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• 1 media/shoes ps.jpg 2016-08-19T04:15:08-07:00 The Need for an Irish-American Historical Society 7 A Speech by Dennis Harvey Sheahan, 1898 image_header 2017-07-12T13:40:23-07:00 Dennis Harvey Sheahan, “The Need of an Organization such as the American-Irish Historical Society and its Scope.” From Proceedings of the American-Irish Historical Society, edited by Thomas Hamilton Murray and Thomas Bonaventure Lawler, Vol. I, Boston, 1898, p. 69-73. Irish Americans founded the Irish-American Historical Society in 1897 in an effort to improve the image of Irish immigrants at a time when they faced prejudice. The Society’s motto is, “That the world may know.” It emphasizes Irish traditions and contributions to the United States. 
  
  The Need for an Organization Such as the Irish-American Historical Society
  
  The history of a country is dear to the heart of the lover of that country. By the aid of historical study we learn of the origin, growth, and development of a race of people; their customs, religions, laws, governments; their accomplishments and what they have contributed to the economy of the world. The historian points out the past to the present and future. He puts aside the veil that has gathered about the dim past, opens up to the gaze of the bright present the panorama of human achievement, and blazes the way for his successor in the rosy future. . . .
  
  The citizen of a republic who neglects to learn the fundamental principles upon which rest the laws of the land, who does not know how the country was developed and maintained, is as a blind man, and is not able to bring to the exercise of his suffrage the amount of intelligence that the country has a right to require from him.
  
  This obligation comes to us in a twofold capacity. We, as citizens of this great Republic, should study the history of our country from a patriotic standpoint, while as Irishmen, or descendants of that race, it should be not only a duty but a pleasure to learn of the deeds of Irishmen in America.
  
  Therefore, an organization such as the American-Irish Historical Society, if it had no other raison d’etre, would accomplish a patriotic purpose if it served only as an incentive to the study of the deeds of Irishmen in America. . . .
  
  The passions, influences, and conditions which generate, shape, and control events lend a coloring to their recital which, deep-lined or faint as painted by the writer at the time, are toned down or made stronger by the historian of a future generation who, unmindful of passions, influences, or conditions, and with an eye single to the preservation of history by means of the truth, makes past occurrences stand out in their true light.
  
  Deeds that have received but a passing mention from writers whose minds were biased are rescued from an unmerited insignificance and placed high in the Temple of Fame, while highly extolled acts, given an undue prominence by a partisan writer, are consigned to a merited oblivion by the historian of a later but more impartial epoch.
  
  It is not often true of history that the stone which was rejected by the builder becomes the corner stone of the edifice. . . .
  
  Should the American-Irish Historical Society go out of existence tonight, it would have already accomplished a grand mission in this: that it has brought forth from obscure records the deeds of Irishmen in America, and has laid the foundation for the erection of an historical monument to Irishmen that, with its base laid in colonial times, and still being constructed, challenges the respect and admiration of all lovers of American history. . . .
  
  The true status of the Irish in America, notwithstanding the fact that their brain and brawn have been interwoven in the woof and web of our nation’s fabric, has never been fully appreciated, by reason of the prejudices which have been associated with anything that bore an Irish name. This prejudice, in no small part, arose from misconception and misunderstanding of the Irish nature, temperament, and characteristics. There is a brand of bigotry that is sometimes designated as inborn. In the case of a bigot whose bigotry is congenital, it is well to follow the scriptural injunction to reason not with a fool lest he grow wise. But in the case of those persons who, by reason of misconception or want of acquaintance with Irishmen, cannot properly estimate our race, yet whose minds are broad enough to cherish the worth of a man when demonstrated, and whose patriotism counts every man a friend who has contributed to the glory of his country, an impartial history of the deeds of Irishmen in America would effectively serve to displace any prejudice. . . .
  
  What patriotic American can fail to be moved by emotions of gratitude when he learns among other facts that the Irish in Ireland assisted with food and provisions the struggling settlers of Boston in a time of dire distress; that Irishmen of Philadelphia contributed large sums of money to the famished Revolutionary heroes at Valley Forge; that George Washington considered himself honored in being elected a member of an Irish society; that nine of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were men of Irish blood; that on the field of war, and in the council chamber of the nation, as well as in the administration of national, state, and municipal affairs, from the time of our earliest history to the present time, men of that race have given their lives and property to the nation’s cause ? The work of this society thus far in this direction gives promise of either destroying the prejudices that have hitherto existed against the Irish people, or removing the venom from the fangs of bigotry.
  
  Questions to Think About and Discuss
  1. Why is recognition of the public accomplishments Irish (or other) immigrants important in a republic?
  2. Why is it important to record the history of a nation or a group according to Sheahy? Do you agree or disagree?
  3. Sheahy describes two kinds of prejudice. How are they different? What is the relationship of historical information to each kind?