Irish Town Fondly Remembered

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Irish Voice News

Irish Town Fondly Remembered

September 28, 2007

By JoAnna Kelly

ON Sunday, September 23, Rockaway’s Irish community gathered to celebrate the memories of one of old New York’s greatest neighborhoods, Irish Town in Rockaway Beach. The festivities were held at the Knights of Columbus on Beach 90th Street, in a room filled with tri-color balloons, Irish folk music, and stories from Irish Town’s heyday in the 1950s.

Carol Kearny and Clare Knott recalled a time when “everyone knew everyone, and so many people met their wives and husbands at the beach and going to Playland.”

Stories of friendship and community bonding were the theme for the night, everyone adding in their own anecdote about the fun they had in Irish Town and what made the neighborhood special enough to reunite it nearly 50 years after it was razed to the ground.

Robin Keane-Venezio, the principal of PS 221, reminisced over her time working in the sweetshop along the beach, and how the area was safe enough for a girl to walk home or stop in to have a drink at the local bars like O’Gara’s without any concern.

Sally McGanigle was born to Irish parents in Glasgow, Scotland and immigrated to the U.S. landing “around the corner over 40 years ago in the house my daughter lives in today,” she told the Irish Voice.

McGanigle has spent a lifetime living the Irish Town way of life — the beach, the bars, and music and the dancing. She recalled that one of her favorite pastimes was going for an evening drink or a dance at the Leitrim House to hear the music of Mickey Cong after a late Sunday Mass.

With such beautiful memories being circulated throughout the dinner, it is hard to believe this joyous occasion was actually inspired by a great loss. Kathy Mallon was inspired to organize the Irish Town reunion after the loss of her dear friend, Liam McConnor.

“After we lost Liam, I thought, ‘Who’s next?’ and I knew we had to get everyone back together one more time to celebrate,” she said.

And celebrate they did. John Baxter and his band, which opened their set by playing both the Irish and American National anthems to roaring applause, performed the night’s music as dozens danced along to the beat.

In addition to honoring the memories of Irish Town’s past, the reunion had a philanthropic purpose as well. The Gui M. Stewart Cancer Fund Inc. run by Edith Dolowitch, in conjunction with Loretta Migliore’s and Robertta Naparly’s Bears That Care organization, sold precious singing teddy bears at the reunion dinner.

All of all the proceeds from the sale of the bears went to the Ronald McDonald House and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital for pediatric cancer research and to help families stay together for the duration of a child’s treatment.

“The evening was a great success,” said Mallon, whose reunion succeeded in both reuniting old friends and raising money and awareness for the Sloan-Kettering pediatric cancer wing.

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