The man with Donegal parentage who forced Charlie Chaplin to quit life in the USA

When Patrick McGrenra of Barnes and his wife Bridget Gallagher from Fawns, in the parish of Termon, fled the familiar poverty of their whitewashed cottage for America, little did they guess that their son James Patrick McGrenra would make it all the way to the White House. 

Not only that, McGrenra would go on to play a leading role in one of the most colourful events in American legal history, involving English comic genius Charlie Chaplin's fall from grace − perhaps the most dramatic ever descent in stardom. 

James Patrick McGrenra was welcomed into this world on July 8, 1895. Being devout and practical parents they sent him to the parochial school, but he quit classes to take up employment in a Philadelphia print shop. When the United States entered the fray of World War One, James immediately enlisted, serving as an observation pilot and adjutant with the 111th Infantry. 

At the end of hostilities, he returned home with a new-found view of the world and a strong will to further his education. Graduating from law school, James built up a successful practice and became active in local politics. In due course, McGrenra was elected to Congress in 1936, standing under the Democrat banner in Pennsylvania, a seat he held for four terms.  

His talents and loyalty did not go unnoticed, and President Franklin D Roosevelt created a position for James in the Justice Department. Judge McGrenra quickly established a reputation as a formidable enforcer, a trait very much admired by President Truman who, in the spring of 1952, confirmed James Patrick McGrenra as Attorney General – the top law post in the United States of America – an occasion joyfully celebrated by his relatives back in Termon. 

While McGrenra’s career was progressing, Charlie Chaplin had risen to fame during the era of the silent screen, an international icon encompassing both adulation and controversy. 

Like McGrenra’s parents in Termon, Chaplin's childhood in London was one of prevalent poverty and hardship, and he was sent to ‘The Workhouse’ twice before the age of nine. Furthermore, when he was fourteen, his mother was committed to a mental asylum. 

Despite these early adversities, Chaplin embarked on a career touring music halls as a gifted, young actor and comedian. Soon his obvious talent was spotted by the growing American film industry. With a dogged determination to succeed, Chaplin continued to hone his stagecraft and in time developed his legendary film persona ‘The Tramp’. 

Chaplin then co-founded distribution company United Artists giving him complete directorship of his productions. He initially refused to make films with dialogue and it wasn’t until 1940 that he released his first ‘talkie’ The Great Dictator − a political satire of Hitler.

However, Chaplin’s political opinions were in stark contrast to McGrenra’s. In time his surname would evolve to McGranery, and his political pursuits triggered incendiary issues with wary American authorities during World War II, particularly when he campaigned for the opening of a second front to aid the Soviet Union’s battle against Nazi Germany. Chaplin also attended functions given by Soviet diplomats in Los Angeles.

Such activities meant Chaplin was considered "dangerously progressive and amoral". As Cold War fears grew, the FBI launched an official investigation and he was accused of communist sympathies while questions were raised over his failure to take up American citizenship. 

Charlie Chaplin denied being a communist. Instead, he labelled himself a "peace-monger", but felt the USA government's effort to suppress the ideology was an unacceptable infringement of civil liberties. Unwilling to be silenced, he continued to vocalise his views.

In June 1947, as public sentiment began to frown down upon the artiste, Democrat politician, John E Rankin, a leading spokesman for the House of Un-American Activities Committee, castigated Chaplin in Congress saying: "Chaplin’s very life in Hollywood is detrimental to the moral fabric of America. He should be deported and gotten rid of at once, and his loathsome pictures be kept from the eyes of the American youth." 

Although his next movie, Limelight was devoid of political themes, Chaplin decided to hold the world premiere in London, it being the setting of the film. So on 18th September, 1952, at New York, he boarded the Queen Elizabeth with his family and set sail for England.

The very next day, James McGranery, exerting his influence as United States Attorney General, revoked Chaplin's re-entry permit. The decision was taken that he would have to submit to an interview concerning his political views and moral behaviour to re-enter the USA. 

McGranery told the American media he had "a pretty good case against Chaplin". However, on the basis of FBI files released in the 1980s, the US Government had no real evidence to prevent the performer’s re-entry. Still, when Chaplin received the telegram informing him of McGranery’s ruling, he quietly and privately decided to cut all connections with the United States. 

He later divulged: “Whether I re-entered that unhappy country or not was of little consequence to me. I would like to have told them the sooner I was rid of that hate-beleaguered atmosphere the better. I was fed up of America's insults and moral pomposity.”

Settling in Switzerland with his wife and family, Chaplin put his Beverly Hills house and Hollywood film studio up for sale, severing the last of his ties with the United States in 1955.

Charlie Chaplin remained a controversial figure throughout the 1950s, especially after he was awarded the International Peace Prize by the communist-led World Peace Council, and his meetings with Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev. 

However, during the evening of his life, the political atmosphere began to change and in 1972, Chaplin returned to the United States for the first time in 20 years. At the Academy Awards gala, he received a rapturous reception and a 12-minute standing ovation, the longest in the Academy's history for "the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century".

In the early morning of Christmas Day 1977, Charlie Chaplin died at home after suffering a stroke in his sleep. He was 88 years old, leaving more than 100 million dollars to his widow.

Ironically, after James Patrick McGranery quit public office, he famously commented: “I wouldn’t do it again for 100 million dollars, but on the other hand, I wouldn’t have missed it for twice that much!”