New York Irish History Roundtable - Journal Articles

When the exhibit I Heard They Went to New York opened in Ireland in April, 2008 at the County Museum in Monaghan Town, it was crowded with local people and American tourists looking for familiar faces in restored photos and news clippings. The exhibit focused on the history of the Monaghan Society in New York City. Souvenirs of the Society, displayed as part of the exhibit, had been stuffed long ago into American attics by those who had left the old land behind. These mementos now revealed forgotten images of county traditions... [Read Full Article]

I met Donal O'Callaghan for the first time in the summer of 1955 when he had just been elected the provincial of the New York Province of the Carmelites. All of us professed students of the Province were at summer school at St. Bonaventure University, and the new provincial flew up to see personally his students, the future of his reign. I was in my first profession of vows, and the next time I saw Father Donal was when he received my final vows later that summer.

The thesis for my master's degree was on John... [Read Full Article]

The neighborhood of Highbridge lies in the Bronx, bounded by West 172nd Street to the north, Jerome Avenue to the east, the Harlem River to the west, and West 161st Street to the south or "...the distance from which one can hear the [Yankee] stadium crowd roar." 1 It was first settled in the 1840s as the village of Highbridgeville, and among its earliest residents were many Irish immigrants working on the Croton Aqueduct, which crosses the Hudson River at this juncture. The Irish presence in the neighborhood... [Read Full Article]

In 1940 the Christian Brothers, in founding Iona College in New Rochelle, New York, used the name of a small isle in the Inner Hebrides off the west coast of Scotland and placed the new college under the patronage of the Irish monk, St. Columba. Columba, the "magnificent Gael," an apt name given to the Saint by Reginald Hale, had founded in 563 A.D. on the isle of Iona a monastery school - a spiritual, cultural and educational center designed to christianize and educate the area's inhabitants. This was... [Read Full Article]

Some years ago, I was browsing through an Irish Echo article containing a schedule of classes on genealogy. They were to be given by Maryellen McGarry, a longtime Roundtable member and an officer. I signed up for the genealogy classes, and also an introduction to Irish language course. Sticking with genealogy was fine - but the language course had a dropout. Maryellen gave many good sources for tracing family lineage. As classes were ending, it looked like everything was going to be do-able for my search. Then someone ... [Read Full Article]

The image of coffin ships and harrowing voyages stretching over many weeks was long planted in the minds of Irish immigrants in the nineteenth century. For most of them emigration was a one way trip. Few even considered the possibility of a visit home to the old country. It was not just a question of fear of a six weeks or more voyage taken at the mercy of the wind in sailing ships - and suffering crowded and unhealthy conditions. For many there was no chance to leave their employment for long periods of time, which made the... [Read Full Article]

In the autumn of 1643, the French missionary Isaac Jogues landed at New Amsterdam following a six-day journey down the North (Hudson) River. He came almost straight from Hell-almost only because he had spent an intervening month and a half under the protection of the commandant at Fort Orange (Albany), 142 miles upstream. Father Jogues and twenty-two French and Huron companions had been captured the preceding year by a Mohawk Iroquois war party. Badly beaten and horribly mutilated, they were staked to the ground with hot coals thrown on... [Read Full Article]

Photo: A group photo of the Highbridge Division S All-Accordion Band taken at Hibernian Hall 01 Ogden Avenue in the Bronx, ca. 1956. Front Row (I. to r.): John Brown, Felix Dolan, Mike Carty, John Keane, Jesse Winch, Barbara Smith, P. Nolan, Terry Winch. Middle Row: Sean McMahon, Florence Talty, Joe Fox, Bill Tobin, Arthur McDonnell, Mary Loftus, Jimmy Geraghty, Jack Fitzgerald (by flag), unknown. Back Row: unknown, Owen Martin, Philomena Regan, Bernie Walsh, Pat Trainor, Mary Mackessey, unknown, Walter Walsh, Marty Halpin, P. J. Conway,... [Read Full Article]

The woman dared to come in upon that painted scene as if it really was the home apartment it was represented to be! She did not slide in with her face to the audience and wait for the mockery that is called 'a reception.'

She walked in easily, naturally, unwitting of any outside eyes. The petulant manner in which she took off her shawl; the commonplace conversational tone in which she spoke to her servant, were revelations...Here was a daring reality...We felt ourselves in the presence of an inspired woman!1 O'Brien continues his... [Read Full Article]

Bernard S. Keogan was born in Brooklyn in 1904 and century. The memories are presented here mostly as he wrote them; l have made only a few minor editorial changes. My father's recollections of his parents' personalities and day-to-day activities present the experiences of a particular immigrant familycoming to America, working, raising a family, and persevering in the face of death. When interweaved with other such narratives, such as those available in the Glucksman Ireland House Oral History My father writes that Julia and her... [Read Full Article]