Vincent Lavery came home to Ireland 2 years ago after 50 years in the US, only to find that his county had turned it’s back on him. Vincent left Ireland when he was 20 but never forgot his roots. He came home every year. As he says “I left Ireland when I was 20 but Ireland never left me.” Amongst other things he was a teacher in the US for 35 years but his credentials were not recognised here in Ireland. He was also heavily involved in coaching soccer in the US and has written 4 books about the subject, and even at that he struggled to get a coaching job here.
There can be no arguing about his Irish roots and family His father was a district court judge here in Ireland, his uncle was a attorney general and a supreme court judge and a cousin of his was the artist John Lavery.
Now, I hear you ask. What has this got to do with Hunter S. Thompson? To be honest no too much apart from the fact that Mr Lavery ran for the US Congress in 1988 with very similar ideas as Hunter had in his bid for Sheriff with regard to decriminalising drugs. He lost to Charles (Chip) Pashayan. Vincent got 28.5% of the vote which is no small feat considering Pashayan held that seat since 1979.
He also worked hard for the Democratic party, and worked hard during Bobby Kennedy’s bid for the White House. That’s him with Bobby in the picture above.
Where he has little or no connection with HST I feel he should be mentioned. I am currently trying to get in touch with him to find out some more details about his dealings with US politics and maybe a HST Connection so when I do I’ll post it.
Very interesting Marty – I bet Hunter was at least aware of him. After all if the guy was running for congress on that platform he must have come to the Docs attention.
Ron, yeah as far as I know he is in Dunlaoghaire down the road from here, I’ll keep you posted.
I knew Mr. Lavery, he was my government/economics teacher and was the schools soccer coach. I knew he ran for politcal office once before but I didn’t know he was that involved.
I knew Vince Lavery in 1968 when he ran the Merced County (California) Bobby Kennedy campaign. I was a high school student and did what little I could for the campaign. I remember the day the photo was taken that you have here on this site. What a glorious day that was. Little did we know what would happen only two days later.
I doubt that Vince remembers me, but the lessons he taught me have stayed with me all these years. If you hear any more about him, please post it.
Mr Lavery is now as a substitute teacher in my school, The High School, Dublin.
If you are still looking to contact him, you could try contacting him through the school
http://www.highschooldublin.com/contact.htm
I’ve only had the pleasure of talking to him on a handful of occasions during free classes, but from these few times, I’ve been able to tell that he really is a great man.
More about Vincent. Before teaching or his life as an activist he played a seminal role in the 60s California music scene as a promoter.
I have collected quite a few posters for his concerts like The Doors and Janis Joplin.
There are many more and I will post them as possible. In the meantime see:
http://mercedmusic.wordpress.com
is this the same vincent lavery that run childrens committee 10 that brought catholics & protestants together from n.ireland to the u.s on holiday.
If so i would like to contact vincent about his great work
I know Vincent Lavery and have his email address. get back to me if you still want to contact him.
regards
Paul
Kevin,
See my site. Vincent allowed me to publish his email address in his section.
http://www.mercedmusic.wordpress.com