May 2011 - Irish American News

38 Irish American News “We’ve Always Been Green!” May 2011Chicago’sFirst Family of Irish RadioContinued from Page 37band days when my dad did the show. A lot ofJackie Barrett and the accordion music. I thinkwe go a little bit more 1980s.IAN: Did you three bring in theinterviews?Denise: Jack and Ed were the onesthat really got that going.Jack: I don’t know how that happened,honestly, but I think it was a function ofa couple of things. We had befriendedmany of the Irish counsel generals herein town. I think they knew we were reasonablywell educated, and that we wouldtreat visitors with respect. So, we beganto get calls from the Irish government,and the English government as well,whenever they would come to town. Theythought we had a fairly wide and diverseaudience. They wanted to get out a message.We got some interesting interviewsover the years. One of the most disturbinginterviews I ever heard was the interviewEd did with David Trimble.He was the Ulster Unionist Partyleader, and he was the first minister ofNorthern Ireland. We got a call from the Englishgovernment here and they said that David Trimblewas going to be in town and did we want to interviewhim? Well they didn’t tell us that there wasspecific guidelines that needed to be followed. Wehad to lockdown the studio. Nobody could comein. They had security so myself and Trimble werein the studio, and I’m telling you, you could justsee the intensity. It just oozed out of him.IAN: Who else have you interviewed?Ed: Mary Robinson, John Hume, Brid Rogers,Bairbre de Brún, Mitchell McLaughlin, BenBriscoe who was the Lord Mayor of Dublin. PeterMandelson, who was the UK Secretary of State forNorthern Ireland. That’s actually one of the greatstories. 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A week before the interview theysent the secret service to the Jefferies office tocheck it out and meet everyone. I had no idea thiswas a big wig. Then they sealed off the street onMonroe and Dearborn on all corners. He walks inwith 11 or 12 handlers and I have Chris, our oldengineer at WPNA, with a $12.99 tape recorder,Senator Dirksen and Jack Sr.and I wrecked the guys’ whole day.One of the great ones was Marjorie Mowlam,who died 6 or 7 years ago. She had the job beforeMandelson. She died of brain cancer. She wasmagnificent. Senator George Mitchell was great.We just talked for two hours. And MichaelMcDowell, the former Attorney Generalof Ireland.IAN: Who’s your favorite interviews?Ed: Mine, no question, was Ben Briscoe.When he came into the studio hewas very well dressed and Dublin wasjust done celebrating its Millennium. Hewas the representative picked to come toChicago to talk about tourism. I did notread his bio before the interview. Briscoewalks in with the Lord Mayors pendanton, dressed to the nines. And he walksup to the microphoneand says, ‘There oncewas an Irishman and aJew…’ and here I am,I had no idea there wasa Jewish population inDublin and he’s Jewish.I can’t do the interview,but he is so well spoken he carriedit through for 20 minutes.That was the most fun interviewI ever did.IAN: What was the worstradio moment?Jack: The worst? There werelots of them on Saturday morningswhen I was in college. AnySaturday morning that followeda Friday evening was perilousfor years! I think there weremoments early on where we hadno idea what we were doing. Welearned as quickly as we could.But there were problems. For along time, there was someonewho had problems pronouncing the word Fucke’s.For Fucke’s Wheels. That might have been mispronouncedby one of my siblings! The nice thing wasthe people who came out to the show, particularlythose people who supported us during this transition.They were so kind to us.Denise: Some who helped us were Mike Kenny,Brendan O’Leary, Liam O’Brien. Theywere so good and really took us undertheir wing. I know why they did it, theyloved my father. They were awesome inthe way they stepped forward and helpedus. Our cousins, Maureen and DennisWade, came to the show every week earlyon to help us out and encourage us to keepthe show going. Otherwise there wasn’ta prayer in hell, excuse my language,that we were going to last more than sixmonths. When we first started, I couldn’tget my hand to stop shaking when tryingto put the needle on the record. It took meabout five minutes, and I had to hold downthe other hand trying to steady it. I wasscared to death, but you know what, it wasprobably the one thing my dad wanted.Keep it going. It was really important tohim that we do that. And my mother wasdetermined to make that happen too.IAN: What about the next 65 years?Denise: You got to be kidding me! Well, Jack’soldest girl is four years away from a drivers license,so we’ll have to ask her.Jack: I gotta tell ya for some of us... well forme it was pretty easy stepping into that chair. IA Toast to the Hosts60 Years of Irish Moons720 Months of Irish Tunes3120 Weeks of Irish NewsThe Hagerty’s Have Shared With You!Now we Hope for Sixty More!The Kids & Grandkids we ImploreBring Us the Music and the NewsYou Can Fill Your Family Shoes!Cliff Carlsonwasn’t very good at it at first and I’m probably notvery good today. But it was relatively easy for meto do. I’m not big on huge amounts of pre-showprep. Denise probably does more pre-show prepthan I do show. She is a perfectionist and shespends the most on pre-show time, Eddy spendsa fair amount of time, and I flip the switch whenmy butt hits the seat and we are off. Denise prefersorder, I prefer chaos!IAN: have you all been to Ireland?Jack: Yes, Many trips.IAN: Where have you been?Denise: Well, Ed’s been the most now. He’san Irish citizen.Ed: I go to Ballybunion. I’m a member of thegolf course there. And it’s just an area I love. SoI spend my time mostly in Kerry. Alternatingbetween Ballybunion, Waterville, and Tralee golfcourses. Its easy.Jack: I’ve been there for a few golf trips. Mywife’s family is from Mayo, and our family isfrom outside County Clare. The Dysart area, youknow Dysart Castle? Our great grandmother andher children were the last inhabitants of that castle.They were squatters. Her husband was killed. Hewas an Irish police officer. But in terms of what tosee, I say see it all if you can. My favorite course isLahinch. When I walk the course at Lahinch I feela connection to the earth I cannot explain.Here is a story about the Hagerty brothers atLahinch. Ed use to organize this outing at leastonce a year and all 24 of us would go out on thistrip for nine days. Lets just say it was exhausting,you were tired when the trip was over. I’mwalking down the 3rd fairway and my caddie ismaybe 5’3” tall. Not real talkative, but a very niceman. He looks at me and says, ‘ Hagerty is thelast name, huh?’ I said yes. ‘These your brothers?’Yes. ‘Do you know what they say of the Hagertysof Clare?’ I said what? He said ‘Don’t *blank*with the Hagertys.’IAN: Some of you have overcame a bit ofadversity too in terms of cancer.Jack: Yes. I had cancer in 1991. I’m a survivor.Denise: We have a few cancer survivors. Fourout of six siblings. Both parents died of cancer.But hey, a lot of people have it a lot worse.Jack: Make sure you appreciate what you have,don’t sweat the small stuff. All I have to do islook at my back wall and see the most importantthing in the world to me, my family andmy kids.Denise: You know it was really toughwhen my dad died in 1980. I was in my20s and these guys were still in school.IAN: He never got to see any of youget married.Denise: Right, and at the time youthink, this is so horrible, this is so bad.But the reality is, he gave us this, hegave us each other. He really did. Evenif we cross ways, we are still really close.Jack has three girls, Tom has two girls,Donna has two sons. They are great kids,all doing well.Ed: You know the radio show hassurvived two generations. It keeps momand dad alive.Jack: I made a promise to myself andto my mother before she passed away thatwe would make it to fifty years. And theonly reason we made it to 60 is by virtue that thereare three of us. It’s too much for one person. Ourbusy careers and lives. We all have our own tastesand passions. A friend of mine when he listens cantell by the selection played who ran the show. It’sa lot more fun when it’s live. You get the energy ofthe people with you. When I’m by myself it’s notso fun, but with people it is much more fun.May your airwaves continue another 60years.WPNA 1490 AM from 9am to 11am live onSaturdays. To listen live on your computer gohere: http://www.wpna1490am.com/live.htm.To email a request: requests@irishhour.com.708-524-9762.To see more Hagerty family photos, go to www.irishamericannews.com.