Innes and Samuel Sitgreaves, who replaces Innes upon the latter’s death, become annoyed with the arguments used by their British counterparts to inflate the claims total. Fitzsimons and Sitgreaves angrily and permanently secede from the board in July 1799. The claims are eventually disposed of by a lump-sum payment, agreed upon by United States Minister to Britain Rufus King with British Foreign Secretary Robert Banks Jenkinson and approved by President Thomas Jefferson and the Senate in 1802.

While withdrawing from politics, Fitzsimons remains active in civic and business affairs. He serves as president of Philadelphia’s Chamber of Commerce, as a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania, Director of the Delaware Insurance Company and a director of the Bank of North America from 1781–1803. He is a founder of the bank and supports efforts to found Georgetown College. He also helps found the Insurance Company of North America.

Fitzsimons dies on August 26, 1811, in Philadelphia, where he is buried in the cemetery of St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, which is in present-day Independence National Historical Park.


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Mary McAleese Meets Bill Clinton in the Oval Office

On June 23, 1998, Irish president Mary McAleese pays a courtesy call on President Bill Clinton at the White House before he leaves for China. This is one of the highlights of her six-day visit to Washington, D.C. and New York.

As this is not a state visit, there is no formal welcome for President McAleese or official functions at the White House as there was for President Mary Robinson‘s state visit two years earlier. McAleese arrives the previous day by government jet, accompanied by her husband, Dr. Martin McAleese, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, David Andrews, and his wife. The McAleese’s son, thirteen-year-old Justin McAleese, travels to the United States separately and joined his parents in Washington, D.C..

Within hours of her arrival, McAleese attends a reception in the Four Seasons Hotel mainly for the Irish American community and hosted by the Irish ambassador, Sean O Huiginn, and his wife. In her remarks to the several hundred guests, President McAleese praises the role of President Clinton in the Northern Ireland peace process and of former Senator George Mitchell. She says Clinton’s contribution has been “remarkable.” She says, “He was prepared to take risks for peace: without his courage and leadership we could not have made the progress we have.”

McAleese says many of those present “have descended from some of the first settlers of the early colonies – some of whom, like myself, come from the northern part of the island of Ireland. I am deeply honoured that all of you have retained such a close bond and pride in your Irish heritage and that you demonstrated your affection by the strength of the many vibrant organisations in this area.”

McAleese says when our forebears crossed the Atlantic Ocean they retained a yearning that someday the Ireland they left would be a better place. “Regrettably, they did not live to see a new Ireland but it is now a reality in the economic, cultural and social progress of the last number of years.” Arranging the meeting at the White House is a problem for U.S. and Irish officials because of Clinton’s extremely busy schedule, as he prepares for his China visit. But the fact that he makes time for it is an indication of the importance he attaches to U.S.-Irish relations.

Later in the day, McAleese has lunch at the U.S. Supreme Court with Chief Justice William Rehnquist. This is followed by a speech at Georgetown University, mainly dealing with Northern Ireland.

In the evening, McAleese attends a dinner in her honour at the Irish Embassy residence, to which leading political and administration figures are invited. On June 24, following a press conference at the National Press Club and a lunch on Capitol Hill with members of Congress, she flies to New York. There she pays a courtesy visit on the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, and later attends a trade show organised by the Irish Business Organisation. In the evening she attends the “Dreamer of Dreams” awards ceremony organised by the Irish Voice newspaper.

On Thursday, June 25, McAleese has more engagements and prior to her return to Ireland on Friday, June 26.

(From: “McAleese for courtesy call on Clinton today” by Joe Carroll, The IrishTimes, http://www.irishtimes.com, July 23, 1998)


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Birth of Mick Moloney, Irish American Musician & Scholar

Michael “Mick” Moloney, Irish-born American musician and scholar, is born in Limerick, County Limerick, on November 15, 1944. He is the artistic director of several major arts tours and co-founds Green Fields of America.

Moloney is the son of Michael Moloney, the head air traffic control officer of Shannon Airport, and his wife, Maura, who works as the principal of a Limerick primary school. He first plays tenor banjo during his teenage years. He studies at University College Dublin (UCD), graduating with a bachelor’s degree in economics. He then relocates to London to be a social worker assisting immigrant communities, before joining The Johnstons. After playing with the group for five years, he immigrates to the United States in 1973. He initially settles in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and eventually becomes an American citizen.

Three years after moving to the United States, Moloney co-founds Green Fields of America, an ensemble of Irish musicians, singers, and dancers which tour across the country on several occasions. He also serves as the artistic director for several major arts tours. One of these is the 1985 festival in Manhattan titled “Cherish the Ladies” to highlight female musicians in the area of Irish traditional music, which had been dominated by men until that decade. He produces an album for the female group by the same name titled Irish Women Musicians in America. The group’s leader, Joanie Madden, is one of several future fellows of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to be mentored by Moloney. He produces and performs on over 70 albums and serves as advisor for numerous festivals and concerts across America, with ethnomusicologist and musician Daniel T. Neely putting the figure as high as 125 albums.

Moloney undertakes postgraduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania, obtaining a master’s degree before being awarded a Doctor of Philosophy in folklore and folk life in 1992. He goes on to teach ethnomusicology, folklore, and Irish studies at Penn, Georgetown University, and Villanova University. He is also global distinguished professor of music and Irish studies at New York University (NYU) until his death. In recognition of his work in public folklore, he receives a 1999 National Heritage Fellowship from the NEA.

In addition to music performance, Moloney writes Far from the Shamrock Shore: The Story of Irish American History Through Song, which is published by Crown Publications in February 2002 with a supplementary CD on Shanachie Records. He hosts three nationally syndicated series covering folk music on American Public Television (APT). He works as a consultant, performer, and interviewee on the RTÉ special Bringing It All Back Home, and is also a participant, consultant, and music arranger for Out of Ireland, a documentary film by PBS. He performs on the PBS special The Irish in America: Long Journey Home.

Moloney is married three times over the course of his life. His first marriage is to Miriam Murphy. His second marriage is to Philomena Murray. Together, they have one child but eventually divorce. His third marriage to Judy Sherman also ends in divorce. He is in a domestic partnership with Sangjan Chailungka at the time of his death. During his later years, he divides his time between Bangkok, where he resides with Chailungka, and his apartment in Greenwich Village. In Bangkok, he volunteers as a music therapist and teacher for abandoned children with HIV at the Mercy Center in the Khlong Toei district, which is founded by the Redemptorist priest Joseph H. Maier.

Moloney dies at the age of 77 on July 27, 2022, at his home in Manhattan, having played at the Maine Celtic Festival less than a week before. The cause of death is not announced.


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Death of James Hoban, Irish American Architect

James Hoban, Irish American architect best known for designing the White House in Washington, D.C., dies in Washington, D.C., on December 8, 1831.

Hoban is a Roman Catholic raised on the Desart Court estate belonging to the Earl of Desart near Callan, County Kilkenny. He works there as a wheelwright and carpenter until his early twenties, when he is given an “advanced student” place in the Dublin Society‘s Drawing School on Lower Grafton Street. He studies under Thomas Ivory. He excels in his studies and receives the prestigious Duke of Leinster‘s medal for drawings of “Brackets, Stairs, and Roofs” from the Dublin Society in 1780. He is an apprentice to Ivory, from 1779 to 1785.

Following the American Revolutionary War, Hoban emigrates to the United States, and establishes himself as an architect in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1785.

Hoban is in South Carolina by April 1787, where he designs numerous buildings including the Charleston County Courthouse (1790–92), built on the ruins of the former South Carolina Statehouse, which was burned in 1788. President George Washington admires Hoban’s work on his Southern Tour and may have met with him in Charleston in May 1791. Washington summons the architect to Philadelphia, the temporary national capital, in June 1792.

In July 1792, Hoban is named winner of the design competition for the White House. His initial design has a 3-story facade, nine bays across, like the Charleston courthouse. Under Washington’s influence, he amends this to a 2-story facade, eleven bays across, and, at Washington’s insistence, the whole presidential mansion is faced with stone. It is unclear whether any of Hoban’s surviving drawings are actually from the competition.

It is known that Hoban owns at least three slaves who are employed as carpenters in the construction of the White House. Their names are recorded as “Ben, Daniel, and Peter” and appear in a James Hoban slave payroll.

Hoban is also one of the supervising architects who serves on the United States Capitol, carrying out the design of Dr. William Thornton, as well as with The Octagon House. He lives the rest of his life in Washington, D.C., where he works on other public buildings and government projects, including roads and bridges.

Local folklore has it that Hoban designed Rossenarra House near the village of Kilmoganny in County Kilkenny in 1824.

Hoban’s wife, Susanna “Susan” Sewall, is the sister of the prominent Georgetown City Tavern proprietor, Clement Sewall, who enlists as a sergeant at age 19 in the Maryland Line during the Revolutionary War, is promoted six months later to ensign and then severely wounded at the Battle of Germantown.

After the District of Columbia is granted limited home rule in 1802, Hoban serves on the twelve-member city council for most of the remainder of his life, except during the years he is rebuilding the White House. He is also involved in the development of Catholic institutions in the city, including Georgetown University, St. Patrick’s Parish, and the Georgetown Visitation Monastery founded by another Kilkenny native, Teresa Lalor of Ballyragget.

Hoban dies in Washington, D.C., on December 8, 1831. He is originally buried at Holmead’s Burying Ground, but is disinterred and reburied at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, D.C. His son, James Hoban, Jr., said to closely resemble his father, serves as district attorney of the District of Columbia.

(Pictured: Portrait of James Hoban, Irish architect, wax bas-relief on glass, attributed to John Christian Rauschner, circa 1800)


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Patrick Francis Healy Becomes President of Georgetown University

Patrick Francis Healy, Jesuit priest and educator, becomes the 29th President of Georgetown University on July 31, 1874. He is known for expanding the school following the American Civil War. Healy Hall is constructed during his tenure and is named after him. It is designated as a National Historic Landmark in the late 20th century.

Healy is born into slavery in 1834 in Macon, Georgia, the third son of Irish American plantation owner Michael Healy and his African American slave Mary Eliza, who is the multiracial daughter of a black slave and white slaveowner. The law establishes during colonial slavery in the United States that children are to take the legal status of the mother. By the principle of partus sequitur ventrum, Patrick and his siblings are legally considered slaves in Georgia, although their father is free, and they are three-quarters or more European in ancestry.

Discriminatory laws in Georgia prohibit the education of slaves and require legislative approval for each act of manumission, making these essentially impossible to gain. Michael Healy arranges for all his children to leave Georgia and move to the North to obtain their educations and have opportunities in their lives. They are raised as Irish Catholics. Patrick’s brothers and sisters are nearly all educated in Catholic schools and colleges. Many achieve notable firsts for Americans of mixed-race ancestry during the second half of the 19th century, and the Healy family of Georgia is remarkably successful.

Healy sends his older sons first to a Quaker school in Flushing, New York. Despite the Quakers’ emphasis on equality, Patrick encounters some discrimination during his grade school years, chiefly because his father is a slaveholder, which by the late antebellum years the Quakers consider unforgivable. Patrick also meets resistance in the school as an Irish Catholic. When Michael Healy hears of a new Jesuit college, the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, he sends his four oldest sons, including Patrick, to study there in 1844. They are joined at Holy Cross by their younger brother Michael in 1849.

Following Patrick’s graduation in 1850, he enters the Jesuit order, the first African American to do so, and continues his studies. The order sends him to Europe to study in 1858. His mixed-race ancestry has become an issue in the United States, where tensions are rising over slavery. He attends the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, earning his doctorate, becoming the first American of openly acknowledged part-African descent to do so. During this period, he is also ordained to the priesthood on September 3, 1864.

In 1866 Healy returns to the United States and teaches philosophy at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. On July 31, 1874, he is selected as the school’s twenty-ninth president. He is the first college president in the United States of African American ancestry. At the time, he identifies as Irish Catholic and is accepted as such.

Patrick Healy’s influence on Georgetown is so far-reaching that he is often referred to as the school’s “second founder,” following Archbishop John Carroll. Healy helps transform the small nineteenth-century college into a major university for the twentieth century, likely influenced by his European education.

He modernizes the curriculum by requiring courses in the sciences, particularly chemistry and physics. He expands and upgrades the schools of law and medicine. The most visible result of Healy’s presidency is the construction of the university’s flagship building designed by Paul J. Pelz, begun in 1877 and first used in 1881. The building is named in his honor as Healy Hall.

Healy leaves the College in 1882 and travels extensively through the United States and Europe, often in the company of his brother James, a bishop in Maine. In 1908 he returns to the campus infirmary, where he dies on January 10, 1910. He is buried on the grounds of the university in the Jesuit cemetery.