Dick Dowling Statue Ceremony, March 15
The 2015 Dick Dowling Statue Ceremony will be held this year on Sunday, March 15, at 1 p.m., on the esplanade at the intersection of Cambridge Street and McGregor Drive (near the Houston Zoo and the Texas Medical Center). This year’s keynote address, “How the Irish Became American: The Civil War and the Struggle for Irish Acceptance,” will be given by Brady Hutchison, faculty in the History Department of San Jacinto College.
I had the privilege of giving the keynote address at this event last year, and was impressed by the dedication and warmth of everyone I met. They’re some good people.
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Dead Confederates, A Civil War Era Blog 
That is a great tradition and a much better way to honor the past than waving battle flags from the sidewalk.
Do you know of any similar triditions or activities?
This is why I love your blog so much!
This particular monument has always been as much or more about celebrating Irish identity as Confederate identity. It was originally co-sponsored by the Order of Hibernians, and later generations of Irish immigrants have taken up the mantle, who have no familial connection to the war. Note that the event is held in conjunction with St. Patrick’s Day, rather than on the anniversary of the battle in September.
Dowling was a well-known, up-and-coming local merchant, and an organizer of one of the early volunteer fire brigades here. He died young of yellow fever, but had he lived there’s every indication that he would have played a big role in Houston’s development through the end of the century.
I see now.
I still love the tridition.
Any idea whether Dick Dowling was related to Robert Dowling, Confederate commercial agent in Ireland? According to Robert W. Young’s “Senator James Murray Mason: Defender of the Old South” (Univ. of Tenn. Press, Knoxville, 1998), p. 160, Robert Dowling was asked by Mason to look into Federal recruiting efforts in the Emerald Isle. Young cites ORN, ser. 2, vol. 2:426, Mason to Dowling, June 8, 1863.
Good question. I don’t know.
I pulled out Michael Dan Jones’ biography of Dick Dowling, and there’s no mention of Robert Dowling. Dick and his sister immigrated to New Orleans while they were kids, and their parents, Pat and Bridget, came a few years following. Robert Dowling may be related, but I don’t think closely.
Thanks, Andy. It seemed a somewhat unusual surname.