New York Irish History Roundtable - Journal Articles

Not very long ago Irish American scholars were predicting the demise of the Irish as a significant group in America's ethnic mosaic [Moynihan 1970, Fallows 1979, McCaffrey 1976,1982]. In recent years however, a sharp increase in Irish immigration has revitalized the American Irish community. Since the early 1980s many thousands of Irish people have entered the United States seeking work. Although they enter legally on tourist visas, they stay on illegally to work. In several major American cities, they form part of the army of undocumented... [Read Full Article]

John Mitchel Mitchel A BIOGRAPHY was publisher of the militant United Irishman and its "treasonous" language during the 1848 unrest in Ireland got him transported to Tasmania under a fourteen year sentence. Jenny and their five children joined Mitchel in Van Diemen's Land, where a sixth child was later born. In 1853 the entire family escaped to the United States and set up housekeeping in Brooklyn where other '48 exiles had found refuge. In New York, John Mitchel began to publish The Citizen. NYIHR member Rebecca O'Conner describes the... [Read Full Article]

Irish Natural History in New York The borough of the Bronx is rich in Irish American history, but a treasure of Irish natural history was recently brought to our attention by Timothy O'SuIlivan, Deputy Director of Administrative Services of the New York Zoological Society (The Bronx Zoo). The antlers pictured above were from Megaceros giganteus, the giant Irish elk which became extinct, in Ireland, about 10,000 years ago.

Pat Thomas, also from the New York Zoological Society, provided further information about the elk: "The most... [Read Full Article]

Pick up any newspaper and you'll probably find at least one story about severe weather, the problems facing immigrants, or a recent plane crash or ship wreck. But combine these elements and you have a story of greater proportions. Such an event occurred locally a decade before the famine and more than half a century before my grandparents left County Longford for the streets of New York.

The year was 1836. Two American ships, the Bristol and the bark Mexico, were preparing to set sail from Liverpool. This would be the... [Read Full Article]

Irish American journalism began in New York City December 15th, 1810 with the first issue of "The Shamrock or Hibernian Chronicle." No earlier dated Irish American newspaper has been found in libraries or reported in historical studies. While German. language newspapers were first published in Philadelphia in 1732 and French papers in New Orleans about 1800, The Shamrock became the first immigrant English language newspaper since the founding of the United States in 1789. (The Albion', started in 1822, was a New York British... [Read Full Article]

John Hughes' earliest biographer, a contemporary and a friend, captured well the dual loyalty New York's first Archbishop hoped to inculcate in his ever increasing flock: No one could accuse Bishop Hughes of forgetting the land of his birth; but he wished the naturalized Irishmen of the United States to regard themselves as American citizens - not as exiles; and he depreciated everything that tended to separate them from the rest of the people.. . "Never forget your country," was his advice to the immigrant. . . "But let this love of old... [Read Full Article]

The presence of such a large number of Irish in New York City has so often obscured the visibility of other cities with large Irish communities across America. This has been particularly true of the towns and cities close enough to the metropolis to be considered part of Greater New York. One of New York's nearest neighbors is Jersey City, separated only by a few miles from it and lying directly across the Hudson River. The connections between Jersey City and New York are numerous and unavoidable. Indeed, the origins of Jersey City in 1804... [Read Full Article]

As compared to the many civic disturbances and riots that have occurred throughout the history of the city of New York, the British flag riot in front of the Union Club was a rather minor affair.

However, an examination of this incident that occurred nearly seventy years ago reveals the intensity of the Irish-American community's feelings during the on-going struggle for Irish independence and tells us something about the gulf between the classes in the post World War I period.

The day began with the mourners assembled at East... [Read Full Article]

An Historic Book Is Launched In January 1990, the Irish Institute and the New York Irish History Roundtable announced a joint project to produce a one or two volume history of the Irish in New York City. The book, tentatively titled The New York Irish, will trace the history of the Irish in New York from the seventeenth century to the present through several essays, maps, appendices, and bibliography. The projected date of publication is Spring 1993. A Board of Advisors, comprised of scholars prominent in Irish American and New York City... [Read Full Article]

The "New" Irish, as they call themselves, are generally between 18 and 30, single, high school educated and "illegal". They enter the United States as tourists or temporary workers and overstay their visas.

Working in construction, waiting tables or caring for children and the elderly, the New Irish, as this study of the New York community will show, live day to day. They do not or can not plan for the future. Dissatisfied with opportunities in Ireland and without legal status in the United States, they are nomads... [Read Full Article]