G Pride.

Green.

Gay.

We don't talk much here at GT12 about our Irish identity. But being a native of Ireland defined me long before any other professional or personal identities were formed. During my impetuos youth I even carried a distinct fondness for the IRA.

While that didn't last for long, I am still a supporter of reuniting Ulster with the Republic. Most of you, it is safe to assume, know little of Irish history. Let me assure you that any complaints 18th century American colonists had toward King George were childish whinings compared to 800+ years of abuse, exploitation and even passive-genocide (Black 47) practiced by the British Crown upon the Irish people.

Anyway, this weekend I ran accross this Obit in the NY Times:

Frank Durkan, Irish Advocate, Dies at 76

Published: November 19, 2006

Frank Durkan, who as a lawyer, writer and political spokesman carved out a reputation as a fierce and clever defender of Irish nationalists, died on Thursday in Greenwich, Conn. He was 76.

As an Irish Republican, I enjoyed these graphs:

One of his famous clients was George Harrison, the Irish Republican Army’s main gunrunner in the United States for many years. During Mr. Harrison’s trial in 1982, the prosecutor accused him of having run guns for the previous six months.

Mr. Durkan rose to tell the judge that his client was deeply insulted, and said, “Mr. Harrison has been running guns for the last 25 years at least.”

The lawyer was able to convince the jury that the Central Intelligence Agency was behind the scheme. Mr. Harrison and his four co-defendants, who had been caught with about 50 machine guns and other weapons, were found not guilty.

Mr. Durkan accomplished this legal legerdemain by eliciting the testimony of Ramsey Clark, the former attorney general, who said that the C.I.A. routinely denied involvement in activities they wanted to cover up. Mr. Durkan then persuaded the jury that the agency’s denial in fact represented affirmation.

In the 1981 case of Desmond Mackin, whom Britain wanted extradited to stand trial on charges of shooting one of its soldiers, Mr. Durkan succeeded by convincing a federal magistrate that the shooting was a political act. Mr. Mackin was not extradited because the extradition treaty between the United States and Britain had a political-exemption provision.

But the reason I'm posting on this came in the last two paragraphs:

When openly gay men and women were excluded from Manhattan’s St. Patrick’s Day parade, he refused to take part. In 2004, Newsday reported that he marched instead in a parade of gay men and women in Queens.

“The Constitution says everybody is equal,” he said in an interview. “I don’t have to know much more.”

Being Gay is nice, but it does not beat being Irish. Slainte' Frank.