South Orange's Irish

South Orange’s Irish came and stayed. In that, said Professor Linda Dowling Almeida, author of Irish Immigrants in New York City, 1945-1995 and an expert on Irish immigration to the US, the local Irish were typical. More than any other immigrant group, Irish came in family groups and they didn’t return to Ireland. Indeed, Almeida noted that wakes were sometimes held for those leaving Ireland for the US, as the distance made the departure as final as a death.

We’ve looked closely at the recently. Here are a few stories of note:

, for the group Pirates of Irish Persuasion;

and

 South Orange’s first police officer gave his name to

There’s more, of course, to our local Irish history, especially when we look to how the two dominant immigrant groups coexisted.

 “The two groups stayed in their neighborhoods at first,” said Michael Lally, poet and longtime South Orange resident told me a while back. Lally’s grandfather was the first police officer in South Orange.   “The Irish and the Italians got together to fight and at church. And don’t think they didn’t try there, too,” he said. “The priests had their hands full.”

 Curious? On Thursday, June 2, the South Orange Public Library’s 1 pm discussion group presents The presentation, which includes dozens of family photos of old South Orange, will be led by this Patch editor.