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| Father Felix Varela |
The Once
and Future Irish Link Between Cuba and the US
by John McAuliff
[presented at the Conference of the Centro de Investigaciones de Política Internacional (CIPI), Havana, Cuba12/8/23]
The question might fairly be asked why in a conference about Cuba in the Foreign Policy of the US is there a presentation on the Intersection of Cuban and Irish Nationalism in 19th Century New York.
The question
might also be asked why in a jammed schedule of diplomatic and political events
at the UN General Assembly, President Diaz-Canel took time to visit the Church
of the Transfiguration in Chinatown and to meet Bishop Cisneros who is
responsible for Church consideration of the beatification of Father Varela.
The answer
lies in the founder of the church, Father Felix Varela, and the role his exceptional
history in both countries might play in healing the wounds between them 170
years after his death.
In the first
part of the 19th century Father Felix Varela was an intellectual and spiritual
author of Cuban identity. Jose Marti
called him, “the man who taught us to think.”
After being forced into exile by Spain, he became the advocate for the
identity of Irish immigrants in a hostile New York. Two generations later the city’s dominant
Irish political machine, Tammany Hall, and an Irish American sea captain,
Dynamite Johnny O’Brien, made significant contributions to Cuba’s final war of
independence from Spain.
Varela’s
role in Cuba is not well known in the US.
His role in New York is not recognized by many Cubans. Once popularly celebrated in both countries,
Dynamite Johnny is largely forgotten.
Both provide a positive connection that can be a foundation for greater
mutual appreciation during the long overdue process of renormalization.
Venerable
Felix Varela, A Hero of Two Nations
The
strongest Cuban Irish American link begins in St. Augustine, in the East
Florida colony of Spain, in 1790 when the orphaned Felix Varela’s maternal
grandfather was named General of its military garrison. The Irish priest and vicar of East Florida,
Miguel O’ Reilly, was Varela’s inspiration and teacher, including of the Irish
language. Varela studied at San Carlos Seminary and the
University of Havana, was ordained and taught philosophy. Known for his advocacy of self-government,
abolition of slavery and equal education of women, he was elected to the
democratic Spanish Cortes in 1821. Absolutist
royal rule regained power in Spain in 1823.
“In his
position as representative of Cuba in Spanish Court, he signed an invalidation
of the Spanish king and was sentenced to death as a result.” [i]
Varela found
asylum in the United States, arriving in New York Harbor on December 15, 1823. In New York, as a Parish priest he became a
compassionate advocate for the poor, especially for Irish immigrants in whose
language he became fluent. He wrote, “I
work hard to help Irish families build schools for their children, and I tend
cholera patients, and I defend Irish American boys and girls against insults
from mobs who hate them just because their parents are immigrants.” [ii]
For a time Varela
remained active in the intellectual and political life of his homeland,
publishing a magazine, El Habanero, from 1824 to 1826 in which he explicitly advocated
independence. He rejected the arguments
of Cubans who believed the country would fare best if annexed by a larger
country like Mexico, Colombia or the US.
"I am the first to oppose the union of the island to any
government. I should wish to see her as much of a political island as she is
such in geographical terms."[iii]
Spain sent
an assassin to eliminate him in 1825.
His Irish parishioners protected his location.
Varela was
an extraordinary public intellectual, challenging the most vicious
anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant propaganda of his era, but also building
ecumenical relationships with Protestant church leaders. Having great administrative talents, he was
named Vicar General of the New York diocese that covered all of New York State
and the northern half of New Jersey. He was also a prodigious fund-raiser, creating
two churches and their accompanying schools between 1827 and 1836. While designed to meet the needs of the
burgeoning Irish population, they were not ethnically exclusive. The second, the Church of the
Transfiguration, is still for immigrants but now mostly Chinese and at a new
location on Mott Street, with Varela’s statue by the entrance.
The only
reference I could find to his engagement with the issue of Ireland itself was his
participation in New York City in a May 1, 1843 “Approbation meeting” of the
Friends of Ireland and Universal Liberty in support of publication of Thomas
Mooney's lectures on Irish history.[iv]
Their statement can be found in the
preface of “A History of Ireland: From Its First Settlement to the Present Time”. That they felt it necessary to collectively
advocate publication of the book and the tone and content of their words are similar
to voices in our time pressing for publications that reflect African American
history and perspectives.
Much to the
dismay of friends and political supporters in Cuba, Varela’s intellectual focus
shifted almost entirely to his responsibilities in New York and issues related
to his Irish immigrant flock. Because of
illness, Varela retired to his boyhood home in St. Augustine in 1848, the
height of famine caused Irish immigration to New York. He tried to return to New York three times
but his health did not permit and he died in 1853
Irish and
Irish American Support for Cuban Independence
Irish
emigrants and their descendents in Spain and in North America found their way
to Cuba throughout the 17th, 18th and 19th
centuries. Many are named in the
pioneering research of my Cuban friend Rafael Fernandez Moya, former diplomat,
retired administrator of the office of the Historian of Havana and teacher of
Irish President Higgins and myself. His essay “The Irish Presence in the History
and Place Names of Cuba”, published by the Society for Irish Latin American
Studies (SILAS).[v] https://www.irlandeses.org/0711fernandezmoya1.htm
is contained in this book for the CIPI library.
Because of
time constraints I am passing over the substantial history of Irish American
support for Cuba’s independence struggle from the Fenians in 1873, to Tammany
Hall’s political, meeting place and financial contribution to Jose Marti and
his successors. Captain Dynamite Johnny O’Brien whose parents migrated from
Ireland made a dozen voyages to illegally transport weapons and military
personnel for the successful independence struggle. Tammany Hall funded one shipload, giving the
current equivalent of $873,000 Johnny’s story is portrayed by the Irish
filmmaker Charlie O’Brien, available on youtube as linked in my original paper
for LASA.
[Omitted from verbal presentation.]
The Irish nationalist Fenians/Clan Na Gael sent James J
O'Kelly to Cuba in 1873 to report on the Ten Years’ War for the New York Herald. His
mission included potential alliance with the Cuban revolutionaries. From research funded by the Society for Irish
Latin American Studies and published in its 2019 collection “Ireland & Cuba,
Entangled Histories”[vi]
José Antonio Quintana writes
During the days he spent alongside Céspedes, they reached an
agreement that would have had great mutual benefits for the causes of both
colonies, and which illustrates the journalist’s sympathy and commitment to the
island’s revolution. The Fenian’s idea was to make Ireland aware of the
militancy of the Cubans, with the help of the Irish emigrants residing in the
United States. The agreement stipulated that if he managed it successfully,
then the Cuban revolutionary government, once in power, would give O’Kelly
twenty thousand rifles and a ship to be used to carry out the subversion in
Ireland (Céspedes, 1982: 185). This project never came to fruition.
O’Kelley’s articles and his book, “The Mambi Land[vii],
were influential with Irish-Americans and a wider audience. After returning to Ireland he became a
Parnellite MP for Roscommon North and wrote on foreign affairs for The
Independent. The paper supported Cuba’s
final independence struggle, characterizing it as “the Ireland of the West,”
and applauded the US war with Spain as a “just and holy crusade”. “It openly wished that America would
intervene in Ireland as in Cuba”. When
William Astor Chanler, the millionaire US brother of a board member “fitted out
a warship at his own expense; the Independent published glowing reports of his
Cuban exploits.”[viii]
Tammany Hall and Dynamite Johnny O’Brien
The institution through which immigrant Irish gained
political power in New York was Tammany Hall, or more precisely the General
Committee of the Democratic-Republican Party.
The Irish role in Tammany Hall emerged in 1817 and grew during Father
Varela’s time. “In New York, the
famine emigration of 1846-1850 established the basis of Irish domination. There
were 133,730 Irish-born citizens by the mid-century, 26 percent of the total
population.”[ix] Most arrived with little or no resources and
began their new lives in poverty. Tammany Hall provided employment, shelter,
and even sometimes citizenship[x]
On April 4, 1855, the New York Times reported that Chairman
H.P. Carr submitted “spicey resolutions” on Cuba to the Young Men’s
Democratic-Republican General Committee, meeting at Tammany Hall. They incorporated concern about “interference
of ‘a new Holy Alliance by the Monarchical Powers of Western Europe’] between a
struggling and oppressed people and their oppressors to crush the one and lend
new means of cruelty and oppression to the other.” The Times reported, “The resolutions were
adopted unanimously.” [xi]
[Deeper digging could determine whether Mr. Carr or any
others on the General Committee were interested in Cuba because they were
involved with or benefited from the work of Father Varela.]
In the 1880s, Tammany Hall provided meeting spaces for Jose
Marti and others to debate, organize and celebrate their struggle for Cuba’s
independence. Tammany also made the
largest financial contribution from any American source in the fall of 1897,
$30,000 according to Horatio S. Rubens. the revolutionaries’ legal counsel and
$20,000 according to Captain Dynamite Johnny O’Brien.
In his memoir, "A Captain Unafraid"[xii],
O’Brien wrote
In their three and a half active years the Cuban delegations
in the United States expended approximately $1,500,000, practically all of
which passed through the hands of Mr. Palma. Of this amount Americans gave less
than $75,000. The largest American
offering was $20,000 from Tammany Hall in the fall of 1897, at which time we
were badly in need of funds with which to purchase arms and ammunition.
Whether Horatio Rubens or O’Brien had the correct figure,
$30,000 or $20,000 was substantial, in current value the
equivalent of $873,000 or $582,000.
Potentially is this also a legacy of Father Varela’s?
Tamany’s leader Richard Croker was born in County Cork in 1843 and was brought
to the US two years later. Could his
parents have known or heard of Varela?
Did he go to one of Varela’s schools?
Dynamite Johnny O’Brien was born in New York in 1837. His parents immigrated from County Longford
in 1831 and lived on the lower east side [posing again the question of possible
relationship to Father Varela]. He was a
pilot in New York harbor before becoming a "filibuster", a smuggler
of arms. During the successful independence war, he made over a dozen
deliveries of weapons and personnel in every quadrant of Cuba's coast. O'Brien evaded efforts by Spain, the US and
Pinkerton detectives to arrest, capture or kill him. He successfully
commanded what Granma[xiii]
has described as the sole engagement of the Mambisi navy near
Cienfuegos. O'Brien's integrity and heroism were so appreciated that
he became Havana's first port captain through a special act of the legislature
after Cuba achieved its independence. He was also forgiven his
transgressions by the US government enough to symbolically command the
resinking of the Maine outside of Cuban waters.
However, while his role was reported in the New York Times it is not
acknowledged in US government documents.
Johnny’s story was portrayed by the Irish
filmmaker Charlie O’Brien, as linked in my original paper for LASA. It can be seen here https://youtu.be/E2pSwgTNwEE
and is accounted in Charlie’s essay “The Lure of Troubled Waters”.[xiv] https://cubapeopletopeople.blogspot.com/2017/06/dynamite-johnny-obrien-through-lens-of.html
A plaque commemorating Johnny on the wall of the original
Customs House at the entrance of
the Plaza de Armas.
Honoring the anniversary of Johnny with several of his
descendants, staff and students from the Provincial
Library, historian Rafael Fernandez Moya and a song written and performed by Enrique Nunez.
Conclusion
There is a
twentieth and twenty-first century chapter to the story. As the price of achieving peace and
independence Ireland had to accept the loss of the northeast portion of the
nation, most of the traditional province of Ulster. The price for Cuba’s independence was
acceptance of the Platt Amendment.
Achieving mutual
respect between England and a sovereign Ireland took decades. The Irish Republic was only proclaimed in
1949, twenty-seven years after independence. Irish friends identify as the symbolic moment
of mutual respect the separate and equal entry into the European Union of both Ireland
and the United Kingdom in 1973, 51 years after independence. The problem of reintegration of the island
remains an obstacle to the fulfillment of Ireland’s national potential and
identity although thanks to the Good Friday Agreement and the unintended
consequences of Brexit, the border is a diminishing obstacle in practice if not
in theory. Nevertheless Ireland today
is one of the most economically successful and politically stable members of
the European Union.
Cuba developed
as a client state of the US for the first half of the twentieth century,
compromised by direct US military intervention during the first years of
independence from Spain, exploited economically and separated from an important
part of its national territory by US occupation of the base and now prison of
Guantanamo. Politically, culturally and
economically the two countries became deeply integrated with the US as the dominant
partner.
The Cuban
revolution of 1959 achieved political independence but it has not been able to establish
a mutually respectful autonomy from the US as Ireland eventually did from England. Confronted by virtually unabating hostility
and regime change objectives from Washington and Miami, with the partial
exception of President Obama’s second term, Cuba has been constricted
economically, politically, and psychologically.
Because of
my own experience with Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia, it is hard to escape the
underlying reality that the missing ingredient is the sovereign respect that
the US extended to its former enemies in Indochina and that it has never given to
Cuba, recognition of their right to full self-determination, with differences
in governance and ideology, including interpretations of human rights.
Eusebeo Leal,
then the Historian of Habana Vieja, at the original burial
site of Father Varela in St. Augustine, FL
I will
conclude with speculation that Father Varela could reopen the door opened by Obama
and Raul Castro, closed by Trump, partially and inadequately reopened by
Biden. It is rumored that Pope Francis
will come to Cuba in the New Year in connection with the beatification of
Father Varala. As with previous Papel
visits, a release of prisoners who opposed the government is desired. The US ought to see significant release of
people imprisoned from the July 11 protests as a reason to return to status quo
ante Trump, to restore the Obama engagement policy including hotel use, more
general licenses for travel, permission for cruises and removal from the list
of State Sponsors of Terrorism.
If the Pope
returns to Cuba in connection with Varela’s beatification, Cuba should invite
prominent Irish Americans to come to Havana to lift up Varela’s historic role
in New York as well as in Havana. They
could include former Senator John Kerry who normalized relations as Secretary
of State and former Senator Chris Dodd, Biden’s Special Advisor on Latin
America, and current Senator Chris Murphy.
USAID Administrator Samantha
Power should also be welcomed. Power was born in Ireland and as Obama’s ambassador to the UN eloquently announced
the historic US abstention on the resolution against the embargo. Although USAID is responsible for
interventionist democracy programs in Cuba, it also provided $2,000,000 in post
hurricane assistance and fire fighter protection and has substantial
non-subversive programs in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
(This
list did not include recognized leaders who already advocate re-engagement and also
have a strong Irish identity: former
Senator Patrick Leahy and Representative Jim McGovern.)
[This is revised from a longer paper presented in May 2023
for the Latin American Studies Association conference in Vancouver Vancouver
and shared at the conference of the Society for Irish Latin American Studies
(SILAS) at the University of Galway in June .
The full paper is available on line. https://cubapeopletopeople.blogspot.com/2023/05/ireland-and-cuba-historical-links-and.html
]
[i] https://cubanthinkers.domains.uflib.ufl.edu/felix-varela/
[ii] https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2076178949
[iii] https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/varela-y-morales-felix-1788-1853
[iv]https://books.google.com/books?id=_exVAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA2&lpg=PA2&dq=Friends+of+Ireland+Thomas+Mooney+Felix+Varela&source=bl&ots=5StDyYXPdR&sig=ACfU3U2dbmHxPc4wD5FArAq3vcZyET8uYQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiduYiVvYf_AhW6KlkFHU4WCCcQ6AF6BAgsEAM#v=onepage&q=Friends%20of%20Ireland%20Thomas%20Mooney%20Felix%20Varela&f=false
[v] https://www.irlandeses.org/0711fernandezmoya1.htm
[vi] Ireland & Cuba, Entangled Histories, edited by Margaret Brehony and Nuala Finnegan, Ediciones Bolona pp 222 https://irlandeses.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Irlanda-y-Cuba-historias-entretejidas-030120-with-cover.pdf
[vii] https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101020878607&view=1up&seq=11
[viii]
https://www.historyireland.com/cuba-the-ireland-of-the-west-the-irish-daily-independent-and-irish-nationalist-responses-to-the-spanish-american-war/
[ix] Christiane Köppe (Author), 2005,
Irish Immigrants in New York City 1850, Munich, GRIN Verlag,
https://www.grin.com/document/109765
[x] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tammany_Hall
[xii] https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Captain_Unafraid/5JYnAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1
[xiii]
http://www.granma.cu/cuba/2016-12-19/aniversario-120-del-unico-combate-naval-mambi-19-12-2016-22-12-11
[xiv] https://cubapeopletopeople.blogspot.com/2017/06/dynamite-johnny-obrien-through-lens-of.html
Original paper presented at Latin American Studies Association in Vancouver https://cubapeopletopeople.blogspot.com/2023/05/ireland-and-cuba-historical-links-and.html
Moya article https://www.irlandeses.org/0711fernandezmoya1.htm
Dynamite Johnny video A Captain Unafraid https://youtu.be/E2pSwgTNwEE
Charlie O’Brien “The Lure of Troubled Waters”. https://cubapeopletopeople.blogspot.com/2017/06/dynamite-johnny-obrien-through-lens-of.htm
Miramar Theater concert by Mick Moloney and Green Fields of America https://youtu.be/WXtUseVO2UU
“Green Fields of Cuba” video of performance tour in Santiago and Holguin https://youtu.be/-1FnKrBurpA
Irish Links to Cuba tinyurl.com/irish2cuba
Longer summary of Irish history in Cuba http://tinyurl.com/IrishCubanHistory
Irish walking tour of Old Havana https://cubapeopletopeople.blogspot.com/2017/03/a-walking-tour-of-irish-old-havana.html
jmcauliff@ffrd.org www.ffrd.org
I have visited Cuba 64 times, 1st in 1971 but all the rest from 1997 after we achieved the goal of normalization with Viet Nam, Cambodia and Laos.
Thanks to CIPI and ISRI, in particular to Ambassador Cabanas who played an important role in the opening of bilateral relations
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