By: Liam Murphy, former Editor of the National Hibernian Digest
C O M M O D O R E J O H N B A R R Y
September 13th is Commodore John Barry Day in at least two States, Pennsylvania (a legal holiday) and New York (legislatively, since 1986). One of many immigrants who have defended American Liberty, Commodore John Barry was a native of the County Wexford in Ireland. Barry was born in 1745, the same year as the Irish Brigade victory at Fontenoy. As a Catholic and a nationalist in English-ruled Ireland during the dark days of the Penal Laws, there was little hope of equal opportunity, much less upward mobility or even basic civil rights for young Jack Barry. He and his family emigrated to America, settling in Philadelphia in 1760. For Jack Barry the call of the sea was irresistible. First shipping out as a cabin boy, by adulthood Jack Barry was Captain of his own ship in the American merchant marine before the beginning of the American War for Independence.
After the commencement of hostilities, Captain Jack Barry offered his services to Washington and Congress in the cause of American Liberty. Barry's victories at sea (beginning 7th April 1776) were many and important to the morale of the American people as well as to the successful prosecution of the war. On one occasion he sailed into Philadelphia with a prize ship loaded with overcoats, in time for those same coats to help Washington's army get through the cold of winter. Another mission safely delivered the gold from France, raised by popular subscription by the Roman Catholic clergy, to pay the French and American armies in the Yorktown campaign.
Perhaps his most unusual service came not at sea, but up on the Delaware River where Captain John Barry participated in General George Washington's victory at Trenton during Christmas 1776, serving actively as an artillery combatant.
Captain John Barry was assigned by Congress to command the LEXINGTON in March 1776. At the same time another great Celtic immigrant naval hero of the Revolution, John Paul Jones, native of Scotland, received his commission as an American Continental Navy Lieutenant. [After the war, Barry continued to make his home in the United States, while Jones eventually went on to become an Admiral and the premier hero of the Russian Navy (perhaps ironically, Saint Andrew's Cross is both the flag of the Russian Navy and the flag of Scotland).] Later, in command of the Continental frigate ALLIANCE, Barry fought many actions. On one occasion he encountered two Royal Navy ships, HMS ATLANTA and HMS TREPASSEY in a four-hour sea battle on 28th May 1780. After being severely wounded by grape shot, Barry was taken below for treatment, shortly after which enemy shot carried away the American ensign. The English began cheering, thinking that the Americans had struck. Barry demanded to be carried back on deck, had a new Continental ensign raised, and concluded the action, finally capturing both British ships (see Charles R. Smith. Marines in the Revolution: A History of the Continental Marines in the American Revolution, 1775 – 1783. Washington, D.C.: History and Museums Division, Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps, 1975).
During the American War for Independence, the English attempted to get Barry, who had proved himself to be a most effective combat commander, to switch sides, offering him a full Captaincy and a command in the Royal Navy. Captain John Barry rejected General Lord Howe's flattering offer to desert Washington and the Patriot cause, stating, "Not the value and command of the whole British fleet can lure me from the cause of my country." Captain John Barry, in command of the Continental frigate ALLIANCE, having successfully transported French gold to America to finance the War for Independence, also won the last sea battle of that war, against the HMS SYBILLE on March 10, 1783.
When the Pennsylvania Assembly could not get a quorum for the essential adoption vote, John Barry organized the "compellors", so-called because they sought out and compelled the attendance of enough delegates to assure the calling of the Convention to ratify the Constitution of the United States.
When, under the new Constitution, Congress authorized President Washington to create and operate a United States Navy, it was again to John Barry that George Washington turned, personally conferring upon him "Commission No. 1" as Captain, United States Navy. The Commission, dating from 14th June 1794, was delivered by Washington on 22nd February 1797. It was Commodore John Barry who built and commanded that first United States Navy, one of whose ships, "Old Ironsides", the USS CONSTSTUTION, is still in commission, and may be visited at the US Naval Station in Charlestown, just north of Boston, Massachusetts. John Barry served as senior officer of the United States Navy, with the title of "Commodore" (in official correspondence) under three Presidents, Washington, Adams and Jefferson.
During a visit to New York a few years ago, Sergeant Major Wally Doyle, the late Wexford town historian, spoke of the deep local affection for the US Navy in Wexford. Commodore John Barry's statue, a gift of the United States, overlooks Wexford harbor in his native Ireland. Another statue of Commodore John Barry stands in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, symbolically pointing the way to the future of his adopted country. Commodore John Barry is also recognized, with Cork-born General Stephen Moylan, in the Statue of Liberty museum in New York harbor as one of six foreign-born great leaders of the American War for Independence.
Numerous times have Members of Congress proposed that Commodore John Barry Day be a national observance. The Honorable Clare Gerald Fenerty of Pennsylvania, who was also a naval officer and John Barry orator, proposed this in the 1st Session of the 74th Congress. More recently, Congressmen Ben Gilman, Tom Manton, and Peter King of New York have led a movement to properly honor Commodore John Barry. The 1990 National Convention of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in America, meeting in Virginia, unanimously passed a resolution petitioning Congress to make Commodore John Barry Day, September 13, an annual national patriotic observance, like Flag Day, in order that all Americans might be better reminded of the immigrant origins of the United States and of the extraordinary contributions of immigrants to the defense of American Liberty from the earliest days to the present, from Bunker Hill to Flanders fields, to Makin Island, to the sands of Arabia. The 1992 National Convention of the Naval Reserve Association also resolved in favor of legislation making September 13th "Commodore John Barry Day". Then Naval Reserve Association National President Captain J. Robert Lunney, a published John Barry scholar, is also Past Commander of the New York Commandery of the Naval Order of the United States and current President of the Sons of the Revolution; he also holds the rank of Rear Admiral, serving as Judge Advocate General, New York Naval Militia. Numerous others have made this request, including the Naval Militia Association and the Irish Brigade Association. There is ample precedent in recent years for official United States recognition of Commodore John Barry. Commodore John Barry commemorative postage stamps have been issued by the United States, and once by Ireland. President Ronald Reagan proclaimed September 13, 1982 as "Commodore John Barry Day," and President George Bush similarly proclaimed September 13th as "Commodore John Barry Day" in 1991 and 1992 pursuant to Resolutions of Congress, introduced by Congressman Ben Gilman and co-sponsored by Congressmen Tom Manton, Peter King, Mike McNulty, and others.
Commodore John Barry is not just an Irish hero, although Barry was Irish-born; nor is Commodore John Barry just a Catholic hero, although Barry lived and died a devout Catholic; nor is Commodore John Barry just a naval hero, although William Bell Clark (Gallant John Barry. New York: Macmillan, 1938), Msgr. Leo Gregory Fink (Barry or Jones?) and Bob Lunney have made a most persuasive case for Commodore John Barry as the father of the US Navy. Commodore John Barry is a hero for all Americans ... for all America, since Barry's life exemplified the patriotic virtues to which Washington attached so much importance, to bring the blessings of Liberty to the present and to future generations of Americans.
To enshrine Commodore John Barry's place in the Public Law of the United States would assure the perpetuation of the recognition due to the man, to the naval service and to our immigrant origins. Such a measure will also merit the appreciation of Irish people throughout the world. Former Congressman the late Hamilton Fish, Jr., one of whose ancestors stood with Washington as the British surrendered at Yorktown, often pointed out that we owe a great debt for our Independence not only to the French, but to the Irish, both to those in the Irish Brigades of Spain and France who fought in North America and on the high seas, and, even more to those many who fought in the Continental forces. This is a matter of education and of justice. Honor demands that justice be done to the memory of Commodore John Barry, and, integrity demands that the people be educated as to the major significance of the role of such immigrants in the defense of American Liberty. For this purpose, the Ancient Order of Hibernians in America (led by Bridget and Mike Kearney) and the Irish Brigade Association observe Commodore John Barry Day, and commemorate his memory, most notably with ceremonies at the Maritime Industry Museum on the campus of the State University of New York Maritime College at Fort Schuyler every year.
The USS BARRY (DD-933) is the centerpiece of the naval museum at the Washington Navy Yard, and the new USS JOHN BARRY (DDG-52) carries the name of Commodore John Barry on the high seas today.
The movement for a national Commodore John Barry Day has been superceded by a movement, begun by Congressmen Tom Manton and Peter King in 1995, at the request of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in America, of the Sons of the Revolution, the Naval Reserve Association, the Irish Brigade Association and others, to have Commodore John Barry officially recognized as the first Commodore flag officer of the United States Navy. Congress set the precedent for this a few years ago with the recognition of George Washington, who had resumed his military rank upon his retirement from the Presidency, as the senior general officer of the United States Army, for all time. The recognition of John Barry as the first Commodore flag officer of the United States Navy, would merely make explicit in the public law of the United States what is already implicit in the historical record, and is necessary only because Congress had not yet formally created the one-star Commodore grade by the time of Barry’s death, 13th September 1803.
It was the ships built by Barry, and the officers recruited and developed by him, that constituted the United States Navy that would perform so magnificently in the wars with the Barbary Pirates and in America’s Second War for Independence. Commodore John Barry lies in Saint Mary’s Churchyard in his adopted hometown, Philadelphia.
The United States House of Representatives has recognized Commodore John Barry as the first flag officer of the US Navy, in House Joint Resolution 6, crafted with the assistance of the Naval Historical Center, and staffed through the House Armed Services Committee, after introduction by Congressman Peter King, passed the House on the 7th of October 2002. What is needed now is action by the entire Congress, to formally recognize Commodore John Barry as the first flag officer of the United States Navy.
All Hibernians should contact their United States Senators, and their Member of Congress, and impress upon them the importance of the recognition by Congress, before 13th September 2003, of Commodore John Barry as the first flag officer of the US Navy.
