Real Lace Revisited: Inside the Hidden World of America's Irish Aristocracy

by James P. MacGuire

Overview

Here is a revisitation—part tribute, part update—of Stephen Birmingham's much-loved Real Lace. James P. MacGuire, a member of one of Birmingham's Irish Families, creates his own entertaining portrait of life among the Irish Rich, further detailing and filling out this engrossing portion of America's social history.

Real Lace Revisited chronicles the religious, financial and social evolution of the First Irish Families’ world, its rise, peak, decline, fall, and, in some cases, transformative rebirth. Rather than a memoir, however, the book reads as an informed historical, non-fiction account of the upper-class Irish world as it grew and changed. Real Lace Revisited is always accessible and highly readable, enlivened by MacGuire’s gift for storytelling, encyclopedic knowledge, and often humorous insight into the families concerned.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493024902
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	03/15/2017
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

James P. MacGuire was born in New York and educated at Johns Hopkins and Cambridge. He has worked, inter alia, at Time Inc., Macmillan, The Health Network, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. His poetry, fiction and journalism have been published in many national publications.
He is the author or co-author of ten books and two beloved sons, Pierce and Rhoads.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Preface: In Praise of Stephen Birmingham ix

Foreword: The Real First Irish Family xii

Chapter I McDonnell & Co.: The Aftermath 1

Chapter II The Rise of the Wealthy Irish Catholics 9

Chapter III WasPs, Jews, and the Irish 23

Chapter IV Southward and Westward 33

Chapter V Faith of Our Fathers (and Mothers) 44

Profile: Portsmouth Priory: The Early Years 51

Chapter VI From Counting Houses to Carryout 57

Profile: Tom Monaghan and Domino's Pizza 66

Chapter VII High (and Low) Society 69

Profile: Watering Holes: Saratoga, Southampton, Newport 102

Chapter VIII Sport 118

Profile: The Maras and Rooneys-From Racing to Pro Football 125

Chapter IX In the Public Arena 135

Profile: The Kennedys and the Buckleys 138

Chapter X Vatican II: An Age of Anxiety 180

Chapter XI The 1960s: High-Water Mark 184

Profile: Portsmouth Again: From Priory to Abbey 188

Chapter XII Gratitude 198

Profile: Peter Flanigan and Student Sponsor Partners 204

Chapter XIII Assimilation: Leaving the Ghetto 209

Chapter XIV Decay and Falling Away 212

Epilogue: Endings and New Beginnings 231

Bibliography 253

Index 255

About the Author 267

Editorial Reviews

For those of a certain age and ancestry, Real Lace Revisited, though thoroughly enjoyable, cannot help but prove wistful. In his refreshing way, Jamie MacGuire paints a beautiful portrait of a beautiful era, now faded, of important and colorful characters (some with, some without, brogues) who proved central to the formation of a great nation. In particular, in a time when religious freedom has been shaken by ideology, his Foreword profiling the Carrolls of Maryland is a welcome history lesson that should be read proudly by all Americans, whether "Irish" or not.

Jack Fowler

James MacGuire’s Real Lace Revisited is a must read for anyone interested in the chronicles of the great Irish American Families of the past century. You will appreciate the historical accuracy and hilarious account provided by MacGuire. Dominick Dunne and Thomas Cahill could not compete with MacGuire’s mastery of the subject. The uproarious characters and touching tales are welcome bits of nostalgia. MacGuire has brilliantly captured every detail.

Alfred E. Smith

"In Real Lace Revisited James MacGuire does for American Irish Catholics what Evelyn Waugh did for those eccentric English recusants at Brideshead: with wit, insight, and critically engaging affection he brings several generations to a life beyond life. But this account, soaring from Birmingham's springboard, has the added authority of a true insider who grew up with the very families he chronicles—from the McDonnells and Murrays to the Kennedys and Buckleys. His personal appraisal rings as pitch-perfect as a Louis Auchincloss novel of WASP society. Birmingham must be beaming from Paradise as he shines here by reflected glory. As Scott Fitzgerald best put it: 'If it wasn't life, it was magnificent'." —Charles Scribner III

"An invaluable and absorbing chronicle filled with rare, elegant historical scholarship....
Whether coursing through the fortunes and misfortunes of the Kennedy and Buckley families; celebrating the horseracing, hellraising and hilarity of Saratoga Springs; reminiscing about his own and others’ days at Portsmouth Priory and the “Grottlesex” schools; pubcrawling in storied New York taverns; or brooding about the sexual abuse scandals and the plight of the Catholic Church in America, MacGuire is an attentive, shrewd, and incomparably entertaining companion for anyone who wishes to tour Irish America’s most curious precincts."—Michael O. Garvey, author of Confessions of a Catholic Worker

From the Publisher

In Real Lace Revisited James MacGuire does for American Irish Catholics what Evelyn Waugh did for those eccentric English recusants at Brideshead: with wit, insight, and critically engaging affection he brings several generations to a life beyond life. But this account, soaring from Birmingham's springboard, has the added authority of a true insider who grew up with the very families he chronicles—from the McDonnells and Murrays to the Kennedys and Buckleys. His personal appraisal rings as pitch-perfect as a Louis Auchincloss novel of WASP society. Birmingham must be beaming from Paradise as he shines here by reflected glory. As Scott Fitzgerald best put it: 'If it wasn't life, it was magnificent'.

Charles Scribner

An invaluable and absorbing chronicle filled with rare, elegant historical scholarship.... Whether coursing through the fortunes and misfortunes of the Kennedy and Buckley families; celebrating the horseracing, hellraising and hilarity of Saratoga Springs; reminiscing about his own and others’ days at Portsmouth Priory and the “Grottlesex” schools; pubcrawling in storied New York taverns; or brooding about the sexual abuse scandals and the plight of the Catholic Church in America, MacGuire is an attentive, shrewd, and incomparably entertaining companion for anyone who wishes to tour  Irish America’s most curious precincts.

Michael O. Garvey