Aclare native earned fame as a US journalist

Anthony Joseph Gavaghan, known in the US as Anthony J. Gavigan, was born in the Ox Mountain townland of Claddagh, near Aclare, in January 1861. The life of Anthony Gavigan is remarkable for two reasons: his very humble beginnings and his eventual rise to prominence in America.

Anthony was the third eldest in a family of eleven children who were born and reared in a small cottage surrounded by a poor-quality farm of less than thirty acres. All the children in the family, however, received a comprehensive education and nine of the eleven eventually made their way to work and live in America.

My Native Land 

Anthony experienced the death of his younger sister, Bridget, while he was still a teenager, and as the eldest son seems to have felt the weight of her death quite deeply. Around this time also he developed his keen and highly charged political views. Whatever his influences and whatever his motivations, Anthony soon left Ireland with a certain fire in his belly, arriving in New York in 1879. He was nineteen years of age.

In one of his poems, My Native Land, Anthony refers to scenes in Ireland, including evictions, that he may have witnessed as a child. These experiences of his youth seem to have fuelled Anthony’s hatred of the British authorities. The following, written by one of his contemporaries, outlines his progress in those early years.

Mr Gavigan began life as a school teacher near Aclare, where he was born. In early life he came to the United States and joined the editorial staff of the 'New York Star', on which he soon became a leader writer and staff correspondent. 

His first notable newspaper work was reporting the execution of Louis Riel, the Canadian half-Indian, who led a rebellion against England and tried to drive the Sassenach from Canada. 

After serving on various other New York papers, he started and published one of his own after reporting the Sioux Indian war against the United States in 1890-91, during which he entered the hostile lines and interviewed Sitting Bull, chief of the Sioux tribe.

Anarchist and revolutionary 

In his work as a journalist, Anthony could be ferocious in expressing his political views, especially on Irish affairs and because of this, he quickly came to the attention of the authorities who described him as both an ‘anarchist’ and a ‘revolutionary’. The anarchist reference likely derived from his interests in promoting workers' rights and the revolutionary reference from his anti-British stance. At one point, his extradition was sought by the British authorities but it was refused by President Chester A. Arthur.

It seems his extradition was sought because of his links with the ‘Invincibles', with which he was closely linked, either as a member or as a supporter. The Invincibles were a militant organisation based in Ireland and active from 1881 to 1883. The group had a radical agenda and was formed with the intent to target those who implemented English policies in Ireland. Anthony, now firmly established as a journalist, continued to write passionately in the New York press on issues regarding Ireland’s fight for freedom and likely maintained a much deeper involvement.

Lawyer and literary man 

In 1905, Anthony was described as ‘a lawyer and literary man of Washington’ when he led a delegation of ‘Irishmen prominent in law, statesmanship and science’ to New York to ‘felicitate the local Gaelic League group over their progress and sacrifice’. A detailed pen picture of Anthony that appeared in the Sligo Champion in November 1925 referred to him' as ‘Judge A J Gavigan of Washington’. Despite this reference, research cannot uncover any evidence that Anthony was in fact, a court judge, despite the many high-profile legal roles he held. The profile continues: 

We next find him serving as Washington correspondent of a New York and New Orleans newspaper, and later, reporting the Spanish-American War. Returning to Washington, he entered Georgetown University, and after a distinguished course in the Law School, graduated with high honours and was admitted to the Bar. He has since practised his profession successfully in Washington and in New York, and was twice appointed Special Deputy Attorney-General of the state of New York to prosecute violations of the election law. His old love, journalism, occasionally bids him leave his law books aside and contribute to magazines and periodicals chiefly on Irish and foreign affairs.

In 1925, Anthony was lauded for drawing attention to unscrupulous American lawyers who claim power of attorney over the wills and bequests of deceased Irish people who became wealthy in America. Rather than dispense the proceeds among relatives back home in Ireland, these lawyers simply took the benefits for themselves. The following appeared in the Irish Independent in February 1925.

Formerly it seems to have been the impression that it was no one's business if a certain number of 'suckers' in Ireland did lose money through the shrewd schemes of unscrupulous power of attorney foundries. A more enlightened understanding of the relations of the individual to his fellow beings has changed all this, thanks to Mr Gavigan.

Kilmactigue 

In 1922, Anthony organised the construction of a headstone over the grave of his mother Mary, who died in 1921. Mary was laid to rest in what is now the old graveyard at Kilmactigue. He is referenced on the stone as being responsible for its erection: Anthony J. Gavaghan L.L.B. His beloved sister, Bridget, is also remembered on the stone.

In 1926, showing another side of his personality, Anthony is seen leading a major fundraising event in New York to raise money to help renovate the church in his native Kilmactigue. Anthony was guest speaker at the event and the following is an excerpt from his speech, the complete text of which appeared in the Sligo Champion in October 1926.

This magnificent outpouring of the children of Kilmactigue sweeps me in spirit across the intervening ocean, and in imagination, I stand at the venerable grey chapel wherein we all made our Confirmation and received our first Holy Communion - a church endeared to us by ties of the earliest, tenderest and holiest of all recollections, church sanctified by the labours of the princely Father Tom Loftus, the pure-minded and devoted Father Horan, and the saintly Father James Cullen, all of whom we trust are looking down from their high seats in Heaven upon this audience and sending fervent petitions to the Throne of the Most High that the little chapel, which is now falling into decay, will be saved from utter ruin, and that with your assistance it will be made a fit place to give a permanent home and a shelter to Almighty God.

The date of Anthony’s death is unclear but he had passed away by 1938. He is buried in Calvary Cemetery in Queens, close to his younger brothers, Joseph and Henry. This group of brothers were first cousins of my grandfather and I uncovered their life stories while researching Henry L. Gavigan, who had a reputation as a poet. The third brother, Joseph, also had a fascinating life in America – he even survived an assassination attempt - and I will share his story at a later time.