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Hugh O�Conor
The first and major Irish contribution was the founding of the Presidio
of San Agustin del Tucson by Hugh O�Conor (Hugo Oconor), an Irish-born
soldier in the service of the King of Spain. The date was August 20, 1775. Born
to a family descended from the High Kings of Ireland, Hugh, as one of many Wild
Geese, left his home in Roscommon County, Ireland for Spain at the age of 17. After
he enlisted in the Spanish army, his quickly recognized leadership abilities resulted in prompt
promotions. He eventually, by way of Cuba, became the Commandant Inspector General of New
Spain (part of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona), supervising and physically moving when necessary, the various Spanish frontier forts. Known as the Red Captain, his height and red hair certainly made him
stand out among the natives and Spanish soldiers and clergy. In his spare time Hugh O�Conor was extremely successful at fighting (and beating) Apache raiders, rescuing hostages and property in the bargain. Although he only lived to the age of 44, 28 of those years were in the service of Spain. He rose to the rank of Lieutenant General, completing his career as royal governor of Yucatan.

Nellie Cashman
Thousands of miles away from her home in Cork, Ireland, Nellie Cashman: traveler, cook, hotel owner, restaurant owner, prospector, and above all, humanitarian, made a name for herself in many mining areas of the American and Canadian West. She was only in Tucson for a mere two years, but left a history that will live forever in city history. After spending time, and most of her money taking care of others in Boston, San Francisco, Nevada mining camps, northern British Columbia, she found herself in Tucson in 1879 where she opened Delmonico Restaurant, the first female-owned restaurant in town. Despite her habit of feeding and caring for down and out miners, the restaurant was a success. Countless miners owed their very lives to this unselfish and caring person, and their stories of their adventures gave ample witness to Nellie�s character.

Her biographer described her as pretty as a Victorian cameo and, when necessary, tougher than two-penny nails. When the silver boom began in the San Pedro Valley, she moved to Tombstone, just after the arrival of the Earp brothers. Her business success and caring generosity eventually took her from Tombstone to Baja California, Canada�s Yukon Territory, the Canadian wilderness just a few miles short of the Arctic Circle, finally settling in Victoria, British Columbia, where she died in 1925 at the tender age of 75.
Desert USA - www.dseusa.com

Mim Murphy Walsh
Tucson was not the intended destination for Paddy and Mary Eileen Murphy Walsh, lately of Dublin, Ireland. Nor was Mim Walsh impressed with Tucson the first time she passed through on the train, as she noted critically in her diary for March 7, 1916. (Margaret Regan, Tucson Weekly) Little did she or Paddy know at that point how much they would influence Tucson in the first half of the 20th century!

The newly-weds had come to this part of the world in the hopes that the dry and warm weather would cure Paddy�s tuberculosis. They then planned to return to Ireland. However, life had something else in store for them, as they would only have one short visit to Ireland in 1950. They had Irish contacts in Bisbee, but the copper mines closed down after World War I and the couple returned to Tucson, their final home. They moved into a bungalow on 919 North Fifth Avenue in September 1921 and lived there until their deaths.

From 1921 on, the Walsh�s life in Tucson centered around the Irish community, the U of A community, Tucson literary community, and their church, All Saints in downtown. Mim's biographer, Margaret Regan, noted that there was now a priest for English-speaking Catholics. By this time Paddy had earned a CPA and had hung out his shingle. Countless evenings would find their little parlor full of guests, singing Irish songs, Paddy playing his fiddle while a friend, Marylka Pattison played the piano. There were also literary evenings and book discussions. By then, any visiting Irish would quickly find themselves to 919 N. 5th Avenue! This included the likes of Dubliner Oliver Gogarty. Other luminaries visiting the Walshes were Sinclair Lewis, Carl Sandburg, and Sherwin Anderson.

The Walshes did leave the house, of course, and succeeded in staging Iand acting in Irish plays in local churches and halls; for example, Synge's Riders to the Sea and Lady Gregory's The Rising of the Moon. They were joined on stage by Irish journalist, Hester Hunter. They also took their Irish musical show on the road, performing at the homes of many of Tucson's gentry, including Tony De Sanchez. Every day was faithfully recorded in Mim's diary, leaving future Tucsonans a rare detailed glimpse of the early 20th century. This precious tome, which chronicles the Irish community in Tucson from 1921 to 1964, is now preserved by the Arizona Historical Society.

Paddy died in 1963, when they were on vacation at Laguna Beach, California, while Mim died in 1964 at St. Mary�s Hospital, Tucson. They are buried together at Holy Hope Cemetary in Tucson.
Reference: Arizona Irish-The Pluck of the Irish Greened Up Our Sprouting City, by Margaret Regan, Tucson Weekly, March 15-21, 2001

Eventually, a number of Irish-born clergy arrived in Tucson: Father Kevin McArdle (a friend of the Walshes and now retired); Mrs. Cornelius Cahalane (Cork), now deceased; Mrs. Tom Cahalane (Cork) Yes, they�re cousins! Father James Coleman (Cork), Father Liam Leahy (Cork), Father Harry Ledwith (Longford), Msr. Stapleton (Dublin), now deceased; and Rev. Todd O�Leary (Dublin).

Pat Kirby, Champion Handballer
Born in County Clare, Pat Kirby lost no time in achieving fame. By the age of 11 he had won his first handball medal and 21, an Irish National Championship, the first of 16! He emigrated to the US in 1959. Finding no opportunity to play handball, he concentrated on hurling, playing on the Irish International hurling team for the next 13 years. He was finally able to return to handball competition as a US Army draftee, winning All-Army singles and doubles championships and then AAU, where he won national championships in the U. S., Canada and Ireland. In 1972, Pat, his wife Carrie and their three daughters Patricia, Mary and Bridget, moved back to Ireland. He won 15 more Irish championships before moving to Tucson in 1980. He then won six U. S. H. A. Masters championships. Pat was Grand Marshal of the 1990 Tucson St. Patrick�s Day Parade and was inducted into the Handball Hall of Fame.

Dorothy Hunt Finley
Owner of Finley Distributing Co., Inc; born in Douglas, AZ; received BA & MEd from the University of Arizona; teacher & principal in TUSD for over 30 years; retired from education in 1983, after the death of husband, Harold, to take over Finley Distributing; has served on executive boards, boards of directors, and advisory boards for over 100 community associations; has been the recipient of numerous awards for her outstanding service in the education community and the community at large. Her time and leadership in the advancement of education and community have been remarkable.

Other Irish-Americans

The nineteenth century brought many Irish and Irish-Americans to Tucson. Among them were Paddy Burke and William H. Finley, who are remembered as two of the civilians to participate in the unofficial raising of the American flag over a building in the Tucson Presidio in 1856 immediately following the departure of Mexican soldiers. The 1866 Tucson census lists 12 households with Irish names, among 283 total, but their numbers and contributions grew. (Tucson, the Life and Times of an American City, Sonnichsen) The 1880 census found 142 native-born Irish in a town of 7,000. Nevertheless, the arrival of the railroad on March 17, 1880, was named the 17th of Ireland. (www.tucsonweekly.com). Ireland, long known for its poets and playwrights, musicians and dancers, is also home to engineers, mathematicians and scientists, statesmen and military leaders, as well as men and women of the law and medicine. Present-day Irish and Irish-American Tucsonans are representive of this spectrum of talent!

Since that time, by their fields: Artist, Frances O�Brien; Authors, John Gregory Bourke (also a soldier), Richard C. McCormick who founded the Arizona Citizen and Territorial Governor 1865-69; A. E. Fay, writer for the Arizona Star in 1878 and Tucson member of Arizona House of Representatives in 1879; Diarist Mim Murphy Walsh; UofA Educator and author Ann Weeks, Educator/Scientist Trevor Weeks, and Dr. Richard Cosgrove, head of the UofA History Department; Entrepreneur/Philanthropists Charles T. Hayden merchant and father of Senator Carl Hayden; Manuela Sosa McKenna, owner of the Sosa-Carillo (Fremont) House; Nellie Cashman; Frank and son R. B. Buck O�Reilly; Entrepreneurs/Public servants Mike Haggerty ,former City Council member and Vice Mayor; and John Murphy, the contractor who built the old El Conquistador Hotel. The is also champion dancer and entertainer Fred Kelly (brother of Gene Kelly), whose daughter Colleen Kelly Beaman still serves the community.There are far too many Irish lawyers, judges and medical professionals to list, but rest assured, they all served well and still are!

Many more Irish and Irish-Americans filled public service positions:

Peter R. Brady, Annapolis graduate, pioneer, former Texas Ranger and twice Tucson Sheriff

Josephine Brawley, reformer, suffragette and journalist; opened first girls� public school in Tucson, 1873

William Buckley, superintendent of Tucson branch of Butterfield Overland Mail and Passenger Stage Line in 1858.

John B. Conlan, US House of Representatives, 1973-77

Joseph B. Corbett, Tucson member of Arizona House of Representatives (1901) and member of City Council (1903)

Byron Cummings, Archeologist at UofA from 1915. Discovered man had been in Arizona for 10,000 years

George Cunningham, Tucson member of State House of Representatives

Lt. Howard B. Cushing, served in Arizona, killed in 1871, buried at Ft. Lowell. Cushing St. in Tucson in his honor

Marcus D. Dobbins, Speaker of House, from Tucson, 1871

Thomas Driscoll, Tucson member of Arizona House of Representatives (1890s)

E. F. Dunne, Chief Justice of Arizona, lived in Tucson, 1875

Patrick H. Dunne, Tucson printer, Counsel of 1st and 2nd State Legislatures

Paul Fannin, Governor of Arizona 1959-65, Arizona representative to Congress 1965-77

A. E. Fay, Arizona Star writer (1878), member of Arizona House of Representatives (1879)

James Finley, Member AZ House of Representatives, 1895, 1897; City Council member, 1899, 1901, 1009

Dan E. Garvey, Governor of Arizona, 1948-51

John N. Goodwin, Governor of Arizona Territory, 1863-1865

Rev Andrew Greeley, author and educator, UofA

Michael Haggerty, former City Council Member and Vice Mayor

Alice Jane Kelly, U of A graduate and famous woman pilot

George and William Kelly, owners of Daily Star in 1907

H. C. Kennedy, Member of Arizona House of Representatives from Tucson (1905)

John & Joseph Kennedy, worked on J-6 Ranch near Tucson, to toughen up, summer of 1936

M. V. Mahoney, one of four policemen in Tucson in 1880 (see Roche)

James E. McCaffrey, Territorial Attorney General in 1871-73, District Attorney in Tucson 1873-75

Rev. Kieran McCarty, O.F.M., Historian at UofA

M. McCleary, with wife Carmen, owned adobe home at 241 W. Franklin in 1880

Myron McCord, Territorial Governor in 1897-1898

William McDermot, General Manager of Twin Buttes Railroad in 1906

Ernest W. McFarland, US Senator 1941-53, Arizona Governor 1955-59, State Supreme Court Justice 1968

Michael McKenna, Tucson member of Arizona House of Representatives (1866)

Jim McNulty, US Congressman from Arizona

John Murphy, host of Irish radio program Cross Currents on KXCI. Past hosts: Lorraine Garvey and Scott Egan. John also on Access Tucson channels board.

Lew Murphy, Major of Tucson 1972-87

Nathan Murphy, Territorial Governor 1892-93Steven Neely, Pima County Attorney

Bob Nolan, co-founder of Sons of the Pioneers, wrote Tumbling Tumbleweeds (1934), star Tucson highschool athlete

J. S. O�Brien, Tucson member of Arizona House of Representatives (1880s)

Charles Porter, Irish-born, US Army officer in Arizona 1870-71

W. Roche, one of four policemen in Tucson in 1880

John W. Sweeney, signer of Territorial Convention petition from Tucson

Pinckney Randolph Tully, Tucson merchant, co-owner of Tully, Ochoa & Co .(1864). Treasurer of AZ Teritory and twice mayor of Tucson. Tully Peak in Rincon Mountains is named for him.

Still more:

Punch Woods, head of the Community Food Bank

Jim McNulty, Arizona Representative to US Congress

Mary Judge Ryan, public service and candidate for office

Ray Carroll, Pima County Supervisor - District 4; cartoonist and editor

David Fitzsimmons, and the Concannon Family - Owners of the famous Manning House

Colleen Bagnall, co-anchor on KGUN Channel 9 and her expert woodworker uncle Frank

Tom MacNamara, co-anchor on KVOA

Dan Ryan, sports anchor on KVOA, Channel 4

Joe Edwards, Author of The Last Full Measure, based on his Irish-born grandfather�s letters from the US Civil War battlefield

Native Irish Entrepreneurs/Philanthropists:

Winnie Ryan Nanna (Limerick), Tim Prendiville (Kerry) , George and Pierce O�Leary (Tipperary), Mary McGahey (Leitrim) and Claudia Frances-Moullier (Dublin). Apparently Tucson has reciprocated for all this Irish enterprise, as there are six elementary schools (Duffy, Cragen, Doolen, Magee, Henry, and Tully), four parks (Conner, J.F. Kennedy, McCormick and Mitchell) and two recreation centers (Mulcahy YMCA and McCormick YMCA) with Irish names!

by: Pat Anderson

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