Luck o’ the Irish

• Patrick O’Neill

SUBMITTED PHOTO Patrick O’Neill stands on the Cliffs of Moher — a well-known tourist attraction, which rise 390 feet above the Atlantic Ocean in County Clare, Ireland.

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WORTHINGTON — With a last name like O’Neill and a first name like Patrick, there’s little doubt of his heritage.

“I’m what you call four-cornered Irish — parents and both sets of grandparents,” said Worthington’s Patrick “Pat” O’Neill, whose family tree also includes the surnames Osborne, Conway and Malone.

Although he was born and grew up in Sioux Falls, S.D., Pat has ties to the hamlet of Avoca in southwest Minnesota — named after a town on the Emerald Isle, along with other area Irish namesakes Lismore and Currie. His mother was born in Minnesota’s Avoca, and his grandfather ran an inn there called the Osborne House.

“Her sister lived in Avoca for many years, and I remember going to Avoca when I was a mere tot,” recalled Pat. “There’s a poem, ‘Sweet Vale of Avoca,’ by Sir Thomas Moore, and I can remember seeing a card with that written on it.”

Pat can even quote a bit of the verse, which ends with this stanza:

Sweet vale of Avoca! How calm could I rest

In thy bosom of shade, with the friends I love best

Where the storms that we feel in this cold world should cease

And our hearts, like thy waters, be mingled in peace

And our hearts, like thy waters, be mingled in peace

More than 10 years ago, Pat took a trip to Ireland with son-in-law Paul Hughes, and they had the opportunity to visit the original Avoca, which is the site of a memorial to Moore with that poem inscribed on a rock.

Pat doesn’t remember being particularly proud of his heritage while growing up in Sioux Falls, where his parents ran a corner grocery store and had an interest in a downtown shoe store.

There were no big St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in those days, he recalled, or any other observances of Irish pride. While attending St. John’s University in Collegeville, he remembers the Irish being pitted against the Germans in a classic basketball game during his freshman year.

“They announced the referee, and his name was John O’Rourke,” remembered Pat, still a strong supporter of St. John’s “Johnnies” athletic programs, with a chuckle. “After the game was over, the Irish players hoisted the ref up on their shoulders.”

After college, Pat went to work for the Hartford insurance company in Minneapolis. He transferred to Chicago and worked in the insurance industry in South Bend, Ind., and Peoria and Springfield, Ill. Married to wife Karyl and starting a family, they decided it would be a good idea to move closer to home.

“I interviewed for a job in Minneapolis and was hired by the First Bank system,” said Pat, explaining that a job had opened up in what was then First National Bank in Worthington. “We had envisioned living in the Twin Cities.”

But Pat interviewed for the Worthington post and was hired in 1971. The O’Neills raised their two daughters, Angie and Jen, in Worthington, and now have seven grandchildren. Although he tried retirement for a short time, Pat continues to head up the insurance office at what is now Bank of the West in Worthington.

Pat credits his late brother, Charles, with sparking an interest in family history. Charles delved into genealogy — learning that their father’s family came to the U.S. via Canada — and even bought a house in Ireland, near the famed Lahinch Golf Club along the Irish coast. Lahinch was among the spots that Pat and Paul visited on their Irish sojourn.

“My (last) name is like Smith over there,” Pat noted. “It’s everywhere. In downtown Dublin, there’s a great big O’Neill’s Bar, and wouldn’t you know, the owner’s name is Patrick.”

With plans to visit the Irish community of Lismore, Pat procured some centennial memorabilia from the southwest Minnesota community of the same name.

“In Lismore, they have a heritage center, and the woman in charge is named Mary Hoolihan. So we stroll in there on a Saturday morning, and this young woman at the counter has no idea what I’m talking about when I tell her about the Minnesota Lismore,” recounted Pat. “So she brings out Mary Hoolihan, and when I tell her we’re from a town that’s close to Lismore in Minnesota, she says, ‘Do you know Marion Pieper? She’s a lovely woman.’”

Pat did indeed know Marion, now deceased, who had corresponded about some community history with Hoolihan. Pat was recruited to bring a special keepsake of the Irish Lismore back to Pieper.

The Irish trip included a few other venues of significance to southwest Minnesotans, including Avoca and Cashel (a well-known local surname) — the place that legend says St. Patrick went to convert the Irish king to Christianity. They also took in the usual tourist attractions, such as Trinity College, the National Gallery of Ireland, the Guinness Brewery, St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the Cliffs of Moher. But there are still a lot of sights that Patrick would like to see in the land of his ancestors.

“I’d like to go back again. We’ve talked about going back again,” he said.

Maybe when he gets around to retiring for a second time.

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