Full Text of SR0736 93rd General Assembly
SR0736 93RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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| SENATE RESOLUTION
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| WHEREAS, Patrick J. Roche of Chicago, deemed the "Chief | 3 |
| O'Neill of Irish dancing", died at the age of 99 on October 24, | 4 |
| 2004, just four months shy of his 100th birthday, after a | 5 |
| lifetime of spreading the music and dance woven through Irish | 6 |
| culture and craic; and
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| WHEREAS, He was born in Ireland, in Doonaha, County Clare, | 8 |
| to a family of 10 children; he only went to the third grade in a | 9 |
| country riven by colonialism, poverty and the fight for Irish | 10 |
| independence; he learned dancing from a traveling dance master | 11 |
| who came to Clare when he was a boy; and
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| WHEREAS, During Ireland's war of independence in the 1920s, | 13 |
| he served as a dispatcher for the Irish Republican Army; in | 14 |
| 1925, he immigrated to New York, then five years later moved to | 15 |
| Chicago, where for three years he ran a grocery business and | 16 |
| founded the Roche School of Irish Dancing; while running his | 17 |
| school, he held two full-time jobs as a stationary engineer | 18 |
| with the Chicago Board of Education and Cook County Hospital; | 19 |
| for the Chicago's World's Fair in 1933 and 1934, he organized | 20 |
| shows of Irish music and dance and founded America's first | 21 |
| ceili music band, the Harp and Shamrock Ceili Band; in 1945, he | 22 |
| introduced the first feis to the Midwest; he also hosted an | 23 |
| Irish radio show and was former editor of the American Gael | 24 |
| newspaper; and
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| WHEREAS, He was the single most influential person in Irish | 26 |
| dancing in this country; his fiery feet helped spread the | 27 |
| popularity of Irish step-dancing all the way from Europe to the | 28 |
| United States, and he lived long enough to see it transformed | 29 |
| from a lark performed on the wooden floors of Chicago taverns | 30 |
| to a spectacle wowing Broadway and Las Vegas; and
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| WHEREAS, He had four children with his first wife, Kathleen |
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| McDonnell, who died in 1948, and later married Grace Dorgan and | 2 |
| had four more children; he impressed on his family the need for | 3 |
| unity, family loyalty, and love; and
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| WHEREAS, The passing of Patrick J. Roche will be felt by | 5 |
| all who knew and loved him, especially his wife, Grace; his | 6 |
| daughters, Peggy Roche Boyle, Kathleen McDonnell, Mary Pat | 7 |
| Kulak, and Colette McGrath; his sons, Patrick Jr., John, Kevin, | 8 |
| and Michael; his children's husbands and wives; his 26 | 9 |
| grandchildren; his grandchildren's husbands and wives; and his | 10 |
| 14 great-grandchildren; therefore, be it
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| RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-THIRD GENERAL | 12 |
| ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn the passing of | 13 |
| Patrick J. Roche and extend our sincerest condolences to his | 14 |
| family, friends and community; and be it further
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| RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | 16 |
| presented to the family of Patrick J. Roche as an expression of | 17 |
| our deepest sympathy.
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