Ernie O'Malley Lecture: John Ridge

For almost two hundred years, Manhattan has been the home to many Roman Catholic churches that served predominantly Irish congregations. Unlike other ethnic groups that had specific churches established by the archdiocese to meet the language and cultural needs of immigrant populations, the “Irish” parishes were never explicitly designated as such. Still, they developed their character only in the presence of a large Irish-born neighborhood population, led by a pastor firmly committed to an Irish identity. Parishes like Old St. Patrick’s, St. Mary’s, St. Brigid's, St. Columba’s, and the Carmelite Church of Our Lady of the Scapular, and many others, became centers of Irish life in the city. The rise and fall of the New York Irish is often well reflected in the story of these individual churches and the powerful clergy that led them.

John T. Ridge is President of the New York Irish History Roundtable, a group dedicated to the study of the Irish in greater New York. He is currently writing a series of articles for its annual journal, focusing on the individual churches of the archdiocese where the Irish once predominated. Ridge is a long-time researcher of the city’s Irish and is the author of two books on the history of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. He has written numerous articles on Irish county societies, social and political clubs, and the Irish neighborhoods of the city. He has conducted walking tours of more than a dozen formerly Irish neighborhoods and has lectured on the many aspects of Irish city life for more than fifty years. Ridge was born in Brooklyn of Irish-born parents.

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