By Mike Houlihan
August 31st, 2025
My big brother Paul died last August, just shy of his 89th birthday. He was the oldest of my five brothers, all of them now dead. It’s just me and my sister Mary now, and God love her, it just ain’t the same.
No more brothers in my life. I am the youngest of the six Houlihan brothers.
I miss them, that’s for sure.
Even though they would kick my ass regularly for my first twenty years, once we could drink together, all bets were off. Now I’m an old man.
Having five big brothers who had my back was something I got used to. They were all unique in their own ways, but I knew I could pick up the phone and reach out to them for help whenever things would get a little too intense, financially, romantically, or even politically, they got it.
My brother John, aka Bobo, was the funniest. He started his career in journalism as editor for a chain of tabloid newspapers with headlines like “Woman Gives Birth to Frog”, and worse! Johnny married a gal whose father owned a liquor store in Milwaukee and settled down in Wisconsin.
“Bobo” eventually opened a saloon, “Mike Houlihan’s” in a shopping center there and then got sued by the “Houlihan’s” chain, which has no connection whatsoever to our family name or even Ireland for that matter. Those wankers!
Brother Willy, a former Board of Trade hustler and lothario loved to gamble and chase broads, and who could blame him? I used to talk to him on the phone EVERY day.
Brother Brian changed his name from Tom and was a stand-up comic in NY and LA and total wacko who finally, sadly just cracked up mentally. Poor soul died in a nursing home.
Brother Dan was my clout, former State Rep, zoning attorney and my first phone call from the police stations when I was a teenage delinquent. I could count on him.
And then last year my oldest big brother Paul died. We used to call him King Sized Paul, cuz he was 6’5” and worked for my old man in the electronics industry forever.
He was living at Smith Village when he died, I remember visiting him for lunch one day and two very attractive nurses stopped by to chat and I told them, “Paul likes to be spanked!” and he exploded “shut up you little” …and then unleased a stream of profanity that made the nurses blush and exit! He would have punched me in the head if his wheelchair wasn’t in the way.
Of course he was right, but it brought us back to being brothers again if only for that one wise-ass moment of mine.
They’re all in heaven now, I’m convinced. Mostly thanks to the prayers of my late sainted mom and dad.
I remember reading about the Chicago Fire Department, and their 1980 strike triggered by Mayor Jane Byrne and the strikers called themselves the “Brotherhood of the Barrell”.
Seems like hard times is when brothers come together for the good of the family.
As the founder of Hibernian Media NFP since 2013, promoting Irish and Irish American culture I’ve recently reached out to another band of brothers and we’ve formed our own Irish American Labor Alliance. We’re dedicated to telling the story of the Irish American Labor Movement as well as our Irish roots.
Unions are all about looking out for the rest of our families as we work together to protect and feed those closest to our hearts.
An Irishman named PJ McGuire is known as the “father of Labor Day” for his work organizing the Carpenters union back in Chicago in 1881.
This Labor Day I want to celebrate Irish labor leaders Jim Coyne of Plumber’s Union Local 130, Jim Sweeney of Local 150 International Union of Operating Engineers and Kevin McLaughlin of the Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council. All three have recently joined the Hibernian Media Board of Directors and have helped us launch our upcoming 11th Annual Irish American Movie Hooley film festival, ‘the only Irish American film festival in the world.”, returning to the Wilmette Théâtre Sept. 26-27-28.
I’m thrilled to know they have my back, just like my brothers did. We’re screening three terrific films, two from Ireland and our third film FIRE DEPARTMENT INC. tells the story of a union busting mayor in North Riverside who tried to crush their Firefighters Union.Please join us that weekend and bring your brothers! Happy Labor Day!
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Known around town as “Houli,” he is former features columnist for The Chicago Sun-Times, Irish American News and currently Chicago correspondent for The Irish Echo. He began his career in 1973 as an apprentice with The American Shakespeare Festival, appearing in the classics there and in regional productions across the nation as well as Off-Broadway, on Broadway, on TV and in major motion pictures. He is a playwright and author of anthologies “Hooliganism Stories” and “More Hooliganism Stories” and the gonzo Mayoral campaign journal “Nothin’s on The Square”. Founder of the Annual Irish American Movie Hooley film festival each Fall at The Wilmette Theatre. He was honored as 2020/2021 “Irishman of the Year” by the Emerald Society, the Irish American Police Association. His Hibernian Radio Hour podcast can be found at hibernianradio.org and streaming worldwide on Sat. nights from 7-8PM on Global Irish Radio, GIR.ie.
His latest book ” Chicago Irish Mythology” is available on Amazon and wherever else you buy your books.
Even more info about Houli is available here, on his latest adventures: hibernianmedia.org
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