By John Lucke

Archbishop Bernard Hebda recently allowed a dispensation for eating meat this Friday in Lent, LuckyPalooza on West 7th Street is overflowing with good beer and cheer, and everyone you know is wearing green. It’s Saint Patrick’s Day in Minnesota.

Saint Patrick’s Day is a well-known observance for the Irish in America. Surprisingly, this holiday is not celebrated as widely by the locals in Dublin or Galway; no, the patron saint of Ireland has a special relationship to Irish immigrants and to the people of Saint Paul, Minnesota. “Our whole nation seems to become Irish for a day,” Monsignor Murphy quipped in his 1960 essay entitled The Irish in America. Today on Saint Patrick’s Day, it is a great gift to reminisce on Monsignor Murphy’s words regarding the holiday.

Monsignor Terrence J. Murphy lived a life of remarkable accomplishment. He was born to an Irish family in Watkins, Minnesota over 100 years ago, served as president of the University of St. Thomas for 25 years, and was the first chaplain to obtain the rank of brigadier general for the Minnesota Air National Guard.  He saw March 17^th as a day of great cultural significance, stating that “the wide participation in Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations indicates a significant fact in American society, namely that the Irish have arrived or come of age in America.”

Catholic Social Teaching was a critical lens through which Monsignor Murphy viewed the journey of his fellow Irish. He believed that “Irish immigrants came to American shores because of a deep desire to earn a living compatible with the human dignity he knew to be his as a child of God.” Another famous Irishman, Archbishop John Ireland, left his native County Kilkenny, Ireland during the great potato famine of 1848 and went on to do great things like establish the University of St. Thomas.

“The Irishman accepted the new [American] society uncritically. And he wanted, in turn, to be accepted by it. He was not determined to reform American society but to become a part of it.” This can-do attitude from Monsignor Murphy echoes a familiar voice from another Irish figure in American society. In his inaugural address, President John F. Kennedy’s historic words still call to us today: “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

As the polarization and solipsism of modern America weigh heavily on each of us, Monsignor Murphy’s words remind us of the truth of this country and those who came here seeking freedom: “the Americanization of the Irish immigrant was swift and complete. That it was so is due to the heritage he brought to our shores, but it is also due to the free institutions he found here. America is a land of freedom and opportunity in every phase of human life.”

John Lucke is a Murphy Scholar and 3L at the University of St. Thomas School of Law.

“From the Archives” is a recurring blog series which features reflections on the works of Msgr. Terrence J. Murphy available in the Murphy Institute’s digital archive.