Taoiseach Enda Kenny visits Cleveland, Ohio

Jimmy Buttimer - Savannah's Irish-American Poet

SAVANNAH'S IRISH-AMERICAN POET

                              

   by

                         

   J.C. Sullivan

     Throughout our lives we meet 'Irish' people. Some are native-born, some are Irish-Americans'. Some we soon forget, some we can never forget. Savannah's Irish poet laureate, Jimmy Buttimer, falls into this latter category. Currently enrolled in a Masters Program (History), he's always been interested in history. With the death of his grandfather, Patrick Joseph Buttimer, the entire family took care of him the last few years of his life, they talked a great deal about his childhood in Savannah.

     "He knew his grandfather, the original emigrant from Cork, and his name was Patrick Joseph. So I started to research a lot to do with the family and a lot of the records I found intact on his life were his service records in the Confederate Army. I followed his regiment and found a diary of one of the members of the regiment that had some really remarkable passages in there about the Irish soldiers that made up about a third of the regiment. I went ahead from there and added imagination to the facts that I found but my poetry is all based on primary sources and materials.

 He was in a unit called the First Georgia Regulars.  They were a unique regiment, probably the crackerjack regiment. They were sent from Georgia to Virginia early in the war," Buttimer said. He continued. "They had professional discipline; the officers were from the best, well-known families in the State. They were very strict in their discipline and training and so they were much more professional than many other units in existence at the beginning of the war.  They were recruited, a large number of them, from Irish dockworkers here in Savannah.  Instead of a regional pool they were created statewide and sent up to Virginia in service of the Army of Northern Virginia (Confederate)."

    One evening during Savannah's recent Irish Festival he took the stage at Kevin Barry's Pub on River Street. A hush fell over the crowd and a shh went out from them in an attempt to deaden the chatter from the next door bar. "To Have A History," is a tribute to his great-great grandfather. Speaking with a brogue that an American would be hard pressed to discern as not being native to Ireland, he begins.

   

 "Now I have heard the different camps proclaim their honor and these same men would                                                              seek to find the first wrong on a field of carnage

So as to say that one was Cain, the other Abel.

                 But I was there to live the hate, to smell the fear and heed the

slaughter and here's the Hell of it. We murdered them and they murdered us

                  and that was our war in the Deep South when we were fighting the Negroes.

                    On John's Island we were pressed by a vast host of Negroes.

 They carried the works on our right flank and  murdered the wounded Stono Scouts before our eyes. But their victory was short as we counterattacked and the men went red-eyed mad with rage.

We shot the captives where they stood

   or hunted them down in the tall grass to finish them off

with clubbed rifles and bayonets.

   And we would have killed them all but for our officers

who beat us with their swords."

     Midway through his poem he pauses to catch his breath and compose himself, temporarily overwhelmed by the deep emotions he feels. Flashing eyes reveal the inner passion of his deeply-felt West Cork Irish roots. After a few moments he continues.

   "In quiet moments long removed that hellish day is with me.

'Twas there I heard the sound of blood lapping from throat to earth

   and saw the bodies arch and heave with each fresh gout of blood.

   And now I'm back in the Old Fort

with the Negroes and the Irish as before the war.

   And my neighbor comes from Africa

with ritual scars upon his face as a sign of his people.

   And now his son runs with my son

as two-legged pups through the dusty lanes.

   And I often stop and wonder...at the quareness of it all.

At times like these my heart is troubled

   and I walk the few blocks to the river.

And I watch its currents moil.

   'Tis a great, muddy beast of a river...

'Tis the lifeblood of God, and it carries the sins of the world.

   What was it drove my hand to murder?

Was it truly the love of one thing and the hatred of another?

   Or did the priest say more than he knew?

We are made in His image. We are made in His image.

   So ye that would seek the first wrong on a field of carnage

   content yourself with what ye find.

But I would tell ye as ye do not know, that murder is murder

   and a history is a hard thing to have."

IN THE SERVICEOF THE BRITISH/COMMONWEALT

Benjamin Sullivan, b. Berwick, Me., ca. 1738. Served as an Officer in the Royal Navy aboard a man-o-war. Was lost at sea before the American Revolution. No marriage mentioned in records. Eldest brother of American Major General John
Sullivan.

Rear Admiral Thomas Ball Sulivan (d 1857), had fourteen children; four of his sons were in the British navy. Admiral Sir Bartholomew James Sulivan, eldest son of the foregoing. During the Crimean War in 1854 then-Captain Sulivan, commanding the Lightning, participated in attack on the Russian fortress of Sweaborg in 1855.

 Norton Allen Sulivan, Vice-Admiral, and son of TB Sulivan, took part in the battle of Jutland in 1916.

 John Sullivan, V.C., b. April, 1831, Bantry, County Cork, Ireland. During Crimean War, on 10^th of April, 1855, was awarded Victoria Cross. Was created Knight of the Legion of Honour on the 16^th of June, 1856, by the Emperor of the French. Received Sardinian, Turkish and Crimean Medals, with clasps for Inkermann and Sebastopol. Also recipient of Silver Medal of Royal Humane Society for saving the life of a drowning man in shark infested waters.

Private John Sullivan, 29^th Reg’t of Foot. KIA. Gujrat, 21 Feb 1849, northwest Indian Punjab battle of Anglo-Sikh War.

Gerald Robert O'Sullivan, V.C. - 1915; Gallipoli, Turkey.

Arthur Percy Sullivan , V.C. - 1919; Sheika River, Russia

Admiral George Lydiard Sulivan, another son of Admiral T.B. Sulivan.

Sir Charles Sulivan, Admiral of the Blue. Son of Sir Richard Sullivan, East India Company.

Thomas Hebert, d 1824, son of Colonel John Vera O'Sullivan, served with British and Dutch forces.

Denis Patrick. The Following is part of the letter from The Welch Regiment Museum regarding 25728 Denis Patrick Sullivan 17th and 18th (service) Battalions,The Welsh Regiment ct Medal citations of D.P.Sullivan who was a brave and gallant soldier. His gallantry and leadership at Mory, 23/24 March,1918, was such as to merit a mention in the official history of the regiment. 

The 18th Welsh during four days, surrounded and fighting against great odds, was virtually wiped out. Only the commanding Officer, one officer and twenty other ranks survived to tell the tale, and amongst them was D.P.Sullivan. The remainder died at their posts or were wounded and/or were taken prisoner.

Through their efforts, and the efforts  of others,  the German advance was halted, and thereafter the course of the war turned in our favour. Seargeant Sullivan's decorations for gallantry have often been on display as part of the rotation on display of a large collection of decorations. His other two decorations, the British War and Victory medals were not presented to the regiment.  The citations-

25728 Private Denis Patrick Sullivan, 17th (service)Battalion ,The Welsh Regiment, 1st Glamorgan Bantam Battalion

John O’Sullivan, age 20.  47 Lynsted Road, Liverpool, England. Crew member of Irish-registered City of Limerick, died when the ship was attacked by German aircraft 15 JUL 1940 off the French coast and later sank.

Sullivans in Texas History

Many of the Irish were recruited by the Spanish to come from Ireland to Texas in the 1830s. Ships brought whole villages from Ireland directly to South Texas below Corpus Christi. They settled in San Patricio & Refugio. The poor people didn't know what was in store for them. 

Many died during and after the voyage. The survivors were subjected to the tremendous heat, mosquitoes, poisonous snakes, loneliness, tropical disease and the dreaded hostile Indians. It was a one way ticket. Many survived and eventually moved to Victoria, San Antonio and along the Rio Grande.

The name Sullivan and O'Sullivan occurs very frequently during early Texas history. Cpl. Denis Sullivan name appears before, at and after the Battle of San Jacinto, where Sam Houston and his outnumbered army defeated Santa Ana for Texas Independence. Incidentally, the land that the battle was fought on was owned by the widow McCormick from Ireland.

There were three O'Sullivans from Ireland who fought at the important Battle of Sabine Pass with Dick Dowling and his Irish Davis Guards. Many of the famous Texas Rangers were Sullivan/O'Sullivan. One in particular whose first name was Sullivan, was the famous Sullivan "Sul" Ross. He became governor of Texas and also the first president of the great Texas A & M University.

There is a Cultural Building called the Institute of Texan Cultures in downtown San Antonio (Hemis Fair Plaza ) dedicated to the various groups that settled in Texas. Contact the San Antonio Convention & Visitors Bureau for the Institutes telephone number. I'm sure that they have an 1 ( 800 ) number. You should be able to get the book and/or more information from them.

My First Flight

My First Flight

Catholics in the Old South

A Book Review by J.C. Sullivan

Randall M. Miller and Jon L. Wakelyn have edited a score of essays dealing with a number of issues that affected Catholic life in the American South, a topic that heretofore has received no historical attention in mainstream literary life. Gathering from a multitude of little-known resources however, they have pieced together an intellectual masterpiece about this almost unknown subject. Although the Irish influence can be found throughout all resource material and subsequent chapters, Irish America will find the one that is most interesting to us is  The South’s Irish Catholics:  A Case of Cultural Confinement by Dennis Clark.

Because of our legacy of exile, Clark points out that our presence is demonstrated with our priests in Florida’s Spanish missions, as officials for the Spanish crown in Louisiana and Texas, convicts in George, settlers in the Carolinas and traders among the Indians. While in Charleston, Savannah and New Orleans we kept our cultural identity through social societies such as the Hibernians. Others of us not so fortunate contracted for indentured service that benefited tradesmen and householders.

Clark maintains that it was not only the “Scotch-Irish” from Ulster that peopled the Appalachian, Ozark and Smoky Mountains but also Irish-Catholic fugitives fleeing from indentured service. He quotes Colonists in Bondage:  White Servitude and Convict Labor in America, 1607-1776. We gained security in the impenetrable mountains and because of the freedom we sought, created the “distrust of strangers, authority and inquisitive influences” that has long been notable among mountain people.

This scholarly piece takes us away from the notion of our  large cities. Many of our ancestors did, indeed, settle the cities, but so many, many more moved throughout America where the work was to be found. My own maternal gggfather, Patrick W. Murphy worked the rivers and railroads, wherever he found the work. American actor Tyrone Power, father of the late actor Tyrone Power, encountered them everywhere. He found we were “clannish, strangers to the local population, sharing their own speech and secret morale. Their itinerant work on flatboats, railroads and drainage gangs made them peripheral to the religious and social communities they touched.”

The myriad of footnote references makes those of us with a historical bent more anxious to see these become part of Irish-American mainstream literary bookshelf collections.  Niehaus The Irish in New Orleans; The Life and Times of John England, First Bishop of Charleston; Catholicity in Washington, Georgia; Catholicism in the Lower South; all beggar the inquisitive mind to seek this nourishment for the Irish soul.

"A Fighting Heart" - A champion Kid from Cleveland. .