Help ‘Em Out

Check out what judicial candidate Siobhan Maura Murphy wrote about having an Irish name:

My father named me Siobh?n at the recommendation of an older Irish friend and because he found my name listed as an ‘illegal name’ in a book in the University of Madison library. The book was put out for tax collectors, with the instruction that any Siobh?n should summarily be re-named Joan.

I’ve never seen the book, but the story rings true. In the 14th Century, the English passed statutes forbidding Normans and English in Ireland from intermarrying with the Irish, from adopting the Irish language, using Irish names, and even playing Irish games. Later laws barred intermarriage between Protestants and Catholics, barred Irish Catholics from owning weapons, joining the army and navy, and practicing law. Irish Catholics were not permitted to vote, hold office under the Crown, purchase land, or attend or keep schools. Catholicism itself was forbidden, with Mass said in secret, and priest-holes (hiding places for priests) becoming a part of the culture. If a man sent his children to Catholic schools or universities abroad, he forfeited his civil liberties and all his lands and estates. Similar laws were passed to repress Judaism and non-Anglican Protestant religions. The same injustices, sometimes with different targets, continued in the early American colonies and the United States. Penal Laws, Indian Codes, Jim Crow laws, all serve the same ultimate end: oppression through law.

My name is a gift from my father on behalf of our Irish Catholic ancestors, who were forbidden their names, their religion, education, legal careers, and public office. So here I stand, of the same name and religion, having studied abroad and at home, an attorney standing for public office. My name is a reminder that we have a moral obligation to treat each other as neighbors and to oppose the drawing of lines that would divide us based on race, color or creed.