Mary Rita Donleavy

Patrick John Dunleavy: Patriot, Philosopher, Family Man: a Burst of Poetry Mary Rita Donleavy

Cover: The only flag that counted in the life of my father Patrick John Dunleavy was the American flag with its forty eight stars. The flag with the harp is not the British one under which my father may have grown up. Rather it is a flag design used at different times to express Irish nationalism. It was created in the United States by a group of Irish volunteers who joined the Mexican side in the U. S.-Mexican war from 1846 to 1848 as the Los San Patricios or Saint Patrick?s Battalion. The motto Erin Go Bragh underneath the harp means ?Ireland Forever.? The current Irish tricolor flag was flown in the Easter Rising in 1916 and officially adopted in 1919 by the Republic during its War of Independence. Photographed by Niall Mackey, the flags are a framed gift from Nora Geraghty, purchased during a Harris Auction sale in Delgany, County Wicklow, Ireland, in the 1960s. Nora thought it belonged in my home nearby, Carriglea, in Greystones, County Wicklow, Ireland.