The infamous Boston Tea Party took place on December 16, 1773, part of a widespread dissatisfaction in the American colonies about Britain's abuse of power, and also, the condescending attitude toward Bostonians and Americans in general by certain British subjects.
Flash forward to June, 1988, when a similar protest against British arrogance occurred in Boston, this time directed at one Peter Dobereiner, an English golf writer who was covering the U.S. Open Golf Tournament at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts on June 16-19,1988.
In an apparent attempt at humor, Dobereiner penned a tone-deaf and scurrilous anti-Irish essay, all in good fun as he believed, which appeared in the 96 page Golf Digest. The publication was being distributed through The Boston Globe newspaper.
The offensive story itself
Entitled 'The Role of the Irish at The Country Club,' Dobereiner delved into a vile and base satire of the Irish, the kind of depiction reminiscent of Punch Magazine and the racist cartoons of Thomas Nash in the 19th century.
"It's getting so bad you can't walk around Boston without tripping over a drunken Kerryman," Dobereiner writes, but adds, thankfully places like "Harvard and the Country Club gave Boston a touch of class.
"If we are to preserve our way of life, we must have somewhere to go on weekends. Somewhere private. Somewhere to play cricket and tennis and maybe a spot of golf. What I have in mind is a sort of club in the county with a high fence to keep the Irish out," the satire continues.
Prior to the story's release, Boston's Irish community got wind of it and immediately objected, first to Golf Digest and then to The Boston Globe. Local activist Ciaran Staunton, editor of the Irish Voice newspaper and later a respected national advocate on immigration reform, organized a 'tee party' protest at Castle Island in South Boston, where a group of about 40 people dumped copies of the Golf Digest issue into Boston Harbor. A number of Irish groups participated, including the Ancient Order of Hibernians and the Irish National Caucus.
Boston Mayor Ray Flynn, Massachusetts State Representative Marie Howe and dozens of others voiced their disapproval to the media, including Ireland's Consul General Brendan Scannell, who said his office was "unhappy" with the article, describing it as "in bad taste," wrote the Globe.
Only a few local people tried to defend the indefensible article, most notably Globe opinion columnist Mike Barnacle.
Perhaps the best take on the situation was written by popular Globe sports columnist Mike Madden, the son of Irish parents. "It is a sophomoric article, ostensibly about The Country Club and the Irish, containing the usual racial stereotypes of the Irish. If a similar article contained the usual stereotypes of Jews or blacks, Poles or Puerto Ricans, women or guys, hell would be paid and still more would be justifiably due," Madden wrote. "There are fools of all stripes - English, Irish, black, Jewish, male and female - but individual fools with group stereotypes should not be tolerated."
Dobereiner himself issue a statement apologizing "not for what I wrote, but how it was interpreted," according to United Press International.
Mayor Flynn's Office wanted The Boston Globe to pull the 250,000 copies being distributed in its Sunday newspaper, but the Globe declined, stating it wasn't able to do so in time. Still, "Large numbers of the inserts were pulled by Globe truck drivers following a plea to their union by the Irish-American Labor Council," according to Associated Press.
In any case, the Globe issued an apology to its readers for distributing the insert.
Additionally, Golf Digest issued its own statement in the Sunday Globe, describing the article as "both tasteless and unnecessary. It should never have been published."
Finally, The New York Times, which owned the golf magazine and sent a letter of apology to Mayor Flynn, admitted that "We agree that the article never should have been published. It represents an incredible lapse in editorial standards."
Dobereiner studied Law at Oxford University and worked as a syndicated golf writer for most of his career, writing in The Guardian and the Observer. A few years after Boston Tee Party, he switched careers and took up golf course design and architecture.
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