I’m live blogging the WTTW presentation “Irish Chicago” which premieres tonight on WTTW-11. The show is starting at the library of the St. Ignatius College Prep. I would have thought that the best placed to start was in one of the historic churches of the Illinois & Michigan Canal. They are some of the oldest Irish related and Catholic churches in the area.

Wait, after a moment we have Ellen Skerrett talking about the I&M canal. Bill Savage? Who?

“Death was omnipresent.” Spare me the tears. These guys weren’t slaves Skerrett, don’t pretend their lives were worse than being slaves. We’re starting down the road of making these guys saints.

OH BOY, the first politician. Let’s show him some difference somehow. Cullerton. How did we skip from the I&M Canal to Cullerton? Oh, his ancient relative was an I&M worker. Some discussion of how the Cullerton’s owned a tavern and also ran the ward. Okay, that’s showing how the Irish abused their power, which could be an ongoing theme of the show.

Skerrett begins to talk about the potato famine. I had to stop the show here and talk to Jane. A few facts that are being glossed over here. First, the 1847 famine was not the first failure of the crop in Ireland. Second, Ireland was exporting food throughout the famine. However the spud was under the control of the local Irish, who were living in conditions of near serfdom. They couldn’t afford and weren’t permitted to eat the food for export to England.

Discussion of the potato famine continues. The migration of the Irish wasn’t particularly to Chicago, but to more established areas and also to Canada and England. No mention of the coffin ships to Canada. Many of the Famine Irish ended up in Canada and then found their way to Chicago.

Jane is making the point that the images they are using here are some of the most disturbing of the period. That other images may present a fairer picture. Although, let me also point out that mass starvation probably can’t be imagined without some awful pictures.

Why is Skerrett being interviewed in a church?

Skerrett is talking about the migration of the Irish to Chicago in the 1840’s. Let’s be clear, the I&M Canal drove the first migration of the Irish to this area. They got their jobs here because they dug the Erie Canal in Western New York first. They were SKILLED canal diggers. The program is purporting that they were unskilled.

Oh well, who cares about facts, let’s move on…

Skerrett is not talking about the Know Nothings. Hello, anyone want to say the words Know Nothings? Next guy, is that Savage?

Okay, there was no money for the churches, so where did the money come from? Skerrett, want to discuss how the Jesuits were not necessarily the group that Irish Catholics might support? Why did they build Holy Family? Between Holy Family and St. Patrick’s, which is the parish that is most closely associated with the Irish? A Gothic Cathedral on 12th Street? I think not. Just forget about that French church (my first draft of this sentence called this church the French whore on 12th Street). Let’s talk only about the St. Patrick’s. It is a Celtic masterpiece. Wasting time dwelling inside Holy Family when St. Patrick’s is the jewel in the crown is a sin.

Okay, wait, after basically saying that the Celtic Art isn’t good enough, Jane’s take on that Holy Family bit, we’re on to a Famine Irish Artist named umm… Crystal Street? Wait, that’s an actual street name. The artist isn’t named. But we know, even though she is doing flowers, that she’s Irish because she says “I’m Irish so I love St. Patrick’s Day.” Oh boy, serve her a green beer.

Megan Williamson. Thank you. Honey, if you’re so damn Irish, where is your identity in your art? How is it expressed through your art? Lot’s of old family pictures, but not much else. Now we’re getting Williamson giving a story about Union organizing. How is this about the Irish? WHAT? The “Irish fighting amongst themselves?” Please, I can name Irish artists who have found their identity through art. This was a terrible choice. Williamson may be nice, but she is so ineffectual about talking about the Irish.

Back to Skerrett. Is she writing this thing? Stockyards. First, she isn’t a historian of the Stockyards and I don’t think purports to be. The Stockyards were mainly a German thing, right? Jewish thing? Now Savage is talking about city planning. Hello, this lack of urban planning that he is discussing was common prior to the use of refrigerated railroads.

Here we go; we’re going to talk about Mrs. O’Leary’s cow. Poor Mrs. O’Leary was demonized. Didn’t she survive the fucking fire? Oh goody, the Chicago City Council cleared her in 1997. I’m so glad.

We’re back to City hall. Foxxy Cullerton, the story told by a descendant who is still at the till. Let’s discuss how the Irish have nearly perfected the art of turning democracy into the art of nepoticism.

Alright, Jane is noting that Cullerton has the date of the big outbreak of influenza wrong. That started in 1918 in Chicago. Hey Jane, he’s a politician, he doesn’t need to keep facts straight or care about things like that. His kids will receive a legacy appointment to some political post.

“Brand naming.” What a nice way to say nepoticism. Thanks. Now I know what to call it when I have no choice at the polls.

Bohola in the St. James Cemetary of the Sag. Where is the loser known and hated as John “Sean” Cleland? They must have asked them to play for free. Gosh, I go out to the cemetery to here Irish musicians all the time. Why aren’t they interviewing Jimmy Keane? Maybe because Jimmy is an immigrant from London? Why not Pat Broders? Maybe he doesn’t meet the criteria of a Famine Irish immigrant? Toor-a-lie-toor-a-lie yadda yadda yadda.

“Underwriting” break. Must be pledge week for shit like this. $60 for the DVD? More “How the Irish saved Civilization” bullshit. But two for $100. Be insufferable and send one to a friend who doesn’t want it.

Okay, we’re back…

Now we’re at St. Xavier with Sr. Sanders? The format is apparently letterbox and it is being broadcast in 5:4 so parts of the broadcast are lost. This is another Famine Irish interview. Back to Aidan Quinn. I hope he’s Famine Irish too.

We’re doing the Peter Finley Dunne stuff. Dunne isn’t a literary giant like James Joyce. Well, take what you’ve got I suppose. About 30 seconds on Dunne and now we’re on to Capt. Francis O’Neill. Now O’Neill really is a giant of music. Let’s see what they do with this segment.

Bad start. We’re at his tomb. Someone named John McLaughlin. What is his expertise in this field? Should be Noel Rice. Okay, here’s Kevin Henry. OMG, Kevin is playing for people on bikes at the cemetery. How lucky of them that he’s out there playing that day. Skerrett should shut up about the music. She is clueless.

WHAT? Now we’re away from the most important Chicago Irish person ever, in about 30 seconds, to talk about the fucking Sox. “The Irish American field of dreams.” This is why Skerrett should stick to talking about parishes and priests.

Who the fuck edited this cluster fuck? STOP talking about the Sox. You spend 30 seconds about the music of Ireland, saved by O’Neill, for the Sox?

Skerrett is talking about St. Pat’s. Jack Wall is talking about St. Pat’s. Some meat here. I see that the artist for Old St. Pat’s used a compass. I’m disappointed. Oh, and Skerrett, the Book of Kells is pretty well established to have been created in England, not Ireland. It is Celtic, not Irish.

The photography here is terrible. Finally a picture of one of the stained glass windows. “Nothing like it in Ireland.” Oh? Does that include Church of Ireland too? I think that is a provably false statement and shows a disdain by Skerrett for the identity of non-Roman Irish Christians. Let’s say for a moment that this outrageous statement is true, why is it that Chicago produced this masterpiece of spirituality?

Dear Ms. Skerrett, I will take you to places in Ireland where there is a deep Celtic art expressed in a spiritual venue.

Now, Skerrett is proposing that the church EMPOWERED women by allowing nuns to run institutions. Hello? What type of bullshit is this? Sister of Mercy? Were they the one’s who showed concern about your twitching as you lay on the floor from their beating?

The seeds of racial tension were sowed in the workplace? If you grew up in my parish, one the West Side, Skerrett, you’d know it had a home in the church. Hmmn, I’m realizing that we skipped over the post Civil War period, if not the whole Civil War. I guess the IRB and other Republican organizations that were here, the Irish dead in the Civil War, they shouldn’t be missed. As one Irish person told me, “you Americans have no culture.”

A too brief discussion of Studs Lonnigan.

Now a discussion of Second City. Is Second City associated with the Irish? I’m a bit lost. What is happening? We’re on to the best Irish pub in Chicago, Chief O’Neill’s. Is that the connection? I’m still lost here. Jim O’Malley gives a poor me story about how if his grandmother had held on to some patent he’d be rich. Okay, so what? This segment from Studs Lonnigan to the break is terrible.

Break time. Let’s have a drink.

Whoa… we’re back.

Bridget is second to Patrick in the pantheon of Irish saints? Well, that’s a bit of opinion. Oh wait, we’re back into shaking down subscribers.

St. Clement’s. In this program there is a fascination with the church and its relation to the Irish in Chicago. Can we discuss how the church attempted to erase the ethnic differences between people, refusing to recognize ethnic identity and needs?

I think we’ll call this segment, the erasure of the Irish identity by the church and politicians. The Irish women are the strong ones. I actually like this woman starting the next segment. She actually knows what she is talking about. There is a matriarchal aspect to the community. Would the program like to explain why a group of farmers in a misogynistic culture would put women in control? Perhaps it was something about the American identity or culture?

Morgan Park is the most Irish neighborhood of Chicago? Wait, they’re in Beverly? What about Mount Greenwood? This is very confusing.

OMG, they’re putting Pat Roche out there. Mark Howard looks old. Thirty seconds for Roche. About the same as for O’Neill. This is poor editing. Roche getting 30 seconds is about right. Why not more O’Neill?

Now some West Side Irish. Nice, the worst part of being a cop is “having to live in the city.” Doggie, doggie, doggie, just leave, we won’t miss you.

We’re onto to the St. Patrick’s Day parade. The original parades were neighborhood events. Why was that destroyed? Mayor Daley. “By putting the parade in the center of the city you assert the central identity of the city,” or something like that. Okay, let’s be clear, Daley killed the neighborhood parades because he wanted control of the thing. That destroyed the essential Irishness of the parades. They became things of unions and politicians, not of the community. They moved from being an expression of the culture to being an expression of the Power of the Daley family.

Now they are creating the myth of St. Richard the Daley. He was a devotee of Robert Moses. He used the creation of highways, federal urban renewal money and public housing to make the city one of the most segregated cities in the US. He destroyed the cultural roots of the Irish and anyone else who he didn’t like.

Now they are skipping over the Hamburg Club, which they mentioned earlier. Daley was a member of a gang. GANG MEMBER.

Another pol. Everyone is so deferential to him. Tunney. An alderman. How is Tunney expressing his Irish identity? Working hard? Yep, and do you know why? Because everyone else is a bunch of lazy no goods. Especially the gays. Whoops, he’s gay!

Okay, if this wasn’t so poorly done, it would actually be comical.

Savage, “every Irish home had three pictures, Jesus, JFK and the Pope.” Heard of any Jewish Irish people there Savage? You’re talking about politics, should know that there was a Jewish mayor in Dublin. Not to mention that a lot of Irish are not Catholic.

Back to Mark Howard. Mark could you discuss why these are the best girl dancers? What happens when one isn’t quite a good enough dancer, but still loves it? What happens to her? What happens to their hair? Is it natural for little Irish girls to have curls and red hair, because the girls in the class in your basement don’t have either?

He looks injured. He isn’t moving. What is up? Oh wait, he is moving. But he is moving slowly.

Break time. Time for a drink!

Gaelic Park. They start talking about the GAA creating Gaelic Park. This is the second Gaelic Park, the first on the near West Side. WOW 50 acres? I didn’t know that!

It’s nice to see people at Gaelic Park on the Board who have been there so long. I know, new blood, but also continuity.

John Devitt in Palos Hills. More nonsense about how great the Irish are. A missed opportunity here to talk to his children who he identifies as Irish. How do they express that Irish identity? That’s the big failure of this program. No attempt to have people express how are they Irish. Why allow these people to say they are so much better than others because they are Irish? Good god! Rich bullshit.

Now we’re back to Williamson, the artist in Wicker Park. Now a cut to the cops who wish they lived elsewhere. Now to the North Side Irish Center. Nearly 35,000 items in the library, 34,000 of which are Ireland by Leon Uris.

WAIT! The Commitments. HA! But they denied their Irish identity. They finally expressed their identity by being rejected and finding success. They miss one of the great local artists, Michael Flattley. He could provide some insight on being Irish and also a local. He could discuss how he used his identity to find success. Did they try to talk to him? I know he is hard to talk too.

Stupid St. Patrick’s Day stuff. The South Side parade is the only true Irish parade I’ve ever seen in the city. Some father’s started it? Really? I thought children started it? Could be another myth. Let’s see if the program discusses how the community uses the parade to organize house parties and so on. This is the real strength of the South Side parade.

Nope. I guess they don’t know about that.

Ouch! Too many stereotypes. Savage is trying to wrap it up. The program could have been a history of the Irish in Chicago or it could be a program about the Irish identity in Chicago. It tried to do both and fucked up. PASS ON THIS TRASH.