The son of San Francisco’s police chief, George O’Brien was the grandson of Irish immigrants who settled in that city during the 1870’s. After graduating high school, he served in the Navy during World War I. He served as a stretcher bearer during the war and was later Light Heavyweight Champion of the Pacific Fleet. After the Navy he was pre-med at the Jesuit Santa Clara College (now Santa Clara University). A chance meeting with cowboy star Tom Mix at... Read more
The son of an Irish immigrant from Limerick, William King Baggot was born in St. Louis, where he attended Christian Brothers College High School. After working in Chicago, he played soccer in St. Louis and joined a parish theater group, which was his first exposure to acting. After several years on stage (he appeared on Broadway in 1906, in the play Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch), he joined the Independent Motion Pictures Company (IMP) in 1909. For the next... Read more
Nita Naldi was born Mary Nonna Dooley on East 114th Street in Harlem in what was then a largely Irish neighborhood. She was named for her great-aunt, Sister Mary Nonna Dunphy, foundress and Mother Superior of Holy Angels Academy in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Her parents were both of Irish ancestry, Patrick and Julia Cronin Dooley. Patrick left the family when Mary was young, but she boarded at Holy Angels. Forced to support her siblings after her mother died in... Read more
This week McNamara’s Blog features the Catholic presence in American film during the silent and early sound era. A large amount of actors and actresses were Catholics, many of them Irish. Today we feature Maurice Costello, one of the first matinee idols of any kind. Born to Irish Catholic immigrant parents, Costello grew up in Pittsburgh. Between 1905 and 1950, he appeared in some 280 films, beginning with Sherlock Holmes. The first serious male cinematic idol, he became known as “the... Read more
Military officer, b. in Dungannon County Tyrone, Ireland, 12 Dec., 1810; d. at Ottumwa, Iowa, 1 June, 1879. He emigrated to the United States in 1826 where he at one proceeded to study law and began practicing at Kaskaskia, Ill., in 1832. He was elected to the state Legislature in 1836; became state auditor in 1839 and judge of the state supreme court in 1843. He was fulfilling his duties as commissioner of the general land-office when war with Mexico... Read more
Journalist and poet, b. 1 Jan., 1839, at Baltimore, Maryland; d. 15 Jan., 1908 at Augusta, Georgia. As author of “Maryland, my Maryland”, the famous war song of the Confederacy, he has been frequently styled the “Poet Laureate of the Lost Cause”. He received his education at Georgetown University, but did not graduate. He travelled in South America and the West Indies and upon returning to the United States, accepted the chair of English Literature at Poydras College, Pointe-Coupée, La.,... Read more
Charles Ewing, b. at Lancaster, 6 March, 1835; d. at Washington, 20 June, 1883. Commencing his studies at the college of the Dominican Fathers in Perry County, Ohio, he later attended Gonzaga College, Washington, and the University of Virginia. In 1860 he began the practice of law in St. Louis, Missouri. The Civil War breaking out soon afterwards, he was commissioned a captain in the Thirteenth Infantry of the United States Regulars in May, 1861, and in the Spring of... Read more
The poet-priest of the South, born at Norfolk, Virginia, 15 August, 1839; died at Louisville, Kentucky, 22 April, 1886. He inherited from his parents, in its most poetic and religious form, the strange witchery of the Irish temper. Fitted for the priesthood by a nature at once mystic and spiritual, be was ordained just before the beginning of the Civil War, entered the Confederate army as a chaplain, and served in this capacity until the end of the war. In... Read more
Born at Kingston, Ohio, 6 Sept., 1819; died near Redondo, California 11 March, 1898. The family came originally from Holland and settled in Pennsylvania, moving thence to Ohio.His mother was a daughter of Samuel Hopkins, a soldier of the Revolution and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He graduated at the U. S. Military Academy, West Point, in July 1842, and after a brief service in the engineer corps returned to the Academy as a professor, remaining... Read more
Soldier and Catholic convert. Born 8 January, 1821, at Edgefield, South Carolina, U.S.A.; died at Gainesville, Georgia, 2 January, 1904. In 1831 he moved to Alabama with his parents, and was thence appointed to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated in 1842. For his services in the Mexican War he was brevetted major and in 1852 was commissioned captain. At the outbreak of the Civil War he resigned his commission in June, 1861, and entered the... Read more
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