17 March 1922: St Patrick’s Day, New York City

Ireland 1922, edited by Darragh Gannon and Fearghal McGarry, features 50 essays from leading international scholars that explore a turning point in history, one whose legacy remains controversial a century on. Building on their own expertise, and on the wealth of recent scholarship provoked by the Decade of Centenaries, each contributor focuses on one event that illuminates a key aspect of revolutionary Ireland, demonstrating how the events of this year would shape the new states established in 1922. Together, these essays explore many of the key issues and debates of a year that transformed Ireland.

In collaboration with Century Ireland, we are making the 50 essays freely available online. Today's essay is by Enda Delaney and it covers the 1922 St Patrick's Day parade in New York City:

"On 17 March 1922 over 50,000 people marched in the New York St Patrick’s Day parade, sending a strong message to the Irish at home. The Anglo-Irish Treaty as negotiated with the British government fell short of the expectations of the American Irish, as the Grand Marshal Edward J. Gavegan outlined in a telegram to Michael Collins, the head of the Provisional Government, to mark the occasion. Collins had a message of his own, sending St Patrick’s Day greetings and conveying the ‘Irish Nation’s gratitude for the generous support given by America through the long years of its struggle for freedom’."  Continue reading (you will be redirected to the website of Century Ireland)

Ireland 1922, edited by Darragh Gannon and Fearghal McGarry, is published by the Royal Irish Academy with support from the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media under the Decade of Centenaries 2012-2023 programme.