Gaelic Park: A Fixture for the Bronx's Irish
Community, Gaelic Park is more than just a sporting center
Kelly Ann Lambert
Bronx Journal Staff Reporter
Gaelic
Park, a green spot located in the northeast Bronx, is mystery to those
who are not part of the Irish Community. It’s a fixture, though to
those who hail from the land of Joyce and know the Bronx as Ireland’s
33rd county.
The
park is located just west of Broadway, on the north side of 240th
street, near Manhattan College. It is an important gathering place for
Irish and Irish-Americans alike. It gives them a place to meet and
socialize, as well as to keep in touch with what is going on at home in
Ireland.
The
park includes a playing field and dance hall. In addition to the hurling
matches held there, a number of sporting events take place at Gaelic
Park. There are also
concerts and dances that feature Irish music both old and new.
The park also holds benefits to efforts to further peace in
Ireland, and fund raisers for people here in the states who are in need
of help with medical expenses due to an accident or devastating illness.
The
park was purchased in 1926 by The Gaelic Athletic Association of Greater
New York, (GAA for short,) and established in 1928. It has been given a
few different names over time including Innisfail Park, but since the
1950’s it has gone by its current moniker, Gaelic Park, a reflection
of the park’s decidedly Irish flavor.
In
Ireland, The GAA was started to promote the game of hurling and Irish
football there, just as Gaelic Park in the United States was started to
help the two rough and tumble sports on these shores. Hurling and Irish
football have always held an important place in the social life of the
Irish community, as has been noted by visitors to Ireland throughout the
past century.
Gaelic
Park, in fact, owes its existence to Michael Cusak who helped found the
GAA in 1884. Cusak met a group of nationalists in Loughrea, County
Galway, and outlined his plans to establish a national organization for
Irish athletes in order to revive hurling, Ireland’s national sport.
The GAA’s establishing Gaelic Park was like bringing a little bit of
“home” across the sea to New York.
When
it was first started up, the GAA ran the park for about 10 years until
it was forced into bankruptcy, after which the city took over the land.
The property was then leased again in 1941 to John “Kerry”
O’Donnell, who with the help of his family and friends ran the park,
dance hall, and tavern. This is the Gaelic Park familiar to most who
grew up with a love of the game of hurling and a strong sense of Irish
pride.
Hurling,
which is Ireland’s national sport, has a reputation as being the
second fastest field game in the world. It is played on a grassy field,
with the object of the game being to score more goals and points than
the opposing team, although it is primarily a male dominated sport,
there is a female equivalent called Camogie.
There
are fifteen players on each team who use a hurley and a sliotar to play
the game. Hurley is the name given to the curved stick also called a
caman, that is slightly different for each county in Ireland. The
sliotar is the ball used. It has evolved along with the hurley and is
now usually covered in leather and weighs between 100 and 300 grams.
The
speed of the game, and not the equipment used, however, draws its fans
by the hundreds to hurling matches at Gaelic Park. The game is fast
paced and can be very rough, but once you are hooked that’s it. John
Mulligan, 28 and player himself says, “Life without the matches
wouldn’t be worth it at all.”
Each
year in Ireland, there is a major competition held, in which all of
Ireland’s 32 counties participate. The final, which bonto is known as
the All-Ireland Championship, is held in Croke Park, Ireland’s
national GAA stadium. The All-Ireland is followed by fans in the United
States in places such as Gaelic Park. The park and several pubs on
Broadway and in Woodlawn show the games on tape or via satellite.
Throughout
the decades, Gaelic Park has continued to gain popularity. The park has
reached out to new patrons with rock music concerts along with the
traditional Irish seisuns and ceili’s. Two very popular bands that
have played at Gaelic Park numerous times are The Wolftones and Black
47.
The
Wolftones are a traditional Irish band that has enjoyed popularity in
Ireland and the United States, spanning some three decades. They are
most loved for their rebel songs such as “The Butcher’s Apron,”
which is a reference to the English flag. Their music is lively and
traditional featuring the fiddle, thin-whistle, and bowran.
Black
47, in contrast, have a hard-driving beat that is like traditional Irish
music mixed with heavy metal. Formed in 1985, Black 47 sing songs with
an Irish, as well as an American flavor. They center on the
goings-on, even today, between the Irish and the British. Black
47 took its name after the horrible famine in Ireland in 1847, or as it
was known, Black 47. Two of their popular songs are “Funky Ceili”
and “Fire of Freedom.”
Whether
or not you have enjoyed the park’s atmosphere or events seems to be a
matter of perspective. While some have spent a lifetime going to Gaelic
Park, others do not even know it’s here in the Bronx.
Martin
Aloysius Murphy, 76 and a former railroad worker, says he remembers the
Gaelic Park dances of his youth well. Being the son of Irish immigrants
from the county of Tipperary, the park was, and is, an important fixture
in his life. As he puts it, “It was just part of being a BIC (Bronx
Irish Catholic).” When later he married, he went on to take his own
sons and later his grandsons
to the park. As he says,“It is a good way to see that the kids don’t
forget their Irish heritage, and it’s not a bad place to hear a good
band and have a pint.”
Michael
O’Shea, 50 and a carpenter, also goes to the matches and brings his
son. He says Gaelic Park got its name from, “the games of the Gael,”
and is important as a location for maintaining Irish culture in the
Bronx. Over the years he has attended many functions at the park, some
of his favorites being The Wolftones and Black 47 in concert.
On
the other hand, Bernice Ward, 61 and a bookkeeper for many years, as
well as a longtime resident of the area, had no idea of the name of the
park, or that it was used for so many sporting and community events.
The
park was taken over by Manhattan College in 1991, and now currently goes
under the official name of The Gaelic Park Sports Center. The college
has kept up the traditions of Gaelic Park, as well as doing some
significant renovations, and now also uses it for home games of
lacrosse, soccer, and softball.
Through
all the changes the park has gone through, it still remains an important
focal and meeting point of many Irish in the Bronx and New York. It is a
place of many good memories, and hopefully it will continue to be there
for the many generations yet to come.
|
