ROLL ME  UP AND SMOKE ME WHEN I DIE

 Musings from the Road from Willie Nelson

A book review by JC Sullivan (adult reading)

“I didn’t get popular until I got ugly!” Willie Nelson summed up his music success in those words some years ago. This past Christmas I purchased this book for my wife Karen as she is a Willie fan. I just knew it would be a good read. I realized he wasn’t bor wit a silver spoon in his mouth. I expected to hear about his hard times. What I wasn’t prepared for was the humor in the book and the belly laughs they produced while I lay in bed doing my midnight readings.

Did you hear about the nervous bank robber? “Stick up your ass or I’ll blow your hands to hell!”

Willie took off a year off from touring and bought a ranch in Ridgetop, Tennessee. While there he decided to raise hogs. He’d raised them nearly all his life beginning in High School where he did so for show, food, money, or whatever.”

Willie also decided to learn to rope calves, something he’d never done before. “I bought a book called Calf Roping by Toots Mansfield. He had a calf-roping school…He had a lot of young calf ropers to whom he taught the finer skills of roping, so I was sure I could learn from his book….Unfortunately, my roping horse, Preacher, had not read the book.”

A forward penned by Texas DJ Kinky Friedman pretty much hits the nail when describing where Willie’s songwriting and musical talent come from. “Great art is rarely produced by someone who sits down to paint his masterpiece. The guy who sets out to write the great American novel never does it; the great work is invariably written by the guy who was just trying to pay the rent.” 

Now, I’m not even halfway through the book and have surprised myself writing this review. Willie is a hoot!

“If it ain’t broke, break it!”

Any-Body Can

A Book Review by J.C. Sullivan

 

Cleveland native Patrick Kilbane has authored a delightful and colorful children’s book titled Any-Body Can. His engineering background is evident as he familiarizes and teaches children the alphabet. Beginning with the letter “A”, he takes them through each letter of the alphabet and also encourages readers to be the best they can be.  For example, “A – “Anybody, anybody, Anybody can. Believe it, achieve it. Plan, Plan, Plan. Anybody, anybody, Anybody Can. 

The abundant and vibrant illustrations are by Bill Peck and Ications Design. Copies of this charming and enchanting book can be obtained by writing Mary Ann Kilbane, 840 Hamlet Lane, A-1, Westlake,Ohio 44145 or by telephoning 216-407-5533.

To Hell and Back

A book review of the autobiography of Audie Murphy by JC Sullivan

Perhaps you’ve seen the movie by the same title in which Audie Murphy, America’s most highly-decorated WWII soldier, portrayed himself.  I did and was impressed with it. It was my introduction to who he was. However, I later read the book on which the movie was based and found it to be much more interesting because of the details of his life and military experiences that were not in the movie.

Why, you might ask, am I reviewing a book published in 1949? Aren’t book reviews for newly-published books? Yes, they are, of course. But I am doing it because of my belief that new generations must be aware of the sacrifices that have been made by flesh and blood individuals.

Murphy, who died with five others in a 1971 plane crash in Virginia, had been the recipient of America’s Medal of Honor, two Silver Stars, a Bronze Star, three Purple Hearts, the Distinguished Service Cross and the Legion of Merit. He was not aware of his specific hero status until he returned from the war in 1945. At that time he wrote “War is a nasty business to be avoided if possible and to be gotten over with as soon as possible. It’s not the sort of job that deserves medals.” Asked if he remembered the specifics for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor he replied, “Like a nightmare.”

Born dirt poor in north Texas, his alcoholic sharecropper father Emmet disappeared early on in his life and his mother died when he was sixteen. He became a sharpshooter, helping to feed his family with squirrel and rabbit he had shot. When World War Two broke out he attempted to enlist in the Marines but was declined due to his youth and slight stature.

According to Times writer Paul Houston, “A friend once calculated that the slightly built Murphy had killed, wounded or captured 240 Germans.” The autobiography is full of dialogue that one would expect from GIs bantering back and forth amongst themselves as they trudged the roads and fields of Italy, France and Germany. The dialogue is so realistic it is as if he actually had total recall of those days.

The fact that he actually survived the war is unimaginable. Three Purple Hearts confirm that. He relates being in southern France when a mortar shell fell as he was attempting to call a jittery newcomer private to the front. When he awoke from the explosion the private and his sergeant were both dead.

 In another specific act of the war he single-handedly sought out a sniper that was killing GIs from a hidden vantage. They spotted each other simultaneously and Murphy was quicker on the trigger. He described the face of the German as evil.

Throughout the chapters of the book Murphy’s fondness for his fellow infantrymen of the 3^rd Infantry Division is evident. He dedicated the book, for example, to Private Joe Sieja, KIA, Anzio and Lattie Tipton, KIA, France. Men such as Kerrigan, Snuffy, Novak and Horse Face were brought to life by Murphy’s remembrances. He wept after Brandon foolishly stood up and was killed, having believed the entire enemy in the immediate area had been eliminated.

While we all know that Murphy went on to a post-war movie career, that’s a story for another writer.

Sullivan is an internationally-published writer residing in northeast Ohio. He is a veteran of U.S. Army service with the 2^nd Armored Division in the U.S. and Europe.  He has visited Murphy’s gravesite in Arlington National Cemeter

JFK - The Unspeakable by James W. Douglass

This review is a work in progress. Mr. Donn M. Searle originally recommended it to me. I began it months ago and I'm in the process of finishing it up. It has been an eye-opener and, quite frankly, makes complete sense to me relating to the 1963 murder of President John 
F. Kennedy.


I am including some of Mr. Searle's e-mail dialogue with me as part of this review, used with his permission of course. 


Please check back as the review is updated. 


JC -   I always thought McNamara (then-Defense Secretary)  was a liar when he said that US Troops would be out of Vietnam by the end of '65. Now I know that was JFK's plan and McNamara was just expressing what his marching orders were from JFK. November, 1963 changed all that.


Donn S - " I did not want to believe that highly-placed leaders -indeed, people we regard as patriots, would actually conspire to assassinate an elected President and engineer a coup d'etat. I could not challenge a single claim. I haven't formed an opinion on Merton. Until reading JFK, I hadn't followed him since reading "Seven Storey Mountain" in high school. I do believe Dorothy Killgallen was murdered, to silence the information she was about to reveal from her sole access to Jack Ruby. I'll look forward to your comments when you have finished the book. -Donn"




JC -   What's your take on the death of Dorothy Kilgallen?


"Killgallen was the only reporter allowed an interview by Ruby. From the time Ruby was arrested, he pleaded to be transferred out of Dallas. He had been promised a defense by Melvin elli, for carrying out the assassination of Oswald. Far from the press caricature as a cast aside, low-level would-be mobster, he was in fact, a man of influence in both the mob and the dallas police department. Oswald was to have been killed resisting arrest in the theatre; when that plan backfired, he had to be silenced before going to court. Oswald's quick comment as he was hustled away from the press, that "I'm just a patsy", was a true statement. The one call he was allowed from the dallas jail, was to his CIA handler in Baltimore, who didn't answer. I believe Oswald got wise to what was happening too late to do anything about it. Because he had carte-blanche access to the police, Ruby was the only man capable of gaining access and silencing Oswald. he was made an offer by his superiors, he couldn't refuse. Killgallen had the story; she had no medical history of depression, yet she supposedly committed suicide with an overdose of phenobarbital as she was compiling her interview notes with Ruby. The story would have been apocalyptic to the Warren Commission. Her notes were never found. The only other party to get so uncomfortably close to blowing the investigation sky-high, was District Attorney Jim Garrison's ill-fated effort."


More to follow

The Baraboo Guards

Prairie Oak Press, Madison, WI 53703

A book review

by

J.C. Sullivan

     When it comes to the American Civil War, surviving first-person diaries and letters are an insightful historical glimpse. Irish-American writer, John K. Driscoll, has crafted a novel about Company K of the Second Wisconsin Infantry Regiment of the Federal Army of the Potomac, known on both sides as the fierce Black Hats of the Iron Brigade. The Baraboo Guards reads as if Driscoll lived the experience of wearing the black hat issued by General John Gibbon.

     Driscoll's attention to detail is natural, refreshing and very life-like, i.e., believable.  For example, as the Army of the Potomac slogs along, a trooper loses his shoe in the mud! Throughout the novel Driscoll puts you in the column to smell the mud and feel the bone-weariness of forced marches. You smell the morning coffee, feel the throat's parchness during the first combat, experience the pangs of the hungry stomach, lust of flesh and despair of soul.  The Baraboo Guards are alive and Driscoll's characters are developed quite fully, one of whom is Murphy.

     He’s a loveable loser whose soulmate is a whiskey bottle. His self-imposed sadness and (dare I say Catholic) guilt burdens and torments him over having left his mother and siblings in Ireland. Murphy skipped across hard-luck crossroads for many years before his association with the Baraboo Guards. Through the camaraderie of military service he is brought to a realization of the truth of his life; the finding of himself through The Baraboo Guards - the resulting love of his fellow man. Like my own reaction, other readers will love him in spite of his societal 'shortcomings.'

     Driscoll's principle character, Sauk County's James Peck, overcomes his many demons too.  Like Murphy, the Baraboo Guards bring him from youthful naivety and imperfection along a path of spiritual growth, self-discovery and self-esteem, as he becomes a seasoned, battle-wise veteran, eventually capable of being fully human.  His eventual coolness while commanding men under fire earns him the respect of his troops.

     Driscoll, a student of the Civil War, is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran.  Perhaps one of the reasons he writes as if he was there is because he has marched and camped with the 1st Virginia (Reenactment) and lectures widely on Civil War topics.  Veterans and non-veterans reading the Baraboo Guards will find it both a soldier's story and a human story, for the Baraboo Guards are shared spirit and emotions. Driscoll evokes from the reader a full range of emotions through the experiences of his characters. We are shocked, angered, overjoyed, saddened, despaired and impassioned as he reveals the angel and the devil in us, while he successfully separates the warrior from the war.

                

                 -30-

Remember Mayo's Fallen

A NATIONAL HEALING BEGINS

by

JC Sullivan

  “Fighters in every clime, every cause but their own.”[1] An irony of Ireland’s relationship with other nations is the number of men and women who have paid the ultimate price for their military service. The extent of the sacrifice is larger than one can imagine.  In County Mayo alone the memory of over one thousand has been preserved and/or restored with the opening of the Mayo Peace Park and Garden of Remembrance.

   The thought-provoking memorial comemorates those men and women from County Mayo who served and died with U.S., Allied  and Commonwealth forces in the major World Wars and UN Peacekeeping operations over the last century.  And a healing has taken place for families and the memory of the individuals who donned a British uniform and died in service to the UK. They had effectively been part of an imposed collective amnesia.

   The sacrifice of these men and woman and their families have now been rightfully honored and remembered in a publication titled “Remembering Mayo’s Fallen Heroes. The Peace Park and this book, in large part, are about what Mayo families knew but many others didn’t. 

   The noble project was compiled by the Chairman of the Mayo Peace Park Committee, Michael Feeney, in honor of his grandfather from Castlebar.  Private Patrick Feeney, 1^st Bn., Connaught Rangers, died on July 22, 1915.  The list of heroes, individual stories, documents and photographs in the book cover far-ranging hostilities, from the Boer War through United Nations service.

   If one could compile a complete list, just how large might Ireland’s sacrifice be?  For example, from our clan alone, the sacrifice of World War One was enormous. Per Ancestry.com, 504 Sullivans and 169 O’Sullivans died while fighting for the UK, 1914-1918. Perhaps the project Michael Feeney has begun in Mayo will ignite the rest of Ireland to do the same.

  To obtain a copy of Feeney’s book contact him at michaelfeeney@eircom.net.  A virtual tour of the Peace Park can be taken at http://www.mayomemorialpeacepark.org/tour.html.

Sullivan is an internationally-published writer residing in northeast Ohio. Two of his three European trips have been to Ireland. He is currently Press Officer for the AOH Ohio State Board and past-Press Officer, AOH National Board.

---

[1]  Emily Lawless

CATHOLICS IN THE OLD SOUTH

CATHOLICS IN THE OLD SOUTH

A Book Review by J.C. Sullivan

 Randall M. Miller and Jon L. Wakelyn have edited a score of essays dealing with a number of issues that affected Catholic life in the American South, a topic that heretofore has received no historical attention in mainstream literary life. Gathering from a multitude of little-known resources, however, they have pieced together an intellectual masterpiece about this almost unknown subject. Although the Irish influence can be found throughout all resource material and subsequent chapters, Irish America will find the one that is most interesting to us is  “The South’s Irish Catholics:  A Case of Cultural Confinement” by Dennis Clark.

Because of our legacy of exile, Clark points out that our presence is demonstrated with our priests in Florida’s Spanish missions, as officials for the Spanish crown in Louisiana and Texas, convicts in Georgia, settlers in the Carolinas and traders among the Indians. While in Charleston, Savannah and New Orleans we kept our cultural identity through social societies such as the Ancient Order of Hibernians. Others of us not so fortunate contracted for indentured service that benefited tradesmen and householders.

Clark maintains, rightly so, that it was not only the “Scotch-Irish” from Ulster that peopled the Appalachian, Ozark and Smoky Mountains but also Irish-Catholic fugitives fleeing from indentured service. He quotes “Colonists in Bondage:  White Servitude and Convict Labor in ‘America, 1607-1776.”  Having fled the legalities of servitude we gained security in the impenetrable mountains and, because of the freedom we sought, created the “distrust of strangers, authority and inquisitive influences” that has long been notable among mountain people.

This scholarly piece takes us away from the notion that we only settled in America's large cities. Many of our ancestors did, indeed, settle the cities, but so many, many more moved throughout America where the work was to be found. American actor Tyrone Power, father of the late actor Tyrone Power, encountered them everywhere. He found we were “clannish, strangers to the local population, sharing their own speech and secret morale. Their itinerant work on flatboats, railroads and drainage gangs made them peripheral to the religious and social communities they touched.” It's as if he is describing my own maternal great-grandfather Patrick W. Murphy, who worked the river boats and railroads of Iowa, Missouri and Arkansas.

The myriad of footnote references makes those of us with a historical bent more anxious to see these become part of Irish-American mainstream literary bookshelf collections.  Niehaus The Irish in New Orleans; The Life and Times of John England, First Bishop of Charleston; Catholicity in Washington, Georgia; Catholicism in the Lower South; all beggar the inquisitive mind to seek this nourishment for the Irish soul.

 Other essays that are separate chapters in the book draw our interest by virtue of their titles – “Splendid Poverty”: Jesuit Slaveholding in Maryland, 1805-1838; Catholics and the Church in the Antebellum Upper South and “Catholic Elites in the Slaveholding South are but a few.

For a deeper understanding of American History and our role in shaping it, you will want this one on your coffee table or as a part of your own, personal Irish-American literature library.