1998 Marks the Centennial of the Consolidation of Greater New York

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Vol.12, 1998 1998 marks the centennial of the consolidation of Greater New York.

In 1874 Westchester County ceded portions of the West Bronx. "The City" annexed the rest of the Bronx in 1895. Brooklyn was city in its own right from 1834, the third largest in the country by 1860. Queens extended east as far as the town of Oyster Bay.


Staten Island was isolated and periodically subject to claims by East Jersey.


In 1898 Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Richmond joined together to become Greater New York City.


Overnight, the population jumped from 2.5 to 3.4 million.


With the stroke of a pen, the number of Irish Americans went from 624,883 in 1890 to 710,235 in 1900. New York became the largest Irish city in the entire world.


And Jersey City just across the Hudson made the metropolitan area one of the most significant nodes in the Irish diaspora.


More than half a million New Yorkers still claim Irish birth or descent.


Photo: Brooklyn Bridge Promenade, digital image by John Cavanagh.


Vol.12, 1998 Vol.12, 1998 GREATER NEW YORR CENTENNIAL Manhattan: Capital Punishment & the New York Irish by Marion R. Casey 35 Brooklyn: On the Streets of Park Slope by William Geoghan 46 At Play in the City by William Geoghan and Frank Naughton 52 Bronx: Between Yankee Stadium & Gaelic Park by Mary Murphy Clogston 54 Pete McNulty's Cousin and What I Hear by Terence Winch 58 Queens: The Irish in the Rockaways by Terrence Flynn, Sr. 60 Richmond: Staten Island Irish by John T. Ridge 65 MICHAEL MeCABE and MICHAEL McGUIRE HOUSES OF THE ROCKAWAYS McN?LFY-FAMILY NIGHTLY TWO DANCE FLOORS TWO BANDS