PDX HIBERNIAN INDEPENDENT Volume Two - Number Forty-Nine – 17 April 2025

More than an email. Less than a newspaper. Delivered early on the first and third Thursday morning of every month. Published by The Portland Hibernian Society.

TWO IRISH CATHOLIC AMERICANS WHO TRIED FOR THE WHITE HOUSE - TONIGHT!
By 1968 it wasn’t that big a deal for a couple of grandsons of Irish Catholic immigrants to America to compete for the highest office in the land. For years, Catholicism was considered a candidacy killer. Al Smith had tried in 1928, and JFK won the election in 1960. By 1968 two Irishmen were running, and their religious beliefs were mostly irrelevant. Senators Gene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy brought their White House campaigns to Oregon 57 years ago; they split the Irish Catholic vote of Oregon Democrats. Which candidate won the Oregon Primary and how he did it will be the topic of TONIGHT’S presentation by Tom Markgraf and Bill Gallagher. Were you here then? Remember the campaign? Come join the conversation. KELLS RESTAURANT – 212 SW SECOND AVENUE - DINNER AT 6PM – PRESENTATION AT 6:45PM.

PRIZE ALERT
We’ll be having a Tariff Raffle this evening. Everyone present is entered to win and you must be present to win items that may soon be subject to tariffs. (Barry’s Tea, Kerrygold Butter, Five Farms Irish Cream, Redbreast)

MAY 1968 PORTLAND, OR - Ethel Skakel Kennedy, pregnant with Rory Kennedy at the time, ice skating with her husband Senator Robert Kennedy at Lloyd Center Ice Rink. The little guy in the lederhosen is not identified.

NEXT GEN KENNEDY IN THE CABINET
RFK Junior is the third of Robert and Ethel Skakel Kennedy’s eleven children. He was recently approved as President Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, capping a crazy career in politics and public service that included a short run for the Democratic nomination in 2024. (Remember that?). Other Kennedy’s of our generation have been elected to offices. But none has risen to the level of the Presidential Cabinet. I found one issue on which RFK Sr and RFK Jr would probably agree. When he ran for President, RFK advocated banning all advertising for cigarettes. RFK Jr isn’t likely to take on that issue with Trump, but it sure sounds like something he would advocate as he tries to Make America Healthy Again. His father, RFK Senior, backed the kind of welfare reform now being considered in Congress, as this television campaign ad from Oregon in 1968 shows.

TIME IS RIGHT FOR OREGON AND IRELAND TO UNITE
From Salem we get word that the green light might soon be flashing for the creation of the Oregon-Ireland Sister State Committee. Hibernians Brian Doherty and Margaret Doherty will soon be spreading the word among legislators about the benefits of formalizing business and cultural ties between Oregon and Ireland. Senate Bill 961 would do just that. Call it our peace feeler in the coming trade war. It says right there in the bill, “As of 2023, Oregon exports to Ireland are the fourth highest of any U.S. state, with roughly $1.25 billion in exports, and $601 million in imports, with computer and electronic products, and chemicals, being the largest product categories.” With all the talk of tariffs, these numbers start to loom large. Have you got ten minutes to spare one of these days? Look at SB 691A and let your State Representative and Senator know if you think it’s a good idea. OR – Drop us an email with your address and I’ll have that contact info back to you by next week.

IRELAND DROPS A BIG GIFT FOR GENEALOGISTS
If you’ve been meaning to do a deep (or deeper) dive into your Irish roots, here’s a good reason to now get started. Records now available online include birth records from 1864 to 1924, marriage records from 1845 to 1949 and death records from 1864 to 1974. This could be a boon for all the amateur genealogists trying to connect the dots of their origins. “The aim of this continuing project is to make all these historic records freely and easily accessible to all members of the public and broader diaspora via the irishgenealogy.ie website, said Ireland’s Culture Minister Patrick O’Donovan. WATCH THIS SPACE. This announcement from Dublin comes just as the PHS prepares to team up with the Irish Special Interest Group of the Genealogical Forum of Oregon to provide assistance and encouragement in your endeavors.

RORY MC ILROY’S GOLF GAME IS AS GOOD AS IT GETS
So, now an Irishman has joined that elite group of golfers who have won all four Majors. Rory McIlroy’s legend-locking victory at the Masters Sunday never seemed inevitable. If anything, it seemed out of reach as a series of “makeable” putts missed the hole in that final round. Then he made one on the first play-off hole and all was well for Rory at the Holywod GC and around the world. His win wasn’t without controversy because with controversy comes reader engagement and those coveted clicks. “Didn't talk to me once all day,” said Bryson DeChambeau of his time on the course with McIlroy. Don’t be silly, said Pádraig Harrington. For millions of his fans around the world, Rory McIlroy is an IRISHMAN. For a lot of Brits he’s a NORTHERN IRISHMAN. Who cares? He’s one of only six Grand Slam winners in the history of competitive golf. And the British Open is coming this backyard in the north of Ireland.

April 2025 Hollywood Golf Club NI - Among his many major accomplishments is the fact that Rory McIlroy is the youngest golfer ever granted membership at Holywood, where his father worked as a bartender.

DOES THIS MEAN TRUMP HAS A NEW “FAVORITE IRISHMAN”?
President Trump took time off from his own golfing career to congratulate McIlroy. “That took tremendous courage. He was having a hard time, but it showed great guts and stamina and courage. People have no idea how tough that is. He came back. It's better for him that it happened that way because that showed real courage to have come back from what could've been a tragedy – it was amazing”. On St. Patrick's Day Trump declared that pugilist Conor McGregor from Dublin was his favorite Irishman. Golf, by the way, was cited as a reason Trump is in such fine health. “The doctor said Trump’s days are filled with meetings, public appearances, media availabilities and “frequent victories in golf events.” Trump is an avid golfer who said he recently won tournaments played at clubs he owns in Florida,” reported AP.

NO QUESTION ABOUT HIS "LEAST FAVORITE IRISHWOMAN"
It’s TRUE that Rosie O’Donnell has moved to Ireland and plans to live there. It’s FALSE that the Irish Government has officially rejected her efforts to obtain Irish citizenship. That bit of disinfo was blasted around the world on the internet and is as fake as a three-dollar bill. Where Rosie lives became an unlikely issue recently when a “reporter” asked Taoiseach Micheal Martin in the Oval Office why Ireland would let her live there. Trump jumped in before Martin could answer with a few shots at O’Donnell, with whom he’s been feuding since 2006. O’Donnell days she loves living in Dublin. “I see reflections of myself in this country everywhere I look, and reflections of my family and my very Irish childhood,” she said. “We’re 100 percent Irish. Being Irish Catholic was a very big part of my identity, and coming back here does feel like coming home in a way that’s hard to explain or understand, even for me,” she told the New York Times. Her father was born in County Donegal, her mom’s family came over from County Kildare. She got into her Irish roots about five years after she started trading insults with Trump.

STAY CALM! NEWS FROM THE TARIFF FRONT
“We are working closely with our European counterparts to ensure that we keep things calm and navigate our way through this,” is what Taoiseach Micheal Martin said the other day to soothe the agitated nerves of those in Ireland worried that massive tariffs might mean job loss and a major jolt to the Irish economy. Then there's this. A man who runs a distillery in Dundalk, just south of the border between the Republic and Northern Ireland, says he’s considered breaking the law...a little bit. “... in the UK region of Northern Ireland...the tariff rate is just 10 percent. "Where there's a border, there can be trade that's not terribly legal, jumping products from one side to the other to suit needs," said Tony Healy, who manages the family distillery, Healy's Dundalk Bay Brewing Company, which began exporting to the United States five years ago. In other words, where there’s a border, there’s a way. Don’t forget, we’ll be having a Tariff Raffle this evening. Win items that may soon be subject to tariffs.

KNOW YOUR IRISH HISTORY – GOOD FRIDAY AGREEMENT ANNIVERSARY WAS LAST WEEK
Today in history: Thursday, April 10, the 100th day of 2025. On April 10, 1998, the Northern Ireland peace talks concluded as negotiators signed the Good Friday Agreement, a landmark settlement to end 30 years of bitter rivalries and bloody attacks.

On a make-believe Mount Rushmore of the four decisive moments in modern Irish history, you’d be sure to include the signing of the Good Friday Agreement 27 years ago. (The other three peaks? An Gorta Mor. Easter Rising. War of Independence/Civil War.) Check this out for a quick refresher course. At the White House on March 12, the Taoiseach expressed Ireland’s gratitude profusely. “It was the support in the USA of bringing that to an end that was essential,” he said. That being The Troubles in which 3,720 people were killed and 50,000 injured. Per capita that would be many millions of Americans.” Then he said this, “Mr. President, I welcome the unrelenting focus and energy you have brought to the search for peace in Ukraine and the Middle East since your first days in office. There is nothing more noble than the pursuit of peace and this is what you’re doing.” (And please give us a break on tariffs.)

Two Irish Catholic Americans Who Tried For The White House

Here, there, everywhere on St. Patrick’s Day