Suavely presiding over South Boston’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast, State Senator Linda Dorcena Forry, a Haitian-American from Dorchester, redeemed Southie’s gritty honor Sunday.
Dorcena Forry would be the first to say that she didn’t do it alone. South Boston’s political establishment — Rep. Stephen Lynch, former State Sen. Jack Hart, and State Rep. Nick Collins, who last spring lost a fiercely fought special election to Dorcena Forry —worked hand-in-glove to make the breakfast a study in harmony.
It was a hat trick of historic firsts: the first non-South Bostonian presider; the first woman to command the podium; and the first person of color to helm the legendary event.
In the process, Dorcena Forry redefined what it means to be Black Irish.
Even former State Senate President William Bulger joined the collective act of political chivalry by appearing in one of the videos played for the standing room only, sell-out crowd.
Gov. Deval Patrick captured the moment with perfect pitch when he quipped, “This is what a Forry and a Patrick look like these days."
Like many people in the news trade, I take a certain bogus pride in having seen it all. Forty years ago, I cut my teeth serving as a foot soldier among the legions of reporters covering Boston’s violent school desegregation crisis.
To a Dorchester boy like me, that was a disturbing and disillusioning experience. I can’t quite claim to have flashbacked to those troubled times, but I confess to a bolt of raw emotion when Dorcena Forry walked across the stage.
She spoke directly to the audience outside the hall. “For those of you watching at home, do not adjust your television set. There is nothing wrong with the picture on your TV … That’s right, everyone … I’m a woman.”
The laughter that followed camouflaged a complicated story of rebirth and renewal, of a city reimagining its soul, recharting its future. Social redefinition and recalibration is, of course, a never-ending process. The unrecognized elephant in the breakfast hall was the uncomfortable fact that the old-guard organizers of the St. Paddy’s Day parade had dashed hopes that gays and lesbians would be allowed to march.
Mayor Marty Walsh put his back into changing that, ultimately to no avail. But in an odd sort of way, Walsh’s plainspoken and decent efforts fortified the air of good cheer.
The headlines in recent weeks suggested that there is still a rump of reality-denying soreheads at large in Southie. That may be true, but their numbers are small, and dwindle with every passing year.
Dorcena Forry is a face for and of the future. She’s proof that Irish spirit is a matter of soul, not DNA.
