Bronx Irish History Project

Founded in the Fall of 2022, in collaboration with Fordham’s Irish Studies Department, Catholic Studies Department, History Department, The BAAHP, and the Bronx County Historical Society, the BIHP’s goal is to conduct interviews with Irish American community member in the Bronx.

The interview collection, to be housed in Fordham’s libraries, will document the long history of the mass migration of the Irish to New York City, and their further migration to The Bronx from neighborhoods in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. The project will focus on the early 20th century to the present day and will detail the histories of Irish American culture in neighborhoods like Bainbridge, Woodlawn, Kingsbridge, Riverdale, Mott Haven, etc. In these interviews major topics will include: the role of parochial schools and parishes in the community, the rich history of Irish and Irish American musicians, the celebration of Gaelic games, the role of Irish Americans in fighting the wave of arson that swept the South Bronx, and the influence of Irish Politics on the community and vis versa.

The interviews, all conducted by scholars associated with the aforementioned departments, will provide an in depth portrait of the cultural, political, and social history of Bronx Irish American communities and their impact which spans across the Hudson River to places such as Pearl River, NY and across the Atlantic Ocean to the Island where these communities originated.

If you wish to contact us, please send an email to jmcguire34@fordham.edu