Vincent Lavery And Hunter S. Thompson Connection?

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.