The son of Irish immigrants, Martin Glynn attended public school in Kinderhook and graduated from Fordham University in 1894. While serving in the US Congress (1899-1901), he championed the rights of labor, political reform, and religious tolerance. Glynn was elected lieutenant governor in 1912. He was the 40th Governor of New York from 1913 to 1914, the first Irish American Roman Catholic head of government of what was then the most populated state of the United States.
In 1916, as tension was rising between the British and the Irish, and being felt by Americans, Senator John Sharp Williams of Mississippi "pooh poohed" the Irish contribution to American history, claiming that the "braggart" Irish were claiming accomplishments made by their fellow Americans. Glynn launched a blistering series of articles in the Times Union listing the various Irish who had been involved in the American Revolution. The articles were later gathered and sold as a collection. Professor Carroll will discuss Glynn's fiery defense of the Irish at this sensitive time in British-American-Irish relations.