Jim Nesbit writes about James Patrick McGrenra, the man with Donegal parentage who would play a leading role in one of the most colourful events in American legal history, and who forced Charlie Chaplin to quit the USA
When Patrick McGrenra of Barnes and his wife Bridget Gallagher from Fawns, in the parish of Termon, Co. Donegal, fled the familiar poverty of their whitewashed cottage for America, little did they guess that their son James Patrick McGrenra would make it all the way to the White House.
Not only that, McGrenra (later known as McGranery) would go on to play a leading role in one of the most colourful events in American legal history, involving English comic genius Charlie Chaplin’s fall from grace.
James Patrick McGrenra was welcomed into this world on July 8, 1895. Being devout and practical parents they sent him to the parochial school, but he quit classes to take up employment in a Philadelphia print shop.
When the United States entered the fray of World War One, James immediately enlisted, serving as an observation pilot and adjutant with the 111th Infantry.
At the end of hostilities, he returned home with a new-found view of the world and a strong will to further his education.
Graduating from law school, James built up a successful practice and became active in local politics. In due course, McGrenra was elected to Congress in 1936, standing under the Democrat banner in Pennsylvania, a seat he held for four terms.
His talents and loyalty did not go unnoticed, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt created a position for James in the Justice Department.
Judge McGrenra quickly established a reputation as a formidable enforcer, a trait very much admired by President Truman who, in the spring of 1952, confirmed James Patrick McGrenra as Attorney General – the top law post in the United States of America – an occasion joyfully celebrated by his relatives back in Termon.
While McGrenra’s career was progressing, Charlie Chaplin had risen to fame during the era of the silent screen, an international icon encompassing both adulation and controversy.
Like McGrenra’s parents in Donegal, Chaplin’s childhood in London was one of prevalent poverty and hardship, and he was sent to the workhouse twice before the age of nine. Furthermore, when he was fourteen, his mother was committed to a mental asylum.
Despite these early adversities, Chaplin embarked on a career touring music halls as a gifted, young actor and comedian.
Soon his obvious talent was spotted by the growing American film industry.
With a dogged determination to succeed, Chaplin continued to hone his stagecraft and in time developed his legendary film persona The Tramp.
Chaplin then co-founded distribution company United Artists giving him complete directorship of his productions. He initially refused to make films with dialogue and it wasn’t until 1940 that he released his first ‘talkie’ The Great Dictator a political satire of Hitler.
However, Chaplin’s political opinions were in stark contrast to McGrenra’s (whose surname had now evolved to McGranery).
Continue reading in this week’s Ireland’s Own
