Irish in the West

Remembering Peter Yorke

San Francisco is filled with the memory of Ireland. You’ll see the Irish in our street names. In the names of our mayors and our schools. Irish memory is in our buildings, many of them built and rebuilt many times over by Irish workers. You’re never far from a dewy Irish flag fluttering outside a neighborhood pub. You’ll see that St Patrick’s Day is a citywide celebration. The Irish have reached nearly every facet of San Franciscan life, from public service to hospitality to the arts. And when San Francisco’s marriage to the Irish was in its early years, one Irishman stood out.

Peter Yorke was born in Galway, Ireland, in 1864. Peter grew up fatherless. His father, a sea captain, died before his son’s birth. His mother had six children, two of whom did not survive childhood. Despite this, young Peter’s childhood was not one of great want. In his early summers, Peter would travel to his grandmother’s cottage in the country. Each day, he read to her from her bible. These long sessions stoked the interest in scripture and justice that would shape young Peter’s life. In turn, Peter’s great life would shape San Francisco.

As a young priest, Yorke made it to San Francisco in 1888. He was twenty four, and he loved it. He praised the water on three sides and the views of The Marin Headlands and San Bruno Mountains. He felt that being in San Francisco, with its “ocean breeze” and its “panorama of perpetual delight,” was like being “on the deck of a ship.”

Yorke was preaching at St. Mary’s Cathedral when he began to edit The Monitor, San Francisco’s Catholic newspaper. His writings were like his sermons: blistering, precise, and unabashed. At a time when public opinion of Catholics and Irish was at a low, Yorke was unapologetic in his defense of his community. The people that made up his congregation were not dangerous or un-American; rather, they deserved the same rights and respect as all citizens of America. This delighted his readers, and word began to spread about the politically active, young firebrand priest in San Francisco.

Yorke’s agitation didn’t go unnoticed. When his political superiors removed him from The Monitor, he started his own newspaper, The Leader. Under his own direction, he was able to speak freely about the discrimination he saw Irish Americans endure. No slight toward the Irish went unaddressed. No institution was free from scorn. He became the champion of his readers: the Irish American working class.

In 1901, many of San Francisco’s unions went on strike. Escalating union-crushing tactics caused a rift between the titans of industry and their employees. The workers walked off their waterfront jobs. It didn’t take long for Yorke to pick up the banner of the unions. Yorke’s voice was one of the loudest in support of the strike. Not confined to the pulpit, he gave speeches at rallies with names like “The Rights of Labor.” Yorke believed that workers had a right to organize themselves and demand better working conditions. He based these beliefs on the pro-union writings of the pope Leo XIII. Many of the workers Yorke defended were poor Irish American immigrants, and Yorke was giving them a voice.

Yorke’s support of the working class galvanized his base. His direct action was effective. When the strike was at its height, Yorke convinced California Governor Henry Gage not to call in the National Guard. Instead, the strike leaders and employer’s representatives met and came to terms. After three months, the Teamsters’ strike of 1901 was over. Any remaining displeasure was soothed by Yorke’s editorials. Yorke’s star only continued to rise.

Yorke also wrote with ferocity about the Irish struggle for independence, which his readers loved. For instance, Yorke pitched a fervent defense of the Irish liberation party, Sinn Féin. He even worked alongside Éamon de Valera, the president of Sinn Féin at the time. Years later, de Valera spoke with warm praise for Yorke and the role he had in organizing Americans to care about a liberated Ireland. Yorke lobbied for Irish independence at national post-war peace conferences. He got the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to recommend Irish Independence to President Woodrow Wilson. He fundraised. Everywhere he turned, he spoke out for the liberation of the Emerald Isle. When Sinn Féin’s victory swept across Ireland, and later when Ireland achieved independence, Yorke and his readers cheered from across the globe.