The death of Justice William Brennan in July, after a long illness, was mourned by President Clinton, other dignitaries, family and friends who packed St. Matthew’s Cathedral — the same church where the funeral mass was celebrated for slain U.S. President John F. Kennedy in November 1963 — in Washington, D.C. for his funeral mass.
“We thank God for his life,” said Clinton, as he compared Brennan to figures in American history who pulled the country together in difficult times, “stepping into the breech…saving us from our darker impulses and always pulling us together and pushing us forward.”
The president added that above his other personal traits, Brennan was able to “walk in the shoes” of people whose lives were very different from his own — to lift them up and enable the United States to live up to its ideals.
Appointed by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1956, Brennan served through eight presidents and 34 years and he stamped his seal of approval on decisions that endorsed affirmative action, struck down restrictions on birth control, banned prayer in public schools, expanded the rights of minorities and women, and secured freedom of the press.
He was forced to retire on July 20, 1990 due to ill health, and Justice David Souter, who succeeded him, said Brennan had left behind a legacy in the law that will “transcend his own time.”
Souter also said: “One can agree with the Brennan opinions and one may disagree with them, but their collective influence is an enormously powerful defining force in the contemporary life of this republic.”
One of the priests at Brennan’s funeral service recalled the late justice’s sense of humor and mentioned that he asked for Latin hymns at his funeral, but wanted the service to be joyous.
“Remember, I’m Irish,” Brennan was quoted as saying. “But for God’s sake, keep it short.”
His Irishness was something which was extremely important to William Brennan throughout his life, and Irish America magazine was lucky to achieve an interview with him seven years ago.
In this interview with Sean O Murchu, Brennan remembered his Irish parents who had met and married in the United States. William Joseph Brennan, St. and Agnes McDermott were both born in County Roscommon, he in Frenchpark and she in Castlerea. They raised their eight children in Newark, New Jersey and William Jr. recalls being imbued with a sense of `hard work is its own reward’ from an early age.
The second oldest of the family, born in 1906, he told Irish America how he and his brother Charlie “at five in the morning, would milk the cows and by the time they had cooled it and bottled the milk, I would walk across the street and deliver it all the way up to the school, which was two miles away, and then in the afternoon I would deliver papers” all while attending school himself.
Brennan fondly remembered the family being raised with Irish values, not to mention appreciation for the country’s history and culture.
“I remember dad bought the family a player piano and I remember my mother’s favorite was [Count] John McCormack, the great singer, and there wasn’t anything of his that was recorded that we did not have the day it came out.”
He also spoke to Irish America of his own two trips back to his parents’ homeland and the good time he had there.
“The first time I was there, I met people who remembered my father and mother being there. They particularly remembered my father because he bought drinks for everybody in the pub.”
The Brennan children were encouraged by their father to maintain ties with Irish American organizations and not to forget their Irish roots. “My father kept me, all of us, well aware of not only the Friendly Sons [of St. Patrick] but the Ancient Order of Hibernians. He used to subscribe to the Irish World and some others. And St. Patrick’s Day was a big holiday for us.”
Brennan regretted not imparting more of a sense of Irishness to his own three children, and added: “The thing that sort of disgusts me — and I mean disgusts — there are so many Irish who would rather not claim it [being Irish]. I resent it, I just think that it’s so sad…I run into many from generations after mine who know damn little about their roots.”
Brennan also spoke to Irish America about his time on the bench and what had prompted him to consider a career in the area of law. Again, it was a decision which was to be influenced by both his father and his Irish heritage.
“In his position, my dad had a number of very close friends who were lawyers, and he was so taken with this whole bunch of Irish lawyers. They were the leaders of the bar and they were close friends of my father’s, and my dad encouraged me to do it and got them to encourage me.”
Having graduated with honors from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Finance and Commerce, Brennan then earned a scholarship to the Harvard Law School where he studied under Felix Frankfurter, a conservative who later served with Brennan on the nation’s highest court.
Freedom was the Constitutional right which Brennan strove to upheld throughout his life, and freedom of speech, as he told Irish America in 1990, is of the utmost importance in our American society.
“I think that the most important provision of our Constitution is the First Amendment. It defines for us the kind of society we are and that we want to be. No matter what the criticism, I will never deny any citizen the right to say what he feels.”
Justice William Brennan, rest in peace.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in the September / October 1997 issue of Irish America. ⬥
Leave a Reply