When he came to Chicago from Ireland in 1998 and opened the Irish Oak pub on Clark Street near Wrigley Field, Billy Lawless encountered something unexpected.
Dozens of his countrymen came to the pub and shared similar stories: they’d overstayed their visas but wanted to remain in the United States.
Sympathy and another pour would be common responses from your average pub owner.
Mr. Lawless wasn’t your average pub owner.
He already had an outsized reputation as a successful pub and restaurant owner in his native Galway.
One of the main reasons he came to the United States at age 48 was to fulfill a dream that took hold when, as a boy, he caught a glimpse of President John F. Kennedy when Kennedy visited Ireland in 1963.
(The fact that one of his daughters was headed to an East Coast college to row also helped make up his mind that it was time to make the move.)
Mr. Lawless poured himself into advocating for immigration reform as he realized the scope of the problem for thousands of Irish in Chicago and countless others from around the world who were part of the broader immigration crisis in the U.S.
He was a co-founder of Chicago Celts for Immigration Reform.
He became a leader in the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and helped successfully lobby for a bill in Illinois that made drivers licenses available to immigrants living here without legal permission.
He was also at the forefront of the Illinois Business Immigration Coalition, which had success in recruiting business leaders to help persuade Republican politicians in particular to support immigration reform.
Mr. Lawless, 73, died Nov. 8 at Northwestern Memorial Hospital from cardiac amyloidosis and kidney failure. He was 73.
His allies knew not to underestimate the influence of Mr. Lawless’ passionate Irish brogue in getting the attention of lawmakers in both Springfield and Washington, where many saw the immigration issue as solely a Hispanic problem — and therefore not theirs.
The family business
He also became a force in Chicago’s hospitality industry with the key help of his wife, Anne, and four children — Amy, Clodagh, Billy Jr. and John Paul.
In 2007 he opened The Gage on Michigan Avenue and later added Acanto Restaurant & Wine Bar, Coda Di Volpe and The Dawson to form Gage Hospitality Group, now run by his namesake son.
Amy and Clodagh own the Dearborn restaurant in Block 37. Their brother John Paul is a host there.
Mr. Lawless introduced President Barack Obama in 2014 at the Copernicus Center on the Northwest Side before Obama spoke on immigration reform.
When he fielded the request from a White House staffer asking him to introduce the president, Mr. Lawless initially thought it was a friend “having a craic” (Irish slang for a good time) before realizing it was real.
Mr. Lawless was a regular guest at White House St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.
In 2016, Enda Kenny, then Ireland’s taoiseach, or prime minister, appointed Mr. Lawless to a four-year term in the Seanad, the Irish senate, representing the Irish diaspora. He was the first senator based overseas.
Mr. Lawless came to the U.S. on a visa reserved for entrepreneurs promising to make an investment employing at least 10 people. But it doesn’t allow for becoming a citizen. Not until his son married a U.S. citizen, then became a citizen himself and sponsored mom and dad did Mr. Lawless reach that goal.
“The whole system is crazy. It needs to be totally revamped,” Mr. Lawless, who lived in a condo in the South Loop, told the Sun-Times in 2014.
“He didn’t get immigration reform accomplished but did a lot to influence the narrative of immigration and advocated for all immigrants,” said Fiona McEntee, a friend and immigration attorney who worked with Mr. Lawless.
A son of Galway
Mr. Lawless, born Dec. 24, 1950, to Ellen and Thomas Lawless, grew up on a dairy farm in Galway.
An accomplished rower, Mr. Lawless was set to represent Ireland in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal until the need to care for his ailing father prevented him from competing.
He sold the family farm at age 27 to fund his entry into the hospitality industry.
“He instilled a very strong work ethic in us,” said daughter Clodagh Lawless. “He’d always tell us, ‘When I was 7 years old I was up at six o’clock milking the cows’ and then he’d tell the story again and he’d be up at five o’clock in the morning, and it was like ‘Dad, if you keep telling this story, you won’t have gone to bed at all,'” she said.
Condolences were shared from the top level of the Irish government, including by current Taoiseach Simon Harris, who called him “a gentleman to his core.”
“He did his work with diligence and great pride; he was great company, and he was an extremely kind man,” Harris added.
In recent years, Mr. Lawless spent most of his time at a home he kept in Galway.
“He had the gift of gab, and he had all the stories to tell,” said Nuala Kavanagh, who worked with Mr. Lawless on the Chicago Galway sister cities committee.
“We’re absolutely gutted about his death. Billy would always be willing to say yes if anyone reached out for help. He leaves the world a better place behind him,” she said.
“He was just bigger than life and he had the biggest heart of almost anyone I know and he made everyone feel as though they were important,” said Gabrielle Buckley, a friend and attorney who heads up Loyola University Chicago’s Gannon Center for Women and Leadership.
In addition to his wife and four children, Mr. Lawless is survived by eight grandchildren.
Visitation will be Wednesday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. and Thursday from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. at St. Joseph Catholic Church, 1107 N. Orleans St. A funeral Mass will be at 11 a.m. Thursday.