Best Novels of the Year

Amazon.com has issued its list of the Best Books of 2009,  and topping the list in fiction are novels by Irish-born authors.

Let the Great World Spin: A Novel by NY resident  Colum McCann is Number 1!

Brooklyn: A Novel by Colm Toibin is Number 4!

Congratulations!

Events This Week

 Thursday, November 5th at 7pm

Glucksman Ireland House NYU  (www.irelandhouse.fas.nyu.edu/page/events.calendar)

The Eleventh Annual Ernie O’Malley Lecture:   Professor Charles Fanning discusses “A Hidden Flowering: Irish-American Culture in the 1930s”

Free admission, but please RSVP to 212-998-3950 (option 3) or email ireland.house@nyu.edu

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  Saturday, November 7th at 3pm* 

Irish Arts Center, 553 W. 51st St

 Glucksman Ireland House is pleased to join with the Irish Arts Center, the Poetry Society of America, and Culture Ireland in presenting the Irish Arts Center’s inaugural showcase for emerging and established poets based in Ireland and the United States.

The day-long celebration includes afternoon and evening poetry readings, book signings, and Meet the Poets, a special afternoon reception.

 Featured Poets:

• Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin
• Harry Clifton -
• Paula Meehan
• Peter Sirr
• Joseph Woods 
• Enda Wyley 
• Belinda McKeon (Curator)
• Aengus Woods (Curator)

* Complete details, schedule and prices available at  IrishArts Center.org

 Tickets at  Smarttix at (212) 868-4444 or www.smarttix.com

 

1799 Irish Gravestone Found in Washington Square Park

“Here lies the body of James Jackson who departed this life the 22nd day of September 1799 aged 28 years native of the county of Kildare Ireland.”

So reads the inscription on  a gravestone just discovered during excavation under Washington Square Park.  Historians will be working to learn more about Mr.  Jackson’s life.

Details on the New York Times  City Room blog.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/gravestone-from-1799-is-found-in-washington-square-park/

Lehman College Public Programs

The  Institute for Irish- American Studies at Lehman College/CUNY in the Bronx has a calendar of public programs.

You may find the calendar at:

http://www.irishamericanstudies.com/index.php

The American Irish Historical Society Event

991 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10028
212-288-2263 

 aihs.org

October 19th, 6pm: Thomas Truxes, “Bold Irish Men: Trading with the Enemy in Colonial New York” This dynamic discussion focuses on the role played by New York’s Irish merchants in the city’s trade with the French enemy during the Seven Years’ War (French and Indian war). New York’s Irish merchants were ambitious, resourceful, and daring, and one of the most conspicuous elements in British America’s most diversified city. The long-standing commercial relationship between Ireland and France grew to huge proportions, and the Irish suffered heavily in the 1762 crackdown.

Suggested donation of $15 for non-members.

Lender Family Library, Literature and Art from Great Irish Hunger in Library

From the website of QUINNIPIAC UNIVERSITY in HAMDEN, CT

An Gorta Mor — The Great Hunger, believed to be America’s most extensive collection of art and literature from Ireland’s Great Famine, is on display in the Lender Family Special Collection Room of the Arnold Bernhard Library.

The collection features three oil paintings and a monoprint by Padraic Reaney and the sculpture of John Behan of the Royal Hibernian Academy, whose work representing the hope of the emigrant has been displayed in the United Nations; and a moving piece called “The Leave Taking” by Margaret Lyster Chamberlain of Massachusetts, among others. An original version of Rowan Gillespie’s “The Victim” is also on display.

An Gorta Mor also has an extensive group of books, some extremely rare, bearing accounts of The Great Hunger, and descriptive panels portraying impressions of that tragic time.

The Arnold Bernhard Library is open Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to midnight; Fridays, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Sundays, noon to midnight

For more information, call 203-582-8634. *Hours are subject to change, especially during holidays and University breaks. Please call to confirm hours.

Click here for a listing of the entire Hunger Room collection.

On the Irish Waterfront: Tenement Museum Program

Tenement Museum…108 Orchard Street, SE Corner of Delancey www.tenement.org

Thursday, October 22 at 6:30 PM
On the Irish Waterfront:
The Crusader, the Movie, and the Soul of the Port of New York

James T. Fisher in conversation with Peter Quinn
For anyone moved by Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront (1954), here is the behind-the-scenes story, a mix of religion, politics, ethnicity, and labor that speaks to urban life and social change in 20th century America.
“On the Irish Waterfront is a major act of historical restoration and a fascinating yarn told by a skilled literary maestro.”
- T.J. English, New York Times
Events take place at 108 Orchard Street, SE corner of Delancey, unless otherwise noted. Seating is available on a first-come, first-serve basis
Also, on the website www.tenement.org listen to readings by Colum McCann and Colm Toibin.

The Roundtable’s Fall Program Schedule

Save the Dates!

The Irish Bridget: Irish Immigrant Women

in Domestic Service, 1840-1930

Saturday, October 17, from 2-3:30 p.m.

Columbia University Law School,

The Irish Bridget

Jerome Greene Hall, Room 101,

435 West 116th Street in Manhattan.

The nearest subway stop is for the Number 1 train at 116th Street

and Broadway (Columbia University).

Dr. Margaret Lynch-Brennan will present a program on Irish women in domestic service in the Northeast during the nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Despite the lack of attention by labor historians, domestic service was the chief waged occupation for women in nineteenth-century America, and in the second half of that century Irish immigrant women dominated this occupation in the urban Northeast. Bridget or Biddy was the stereotypical young Irish immigrant who worked in private homes between 1840 and 1930. Popular American literature from the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth century was rife with stories about the Irish Bridget and the havoc she allegedly wrought in middle-class American homes. But who were the actual human beings behind the stereotype? In this program, using unpublished correspondence and photographs of Irish domestics, Dr. Margaret Lynch-Brennan will discuss both the women and the reality behind the stereotype, focusing on their work life, their social life and the impact they had on Irish-American life. This presentation will be based on her new book entitled The Irish Bridget: Irish Immigrant Women in Domestic Service in America, 1840-1930, published by Syracuse University Press.

Margaret Lynch-Brennan began her career as a classroom teacher, and over time has taught at the middle school, high school, and graduate level. For many years she worked as an administrator for the New York State Education Department. She holds a Ph.D. in American history from the University at Albany (SUNY) and has presented at conferences in Australia, Germany, and Ireland, and across the United States.

A reception will follow.

There is no fee to attend, but a $3 donation is suggested for refreshments.

All are Welcome!

also,

Irish Immigrants & County Associations in

NYC, 1946-61

Saturday, December 5, at 2-3:30 p.m.

Mother Seton National Shrine (Our Lady of the Rosary Hall),

7 State Street (between Pearl & Whitehall Streets)

opposite Battery Park, Manhattan

Dr. Miriam Nyhan will discuss the unique presence and important roles of Irish county associations in New York City during the years following World War II. The discussion will be based on her extensive research using oral interviews and archival research, and on her analyses of these special associations, their yearly activities, and their enthusiastic participants.

The post World War II era saw a massive exodus of migrants from the island of Ireland. In fact, between 1946 and 1961 approximately 500,000 emigrated: the equivalent of approximately 17% of the population. In New York, county associations played an important role in the Irish communities that greeted the new migrants. These societies provided a means by which immigrants from particular counties could reunite, socialize, and provide contacts or assistance. For many newly arrived migrants, a county association meeting or event was the first port-of-call in the search for permanent housing, jobs, or a familiar accent. Each county, through these organizations, became a guardian to those it represented, and provided invaluable safety valves to the needs of its county-people. The annual calendar of the associations was structured around key events which punctuated the year, with St. Patrick’s Day representing the highlight. As a general rule, larger counties had larger and more vibrant associations – but demographics were not the only indicator of the association strength.

Dr. Miriam Nyhan will discuss the significance that county associations had for post-war immigrants from Ireland. Starting from a premise that we can only understand that wave of immigrants by looking at the Ireland people left and the New York they arrived in, she will clarify the many roles counties associations fulfilled. To widen the focus, experiences of Irish immigrants and county associations in post-war London will also be discussed.

Miriam Nyhan is Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow at Glucksman Ireland House, New York University. She received her M.Phil. from University College, Cork and her Ph.D. from the the European University Institute. Dr. Nyhan is the author of ‘Are You Still Below?’ The Ford Marina Plant, Cork 1917-1984. She has served as a historian for Henry Ford & Son Limited, (Ford Ireland) and is currently Glucksman Ireland House’s oral historian.

Reception to follow.

There is no fee to attend, but

A $3 donation for refreshments in suggested.

All are Welcome!

The Roundtable is now on Facebook!

Hello, Fans!

The New York Irish History Roundtable  is now on Facebook.

Please visit our Facebook page and give us a look!

Free Digital Access to The Irish Times, 1859-2009!

The Irish Times is celebrating their 150th year in circulation by allowing the public free access to the newspaper’s digital archives, going all the way back to March 29th, 1859!

This free access won’t last long, though–it expires on April 5th, 2009, so do your genealogical/historical searching NOW, folks!!!

The URL is:

http://www.irishtimes.com/150/
Happy Searching!

Jim Garrity