New York Irish History Roundtable - Journal Articles

The New Yo rk area holds several graves of Irish patriots and their families, including some of the prominent participants in the Rising of 1798 - the United Irish movement. The failure of that Rising resulted in many Irish patriots forced into exile with some arriving in the United States. In New York several of these exiles, and their descendants, achieved notable accomplishments and made significant contributions to their new country.

Buried in Green-Wood Cemetery, in what was then the city of Brooklyn, is Matilda Tone ... [Read Full Article]

In late 1921 the first licensed commercial radio stations began operating in the United States. In a few short years, radio as a means to carry entertainment and information exploded across the country as additional stations signed on almost every day until there were thousands in the United States and dozens in New York City and the surrounding suburbs. For the first time, average Americans could purchase receivers for somewhere between $6 and $15, and in one step connect instantaneously with the culture and events going on... [Read Full Article]

Many years ago, I had a class assignment to write a report on a biographical book. When I arrived home with a biography of the renowned human rights campaigner, Roger Casement, my father suggested I call my great aunt, Alice Carragher Comiskey. While this puzzled me, I made the call. Her very emotional initial response to the call was "poor Roger." Roger was the British diplomat of Irish ancestry executed in England for his role in trying to transport German weapons to Ireland for the 1916 Rising. Although I do not... [Read Full Article]

When Father Sylvester Malone died almost at the end of the centurY on December 29, 1899, his death signaled the end of an era not only for the Irish-Catholic community in Williamsburg but also for the entire neighborhood.

A respected figure among all Williamsburg's residents, Father Malone had been an outspoken voice for the many ideals that defined his life. Suddenly that moral voice was gone, and people of all nationalities and faiths realized that a giant had passed from the earth. His hard-won respect among the local... [Read Full Article]

The typical image of nineteenth-century Irish immigration to New York is that of the Famine Irish, who arrived in New York in the mid-1800s in large numbers, many starving and destitute, who worked for low wages and in poor conditions, and who lived in some of the city's most infamous slums. It is these immigrants, Catholic tradi - tion tells us, on whose nickels and dimes the Catholic Church in New York City was built.

However, this narrative leaves out an important piece of the story of Irish Catholic New... [Read Full Article]

Although its streets were often unpaved, never mind coated with gold, nineteenth-century America was fertile ground for entrepreneurs who sometimes provided immigrated adven - turers opportunities to amass great fortunes if they worked hard and had a bit of luck. Most of these immigrants, and their unique stories, are today forgotten. Among them are Patrick Francis Murphy and, later, his son Gerald and daughter Esther. The story of these Murphys, however, opens with that of another Irishman, Henry W. Cross.

Born in Ireland... [Read Full Article]

In the summer of 1902, John Quinn ventured across the broad Atlantic in hopes of becoming personally acquainted with the figures of the Irish Revival. Quinn was an Irish American from Ohio who had made himself an extremely successful corporate lawyer in New York City as well as a generous patron of modern art and literature. After meeting his idols, Quinn was touched with the zeal of an acolyte and immedi - ately set about organizing a New York branch of the Irish Literary Society that had been founded by William... [Read Full Article]

Irish Landmarks in Downtown New York - in 1939, a Columbia University professor named A. J. Reilly wrote a booklet called Irish Landmarks in New York. It was reprinted at least once, but it today remains a scarce collector's item. While Reilly wrote about Irish landmarks, most of those he described had long since disappeared, so his booklet is a bit disappointing. Already in 1939, many of the best things that were significant in Irish New York history were gone.

For over thirty years I have been conducting Irish walking... [Read Full Article]

It was on the 'ever glorious Fourth' that we first struck Ireland via Dublin, and, as the latter was our first stopping place, we naturally called upon Colonel McCaskill, the American Consul." 1 So began an account published in True Witness and Catholic Chronicle written by Major E. J. O'Shaughnessy about a visit to Ireland during a European trip in the summer of 1888. This account, and an interview published at the same time in the Catholic Union and Times served not only as travelogues but as the only known... [Read Full Article]

We remember the achievements of soldiers, politicians and business people, but far too often great teachers and their important educational legacies are soon forgotten. Irish immigrant Thomas Hunter today is in dan - ger of becoming such a forgotten figure, but this great educator's achievements and his monumental contributions to public educa - tion must not be consigned to oblivion. Hunter's many accomplishments include not only becoming the founder of the first free teachers college in the United States, but also the... [Read Full Article]