| Obituaries
 Tom Manton
1932-2006
Alone among the New York boroughs, Congressman Thomas Manton kept the
Queens machine together, which ensured that every office holder, from
president on down, had to come and visit the boss in his Queens lair.
Manton made sure his own people were looked after and that New York was
kept high on the priority list of national candidates.
He was also a very proud Irishman who traced his family roots back to
County Galway and visited there. Whenever Irish issues surfaced over the
years, Manton was there in Congress, especially on Northern Ireland; he
was a fearless advocate for Irish unity.
A few years back on St. Patrick’s Day Tom and I were in the White House.
The IRA ceasefire had taken place the previous August and Sinn Féin
President Gerry Adams was there to meet with President Clinton. For the
first time in a generation it looked like there was hope for peace.
We flew back to New York together and Tom was waxing lyrical about what
a special and historic day it had been.
“You know, I have spent a lifetime in politics,” he said, “and today was
one of my
greatest days. That we could do something like this for the country
where my people came from was one of my proudest moments.”
Tom Manton had a lot of proud moments in his life, and his
accomplishments will long outlast him. He was the very best kind of
Irish-American politician, and we will sorely miss him. – Niall O’Dowd
Photo: Congressman Manton and Bill Clinton in 1991.
 Barnard Hughes 1915 - 2006
Irish America lost one of its finest actors on July 11, when Barnard
Hughes died in New York City, just six days before his 91st birthday.
The Tony and Emmy-award-winning actor featured in a host of movies, including Midnight Cowboy,
The Lost Boys and The Cradle Will Rock, and more than 400 Broadway
shows. He is best remembered for his starring role in Da, the first
Irish play to win a Tony Award. The play, by Hugh Leonard, which opened
on Broadway in 1978, tells the story of a New York playwright who goes
back to Ireland to bury his father and is visited by his ghost. The New
York Times described Hughes’ portrayal of the father as “masterly in the
role of a lifetime, working with every jewel in place.”
Born in Bedford Hills, New York to Irish immigrant parents, Hughes fell
into acting by accident. A friend tricked him into
auditioning for a repertory company that
performed Shakespeare in high schools. After receiving a small role in
Taming of the Shrew, Hughes quit Manhattan College to act full time. He
made his Broadway debut in 1935 in Herself Mrs. Patrick Crowley.
After serving in the U.S. Army in World War II, Hughes returned to
acting but would wait 43 years for his career-defining role in Da. He
also received a Best Featured Actor Tony nomination for his 1973
performance as Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing. Hughes’ last Broadway
appearance was in 1999 when he appeared in Noel Coward’s Waiting in the
Wings.
Hughes is survived by his wife, Helen Stenborg, his son, Doug Hughes, an
acclaimed director who won a Tony Award for his direction of John
Patrick Shanley’s Doubt, a daughter Laura Hughes, and a grandson Samuel
Hughes Rubin.
– Bridget English
Captain John F. McKenna
The funeral of Captain John F. McKenna took place on August 25 at the
Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Brooklyn. McKenna was born in Windsor
Terrace, Brooklyn and went to Bishop Ford Catholic High School. In 1998,
he joined the Marine Corps, continuing a family tradition that included
his grandfather and uncle, who died in WWII. He was killed in Fallujah,
Iraq on August 15 alongside fellow Irish-American Lance Corporal Michael
D. Glover, 28, bringing the total number of combat deaths in the U.S.
armed forces in Iraq to 2,138. Lance Corporal Glover, from Rockaway, New
York, was a nephew of FDNY Chief Pete Hayden’s wife Rita. |
