Derived from the Gaelic O’Cruadhlaoich, Crowley has been a common surname in Ireland since the 11th century. Formed from the words cruadh meaning hardy and loach meaning hero, Crowley exists in many variations of the original Gaelic spelling, among them Crowley, Crowly, O’Crowley, Croaley and Croawley. The first to bear this name was Diarmuid an Cruadhlaoch, a MacDermot of … [Read more...] about Roots: The Extraordinary Crowleys
History
A Celtic Cross at Bunker Hill
The Irish buried in a Catholic cemetery on Bunker Hill are remembered. The cemetery is gated and well hidden, and there have been no burials in it for three score years and more. It’s a lovely, grassy, tranquil place, and Dan Mahoney, the parish priest, remarks how all the headstones face northeast toward home, toward Ireland. The Catholic burial ground is on the fabled … [Read more...] about A Celtic Cross at Bunker Hill
The Mission Girls
UPDATE MARCH 2, 2012: The Irish Mission at Watson House Project intends to use the historical Mission premises for the permanent exhibition of Irish women’s emigration, a center to study the records which we plan to digitize, a family research center and a space for a regular series of symposia on Irish immigration and Battery Park area heritage. The exhibit was opened on … [Read more...] about The Mission Girls
1969: A Crazy Year for Irish America
It is fitting that the 1969 Nobel Prize for literature went to the Irish playwright and novelist Samuel Beckett. After all, in works such as Waiting for Godot and Endgame, Beckett alternated between tragedy and comedy, drama and farce. The same could be said about 1969. It has now been 40 years since that eventful year which gave us Woodstock, the moon landing, the Manson … [Read more...] about 1969: A Crazy Year for Irish America
International Relief Efforts During the Famine
The Irish government designated 17 May 2009 as the first National Famine Memorial Day. On that day, Irish people throughout the world remembered and honored the victims of Ireland’s Great Hunger – which to this day remains one of the most lethal famines of the modern era. Out of a population of eight-and-a-half million, over one million people died, and approximately two … [Read more...] about International Relief Efforts During the Famine