The Irish community is one of New York's major and important ethnic groups, and has been a significant proportion of the city's population since the waves of immigration in the late 19th century.
As a result of the Great Famine in Ireland, many Irish families were forced to emigrate from the country. By 1854, between 1.5 and 2 million Irish had left their country. In the United States, most Irish became city-dwellers. With little money, many had to settle in the cities that the ships landed in. By 1850, the Irish made up a quarter of the population in Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.
New York City today has the largest number of Irish-Americans of any city in America. During the Celtic Tiger years, when the Irish economy was booming, a buying spree of homes and apartments by native Irish in New York City as second homes, or as investment property was seen.
Irish-Americans play a significant role in New York city and state politics, media, Wall Street, the Roman Catholic church, and the major sports leagues. They have been highly active in the Fire Department of New York City, New York City Police Department, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Famous quotes containing the words irish, americans, york and/or city:
“Earth, receive an honoured guest:
William Yeats is laid to rest.
Let the Irish vessel lie
Emptied of its poetry.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)
“It has been an unchallengeable American doctrine that cranberry sauce, a pink goo with overtones of sugared tomatoes, is a delectable necessity of the Thanksgiving board and that turkey is uneatable without it.... There are some things in every country that you must be born to endure; and another hundred years of general satisfaction with Americans and America could not reconcile this expatriate to cranberry sauce, peanut butter, and drum majorettes.”
—Alistair Cooke (b. 1908)
“New York will be a great place when they finish it.”
—Local saying.
“Man will return to his origins. Goethe has finally become as squiggly as the city of his fathers.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)