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Promoting Irish Culture and History from Little Rock, Arkansas, USA

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Death of Al Smith, Irish American Four Term Governor of New York

Alfred Emanuel Smith, Irish American politician who serves four terms as the 42nd governor of New York and is the Democratic Party‘s presidential nominee in 1928 United States presidential election, dies on October 4, 1944, in New York City.

Smith is born at 174 South Street, New York City, on December 30, 1873, and raised in the Fourth Ward on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. He resides there for his entire life. His mother, Catherine (née Mulvihill), is the daughter of Maria Marsh and Thomas Mulvihill, who are immigrants from County Westmeath, Ireland. His father, baptised Joseph Alfred Smith in 1839, is a Civil War–veteran and the son of Emanuel Smith, an Italian marinaro.

Although Smith remains personally untarnished by corruption, he — like many other New York Democrats — is linked to the notorious Tammany Hall political machine that controls New York City politics during his era. He serves in the New York State Assembly from 1904 to 1915 and holds the position of Speaker of the Assembly in 1913. He also serves as sheriff of New York County from 1916 to 1917. He is first elected governor of New York in 1918, loses his 1920 bid for re-election, and is elected governor again in 1922, 1924, and 1926. He is the foremost urban leader of the efficiency movement in the United States and is noted for achieving a wide range of reforms as the New York governor in the 1920s.

Smith is the first Roman Catholic to be nominated for president of the United States by a major party. His 1928 presidential candidacy mobilizes both Catholic and anti-Catholic voters. Many Protestants, including German American Lutherans and Southern Baptists, fear his candidacy, believing that the Pope in Rome would dictate his policies. He is also a committed “wet” (i.e., an opponent of Prohibition in the United States) and as New York governor, he repeals the state’s prohibition law. As a “wet,” he attracts voters who want beer, wine and liquor without having to deal with criminal bootleggers, along with voters who are outraged that new criminal gangs have taken over the streets in most large and medium-sized cities. Incumbent Republican Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover is aided by national prosperity, the absence of American involvement in war and anti-Catholic bigotry, and he defeats Smith in a landslide in 1928.

Smith then enters business in New York City and becomes involved in the construction and promotion of the Empire State Building. He seeks the 1932 Democratic presidential nomination but is defeated by Franklin D. Roosevelt, his former ally and successor as governor of New York. During the Roosevelt presidency, he becomes an increasingly vocal opponent of Roosevelt’s New Deal.

Smith is an early and vocal critic of the Nazi regime in Germany. He supports the Anti-Nazi boycott of 1933 and addresses a mass-meeting at Madison Square Garden against Nazism in March 1933. His speech is included in the 1934 anthology Nazism: An Assault on Civilization. In 1938, he takes to the airwaves to denounce Nazi brutality in the wake of Kristallnacht. His words are published in The New York Times article “Text of the Catholic Protest Broadcast” of November 17, 1938.

Like most New York City businessmen, Smith enthusiastically supports American military involvement in World War II. Although he is not asked by Roosevelt to play any role in the war effort, he is an active and vocal proponent of FDR’s attempts to amend the Neutrality Act in order to allow “Cash and Carry” sales of war equipment to be made to the British. He speaks on behalf of the policy in October 1939, to which FDR responds directly: “Very many thanks. You were grand.”

In 1939, Smith is appointed a Papal Chamberlain of the Sword and Cape, one of the highest honors which the Papacy bestows on a layman.

Smith dies of a heart attack at the age of 70 at the Rockefeller Institute Hospital on October 4, 1944. He had been broken-hearted over the death of his wife from cancer five months earlier, on May 4, 1944. He is interred at Calvary Cemetery, a Catholic cemetery in Maspeth and Woodside, Queens, New York City.

Smith is memorialized by The Alfred E. Smith Foundation, founded by Cardinal Francis Spellman. Today it is a significant fund raiser for charity. Each election year, presidential candidates are expected to attend, make witty remarks, and profound commentary about Smith. In 2008, then candidate Barack Obama speaks eloquently of “a man who fought for many years to give Americans nothing more than fair shake and a chance to succeed. He touched the lives of millions as a result.”

(Pictured: Official Gubernatorial portrait of Alfred E. “Al” Smith by Douglas Volk)


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Thomas “Silken Thomas” FitzGerald Confronts King Henry VIII

Thomas FitzGerald, Lord Offaly at the time, known as “Silken Thomas” because of the silk worn on his followers’ helmets, rides through Dublin with a large band of followers on June 11, 1534, as he has heard the false rumour spread by Henry VIII that his father, Gerald FitzGerald, 9th Earl of Kildare, has been executed in the Tower of London. He enters the Chapter House of St. Mary’s Abbey, Dublin, where the King’s Counsel is awaiting him and flings down his Sword of State. This is a dramatic act of defiance, by which he hopes to force his claim to power. Henry VIII treats it as an act of open revolt and confines his father to the Tower where he dies two months later.

FitzGerald is born in London in 1513, the son of Gerald FitzGerald, 9th Earl of Kildare and his first wife Elizabeth Zouche, who is a distant cousin of Henry VII.

In February 1534, FitzGerald’s father is summoned to London and appoints his then 21-year-old son deputy governor of Ireland in his absence. In June 1534 FitzGerald hears rumours that his father has been executed in the Tower of London and that the English government intends the same fate for himself and his uncles.

FitzGerald summons the council to St. Mary’s Abbey, Dublin, and on June 11, 1534, accompanied by 140 armoured gallowglasses with silk fringes on their helmets, rides to the abbey and publicly renounces his allegiance to his cousin King Henry VIII, Lord of Ireland.

The Lord Chancellor of Ireland and Archbishop of Dublin, John Alen, attempts to persuade FitzGerald not to commit himself to such a rash proceeding. The young lord’s harper, however, understanding only Irish, and seeing signs of wavering in FitzGerald’s bearing, commences to recite a poem in praise of the deeds of his ancestors, telling him at the same time that he lingers there too long. Roused by this he throws down the sword of state and rushes from the hall, followed by his adherents. The council sends an order for his immediate arrest to the Lord Mayor of Dublin, who does not have sufficient force at his disposal.

The Earl of Desmond and many of FitzGerald’s father’s oldest and best friends’ reason with him but he is not to be turned from his purpose. As Vice-Deputy, he has under his control most of the Pale‘s fortresses and large government stores.

Dublin Castle alone holds out for the King of England. FitzGerald calls the lords of the Pale to the siege of the Castle. Those who refuse to swear fidelity to him are sent as prisoners to his Maynooth Castle. Goods and chattels belonging to the King’s subjects he declares forfeited, and he announces his intention of exiling or putting to death all born in England. He sends messengers to his cousin and friend Lord Butler, son of the Earl of Ormond, offering to divide the kingdom with him if he will join his cause, but Butler refuses. Several children of the citizens of Dublin in different parts of the Pale are seized as hostages for the good behavior of the city.

In July, FitzGerald attacks Dublin Castle, but his army is routed. He is, rightly or wrongly, judged to be responsible for the execution at Artane of Archbishop Alen, who had tried to mediate. This loses him support from the clergy. According to a long-established tradition, the killers, John Teeling and Nicholas Wafer, misunderstand his order, given in Irish, to “take this fellow away” as an order to kill Alen. By this time his father has taken ill and died in London, and he has technically succeeded as 10th Earl, but the Crown never confirms his title. He retreats to his stronghold at Maynooth Castle, but in March 1535 this is taken by an English force under Sir William Skeffington by bribing a guard, while Thomas is absent gathering reinforcements to relieve it. The surrendered garrison is put to death, which becomes known as the “Maynooth Pardon.” FitzGerald has wrongly assumed that his cause would attract overwhelming support, in particular from Catholics opposed to Henry VIII’s English Reformation. But Henry’s new policy also outlaws Lutheranism, and so Henry is not finally excommunicated until 1538.

In July, Lord Leonard Grey arrives from England as Lord Deputy of Ireland. FitzGerald, seeing his army melting away and his allies submitting one by one, asks for pardon for his offences. He is still a formidable opponent, and Grey, wishing to avoid a prolonged conflict, guarantees his personal safety and persuades him to submit unconditionally to the King’s mercy. According to the Tree Council of Ireland, legend has it that FitzGerald plays a lute under the boughs of the now oldest planted tree in Ireland, the Silken Thomas Yew, the night before he surrenders to King Henry VIII.

In October 1535, FitzGerald is sent as a prisoner to the Tower of London. The Attainder of the Earl of Kildare Act 1536 is passed to permit his execution and the confiscation of his property. Despite Grey’s guarantee, he is executed with his five uncles at Tyburn, London, on February 3, 1537. The 1536 Act remains law until it is repealed by the Statute Law Revision (Pre-1922) Act 2005.

FitzGerald’s revolt causes Henry to pay more attention to Irish matters and is a factor in the creation of the Kingdom of Ireland in 1541. In particular the powers of the lord’s deputy are curbed, and policies such as surrender and regrant are introduced. To provide for greater security the Royal Irish Army is established as a standing army.


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Execution of Lord “Silken” Thomas FitzGerald

Thomas FitzGerald, 10th Earl of Kildare, also known as Silken Thomas, a leading figure in 16th-century Irish history, is executed along with his five uncles in Tyburn, England, on February 3, 1537.

FitzGerald is born in London in 1513, the son of Gerald FitzGerald, 9th Earl of Kildare, and his first wife Elizabeth Zouche, who is a distant cousin of Henry VII of England.

In February 1534, his father is summoned to London and appoints the 21-year-old FitzGerald, by then Lord Offaly, deputy governor of Ireland in his absence. In June 1534 he hears rumours that his father has been executed in the Tower of London and that the English government intends the same fate for him and his uncles.

FitzGerald summons the council to St. Mary’s Abbey, Dublin, and on June 11, accompanied by 140 armoured gallowglasses with silk fringes on their helmets (from which he gets his nickname), rides to the abbey and publicly renounces his allegiance to his cousin King Henry VIII, Lord of Ireland.

John Alen, Lord Chancellor of Ireland and Archbishop of Dublin, attempts to persuade FitzGerald not to commit himself to such a rash proceeding. But the young lord’s harper, understanding only Irish, and seeing signs of wavering in FitzGerald’s bearing, commences to recite a poem in praise of the deeds of his ancestors, telling him at the same time that he lingered there too long. Roused by this he throws down the sword of state and rushes from the hall, followed by his adherents. The council sends an order for his immediate arrest to the Lord Mayor of Dublin, who, however, has not sufficient force at his disposal.

The Earl of Desmond and many of FitzGerald’s father’s oldest and best friends’ reason with him, but he is not to be turned from his purpose. As Vice-Deputy, he has under his control most of the Pale‘s fortresses, and large government stores.

Dublin Castle alone holds out for the King of England. Lord Offaly calls the lords of the Pale to the siege of the Castle. Those who refuse to swear fidelity to him are sent as prisoners to his Maynooth Castle. Goods and chattels belonging to the King’s subjects are declared forfeited, and he announces his intention of exiling or putting to death all born in England. He sends messengers to his cousin and friend Lord Butler, son of the Earl of Ormond, offering to divide the kingdom with him if he would join his cause, but Butler refuses. Several children of the citizens of Dublin in different parts of the Pale are seized as hostages for the good behavior of the city.

In July, FitzGerald attacks Dublin Castle, but his army is routed. He is, rightly or wrongly, judged to be responsible for the execution at Artane of Archbishop Alen, who had tried to mediate. This loses him support from the clergy. According to a long-established tradition, the killers, John Teeling and Nicholas Wafer, misunderstand his order, given in Irish, to “take this fellow away” as an order to kill Alen. By this time his father has taken ill and died in London, and he succeeds him as 10th Earl of Kildare, but the Crown never confirms his title. He retreats to his stronghold at Maynooth Castle, but in March 1535 it is taken by an English force under Sir William Skeffington by bribing a guard, while FitzGerald is absent gathering reinforcements to relieve it. The surrendered garrison is put to death, which becomes known as the “Maynooth Pardon.” He has wrongly assumed that his cause would attract overwhelming support, in particular from Catholics opposed to Henry VIII’s English Reformation. But Henry’s new policy also outlaws Lutheranism, and so Henry is not finally excommunicated until 1538.

In July, Lord Leonard Grey arrives from England as Lord Deputy of Ireland. Fitzgerald, seeing his army melting away and his allies submitting one by one, asks for pardon for his offences. He is still a formidable opponent, and Grey, wishing to avoid a prolonged conflict, guarantees his personal safety and persuades him to submit unconditionally to the King’s mercy. According to the Tree Council of Ireland, legend has it that FitzGerald plays a lute under the boughs of the now oldest planted tree in Ireland, the Silken Thomas Yew, the night before he surrenders to King Henry VIII. In October 1535 he is sent as a prisoner to the Tower of London. Despite Grey’s guarantee, he is hanged, drawn, and quartered with his five uncles at Tyburn, London, on February 3, 1537.

The Attainder of the Earl of Kildare Act 1536 is passed to permit his execution and the confiscation of his property. The 1536 Act remains law until it is repealed by the Statute Law Revision (Pre-1922) Act 2005.

FitzGerald’s revolt causes Henry VIII to pay more attention to Irish matters and is a factor in the creation of the Kingdom of Ireland in 1541. In particular the powers of the lord’s deputy are curbed, and policies such as surrender and regrant are introduced. To provide for greater security the Royal Irish Army is established as a standing army.