Immigrants Get The Job Done
Hey, a cabbage head like me couldn’t pass up a “dukes up” on Saint Patrick’s Day. So here’s a tip of the green derby—the real one, not the plastic jobs the hawkers sell to boozehound jackasses at the parade.
I’m tipping my hat to my Irish grandfathers.
Grandfather number one, Daniel O’Connell, came over on a boat from Ireland and landed a job as the Superintendent of Sewers and Sidewalks for the City of Holyoke. He had a crew of 10 men. Damn good workers. As the story goes, a new mayor was elected and told Dan he could stay on as Superintendent, but he’d have to fire his guys and replace them with the mayor’s cronies.
What did Dan do? He started his own company and kept his crew intact. He built a hell of a company. A hundred and forty-three years later, Daniel O’Connell’s is still going strong. My father told me that story and it always stuck with me. It was an important lesson when I started my own business: look out for good people, take risks, and have the courage to stand for something.
My other grandfather, Dennis O’Brien, also came over on a boat from Ireland and landed a job building the railroad in Chicago. Old Dennis was nicknamed Darby, which is how it got tagged onto me. Christ, it was an original moniker when I got it. Then along comes Sean Connery in Darby O’Gill And The Little People. I still get razzed for that. Then parents started naming girls Darby. And the usual wiseacres in school started yelling, “You’ve got a girls’ name!”
One time I was standing outside the Colonial Pharmacy in Dock Square, up in Kennebunkport, and some bossy-sounding lady yelled out, “Darby, get over here now!” I thought she was yelling at me like I swiped a pack of Topps baseball cards. Nope, she was calling her Irish Setter to get back over to her. My name on a goddamn dog license.
Have some good Irish luck today. Lower down a Guinness or a Tullamore Dew, or both, and salute the fact we’re still in the ring and finally starting to come out of this rumble after the past couple years.
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day. Keep your dukes up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9JftIZybVo
If you know someone who’d like these ditties in their inbox every week, have ‘em shoot us an email at darbyo@darbyobrien.com and we’ll add ‘em to the list.