New York Irish History Roundtable

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Coney Island Feis 1935 - Irish Dance and Musical Competitors Although Coney Island was never as popular as the Rockaways with Irish visitors, the resort had its share of Irish-oriented amusements like the ride "Rocky Road to Dublin" and a number of restaurants with singing waiters belting out Irish melodies. New York's most famous summer time gathering place was much more international in character, but. nevertheless, Irish societies occasionally held group excursions to the ...area, particularly to Steeplechase Park, whose owners, the Tilyou Family, were partly of Irish descent. In 1935, the largest musical, dancing and singing gathering of the New York Irish, the United Irish Counties Feis, shifted for a few years to a Coney Island location. Hundreds of mostly young competitors contested for trophies and medals before a panel of judges skilled in the intricacies of Irish cultural performance. Disappointed with the relatively small crowds the Coney Island location attracted, the organizers moved the annual event to Fordham University where it prospered for many years into the 1960s. The New York Irish History Roundtable, a non-profit society dedicated to the history of the Irish in greater New York, welcomes those who share our interests. Please see our Facebook page and website, irishnyhistory.org for information on how you can become a member. NY Irish History Roundtable P.O Box 2087 Church Street Station, NY 10008-2087 JTR

First Feis (Irish Dance and Cultural Gathering) of the Gaelic League 1912 Celtic Park, Queens The old dances, music and story-telling traditions of Ireland were revived in the open air at Celtic Park in Long Island City, Queens in 1912 by the Gaelic League. The organization was at the forefront of a revival of the more traditional forms of Irish culture that centered greatly on encouraging the use of the Irish language in Ireland and abroad. The New York branch is generally c...redited with introducing the first outdoor competitions that brought Irish cultural enthusiasts together from all over the New York metropolitan area and beyond. Delegates from the Gaelic League in Ireland included Father Michael O'Flanagan, an uncompromising Irish cultural revivalist and nationalist leader whose frequent lecture tours to America helped bolster American support for Irish militants for over 30 years. Two hundred competitors, like the uillean piper and Titanic survivor Owen O'Daly, competed for prizes that included $5 gold pieces. An unusual guest at the all-day event was Shane Leslie, an Irish aristocrat and moderate nationalist who was a first cousin of Winston Churchill. Many of the performers, such as the four ladies dressed in ancient Irish costume in the photo, were active members of the Gaelic League. The New York Irish History Roundtable, a non-profit society dedicated to the history of the Irish in greater New York, welcomes those who share our interests. Please see our Facebook page and website, irishnyhistory.org for information on how you can become a member. NY Irish History Roundtable P.O Box 2087 Church Street Station, NY 10008-2087 JTR

Irish Music and Dance 1935 With so many of the world's best Irish musicians having emigrated to New York, classes in traditional Irish dance began to spring up around New York City. In 1935, young members of the Burke Family of Flatbush, Brooklyn practiced a reel for an upcoming neighborhood performance. Competitions in Irish dance began in the city after World War I and were organized by the Gaelic language societies. Join us on November 9 for an entertaining and informative lecture on "Irish New York and Its Songs and Music" at 2:00 at 263 Mulberry Street -- Old St. Patrick's Cathedral Parish House, the McCloskey Room. Lecturer: Dan Milner. Discussant: Robert W. Snyder. Suggested donation: $5.

On Saturday, November 9, author and singer Dan Milner will join us for an entertaining and revealing presentation focusing on the integration of Irish people into the mainstream of New York City life during the hundred years following 1783 -- and how the songs and music of Irish New Yorkers reveal that historical progress. Joining this program as discussant will be Robert W. Snyder, a specialist in New York history and professor of American Studies at Rutgers University. This rich program will take place on Saturday, November 9 at 2:00 at 263 Mulberry Street --The McCloskey Meeting Room in the Parish House of St. Patrick's Old Cathedral. All are invited! Suggested donation: $5.

Irishtown Brooklyn 1909 When the graduating class at St. Anne's School in the old "Irishtown" section of Brooklyn posed for this picture in 1909, the surrounding neighborhood still maintained much of its Irish character, but it was changing fast. The parish had been founded in 1860 and boasted a beautiful church structure with a 160-foot tall tower designed by the noted Tipperary-born architect Patrick C. Keeley. Like many predominantly Irish parishes, the church had prominen...t stained glass windows to both St. Patrick and St. Bridget, but was for a long time deeply in debt. Located near the western gate of the old Brooklyn Navy Yard and adjacent to the East River, most of the parishioners were of modest means, many of them surviving as day laborers at neighborhood factories. Famed Galway preacher Father Tom Burke gave a benefit lecture for the church at the Academy of Music in 1872 and fund-raising parish picnics at the time featured a uilleann piper and fiddler combination that played for step dancing and set dances. A newspaper account in 1877 recorded that the Irish traditional music combo played such tunes as the "Rocky Road to Dublin" and the "Hare Among the Clover". Changing demographics and the replacement of residential housing by industry doomed the parish as an Irish enclave by the 1930s. The Brooklyn Citizen in 1934 recorded that the "neighborhood could no longer be called 'Irishtown.' " Before its closing and demolition in the late 1990s, St. Anne's was absorbed by St. George, the beloved parish of the longer-lasting, and long-time ethnic rival, Lithuanian-Catholic community. The New York Irish History Roundtable, a non-profit society dedicated to the history of the Irish in greater New York, welcomes those who share our interests. Please see our Facebook page and website, irishnyhistory.org for information on how you can become a member. NY Irish History Roundtable P.O Box 2087 Church Street Station, NY 10008-2087 JTR

Dennis Day - Bronx-born Irish-American Entertainer Those of us old enough to remember the Jack Benny Show on television are familiar with Dennis Day, the most popular Irish tenor of recent times. Born in the Bronx, he studied at Cathedral Prep, Manhattan College and finally at Fordham Law School before an illness forced him to change intended careers in the late 1930s. A demo record to the Jack Benny Show won him a spot as the regular singer on the comedian's half hour weekl...y show on national radio. Dennis Day, born Owen Patrick McNulty to Armagh and Mayo parents, proved to be a versatile performer and served as Jack Benny's foil and eternal "crazy kid." Dennis Day's career spanned more than forty years and included not just radio and television and film, but many hit records and musical albums. Although his repertoire was only a step above a "stage Irish" stereotype, he was a good mimic of Irish accents, but perhaps not in the way most Irish wanted to hear themselves portrayed. His recordings were almost entirely of the Tin Pan Alley School of Irish Music with such selections as "That's an Irish Lullaby," "Christmas in Killarney" and his often repeated "Clancy Lowers the Boom." Perhaps because genuine Irish music had disappeared from radio and television, Dennis Day was extremely popular with Irish-American audiences, who were probably desperate for almost anything resembling Irish entertainment. Dennis Day was several times feted and presented with awards by the national Ancient Order of Hibernians in the 1940s through the 1980s. In 1947, he legally changed his name back to that of his birth, although he continued the use of his stage name, because, he quipped, it was "just to keep the Ancient Order of Hibernians happy." The New York Irish History Roundtable, a non-profit society dedicated to the history of the Irish in greater New York, welcomes those who share our interests. Please see our Facebook page and website, irishnyhistory.org for information on how you can become a member. NY Irish History Roundtable P.O Box 2087 Church Street Station, NY 10008-2087 JTR

Three Irish Immigrant Women, 1897 Very few arriving Irish immigrants ever had their images recorded on arrival in New York, particularly in 1897. The exceptions were three arrivals who landed from the White Star Liner Majestic from Queenstown (Cobh) and the Cunard liner Servia from LIverpool early in the season on the 29th of April. Newspaper accounts described a wave of Irish immigration in that year, most of the women destined for domestic work not only in the city, but "ou...t west" where it was said about two thirds of them were headed. The Irish women were almost all impeccably dressed and enthusiastic about their new country "and lively and witty as any woman Vassar turned out." The New York Irish History Roundtable, a non-profit society dedicated to the history of the Irish in greater New York, welcomes those who share our interests. Please see our Facebook page and website, irishnyhistory.org for information on how you can become a member. NY Irish History Roundtable P.O Box 2087 Church Street Station, NY 10008-2087

Riverdale (Bronx) Irish Dancing 1915 Irish music and dance were firmly established in the city in 1915 when dancers performed in an open-air event at a Riverdale estate. Although a vibrant Irish musical tradition had long existed in the city, performances for the general public were usually only in demand around St. Patrick's Day. Join us on Saturday, November 9 for an entertaining and informative lecture on "Irish New York and Its Songs and Music" at 2:00 at 263 Mulberry Street -- Old St. Patrick's Cathedral Parish House, the McCloskey Room. Lecturer: Dan Milner. Discussant: Robert W. Snyder. Suggested donation: $5.

Music and Dance at the Kerrymen's Ball 1906 One of New York's greatest Irish events at the turn-of-century was the annual grand ball of the Kerrymen's Association. In 1906, a formal program of entertainment featured champion dancers and a master musician of the uilleann pipes. Join us on November 9 for an entertaining and informative lecture on "Irish New York and Its Songs and Music" at 2:00 at 263 Mulberry Street -- Old St. Patrick's Cathedral Parish House, the McCloskey Room. Lecturer: Dan Milner. Discussant: Robert W. Snyder. Suggested donation: $5.