The Story of Richard J Daley Mayor of Chicago - Video
PUBLISHED:  Mar 21, 2016
DESCRIPTION:
Bóthar go dti an Whitehouse is a TG4 series telling the story of how the Irish changed the face of American politics charting the history of Irish-American politicians from the 1800's up to JFK's election as the first, and only, Catholic president of the United States.

Richard Joseph Daley was born in Bridgeport, a working-class neighborhood of Chicago on May 15,1902. He was the only child of Michael and Lillian (Dunne) Daley, whose families had both arrived from the Old Parish area, near Dungarvan, County Waterford, Ireland during the Great Famine. Daley would later state that his wellsprings were his religion, his family, his neighborhood, the Democratic Party, and his love of the city.His father was a sheet metal worker with a reserved demeanor. Michael's father, James E. Daley, was a butcher born in New York, while his mother, Delia Gallagher Daley, was an Irish immigrant. Richard's mother was outgoing and outspoken. Before women obtained the right to vote in 1920, Lillian Daley was an active Suffragette, participating in marches. Mrs. Daley often brought her son to them. She hoped her son's life would be more professionally successful than that of his parents. Prior to his mother's death, Daley had won the Democratic nomination for Cook County sheriff. Lillian Daley wanted more than this for her son, telling a friend, "I didn't raise my son to be a
policeman.

He served as the Mayor of Chicago for a total of 21 years (1955–1976) and chairman of the Cook County Democratic Central Committee for 23 years, holding both positions until his death in office in 1976. Daley was Chicago's third consecutive mayor from the working-class, heavily Irish American Bridgeport neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, where he lived his entire life. Daley is remembered for doing much to avoid the declines that some other "rust belt" cities like Cleveland, Buffalo and Detroit experienced during the same period. He had a strong base of support in Chicago's Irish Catholic community, and he was treated by national politicians such as Lyndon B. Johnson as a pre-eminent Irish American, with special connections to the Kennedy family. Daley played a major role in the history of the Democratic Party, especially with his support of John F. Kennedy in 1960 and of Hubert Humphrey in 1968.
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