The Boston Globe - 05.08.2019

MONDAY, AUGUST 5, 2019 The Boston Globe Region/Nation A

I never got a chance to meet his
grandfather and Paul never got
to meet my dad,” she said.
“Because those are the two men
who shaped our lives so much.”
Paul and Courtney lived in
Ireland from 2002 until 2006,
when they separated. They
passed on their love of Ireland
to their daughter, who spenta
lot of time there.
Jim Sheridan’s great film,
“In the Name of the Father,”
based on the Guildford Four
case, was a critical and
commercial success. The film’s
protagonist was not Paul but
Gerry Conlon, Paul’s old friend
from Belfast who, tragically,
died five years ago, at age 60.
Paul was devastated by
Gerry’s death. Gerry suffered
from terrible post-traumatic
stress but had finally found
some peace after tumultuous
years of drinking and drugging.
And then Gerry was dead.
Gone. Just like that. In an
instant.
Paul sent me some e-mails
after readinga columnI wrote
about Gerry. Paul desperately
wanted Gerry to have more
time as a free man, because
Paul knew what it was like to
be wrongfully denied your
freedom. Paul knew what
freedom smelled like, what it
tasted like, and to Paul,
freedom was the compensation
that mattered most to the
innocent men and women who
were framed in the Guildford
Four and Birmingham Six
cases.
Freedom, what it means,
what it carries, was so
important to Paul and
Courtney that they named their
daughter Saoirse. Their
marriage didn’t last. But their
loving legacy was Saoirse, the
beautiful child whose name
means freedom.
Like so many in her family,
Saoirse Kennedy Hill was born
to privilege, but also pain. She
wrote movingly about mental
illness, about her struggles with
depression, when she was a
student at Deerfield — at an
age when it’s hard enough
worrying about peers and
dating and clothes and
popularity and things that are
so pointless compared to being
present and settled and
content.
She knew pain and she
knew stigma and pushed back
against both.For such a young
person, she wrote with great
insight and empathy.
“People talk about cancer
freely,” she wrote when she was
at Deerfield, “Why is it so
difficult to discuss the effects of
depression, bi-polar, anxiety or
schizophrenic disorders? Just
because the illness may not be
outwardly visible doesn’t mean
the person suffering fromit
isn’t struggling.”
Saoirse’s struggle ended
Thursday, one month before
she was to return to Boston
College for her senior year. I
found an e-mail she sent me
last year, after her dad asked
me to get her into a panel
discussion on Ireland that I
was moderating at Boston
College. She sent me a sweet
note, apologizing for not being
able to make the event because
she had classes.
Saoirse signed off by
writing, “I hope to meet you
one day.”
I had hoped so, too. But it
didn’t happen.
And so I sit here, feeling
horribly sad for Saoirse and her
family — for all the people
whom Saoirse would have
helped had she lived. And I’m
remembering the photoPaul
pulled out so proudly, that
picture of a smiling, gorgeous
baby girl, her whole life ahead
of her. Paul was beaming and
going on and on about Saoirse
and freedom,freedom and
Saoirse.
And in my head, I hear Janis
Joplin, before heroin robbed us
of her, singing that sad but
terribly true refrain, “Freedom’s
just another word for nothing
left to lose.”

Kevin Cullenis a Globe
columnist. Hecan be reached at
[email protected]. Followhim
on Twitter @GlobeCullen.

Continuedfromprecedingpage

For Hill,

Kennedy,

enduring

agony

BySophia Tareen

ASSOCIATEDPRESS

CHICAGO — Whenword

spread that the Obama Presi-

dential Center was comingto

the lakefront park that Tara

Madisonhas watchedthrough

her apartment windows for a

decade, she was elated at the

idea of a gleaming facility hon-

oring the presidentshe sup-

ported and reviving rough sec-

tionsof her neighborhood.

Then the 52-year-oldsocial

servicesworker and daughter

of civil rights activists began to

worry that luxury condos might

replacesubsidized housing, in-

cluding where she lives with

her two children and two

grandchildren, and she’d be

forced to move.

‘‘Because our area has be-

come attractive to developers

now, they’ll countus out,’’ she

said.

Her sentiments represent a

tangled conflict that has un-

folded since Barack Obama an-

nounced that his $500million

presidential center would be

built in Jackson Park, near Lake

Michigan and where he started

his political career, taught law,

andgotmarried:Couldtheleg-

acy library of the nation’s first

blackpresident propelthe dis-

placementof thousands of low-

incomeblack familiesrightin

his backyard?

Withconstruction looming

and signs the neighborhoodis

already changing, residentsare

fiercely seekingsafeguardsfor

the place they also call home.

The clash was the catalyst for

one activist to become an alder-

woman and led to botha ballot

question gauging support and a

resident-protections ordinance

that could see a City Council

vote withinweeks, thoughits

chances of succeeding are un-

certain.

Fear of gentrification — and

the racial disparities that often

comewithit — has existed for

decades in Woodlawn and oth-

er South SideChicago neigh-

borhoodsslowto recover from

the recession.Woodlawn, 10

miles fromdowntown and just

steps from Jackson Park, is over

80% black, with nearly 40% of

its 25,000 residents living be-

low the poverty line, according

to Chicago demographerRob

Paral. But there’s spillover from

neighboring Hyde Park, home

to the private University of Chi-

cago, where only 30% of the res-

idents are black and 23%are

poor.

It wasn’t too surprising

when the ObamaFoundation

chosethe area in 2016. Obama

still has ties to it, including his

family maintaining a home

there.Chicago beat out several

citiesincludingHonolulu,

whereObamaspenthis early

years.

‘‘The best things that have

happened to me in my life, hap-

penedin this community. Al-

thoughwe had a formalbid-

dingprocessto determine

where the presidentiallibrary

was going to be, the fact of the

matter was it had to be right

here on the South Side of Chica-

go,’’ Obamatolda crowdin

2016.

The centeras proposed will

display presidentialartifacts

and have walking paths, a pub-

lic library branch, and a record-

ing studio.Unlike the other 13

presidential libraries, Obama’s

will be the first fully digital one,

with patrons able to accessmil-

lionsofe-mails,photos,and

videos fromkiosks.

While Obama has touted the

center as a youth leadership

hub that will attract new busi-

nesses, some residents fear a re-

surgencethat would pushout

longtime residents.

Chicago ranks third among

the nation’s largest cities, after

New York and Los Angeles, for

most neighborhoodsthat have

gentrified, though it hasn’t seen

as intenseof a wave as other

places, accordingto a National

Community ReinvestmentCo-

alition study this year.

Otherpresidentiallibraries

in urban settings have faced re-

sistance. Protesters tried to stop

the city of Atlanta from paving

a road through a public parkto

formerpresidentJimmy Cart-

er’s library, which openedin

1986.

Yet the Obama library is

dealingwithits own issues

aroundrace and poverty. A

study by neighborhood activists

estimated that up to 4,500fam-

ilieswould be at risk of dis-

placement withdevelopment

around the center.

Somegroupshave demand-

ed a community benefits agree-

mentto protect residents. At a

meeting the ObamaFounda-

tion held in September 2017,

then-activist Jeannette Taylor

asked if Obama wouldsign

such an agreement.

Obama, via video, said as a

former community organizer in

Chicago he understood the con-

cerns. But he didn’t think a pact

was necessary since the founda-

tion, whichis raisingfundsand

overseeing construction, is a

nonprofit.

‘‘The reason we want to do it

[is] because this is the commu-

nity we care about,’’ Obama

said.

Activists, in protest, tried to

prevent him from talking fur-

ther.

‘‘He forgot the peoplewho

got him into office,’’ Taylor said.

His responseleft her heart-

broken, she said,and she used

it to fuel her City Councilrun.

She was elected earlierthis

year.

The sameelection featured a

nonbindingballot question

spurred by activists asking vot-

ers fromthe areas affected by

the center if they would support

a community benefits agree-

ment. Voters said yes over-

whelmingly.

Gentrification a worry near Obama library site

SOPHIATAREEN/ASSOCIATEDPRESS

Tara Madisonworriesthat luxury condosmightreplace

subsidizedhousingin theareaneartheObamalibrary.

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