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When the United States entered the first World War in April 1917, one Irish-speaking Irish-American played a key role in the campaign to persuade Americans that ending their country’s isolation was a good thing.
James O'Shaughnessy's father had grown up in sight of Thoor Ballylee (now called Yeat's Tower), but fled Co Galway during the Great Famine and settled in Missouri. By 1917, James was a very successful advertising agent, becoming one of the highest paid in the US. He had earlier been a star journalist on the Chicago Tribune, covering the Spanish-American conflict in Cuba and the last outright battle between Native Americans and the US army.
President Woodrow Wilson was not alone in mistrusting the hyphenated identity of some Irish-Americans, fearing that their anti-English politics might undermine Washington’s decision to fight alongside the British “over there”. But O’Shaughnessy and fellow Missourian George Creel worked to win hearts for the war effort in 1917 and 1918.
Wilson in 1919 was to send George Creel as his personal emissary to Dublin, where he met Michael Collins among others.
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In 1920 Creel published Ireland's Fight for Freedom, his passionate and detailed argument in favour of an independent Irish state.
In that book Creel noted that there were then “over 15,000,000 people of Irish birth or descent” in the United States, and that “America has always been first with the Irish-American”.
He continued, “Men of Ireland gave heart and strength to Washington, they died by thousands [during the American Civil War] that the Union might endure, and of the army raised to crush German absolutism fully 15 per cent were of Irish birth or descent.”
Back in April 1917 Creel was chairman of the Committee on Public Information, or "Uncle Sam's newly appointed press-censor and publicity promoter" as the trade magazine Printer's Ink less kindly called him
The famous journalist Walter Lippman had helped to persuade Wilson that it was better to educate public opinion than simply to suppress the truth or merely whip up hatred of the enemy. Creel’s efforts in this context were the catalyst for the foundation of the American Association of Advertising Agencies (“the 4A’s”). O’Shaughnessy was recruited to run it from a skyscraper in New York.
O’Shaughnessy’s new association was distracted from usual professional concerns by the immediate need to be seen to support the war. He urged that advertisements carry a patriotic message.
O’Shaughnessy as chief executive advised its members that, “All expressions in this connection should be inspiriting to faith in President Wilson and devotion to the cause of the Government and loyal and unwavering support to its every undertaking to bring victory to the standard of democracy.”
Display advertisements should, he wrote, “sound a patriotic and helpful note-something inspiring to those who are carrying the burdens of grave responsibility for us – something encouraging to those who are offering their lives for us”.
O’Shaughnessy’s efforts were copper-fastened when an official US Division of Advertising was also housed at his association’s headquarters.
James O’Shaughnessy and his brothers had been among the founders of Chicago’s influential Irish Fellowship Club, which to this day is a standard destination for successive Irish taoisigh and presidents visiting America. During 1917, the Irish Fellowship Club passed a resolution urging the people of Ireland to refrain from attacking British forces and instead to join the cause of the Allies against Germany.
This fact is a reminder that simplistic caricatures of Irish-America do not encompass its full range of attitudes. Like many Irish-Americans, most members of the club supported self-determination for Ireland but favoured moderate Irish politicians such as John Redmond over more extreme opponents.
One of James O’Shaughnessy’s brothers was Thomas, also known as “Gus”. He became the leading practitioner of Gaelic Revival art in the United States. Perhaps the best surviving example of his work consists of the windows and interiors of Chicago’s “Old St Pat’s Church”, which is reputedly that city’s oldest continuously used public building.
James visited Ireland a few times, meeting the Irish-language scholar Fr Eugene O’Growney and President of the Executive (prime minister) WT Cosgrave among others. He gave advice to Irish admen, and in 1929 became the first patron of the Irish Association of Advertising Agencies.
The Publicity Club of Ireland presented James O’Shaughnessy with a Claddagh gold ring, emblematic of Co Galway. One person present wrote that, “The effect of this was remarkable. He simply broke down and wept. When he pulled himself together he just said one thing which I shall never forget. ‘Gentlemen’, said he, ‘I want to tell you that not all of the money I have ever possessed could buy me anything I would value as highly as that ring.’”