SR0736

LRB093 23854 CSA 54131 r






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SENATE RESOLUTION


 
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    WHEREAS, Patrick J. Roche of Chicago, deemed the "Chief 
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O'Neill of Irish dancing", died at the age of 99 on October 24, 
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2004, just four months shy of his 100th birthday, after a 
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lifetime of spreading the music and dance woven through Irish 
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culture and craic; and

 
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    WHEREAS, He was born in Ireland, in Doonaha, County Clare, 
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to a family of 10 children; he only went to the third grade in a 
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country riven by colonialism, poverty and the fight for Irish 
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independence; he learned dancing from a traveling dance master 
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who came to Clare when he was a boy; and

 
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    WHEREAS, During Ireland's war of independence in the 1920s, 
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he served as a dispatcher for the Irish Republican Army; in 
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1925, he immigrated to New York, then five years later moved to 
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Chicago, where for three years he ran a grocery business and 
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founded the Roche School of Irish Dancing; while running his 
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school, he held two full-time jobs as a stationary engineer 
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with the Chicago Board of Education and Cook County Hospital; 
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for the Chicago's World's Fair in 1933 and 1934, he organized 
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shows of Irish music and dance and founded America's first 
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ceili music band, the Harp and Shamrock Ceili Band; in 1945, he 
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introduced the first feis to the Midwest; he also hosted an 
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Irish radio show and was former editor of the American Gael 
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newspaper; and

 
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    WHEREAS, He was the single most influential person in Irish 
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dancing in this country; his fiery feet helped spread the 
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popularity of Irish step-dancing all the way from Europe to the 
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United States, and he lived long enough to see it transformed 
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from a lark performed on the wooden floors of Chicago taverns 
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to a spectacle wowing Broadway and Las Vegas; and

 
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    WHEREAS, He had four children with his first wife, Kathleen 
 


 






SR0736
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LRB093 23854 CSA 54131 r




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McDonnell, who died in 1948, and later married Grace Dorgan and 
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had four more children; he impressed on his family the need for 
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unity, family loyalty, and love; and

 
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    WHEREAS, The passing of Patrick J. Roche will be felt by 
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all who knew and loved him, especially his wife, Grace; his 
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daughters, Peggy Roche Boyle, Kathleen McDonnell, Mary Pat 
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Kulak, and Colette McGrath; his sons, Patrick Jr., John, Kevin, 
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and Michael; his children's husbands and wives; his 26 
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grandchildren; his grandchildren's husbands and wives; and his 
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14 great-grandchildren; therefore, be it

 
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    RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-THIRD GENERAL 
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ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn the passing of 
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Patrick J. Roche and extend our sincerest condolences to his 
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family, friends and community; and be it further

 
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    RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be 
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presented to the family of Patrick J. Roche as an expression of 
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our deepest sympathy.