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  • Join The Armenians, See The World

    JOIN THE ARMENIANS, SEE THE WORLD

    Irish Times
    June 11 2014

    An Irishman's Diary about oppressed minorities

    by Frank McNally

    Photo: A 14th-century Armenian gospel with jewelled binding in the
    Chester Beatty Library, Dublin. "In the production and reproduction
    of holy books, the medieval monks of Armenia far outdid their vaunted
    Irish counterparts. And a byproduct of this is that, today, there may
    be as many Armenian books in Dublin as actual Armenians." Photograph:
    Paddy Whelan

    My mention of the Loyal League of Yiddish Sons of Erin last week
    (June 6th) provoked an email from, of all places, Hawaii. Patrick
    Fitzgerald Donovan was drawing attention to the existence of an even
    more select group of exiles. In poker terms, he was seeing my LLYSE
    and raising me IASZ - the Irish Armenian Sons of Zion.

    The group was formed, Patrick says, back in the early 1970s, in
    Bennington, Vermont. He and the other founders, Eliot Cohen and
    Charles Bergamian, were relaxing "with a few beers". Then, as often
    happens with beer, they decided to form a representative organisation
    to embrace their collective ethnicities.

    They considered several names, including "Irish Jews in Search of
    Armenia", before settling on the IASZ. And although the group remains
    a small one, it's still going, unlike the LLYSE. "We have been in
    existence now for over 40 years", writes Patrick, "and have a number
    of younger members ready to carry on into the next 40".

    It's not clear (and it seemed indelicate to ask) whether any of the
    younger members are the result of interbreeding between two or more of
    the diasporas involved. By the law of averages, I suppose, there must
    be a few genetically Irish-Armenian Jews somewhere. And if there are,
    they must feel uniquely oppressed.

    On top of their history of invasion and dispossession, the Armenians
    have the added affliction that the world has largely forgotten what
    happened to them, even though the worst of it is still less than a
    century old.

    What is now known as the "Armenian Genocide" of 1915 was called
    something else then, because the word genocide was not coined until
    1944. But that another genocide had happened by 1944 was in part a
    consequence of international indifference to the earlier one.

    Here is Hitler briefing his generals in 1939 about the need to
    obliterate Poland, and explaining why they'll get away with it:
    "Only in this way will we win the lebensraum that we need. Who,
    after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"

    The email from Hawaii reminded me that we live on a small planet. I
    read it while strolling through central Dublin in the footsteps
    (probably) of that celebrated Irish Jew, Leopold Bloom. And it
    persuaded me to make a short detour, via Dublin Castle, for an
    overdue visit to that wonderful museum, the Chester Beatty Library
    of Oriental Art.

    Among the treasures there, I knew, were more than 100 Armenian books
    and manuscripts of varying antiquity, part of a tradition for which
    that country was long famous.

    Indeed, in the production and reproduction of holy books, the medieval
    monks of Armenia far outdid their vaunted Irish counterparts. And a
    byproduct of this is that, today, there may be as many Armenian books
    in Dublin as actual Armenians.

    Not that I saw the books this time, to be honest. They're mostly in
    storage, and I was in a hurry. So I confined myself to the museum's
    suitably exotic Silk Road cafe, where I toasted the IASZ with coffee
    and a date biscuit. I think that qualifies me for honorary membership.

    Speaking of honorary membership, and closer to home, I've also
    been hearing from Mark Minihan in Co Wexford, whose late father
    Andy once enjoyed such status with the LLYSE. Andy Minihan is now
    perhaps best remembered as the council chairman - or "Mister Mayor"
    - who in 1963 welcomed JFK to New Ross, and whose irreverent wit
    caused much laughter from the visitor. In the years following, he was
    invited to lead St Patrick's Day parades with the mayors of New York,
    Chicago, and Jersey City. And it was while in NY that he was elected
    an honorary member of the LLYSE. In typical fashion, he accepted on
    condition that they didn't expect him to have the "operation".

    The Dublin-born league chairman Mike Mann, a New York union boss,
    subsequently raised money for the JFK Arboretum in New Ross and
    travelled over for the opening with fellow union leader Harry Van
    Arsdale, president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical
    Workers.

    With such powerful allies, Mark Minihan and a friend of his were not
    stuck for jobs when they went to the US on J1 visas the following
    summer. Sure enough, Mark got work with an electrical contractor in
    the New York Times offices.

    His friend's fortunes, meanwhile, were even more dramatic. He rose
    rapidly in the Big Apple. Then he went down, just as fast. Then up
    again. And so on all summer. You guessed it. He was a lift operator
    in the Empire State Building.

    http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/join-the-armenians-see-the-world-1.1827302

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