John Dolan: The day Cork gave a mighty snub to a visiting US President

When U.S President Donald Trump sets foot in Ireland on Saturday for a two-day visit, a few million people would love to send him packing with a flea in his ear.

For the sake of diplomacy, and in the spirit of Irish hospitality, the government will be praying that the notoriously thin-skinned one has a smooth reception, despite his increasingly erratic and offensive power trip as leader of the free world.

It’s all a million miles away from 1963 when John F Kennedy was feted across Ireland, including Cork.

But did you know that, a century and a half ago, Cork delivered a mighty snub to the very first U.S President to visit these shores, that almost caused a diplomatic incident?

Yes, Ulysses S. Grant may have been cheered to the rafters in Dublin and Belfast when he visited this country in 1879 - but the Rebel County took a principled stance and told the Yank to take a hike...

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Ulysses S. Grant was one of the pivotal figures of the 19th century, and to many was the all-American hero.

Having led the Union Army to victory as a General in the American Civil War in 1865, he became a two-term President from 1869 to 1877.

After he stood down, Grant embarked on an 18-month tour of Europe and, given he was one of many U.S Presidents with Irish roots - his great-grandfather was from Tyrone - he decided to pay a five-day visit to the auld sod in early 1879.

Grant must have expected to be feted in the land of his forefathers, and indeed, huge crowds and swathes of dignitaries cheered him to the rafters up the country, lavishing him with hospitality.

Not so in Cork. Why so?

The former President had gained a reputation for being anti-Irish and anti-Catholic during his time in power, and the representatives of the Rebel County simply refused point blank to entertain a visit from him.

Grant landed in Dublin on Friday, January 3, 1879, and that day Cork Corporation met. The Town Clerk read out a letter from General Lewis Richmond, United States Consul General in London, informing him that the ex-President Grant intended to visit Cork within a week, but the date had not yet been fixed.

The Mayor, Patrick Kennedy, asked the 26 aldermen present: “Does anybody wish to offer any observation on that letter?”

Looking back at the events of that meeting, 147 years on, it is easy to see how the subsequent objections were surely pre-planned by the aldermen.

First off, as reported in the Kerry Sentinel, Alderman W. R. Harris said a “proper reception” and “proper recognition” should be given as “there was nothing objectionable to the people of Ireland” about Grant.

It is possible this W.R Harris was the head of a prominent manufacturing foundry in the now Washington Street in Cork city, whose work included the elegant English Market fountain.

But Harris’s support for a visit by Grant was now challenged in what looks like an orchestrated attack

Alderman G.R Barry interjected: “That President insulted the Irish people in America. He got a ‘No Popery’ cry up there.” There were agreeable cries of ‘hear, hear” to this.

His fellow member, Mr J Tracey, chipped in: “It would be unbecoming for the Catholic constituency of Cork to entertain such a man.”

At this juncture, Alderman William Hegarty rose to point out that Mr Tracey was in the leather business, as was the former President, who had worked as a clerk in his father’s leather workshop before entering politics. “I don’t think one leather man has a right to get up and run down another leather man,” he said, to much laughter.

Ah, those Victorian wags....

The Mayor, sensing a looming diplomatic incident no doubt, agreed that Mr Treacy was “out of order”.

The latter doubled down: “I can’t see anything in the career of General Grant - or ex-President Grant - that calls for the sympathy of the Irish nation,” he insisted.

He added: “I have had interviews with many persons who spent years in America, and I learned from them that he never thought of the Irish race as he thought of others, and that he actually went out of his way to insult their religion.”

As Tracey warmed to his theme, the cries of ‘hear, hear’ grew.

Alderman T. McSwiney - not the famous Terence, who would be born in Cork a few weeks later - concurred: “I think the fact he has gone out of his way several times to insult the Irish people is sufficient to disentitle him to any respect from us.”

Alderman T Creedon, who had experience of living in the U.S, joined the growing chorus of dissenters.

“There was no doubt in the world that he went out of his way to insult the Catholic Irish religion,” he said. “And Cork, being a Catholic city, should not put itself out of the way to show him any respect.”

Insisting he was no bigot himself, Creedon said: “Paying him respect would be similar to the dog licking the hand of the man who beat him.”

The Mayor proposed that the letter be merely marked as ‘read’ and this was greeted by a chorus of ‘Ayes’.

This effectively meant that the recipient had opened and viewed the letter and was taking no action on it. There would be no invitation extended to Grant, he would not receive a public or civic reception, and no municipal honours would be conferred on him.

When he heard of the snub, in his speech in the Mansion House in Dublin, Grant said: “I have never seen the Blarney Stone, nor am I likely to now.”

A journalist later quizzed him further and Grant said: “I am sorry for I would wish to go.”

The Boston Globe reported that Grant was well aware of Cork’s “coldness” and “was sorry that the people of Cork knew so little of American history.”

No doubt Grant wished to give his side of the ‘anti-Irish’ claim in Cork.

Was the Corporation right to block his visit? History has judged Grant’s presidency positively, given his progressive stance on civil rights issues, and accusations he was anti-Catholic or anti-Irish are open to debate.

Certainly, a few years earlier, in 1876, when President Grant had opted not to accept an address on behalf of the Irish people to mark the centenary of U.S independence, Nationalist Charles Stewart Parnell called him “a vulgar old dog”.

On the other hand, New York-based Irish republican and journalist John Devoy criticised Cork’s actions in 1879, pointing out that Grant had received released Fenian prisoners on the steps of the White House in 1871, “proving that he was very partial to the Irish”.

It seems the public agreed with the Corporation stance. There were calls for a ‘mass meeting’ in Cork to object to the snub, but reportedly just 20 people turned up.

The rebuff from Cork forced Grant to change his travel plans at the last minute, and he boarded a train from Dublin to the north instead, visiting Derry, Belfast, and Tyrone.

There, the Belfast Newsletter declared: “We are ashamed of the course pursued by the Mayor and Corporation of Cork, who treated the communication announcing the proposed visit of General Grant as if it had been a letter from a beggar.”

Cork had abused the famous Irish hospitality, it stated. “But General Grant will get over the shabby action of the Cork Town Council.”

However, a few weeks later, a ‘Canadian Letter’ column in the Dundalk Democrat backed Cork’s stance, adding: “Of course, it is easy to understand that Londonderry would receive anything or anybody that Cork would reject. As for Dublin, they generally toady to any mortal thing in that town, for the love of toadying.”

‘Rebel’ Cork and ‘toadying’ Dublin - music to a Leesider’s ears!