GHOSTS
(Or The Night I was Mugged)
“Come to the Cullen, the Cullen, the Cullen,
Crockery floors and lights in bottles!”
The first words that my grandmother heard
As she stepped onto the train platform
In Salt Lake City in Eighteen Eighty Four
Were sung by a man in a tall hat from a carriage.
For the young Irish girl fresh off the boat,
The crier’s call defined what it meant to come to America,
A place where all manner of wonders were possible.
There, with the backdrop of the Wasatch Mountains
Looming above the new city, the man was
As strange as something out of Xanadu,
But he offered a world of promise and progress.
She remembered the moment,
And later taught the rime to her son, my father
Who decades later would teach it to me.
One snowy winter day,
While doing research at the Utah History Library
In the old Denver and Rio Grande Railroad Station,
I came across an advertising flyer for the CuIlen Hotel.
The ad called it “The City’s Newest and Finest.”
A photograph in the Society’s archive
Revealed the Cullen to be an impressive five story building.
Occupying most of the south side of Second South
Between Main and West Temple.
Colorful Flags and streamers flew from her roof top,
And directly in front stood a large carriage
Drawn by beautifully matched horses.
Across the top of the carriage’s fringed fabric canopy
Were emblazoned the words: “The Cullen, the Cullen, the Cullen.”
In the carriage sat a thin man holding a whip.
He wore a tall silk hat!
My grandmother’s magic singer had physical form once again.
And after more than a century of stony silence
His ghostly chant was united with his image.
When they closed the library late that afternoon
And I stepped into the swirling wind driven snow
That howled about the old station,
I imagined that I heard the ghostly chant of the crier.
But across the street, in front of the Rescue Mission,
The long lines of huddled homeless were sullen and silent.
Voiceless witnesses to unfulfilled promises.
Behind me other specters circled menacingly.
O’Hozho
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Ranting at the Politicians
From O'Hozho
To: The Salt Lake County Council
Dear Councilman,
My old computer is in the process of gasping its last byte of data and I am culling files in an attempt to prolong its misery… and yours. One of the old files I ran across is filled with correspondence (letters and emails) to Salt Lake County complaining of the omission of the Irish from any mention in various Salt Lake County publications most notably Welcoming the World: The History of Salt Lake County.
It is approaching 5 years since I appeared before the County Council to officially register the complaint below on behalf of the Utah Hibernian Society and the Irish families who helped build Salt Lake County. I ended that presentation with the hope that the oversights would be corrected and the insult redressed.
In the fall of 2004 I complained again that nothing had been done and I was summarily dismissed by Mayor Nancy Workman who said something to the effect: ‘I don’t know what he’s complaining about. We let him speak before the Council.’
What I said before the Council was the following:
Salt Lake County Council General Meeting 4:30 PM Tuesday March 16th, 2004
I want to thank the Salt Lake County Council for the opportunity of speaking today. I have duly noted and deeply appreciated the interest that some of you have shown the society through your attendance at the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade this last weekend. The Utah Hibernian Society is a non sectarian cultural organization founded to promote the study appreciation and dissemination of all things Irish including the arts, music, dance, poetry , theater, literature language and parades. The Society is open to all Utahans regardless of race, creed or place of national origin… making it unique among Utah’s ethnic cultural organizations. I am here this evening to note the celebration of St. Patrick’s Day and to register a complaint.
Over the last quarter of the 20th century, a large number of books, articles and educational materials have appeared celebrating the ethnic diversity of the State of Utah. To date no mention has been made of the considerable influence that the Irish have had on the settlement and development of this state and the Intermountain West. The reasons for the omission of the Irish are many, and are worth examining.
Until very recently, American history was written and taught from a distinctly white, Anglo Saxon point of view. It has only been since the Civil Rights movement in the 1960's that any attention was given to the long neglected histories of Utah’s ethnic minorities. Since that time, more than a dozen local histories have appeared, whose expressed purpose was to correct past oversights. The first serious local effort, The Peoples of Utah, focused on the populations from Europe who were brought to the state to work in Utah’s mines. Irish miners made up a large portion of foreign born mine labor in the 19th century and held leadership positions in the militant Western Federation of Miners (WFM). The Greek, Italian and Slavic workers who were imported to Utah at the turn of the 20th Century were brought in to undermine the power of this union. The WFM members regarded these new arrivals as “Scab” labor routinely employed as strike breakers. Their appearance threatened the hard earned gains that union had made over the previous decades. As a result, the new arrivals viewed the Irish as a very hostile segment of the English speaking majority. They did not recognize that the Irish themselves had been discriminated against, and the new arrivals confused the Irish with other hostile nativist and anti immigrant groups. As employment opportunities in the mines declined, many of the original Irish fled the state and the Irish population of Utah declined dramatically in the first two decades of the 20th century. The author of the “Peoples of Utah,” Helen Papanicholis made no effort to distinguish the Irish miners from the larger English population. As a result, no mention of the Irish appears in this first seminal work on the subject.
In the years that followed the publication of The Peoples of Utah, a number of other histories appeared which either enlarged upon these ethnic histories or focused on other minority populations. These include: Utah: An Hispanic History, Toil and Rage in a New Land: The Story of Utah’s Greeks, and The History of the Jews in Utah and Idaho.
The Other Utahns: Missing Stories, is a photographic essay celebrating Utah’s ethnic diversity. It includes American Indians, Japanese, Chinese, Greeks, Italians, Cubans, Hungarians, Poles, Mexicans, and Russians. There is no mention of the Irish. When prominent Irish do appear they are frequently mis-identified as being some other nationality. Many of Utah’s most prominent Irish families - including my own - are identified, mistakenly, as “Canadian.” Ignored by both traditional Anglo writers and the new ethnic revisionist historians, the Irish fell through the cracks.
One of the most egregious of these oversights is Welcoming the World: The History of Salt Lake County, funded and published by Salt Lake County. This publication also features the above named nationalities, as well as Germans, Basques, Croats, Southeast Asians and Pacific Islanders. There is no mention of the Irish. The longstanding prominence and success of some Irish families in this valley (Kearns, Gallivan, Judge, Hogle, Ivers, McDonough, McCarthy, Fitzpatrick, and O’Brien to name a few) has obscured the discrimination and hardships suffered in the past by the vast majority of Utah’s Irish. Indeed, most Utahans today do not know the ethnic identity of some of Utah’s most prominent families, nor are they aware of the vociferous anti-Irish sentiment prevalent in Utah during the 19th century. In the 20th century, many writers continued to rely on materials that were stereotypical and racist in writing on the Irish in this state. Dr. Vincent Chang, of the University of Utah English Department -a scholar whose ethnic origins are as remote from the Irish as can be imagined - has documented the racist attitudes toward the Irish in the American Press and popular culture during the 19th century. I have duplicated some examples from Dr. Chang’s book: Joyce Race and Empire to illustrate how prevalent these attitudes were in the 19th century. Unfortunately these attitudes are not extinct. While the stereotypes of Steppin Fetchit, Amos and Andy, Charlie Chan and Tonto have been largely relegated to the past, the stereotypical depiction of the drunken Irishmen is very much with us to this day.
We are unquestionably in a unique situation here in Utah. Perhaps it is not surprising that a culture that is entirely abstemious would tend to pass judgment on one that is not. But the lack of understanding goes far beyond the question of alcohol. The Irish have been excluded from their rightful place in Utah history and most specifically the history of Salt Lake County. Like Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man – they are ignored as if they were never here at all.
To: The Salt Lake County Council
Dear Councilman,
My old computer is in the process of gasping its last byte of data and I am culling files in an attempt to prolong its misery… and yours. One of the old files I ran across is filled with correspondence (letters and emails) to Salt Lake County complaining of the omission of the Irish from any mention in various Salt Lake County publications most notably Welcoming the World: The History of Salt Lake County.
It is approaching 5 years since I appeared before the County Council to officially register the complaint below on behalf of the Utah Hibernian Society and the Irish families who helped build Salt Lake County. I ended that presentation with the hope that the oversights would be corrected and the insult redressed.
In the fall of 2004 I complained again that nothing had been done and I was summarily dismissed by Mayor Nancy Workman who said something to the effect: ‘I don’t know what he’s complaining about. We let him speak before the Council.’
What I said before the Council was the following:
Salt Lake County Council General Meeting 4:30 PM Tuesday March 16th, 2004
I want to thank the Salt Lake County Council for the opportunity of speaking today. I have duly noted and deeply appreciated the interest that some of you have shown the society through your attendance at the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade this last weekend. The Utah Hibernian Society is a non sectarian cultural organization founded to promote the study appreciation and dissemination of all things Irish including the arts, music, dance, poetry , theater, literature language and parades. The Society is open to all Utahans regardless of race, creed or place of national origin… making it unique among Utah’s ethnic cultural organizations. I am here this evening to note the celebration of St. Patrick’s Day and to register a complaint.
Over the last quarter of the 20th century, a large number of books, articles and educational materials have appeared celebrating the ethnic diversity of the State of Utah. To date no mention has been made of the considerable influence that the Irish have had on the settlement and development of this state and the Intermountain West. The reasons for the omission of the Irish are many, and are worth examining.
Until very recently, American history was written and taught from a distinctly white, Anglo Saxon point of view. It has only been since the Civil Rights movement in the 1960's that any attention was given to the long neglected histories of Utah’s ethnic minorities. Since that time, more than a dozen local histories have appeared, whose expressed purpose was to correct past oversights. The first serious local effort, The Peoples of Utah, focused on the populations from Europe who were brought to the state to work in Utah’s mines. Irish miners made up a large portion of foreign born mine labor in the 19th century and held leadership positions in the militant Western Federation of Miners (WFM). The Greek, Italian and Slavic workers who were imported to Utah at the turn of the 20th Century were brought in to undermine the power of this union. The WFM members regarded these new arrivals as “Scab” labor routinely employed as strike breakers. Their appearance threatened the hard earned gains that union had made over the previous decades. As a result, the new arrivals viewed the Irish as a very hostile segment of the English speaking majority. They did not recognize that the Irish themselves had been discriminated against, and the new arrivals confused the Irish with other hostile nativist and anti immigrant groups. As employment opportunities in the mines declined, many of the original Irish fled the state and the Irish population of Utah declined dramatically in the first two decades of the 20th century. The author of the “Peoples of Utah,” Helen Papanicholis made no effort to distinguish the Irish miners from the larger English population. As a result, no mention of the Irish appears in this first seminal work on the subject.
In the years that followed the publication of The Peoples of Utah, a number of other histories appeared which either enlarged upon these ethnic histories or focused on other minority populations. These include: Utah: An Hispanic History, Toil and Rage in a New Land: The Story of Utah’s Greeks, and The History of the Jews in Utah and Idaho.
The Other Utahns: Missing Stories, is a photographic essay celebrating Utah’s ethnic diversity. It includes American Indians, Japanese, Chinese, Greeks, Italians, Cubans, Hungarians, Poles, Mexicans, and Russians. There is no mention of the Irish. When prominent Irish do appear they are frequently mis-identified as being some other nationality. Many of Utah’s most prominent Irish families - including my own - are identified, mistakenly, as “Canadian.” Ignored by both traditional Anglo writers and the new ethnic revisionist historians, the Irish fell through the cracks.
One of the most egregious of these oversights is Welcoming the World: The History of Salt Lake County, funded and published by Salt Lake County. This publication also features the above named nationalities, as well as Germans, Basques, Croats, Southeast Asians and Pacific Islanders. There is no mention of the Irish. The longstanding prominence and success of some Irish families in this valley (Kearns, Gallivan, Judge, Hogle, Ivers, McDonough, McCarthy, Fitzpatrick, and O’Brien to name a few) has obscured the discrimination and hardships suffered in the past by the vast majority of Utah’s Irish. Indeed, most Utahans today do not know the ethnic identity of some of Utah’s most prominent families, nor are they aware of the vociferous anti-Irish sentiment prevalent in Utah during the 19th century. In the 20th century, many writers continued to rely on materials that were stereotypical and racist in writing on the Irish in this state. Dr. Vincent Chang, of the University of Utah English Department -a scholar whose ethnic origins are as remote from the Irish as can be imagined - has documented the racist attitudes toward the Irish in the American Press and popular culture during the 19th century. I have duplicated some examples from Dr. Chang’s book: Joyce Race and Empire to illustrate how prevalent these attitudes were in the 19th century. Unfortunately these attitudes are not extinct. While the stereotypes of Steppin Fetchit, Amos and Andy, Charlie Chan and Tonto have been largely relegated to the past, the stereotypical depiction of the drunken Irishmen is very much with us to this day.
We are unquestionably in a unique situation here in Utah. Perhaps it is not surprising that a culture that is entirely abstemious would tend to pass judgment on one that is not. But the lack of understanding goes far beyond the question of alcohol. The Irish have been excluded from their rightful place in Utah history and most specifically the history of Salt Lake County. Like Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man – they are ignored as if they were never here at all.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
W. Mark Felt Bubble Gum Cards
By Popular request here are a couple of the W. Mark Felt Bubble Gum Cards mentioned in yesterday’s blog.
McHozho
ACTION HERO CARD # 1
W. Mark Felt AKA“DEEP Throat”
William Mark Felt born Twin Falls, Id.
Aug 17, 1913. Grad Twin Falls H. S.
1931, Univ. of Idaho 1935. Played H.S. Col.
Basketball. Grades: good, Type:“Ambitious”
Wife: Audrey, nee Robinson, born Gooding, Id.
daughter of local dentist. (Mar. 1938)
1940 LLB Degree Geo. Wash. Law School
Entered F.B.I. Jan 26, 1942 “Domestic
Espionage Unit (1942-46) Agent (1947-55)
1956 “Agent in Charge” Salt Lake City Off.
1963-66 Helped organize COINTELPRO,
and participated in illegal survelience and
infiltration of Civil Rights Movement and
defamation campaigns against Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr.. Sanctioned violations of 4th Amend.
and break-ins against leftist organizations.
July 1, 1971 Appointed Dept. Assoc. Director
by J. Edgar Hoover. 1972 Passsed over for
Director post by President Richard M. Nixon.
1972-3: SAVED THE COUNTRY!
ACTION HERO CARD #2
W. MARK FELT AKA “DEEP THROAT”
From KGB Dossier: W. MARK FELT born
Twin Falls, Id. (1914) Graduated from TF H. S.
1931, Univ. of Idaho 1935. Played H.S. Col
Basketball. Grades: good, Type:“Ambitious”
Wife: Audrey, nee Robinson, born Gooding, Id.
daughter of local dentist. 1930-33 Audrey was
waitress at “Robbies” Malt Shop in “The
Leader Building.” Shift: 5:00 to Midnight
First meeting with subject: ” It was a dark and
stormy night. The man in the trench coat standing
in the darkened phone booth at the back of the
shop had his back turned to the counter and I
wasn’t sure if he was wearing any pants”
1940-1952 Intel Unit U.S. Navy
1952-1987 FBI Bur Ch/ Asst. Dir. Deputy Dir.
1972-3: Saved the Country
SCOTCH: ”DEWERS of Course!”
McHozho
ACTION HERO CARD # 1
W. Mark Felt AKA“DEEP Throat”
William Mark Felt born Twin Falls, Id.
Aug 17, 1913. Grad Twin Falls H. S.
1931, Univ. of Idaho 1935. Played H.S. Col.
Basketball. Grades: good, Type:“Ambitious”
Wife: Audrey, nee Robinson, born Gooding, Id.
daughter of local dentist. (Mar. 1938)
1940 LLB Degree Geo. Wash. Law School
Entered F.B.I. Jan 26, 1942 “Domestic
Espionage Unit (1942-46) Agent (1947-55)
1956 “Agent in Charge” Salt Lake City Off.
1963-66 Helped organize COINTELPRO,
and participated in illegal survelience and
infiltration of Civil Rights Movement and
defamation campaigns against Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr.. Sanctioned violations of 4th Amend.
and break-ins against leftist organizations.
July 1, 1971 Appointed Dept. Assoc. Director
by J. Edgar Hoover. 1972 Passsed over for
Director post by President Richard M. Nixon.
1972-3: SAVED THE COUNTRY!
ACTION HERO CARD #2
W. MARK FELT AKA “DEEP THROAT”
From KGB Dossier: W. MARK FELT born
Twin Falls, Id. (1914) Graduated from TF H. S.
1931, Univ. of Idaho 1935. Played H.S. Col
Basketball. Grades: good, Type:“Ambitious”
Wife: Audrey, nee Robinson, born Gooding, Id.
daughter of local dentist. 1930-33 Audrey was
waitress at “Robbies” Malt Shop in “The
Leader Building.” Shift: 5:00 to Midnight
First meeting with subject: ” It was a dark and
stormy night. The man in the trench coat standing
in the darkened phone booth at the back of the
shop had his back turned to the counter and I
wasn’t sure if he was wearing any pants”
1940-1952 Intel Unit U.S. Navy
1952-1987 FBI Bur Ch/ Asst. Dir. Deputy Dir.
1972-3: Saved the Country
SCOTCH: ”DEWERS of Course!”
Friday, December 19, 2008
Obits: Connor Cruise Obrien/ W. Mark Felt
This summary is not available. Please
click here to view the post.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
The Ban Sidhe (The Banshee)
The Ban Sidhe *
I could tell from the howling of the “ban sidhe” last night that this morning’s storm was likely to be a bad one. The copper strip insulation around the doors and windows of this 1910 vintage bungalow buzz and moan with the slightest breeze - so the cacophonic din that joined the mournful chorus above the chimney, kept me up from 3:00 a.m. to 6:30. I didn’t get much sleep. It started snowing at
I almost picked off the first lady at the very start of the voyage. She was bundled and wrapped to the bridge of her nose - utterly oblivious to my approach as she stepped blithely in the path of the car. She would have made a considerable impression too as she outweighed the tiny Saturn by several stone.
My second target was not so well fed as the first – nor as well prepared . She must have left the house before
The woman’s dark apparel made her difficult to see. But in this snow storm, even “The Pink Lady,” who was want to trot by my house each morning during the summer in the same grotesque flamingo suit, would have been hard to pick out in the falling snow. To be accurate about this, the face of the pink lady, could never be seen in a snowstorm at all as it was perpetually painted in zinc oxide to protect her skin from the ultra-violet rays of the sun. I do not know she wears zinc oxide in the winter – in fact the Pink Lady has not run by my house in many months and I sometimes wonder what happened to her.
The teapot stepped into the crosswalk against the light in front of my car and then, thinking better of it, stepped back onto the sidewalk where she began jogging in place – a jaunty lass accidentally abandoned from a recent touring production of “River Dance.” Then as her arms left her side and they began circling from the shoulders – Rocky Balboa in training yet again!
Since these brief encounters, I have been pondering the frailty of life and the utter pointlessness of overindulgence in either exercise or eating. Either woman had an equal opportunity of ending up in the trophy case of unwitting casual victims slaughtered each day as a tragic if necessary consequence of modern transportation.
A Poem:
The man who said clean living pays a bonus in longevity
And rose at dawn to work each day
Abstaining from all levity
And going on his cautious way avoiding what was risky
Got his reward on the grill of a Ford
In the parking lot at Kamiski
- Ban Sidhe (The Banshee) In the Irish language the word “ban” means woman. The word “sidhe” means “wind.” So the “ban sidhe” is “The Woman of the Wind.” In addition to wind, the word “sidhe” can mean “spirit” and “breath.” In Latin its closest equivalent would be “espiritu,” a word that can also mean spirit, breath and wind. In American Indian languages there are similar words that combine the meanings of breath, spirit and wind. It is a common belief in many native American cultures that there is a little whirlwind in side of each of us that keeps us going. When we stop breathing (lose the wind) the spirit is said to have left us. It is the same in Irish mythology where the Ban Sidhe ( banshee) the keening woman spirit of the wind heralds the approach of death.
Friday, December 12, 2008
I have spent months trying to get politicians, conservation groups and industry to begin active carbon sequestration programs. After many weeks of pestering I was finally able to arrange a meeting with one of the gurus of a prominent environmental organization. The only time he could fit me in was 6 a.m. The meeting was held at a coffee shop across the parking lot from his office. It lasted a little over an hour and a half.
I had been drinking coffee since about 4:00 AM so I really didn't need any more. Anyway, I was just a little manic. Because I knew that this was probably my only shot with the guru, I tried to shove into the meeting as much information and documentation as I possibly could. I could tell that he wasn't getting it. He gaped back at me with an expression as blank and unrewarding as an empty refrigerator. I could sense him edging toward the end of his booth and I quickened my pace almost but not quite raving. As I gasped for breath and took a quick gulp of cold coffee, he seized the opportunity provided by the pause in the deluge of verbiage and fled the building - a startled deer bounding through the parking lot - with me stumbling after him waving scientific papers above his head like the sword of Damocles and shouting volumes of obscenity laced statistics.
When he reached the safety of his building he slammed the door shut behind him and locked it securely, a barrier I am sure he did not need to reinforce with the furniture I could hear him dragging across the floor toward the entrance. I stood there for a long moment before fleeing the scene myself. As I glanced back over my shoulder, I thought I saw him peeking from behind the curtains of his office, the would-be- victim lucky to have escaped the terror at his threshold, a timid pitiful creature cowering in the gloom.
On the whole a most successful presentation – I think.
O'HOZHO
I
When he reached the safety of his building he slammed the door shut behind him and locked it securely, a barrier I am sure he did not need to reinforce with the furniture I could hear him dragging across the floor toward the entrance. I stood there for a long moment before fleeing the scene myself. As I glanced back over my shoulder, I thought I saw him peeking from behind the curtains of his office, the would-be- victim lucky to have escaped the terror at his threshold, a timid pitiful creature cowering in the gloom.
On the whole a most successful presentation – I think.
O'HOZHO
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