It has been said that every year, on St. Patrick's Day, all New Yorkers are Irish. Certainly the history of the city was marked by waves of Irish immigrants. My in-laws, my husband's parents, were among those who came across the sea in the 1930s. So I'm Irish by marriage and my children are surely Irish. We all enjoy our connection to this heritage.
When there is an Irish festival advertised nearby, one of us is likely to attend. A few months ago there was a festival at Old Westbury Gardens, and this past weekend there was the Hudson Valley Irish Festival in Peekskill, NY. My granddaughter worked at the Old Westbury one (as a part-time employee of the Gardens) and my son attended the festival in Peekskill.
Here' is a screenshot from the video my son shot when he attended the Peekskill festival.
It's an interesting coincidence of history that my granddaughter has a part-time job at the Old Westbury venue. About 90 years ago her great grandmother, my mother-in-law, crossed the sea from Roscommon, Ireland and found a job as a nanny at an Old Westbury estate. It may very well have been the same estate that served as a backdrop for the 2026 Irish festival.
Here is a picture of that estate, the Phipps estate. The picture was taken a couple of years ago. I'm happy to say my granddaughter still works there part time, though she is in graduate school now. I wish her great grandmother could see her, and see how her gamble all those years ago worked out for her descendants.
The Irish were among the early settlers of Westbury. In the late 19th century that population grew when the burgeoning Robber Baron class in the U.S. discovered the land north of the town. As described by the Westbury Town Historian:
The Village moved from its agricultural setting in the late 19th century when the very wealthy began to settle and build mansions. This area is now known as Old Westbury. Post Avenue soon became a commerce center to serve the surrounding estates. Various estate workers began to move in as well.
One of the reasons the wealthy moved to Westbury was because of the train that carried them from New York City to the center of town. Construction on the Westbury section of the railroad began in 1837. Work on the railroad prompted the first influx of Irish workers. There was no train station, so the local store doubled as a terminal station. Here it is, J.P. Kelsey's Branch Store.
Brooklyn Public Library. Public Domain
Soon after, in 1857, the first Catholic Church in Nassau County, St. Brigid's, was built, just down the street from the train tracks. The church served not only the Irish, but other Catholic immigrants who came to work on the railroad. My mother-in-law attended mass there when she immigrated from Ireland in the 1930s.
It is an interesting fact of U. S. history that railroad construction profoundly influenced immigration patterns. This was the case on the West Coast, also, when many of the immigrants came from China. So many immigrants, as a matter of fact, that our first restrictive immigration law was passed in response to that immigrant influx, The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
But this blog is about New York and the state's deep connection to the Irish. And so the railroads bring us back to New York, for it was work on railroad construction in upstate New York that led to the settlement of many Irish immigrants in Peekskill. Yes, Peekskill, the very site of the festival my son attended last week.
Here is a shot he took of the festival. Look at that sky! You can see the rock face behind the tents. Peekskill is a Hudson Valley community. It owes its existence to the Hudson River, which carves a path through mountains, from New York Harbor up to the Adirondacks.
The excerpt below, describing immigrant influence in the growth of Peekskill, was taken from Westchester County History, 1783-1865
The New York and Hudson River Railroad was being constructed...and reached Peekskill in 1849. On the east side of the county, the New York, New Haven and Hartford opened its line in 1849. Both the railroads and the New York City water system were constructed chiefly by Irish laborers, who were emigrating in large numbers during this period to escape the famine in their native land.
Today, both Peekskill and Westbury are multicultural communities. Immigrants came from all over the world, not only to work and to build, but also to settle. I asked my son when I heard he was going to the Peekskill festival to take pictures for me. Here were the few he shared with me. I think he was having too much fun to stop and take more.
This video is shown from a side angle. I'm sorry. I don't know how to flip it, but it's interesting enough with the kilts and musicians that I wanted to include it in the blog.
The festival seems to have been very well attended. Tickets were $20 at the door and the proceeds were supposed to be donated to Irish cultural centers in the Hudson Valley. One event honored first responders who perished at the World Trade Center attack on September 11, 2001. Because people of Irish- American heritage have traditionally been fireman in New York City, a large percentage of fireman who perished on 9/11 were said to be of Irish descent.
In the video above you can see the river behind the stand, and then you can see mountains in the distance. These mountains are part of the Hudson Highlands, and are a northern section of the Appalachian Range, which runs most of the way along the East Coast of the United States.
You can see in the picture below that the festival was held in a park. People came to relax and spend the day. Notice the lawn chairs.
If you look directly across the park, behind the tree in the center of the picture, you can see Bear Mountain. This is an iconic tourist attraction in the Hudson Highlands. It is believed by some to resemble a sleeping bear. I don't see it.
Here's a long shot of the crowd, the bandstand, and the Hudson River.
When my son goes to a festival he is not frugal. He came home with a sweatshirt for my granddaughter. I would pay maybe $20 for it on Amazon. He paid $50. I guess some things have added value because of the memories attached and the generosity associated.
I'll end this little post with a note about how my country came to be. It came to be because of immigrants. Surely they were Irish, German, Somalian, Italian Mexican. When the first Europeans arrived hundreds of years ago, they were immigrants. Just about everyone else here, unless they have Native American roots, is an immigrant or the descendant of immigrants.
Thank you for reading my blog. Peace and health to all.
Hive on!