John P. Irish

John Powell Irish (1843–1923) was a leader of the Democratic Party in Iowa, a landowner in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta region of California, a fiery and influential public speaker, and an opponent of prejudice against Japanese, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, women's suffrage and labor unions. He was, according to U.S. Interior Secretary Franklin K. Lane, "a fiery orator of the denunciatory type." He was reckoned as "a leader among editorial writers" of his generation.

Irish was born to Frederick Macy Irish and Elizabeth Ann Robinson on January 1, 1843, in Iowa City, Iowa, where he received a "common school" education. He was married to Anna (McClellan) Fletcher in 1875, and in 1880 they moved to California. One headline writer noted in 1899 that Irish at that time was "averse to wearing a necktie."

Irish was mentioned in three poems in Ambrose Bierce's book of poetry, Black Beetles in Amber (1892). In one poem, the narrator dies and goes to Hell, only to be surprised that the landscape is pleasant and attractive.

"Ah, no, this is not Hell," I cried;
"The preachers ne'er so greatly lied.
"This is Earth's spirit glorified!

"Good souls do not in Hades dwell,
"And, look, there's John P. Irish!" "Well,
The Voice said, "that's what makes it Hell."

Irish died at the age of eighty on October 6, 1923, from a fall while attempting to board a moving streetcar in Oakland, California. Honorary pallbearers at his funeral on October 9 in the Unitarian church in that city included former California governor George C. Pardee,George Shima (known as the Japanese "potato king") and Ng Poon Chew, Chinese editor. The officiating minister was Charles William Wendte.

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