The midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy celebrated early in London with their Dad, Springfield Police Lt. Maurice "Mossy" Kearney.
Springfield Police Lt. Maurice T. Kearney helped his twin sons, Conor, left, and Liam, right, mark their St. Patrick's Day 2011 birthday in London. SPRINGFIELD – To keep up a family tradition, Springfield Police Lt. Maurice “Mossy” Kearney boarded a plane for London last week to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with his sons.
It was a double celebration, actually.
In a bit of Irish family planning, the boys – Conor and Liam, both midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy – were born four weeks early, on March 17, 1991. Their sudden arrival forced cancellation of the family’s annual St. Patrick’s Day get-together in Wilbraham.
With the twins on board, all subsequent March 17s have been party days of obligation at the Kearneys’, bringing three generations together for mutton pies, Guinness beer and a supersized birthday cake decorated with shamrocks, leprechauns and a lucky rainbow.
“St. Patrick’s Day was always a big day for us,” said Kearney, who hosted all the parties with his wife, Susan Wilkie Kearney.
“But the birth of the twins definitely took things up a notch,” he said.
Considering their first child, Meredith, was born on March 11, 1989, the Kearneys fell just six days short of a St. Patrick’s Day trifecta.
As a Hungry Hill native and son of an Irish fisherman, Kearney, 56, had no shortage of reasons to celebrate his heritage.
His father, Maurice, was born on Great Blasket Island and served as an officer in the British Merchant Marines during World War II before making his way to Springfield in 1949.
His father-in-law, Joe Wilkie, hailed from a seafaring family in Rockland, Maine, and served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, participating in the D-Day invasion in Normandy.
Growing up landlocked in Hungry Hill, Kearney showed little interest in the sea, preferring toy guns, bikes and games of cops and robbers. A standout hockey player at Cathedral High School, Kearney joined the police department in 1977, and met his wife Susan while she attended Elms College.
As for his contribution to the family’s nautical heritage, Kearney said, “I went deep-sea fishing a few times. That was about it.”
His children, however, felt the pull of the water, thanks to stories from their grandfathers. Meredith is a rower at the University of Massachusetts, and Liam set his sights on the Naval Academy in high school.
After graduating from Minnechaug Regional High School, the twins split up, with Liam off to Annapolis and Conor, recruited to play lacrosse, heading for Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
For the first time, they missed each other – and Liam, unable to get leave from Annapolis, missed his birthday party, too.
The separation didn’t last long, however.
While visiting his brother, Conor was struck by the discipline and camaraderie at Annapolis; despite the appeal of life in Saratoga Springs, he enlisted at the end of freshman year, giving the family two Navy men again.
Nobody was more pleased than their father.
“They say there is something about the sea that gets in your blood,” Kearney said last week. “Maybe it was in their blood, from their grandfathers.”
“They (the grandfathers) never lived to see them go into the Navy, but I’m sure they would have been very proud,” he added.
The family’s other tradition – the St. Patrick’s Day party – is holding up, too, although the venue shifted this year to London, where the twins are vacationing with a Navy classmate, Chris Sardroni, and Chris Hill, a family friend.
Their father arrived last Saturday; the group’s itinerary was flexible enough to include trips to Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Scotland Yard and a sampling of a local pubs.
The celebration was a bit premature – Kearney had to be back in Springfield by March 16 – but it didn’t matter. The tradition was maintained.
“St. Patrick’s Day has always been a fun day to have your birthday on,” said Liam Kearney.
“To be able to celebrate it with my father in London is a great thing,” he said.
