Which Bill Chambers are you speaking of?

                                                CLEVELAND'S IRISH CULTURAL FESTIVAL                                     

            or Which Bill Chambers are you speaking of?

by

    J.C. Sullivan

Copyright, 1997

         Cleveland's West Irish-American Club sports  a  record for picking   wet weekends for their Annual Ohio Irish Festival at their spacious and impressive grounds in North Olmsted. According to Bill Chambers.. well, wait a minute - let's back up a moment. When you talk about Bill Chambers in Cleveland, you'd better apply the right moniker so one knows exactly which Bill you're speaking of.

     A past-Project engineer of the event, supported by a cast of hundreds, is 'Brick 'em' Bill Chambers, who together with his brother Emmett, operate Inland Refractories Company, a supplier of firebrick to the hot metals industry. Not to be confused, of course, with other colorful Cleveland Chambers.

     There's also 'Lay 'em down' Bill, from Chambers Funeral Home, opposite St. Patrick's Church (West Park) on Rocky River Drive. Because a three day Irish  mist visited a recent  Festival, wetting the crowd and grounds for the second year in a row, 'Lay 'em down' Bill said of 'Brick 'em Bill, "He ought to find a country that's suffering from a drought and get hired to stage a festival!"

     Another local, 'Sing 'em ' Bill is a performing artist at the festival and has been seen and  heard throughout Ohio with  various  other local performers.

     The fourth Bill one could speak of in Cleveland is  'Set 'em up' Bill, a tugboat Captain and former owner of the popular Public House, at Kamm's corner, Rocky River Drive and Lorain Avenue. Mayo visitors to Cleveland are always to be seen there. Sean Murray was there lrecently,  in town for his son's wedding. 'Set'em up'  sold  the Public House a few years ago so he’snow been crowned  'Tug 'em Bill.'  A classmate of this writer at St. Vincent DePaul grade School, he'll be the subject of a future story.  We fondly hope this story will  get by censors and moral advisers. I threatened him that I’d tell  Mayo readers how I saved his life after he cut his arm playing Pom-Pom-Poolaway in Jefferson Park. The deal was that if he ever bought a pub I'd drink for free the rest of my life. Maybe he was forced to sell the joint?        

     A visitor to another recent  festival was  former Ohio Congressman Martin Hoke, who claims kinship with Wexford's Ignatius Xavier Rossiter. Rossiter allegedly was a leader in the 1798 rising. Hoke visited the West Side I'A's tent where he purchased a sweater. When he said, "Hi, I'm Martin Hoke, Ann Halloran, recoiled in mock horror and said, "Ohmigod, a Republican!" It's assumed, of course, that to be Irish in America one must be a Democrat. Ten minutes later Hoke encountered a Halloran look-a-like while walking through the parking lot. His greeting brought another, "Ohmigod, a Republican," to which the Congressman replied, "Didn't we just meet?"  Turns out it was Halloran's sister. Ann had told her what had happened earlier and she was having fun too.

    Television Station WEWS TV5 caused a bit of a stir when they changed their tentative plans to interview Congressman Hoke. Wanting to interview him about President Clinton's policies, they'd made arrangements to speak with the Congressman outside the I-A's gates. The I-A has a strict policy of no- politicking on the grounds. However, because of the rain, the TV crew decided to move inside the gates, underneath the overhang by the Clubhouse. Ever-mindful Club President Helen Malloy gently reminded TV5 reporter Bill Shiels that there was to be no mention of the club when they broadcast the political interview later during the evening news. And they didn't! They did

interview Festival Staffer Mary Kay Bomberg and took their cameras around the grounds to show the Greater Cleveland viewing audience how much fun there was to be had by coming out to the Festival.

Shamrock and Sword - The San Patricio Battalion

Shamrock and Sword – Robert Ryal Miller

A Book Review by J.C. Sullivan

A part of Irish-American, or perhaps Irish-North American history, is little known in the U.S. but rather well-known in Mexico. The history of the San Patricio Battalion of the Mexican Army is mythological to many Mexicans and unknown to most American-Irish.

In the 1840s, conflict was occurring when the governments of Mexico and the United States could not agree on peaceful terms to resolve their dispute over land. President Polk moved troops opposite the Mexican border along the Rio Grande River. Among these troops were many foreign born soldiers. 25% of them, to be exact, were Irish. War with Mexico was begun in 1846.

Conditions in the American Army were crude – discipline was meted out horrifically when compared to today’s modern Army. Living in tents in the southern Texas’ environment was brutal. Food was ill-prepared and water was brackish. Given these conditions, when soldiers did get some time off in town, alcohol, handsome women and the promise of land in Mexico lured many Irishmen to desert the American Army and cross over to Mexico. Some were enticed with the promise land of their own if they joined the Mexican Army. Unfortunately, they ended up fighting against the American Army. With the latter victorious in the war, military court martials settled the fate of the San Patricios.

Robert Ryan Miller’s Shamrock and Sword (Oklahoma University Press, Norman, OK) is a masterpiece of scholarly research gleaned from American and Mexican newspaper accounts. Mexican government records were not made available to him in his research;  bribery is a way of life south of our border.

For Mexican readers, Miller, Professor Emeritus of History at California State University, sets the story straight, correcting their popular myths. At the same time he educates Americans about what really happened. More importantly, in this reviewer’s opinion, he devotes a chapter to Why They Defected. The American War with Mexico produced the highest rate of desertion in American military history.

A key figure in the San Patricio story is artillerist John Riley (Reilly), who said he was Galway-born.  According to Miller his home parish might have been Clifden. In 1845, when he joined the American Army, he stated he was thirty-five years old. This would give him a birth date of 1817. Miller indicates that by Riley’s own testimony he was a veteran of the British Army. He had demonstrated previous artillery expertise. Miller surmises that he might have deserted the British Army while he was possibly stationed in Canada.

After hostilities between the two nations ceased, the deserters were sentenced to death. Riley and others were eventually spared. However, in San Angel, sixteen San Patricos were hung.  Two days later the remaining thirty convicted deserters were hung when the American flag was raised over Churubusco, signaling the American victory.

Most American soldiers in Mexico approved of the hangings. As far as they were concerned these men were traitors.  But Why They Defected is ably demonstrated and brought to light by Miller.

 Irish men have long jumped into the military uniform of other nations to escape poverty, for adventure or for what they have perceived to be righteous causes. The same reasons Miller postulates are applicable to Irish men throughout history.  One can conclude many things from Shamrock and Sword. This writer believes Irish men, and men the world over, are perhaps a bit too keen to put on the uniform of another nation for whatever reason. Throughout history we have done so gallantly and honorably. However, in the process, we have created many widows and grieving family. And wars go on and on and on.

 My final conclusion in reading Miller’s story is I have come to believe that war is the natural state, peace is unnatural. Irish men, men everywhere, need to think differently about matters and not take matters at face value, i.e. popular thought.

Miller’s work should be taught in military academies. Why They Defect should be coupled with Why They Fight. Maybe in the process all men will be less apt to stand up for others when they should be standing up for their own nation and write another story, Why Aren’t We Being Friends?

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Sullivan is a military veteran and an internationally-published writer residing in northeast Ohio.  He is fifth-generation American-Irish on his maternal side and 4^th generation on his paternal side.