I remember stories of the simple discipline my grandfather employed with my father and his four brothers. One day, the brothers (averaging age 13 at the time) were fortunate enough to come into possession of a case of beer. Realizing that they would not be able to bring it into the house without my grandmother seeing it, they decided to attempt to hoist it to the third floor of their home from the outside. In their attempt to do this, they broke a window of the neighbor’s house and lost the case of beer. Just after a police officer arrived to asses the situation, my grandfather was returning from a day of hard work. He was dropped off at the corner bus stop and approached the house. The police officer questioned him, asking “Are these your kids?” Casting a solemn glance in their direction, my grandfather said “No, never seen them” and simply walked by. The interactions between him and my father and uncles over the next few days demonstrated to them his deep disappointment at their actions. Without speaking a word to them, my grandfather was able to show his loving disapproval of their actions.
This story is in typical order of the way my family operates—although often unconventional in our means, we always find ways to share our close bond of love. The actions of my dad and uncles typify the determined work ethic of my family, still evident in the younger generations. The fact that my grandfather avoided any type of physical retribution is suggestive of our Christian beliefs. And the simple fact that this story has been preserved for generations some 50 years after it took place shows strongly we work toward maintaining these three main facets of our family identity.In terms of my family’s work ethic, our deeply-seated beliefs, and close bond of love, our heritage has been a powerful, unabated force in our identity, even to this day.
My family’s Irish identity is what makes us who we truly are. Throughout my childhood, I can remember many instances in which our heritage was seen continuing through our practices, personalities and beliefs. A key person in my early development as well as one of the mainstays of cultural tradition in my family was my paternal grandfather. He was a third generation immigrant, but maintained the traditions of my ancestral family from Ireland. Much of my extended family’s identity can be traced directly to him. Work ethic, beliefs, and our family’s special musical tradition have been passed on to generations through him. It is important to remember that my grandfather did not start these traditions, but like everyone in my family, he served as a proud torchbearer of our heritage. My 92-year-old grandmother (the widow of the grandfather I just discussed) is unquestionably the matriarch of our family. As the focus of our current family life, she has exemplified a Christian lifestyle for us and through her example, has demonstrated high value of family love and the welcoming, hospitable expression of that love to others. An examination into the lives and circumstances of even earlier family members yields deeper understanding of these facets of our family.
The earliest traceable members of my paternal lineage are a couple from County Cork in Ireland. My paternal great, great, great, great grandfather was named John O’Brien (Wayne Harrigan 1) . He played the organ so well that he was nicknamed “Organ” and he eventually changed his surname to “O’Organ” (King 22) . Through Irish pronunciations and variant spellings including “O’Horgan,” “Horgan,” “Houragagn,” “Horrigan,” and “Harigan,” the family name eventually morphed into “Harrigan” (King 72) . John and his wife Ellen lived in the village of Skibbereen in Cork County, Ireland around the year 1800. Like the majority of Irish at the time, they were Roman Catholics, despite the fact that Ireland had been under British rule and oppression since 1695. One facet of oppression was that of the Catholic Church, although more than 75% of the population remained Catholic (King 29) . Such an atmosphere indicated that my ancestors practiced their faith illegally and probably with much fear. The fact that they survived the fire test of such religious oppression indicated that their religious devotion was golden. The currently living Harrigans can certainly trace their level of Catholic devotion back to John and Ellen.
Most of John and Ellen’s
children grew up to be illiterate farmers (King 23) . They leased farms
in the village of Schull, Cork, about 15 miles west of Skibbereen (Wayne
Harrigan 1) . At this time, Britain was engaged in the Napoleonic wars
which had cut off the “breadbasket” Baltic ports to British ships. Britain
required Ireland’s produce for survival, and so the prices of Irish farm
products were inflated. The farming business was therefore profitable enough
for Irish families. This situation changed in the year 1815, when the hostilities
ended. The Irish could no longer sell their farm products at reasonable
prices because of deflation caused by competition from markets now open
to Britain (Blessing 15) . The typical family of the Harrigans’ place and
time could no longer support itself, even by selling its entire potato
crop in a year in which the crop did not fail. Coupled with a population
expansion beginning in 1780, inflated rent rates for farmers, a spread
of cholera and a potato failure in 1830, the economic situation caused
my ancestors to decide to emigrate from Ireland (King 29-35) .
Records
indicate that the children of John and Ellen Horgan and their families
left for Canada in 1831. They were fortunate to have long-term leases on
their farm lands which they were able to sell off for money to afford the
passage (King 45) . Their story is different than that of many ancestors
of today’s Irish Americans. A large majority of Irish immigrants didn’t
leave Europe until the Potato Famine beginning in the 1840s. Most also
came directly to the United States (Taylor 103) . It is likely that they
came to the New World on a timber-carrying ship operating between New Brunswick,
Canada and a village close to Schull (King 50) . At the time, there were
no British regulations on shipping, including no limitations on the number
of passengers a ship could carry (Taylor 109) . During the passage, my
ancestors likely endured tighter conditions than those on African slave
ships of the same period. The conditions they put up with probably for
over two weeks included deplorably unsanitary living quarters, lack of
food and water, lice and disease (King 50) . It is likely that the men
and boys on this journey were made to help the crew on hauling ropes (Taylor
139) . These factors seem even more extreme considering that, when arriving
at Mirimichi, New Brunswick, my ancestors Dennis (son of John) and his
wife Catherine were already about 50 years old and my great, great grandfather
Michael (their son) was only 11 (King 61) . The family was not alone, as
some 50,000 immigrants from the British Isles per year came to Canada during
the 1830s. But this figure is somewhat insignificant when it is considered
that hundreds of thousands of immigrants per year came to America in the
mid and late 1800s (Taylor 25) .
After such
a journey, the family must have been glad to find a familiar Church already
established. In New Brunswick, the Catholic Church had been set up earlier
by the French colonists (King 77) . On the other side, there were many
Protestants living in the area. There was a great deal of tension between
the Catholic and Protestant communities, often spilling over into such
events as conflicts over the religion of teachers and curriculum in public
schools and violence during elections (King 81) . The two influences of
an established church of preference and an antagonistic religious community
certainly contributed to the amount of religious devotion in my family.
Just as
social conditions in New Brunswick encouraged my family’s religious devotion,
so did physical conditions there encourage my family’s work ethic. In New
Brunswick, my family was conditioned to become the hard-working stock mentioned
earlier. The men (including Dennis and Michael) worked as lumbermen in
the winter and as farmers in the summer (King 67) . These grueling professions
seem even worse when other factors are considered. The immigrants had to
speak a new language as they had come from a Gaelic-speaking portion of
Ireland (King 120) . They were accustomed to the temperate climate of the
most southerly portion of Ireland. In Canada, they faced a severe climate
of freezing winters and very hot summers. They were made to practice a
different type of farming than they had learned (King 68) . They labored
to clear tree stumps from fields—an extremely difficult task (King 94)
. These factors would clearly result in people with an arduous work ethic.
They were lucky to be surrounded by many supportive family members. This
was not always the case with Irish immigrants who, for financial reasons,
often arrived individually (King 71) . The support necessary to survive
through such a lifestyle certainly encouraged a close family bond
With the
decline of lumber industry, Michael Harrigan (probably among the first
literate members of my family) moved to Bangor, Maine in the 1850s (King
135) . His son, Michael Robert Harrigan, became the business manager of
the successful Bangor Daily Commercial. Upon the death of the newspaper’s
owner, he inherited the business and thus became quite wealthy. He and
my great grandmother had 2 daughters and seven sons. One son, born Robert
Shaw Harrigan in 1906, was destined to become my grandfather.
My paternal
grandmother’s lineage can also be traced back to County Cork, Ireland.
Her grandparents on both sides emigrated from Ireland (presumably during
the Potato Famine, beginning in 1845 (Blessing 17)) and like ancestors
on my grandfather’s side, settled in New Brunswick, Canada. Other than
these pieces of information, very little other by way of fact is known
about my grandmother’s grandparents, as 3 of them were dead before my grandmother
was born. My grandmother reports that her maternal grandmother (Catherine
Cain-Fitzpatrick) was a “saintly” woman. She relates two stories that correlate
the historically religious aspect of my family. Once, when Catherine was
very elderly, she had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.
Electricity not yet being a reality, she could not find her lamp. She prayed
to Mary (a uniquely Catholic course of action), who apparently lit up the
room and allowed Catherine to find her way safely there and back to bed.
Catherine’s home in Debec, New Brunswick was in the center of a field.
She was once home alone when a brushfire kicked up. Again, she requested
Mary’s assistance and a “wind like no other” blew the fires away from her
home until they were completely put out (Margaret Harrigan) . It is perhaps
unsurprising that a member of a family with such beliefs (my grandmother)
would be a great match for a member of the Harrigan family (my grandfather)
.
An action
that would lead to them coming together took place when my great grandfather
Jeremiah Fitzpatrick moved from Debec to Houlton, Maine with my great grandmother
Clara around the turn of the century. The couple had 9 children, the oldest
of which was my grandmother, Margaret. They lived a rather austere lifestyle
on a dairy farm. Again, the deep work ethic is seen in my great grandfather,
who ran the dairy business (farming and production) for half of the town
of Houlton. At the same time, he maintained a farm where all of the family’s
food—livestock, pigs, poultry, fruits, grains and vegetables—were produced.
Their complete non-dependence on the outside probably encouraged the close
bonds of family in similar fashion to the Harrigans. The family also needed
each other’s support and love in facing such hardships as winter storms
that left them completely snowed in and the complete destruction of the
family’s compound of barns and their home when my grandmother was only
a teenager (Margaret Harrigan) .
So, my grandmother
and grandfather both came from hardworking, religious, and closely bonded
families. They met during the summer of 1930. My grandmother was in residence
at Eastern Maine General Hospital in Bangor, training to be a nurse and
taking a course in anesthesia. My grandfather had lived there all his life.
One of my grandfather’s cousins owned a store, where the “young people”
of the area would gather for chess and checkers. One night, my grandmother
had beaten everyone in attendance when my grandfather arrived. He beat
her. At her loss, she said something to the effect that “I guess you’re
not going to be a gentleman with me!” He responded, “I play for keeps.”
and asked her to the movies! Although my grandfather was studying at Harvard
that fall, he was invited to the Fitzpatricks’ for Christmas. A story of
his visit is exemplary of the customary, welcoming-family style of the
Fitzpatricks. When my grandfather arrived, my great grandmother (“Grammy
Fitz” as she is affectionately referred to to this day) asked him where
he was staying. He had registered at a hotel in downtown Houlton. When
Grammy asked why, he responded by saying “Your daughter didn’t invite me
to stay.” Grammy replied “My daughter doesn’t own this house!” and insisted
on him staying with them for the entire week.
Although
they were living a distance of some 50 miles apart, my grandparents continued
to see each other through the next winter, and marriage plans eventually
materialized. Completely unfazed by the distance, my grandfather would
drive to Houlton every weekend to visit my grandmother and her family.
Though they continually put off a wedding for monetary reasons, they decided
to marry early when, one weekend,my
grandfather flipped over his car in an ice storm on the way to Houlton.
A nun who was close to my grandmother instructed her to not wait to get
married until the following spring, as planned, but rather that fall. This
was purely practical advice, as it would alleviate the necessity of my
grandfather to drive each weekend through that winter (Margaret Harrigan)
.
And so,
my grandparents were married (during a snowstorm) on October 17, 1932.
They didn’t have much money at first. My grandfather had been replaced
at his teaching job at John Bapt’s High School in Bangor because Christian
Brothers (!!) had been hired as a cheaper alternative to lay teachers (Margaret
Harrigan) . It has been said that families of Irish immigrants were “usually
celibate” but displayed “high fertility in marriage” (Blessing 25) . My
grandparents were no exception. Over the course of their “62 years of bliss”
together, they had 5 sons who in turn had 17 offspring. Today, there are
33 offspring of my grandparents spread over 4 generations (see my family
tree) (Margaret Harrigan) .
Despite
many variations, there are several key characteristics that, traced to
my family of yesterday, uniquely identify my family today. Although none
of us are involved in laborious professions like lumbering or farming,
we continue to exhibit a determined work ethic. My father and several of
my uncles are successful businessmen. Many of the members of my generation
of the family have been and continue to be excellent students. Those adult
members of my generation are making their way in a diversity of professions.
Another
characteristic (typically Irish, (Blessing 25)) still evident in my family
is our deeply convicted religious belief. It is interesting to note that
the younger generations of my family have a similar religious admiration
of my grandmother as she does of hers. Her maintenance of many superstitious
religious customs and her daily actions are evidence of her deep beliefs.
For instance, she will light a “blessed” candle and sprinkle her house
with “holy” water during every thunderstorm. She prays the Rosary daily,
attends Mass almost every day, and always says “goodbye” to us with her
characteristic “God bless!” As noted by family and friends of family alike,
my grandmother would never turn away anyone and she is extremely generous
through her family hospitality and her work and donations to her church.
I know less about the personal devotion of
other current members of my family. I do know that every day, my father
wears a relic and a scapular that he truly believes will assure his place
in heaven when he dies. My parents brought my sisters and I up to value
praying before bed, sharing with those in need and going to Mass every
Sunday. And, for numerous reasons, I am thoroughly convinced that God has
already exerted profound impact on the adult lives of my sisters and I.
Devoted as our religious practice is, it tends
to shy away from outward, emotional expression. This relative stoicism
of our religious practice has perhaps been an influence on my family to
develop strong admiration for secular, family-oriented music. Involving
mainly Irish folk and Irish-American music from the early part of this
century (“Who knows where it came from?” says my grandmother) there is
a corpus of “Irish” music that has remained special to my family for generations.
Our bond of family, just like that of our farmer ancestors in Maine and
Canada, is shared most clearly through our continuous celebration with
this music. All through my childhood, I remember my father constantly singing
these songs while he worked around the house. Having grown up experiencing
this, I took it for granted. But the weird looks I got from friends about
this singing when they visited made me realize how special our family is.
When the Harrigans join in a large group, especially during special events
like holidays, it is demonstrated in little time that the passion for “Irish
music” is extant throughout my extended family. Now that my grandfather
has passed away, the five “boys” have taken up the tradition of singing,
enjoying, and passing down songs special to us. At my sister’s wedding
reception last October, all members of the Harrigan family present gathered
on the dance floor to sing and dance to “Harrigan,” an early-century Irish-American
song which is obviously most important to us. The event was fun for what
it was worth and served as a celebration of our heritage. My sisters and
cousins realize that we will soon be called upon to preserve this facet
of our heritage for upcoming generations.
My family
is fortunate enough to be one that can trace its history back many generations.
We are relatively close-knit, and we share our family love by being a very
warm and welcoming bunch. In terms of our work ethic, our religious beliefs,
and our close bond with each other, we can consider ourselves unique. And
we are certainly proud to call ourselves “Harrigans.”
Works Cited
Blessing, Patrick. “Irish emigration to the United States, 1800-1920.” The Irish in America: Emigration, Assimilation and Impact. Ed. P. J. Drudy. Cambridge:
Cambridge UP, 1985. 11-38.
Harrigan, Margaret. Personal Interview. 25 Nov. 2000.
Harrigan, Wayne. Harrigan Family Index Web Site. May 2000. 8 Nov. 2000 <http://personal.nbnet.nb.ca/wbharrig/homepage.html>.
King, Joseph. The Irish Lumberman-Farmer: Fitzgeralds, Harrigans and Others. Lafayette, CA, 1982.
Taylor, Philip. The Distant
Magnet. New York: Harper & Row, 1971.