05/25/2026
On Memorial Day, we honor the Americans who gave their lives in defense of the nation and the enduring promise of liberty.
We remember the Fighting 69th New York, the famed Irish regiment of the Irish Brigade whose green battle flags became symbols of courage during the Civil War. Many of its soldiers were Irish immigrants who crossed the Atlantic fleeing famine, political repression, and religious persecution, only to encounter suspicion, poverty, and anti Catholic hostility upon arriving in America. Yet when the Union called, they answered.
At the Battle of Fredericksburg, they advanced toward Marye’s Heights beneath devastating artillery and rifle fire, marching to the Irish tune “Garryowen” as they moved into one of the deadliest assaults of the war. There, the regiment suffered staggering losses and earned a reputation for extraordinary bravery that would echo long after the smoke had cleared.
Their story endures because it speaks to something permanent in the American character: again and again, the burdens of defending freedom have fallen to ordinary people. To immigrants. To workers. To laborers and the sons of struggling families who asked little for themselves and still gave everything for generations they would never meet.
In the aftermath of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln called upon the living “to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.” Those words still ask something of us today: not only remembrance, but responsibility. To care for one another. To stand together through hardship. To continue building a country worthy of the sacrifices made in its name.
Today, we honor the fallen. May their memory endure.
Happy Memorial Day from the Geddes Solvay Democratic Committee.
