A lawyer, lobbyist and former U.S. congressman, Bruce Morrison is not an unlikely hero. Since his days as a student organizer at the University of Illinois, where he founded and chaired the Graduate Student Association, to the ground breaking immigration reform he ushered in at the close of his four terms in Congress, he has long held justice for the overlooked as a top priority.
He is, however, an unlikely Irish hero. Morrison was raised as a Lutheran in Northport, Long Island by Dorothea and George Morrison, adopted parents of German and Scots-Irish heritage. He took an interest in chemistry from an early age, graduating from MIT in three years and then pursuing a master’s degree in organic chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
There, his work rallying the graduate student body sparked his interest in social justice, and in a turn of pace he applied and was accepted to Yale Law School, graduating in 1973. The bonds he forged with some of his classmates, including a couple named Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham, would later prove important. He joined the New Haven Legal Assistance Association, which specialized in providing legal aid to New Haven’s poor, and quickly rose to become its executive director in 1976.
Morrison entered politics in 1982, winning the Democratic primary and a grass roots campaign to represent Connecticut’s third congressional district. His eight years in the House of Representatives were marked by a fierce dedication to domestic social issues and international human rights. In addition to serving on the House Banking Committee, House Judiciary Committee and the Committee on Children, Youth and Families, he fought hard to improve housing conditions and opportunities for the poor, becoming an expert in the field. His human rights involvement took him to Cuba, Chile, South Africa, Nicaragua and Northern Ireland.
Morrison was introduced to the Irish cause in 1983, during his Freshman term in congress. He initially joined the Friends of Ireland, a group that at the time included Tip O’Neill and Ted Kennedy, but after two years he accepted the invitation of Richard Lawlor, then vice-chairman of Irish Northern Aid (Noraid), to join the Ad Hoc Committee on Irish Affairs. In 1887, he took that first trip to Ireland, visiting Dublin and Belfast. He met with Irish and British officials, and with Sinn Féin’s leader Gerry Adams – with whom, at that point, the American government still refused to communicate. His commitment, which would prove crucial to the ceasefire and peace process, was solidified.
