As evidenced by this city’s nearly month-long party that begins annually with Green Beer Sunday at the legendary Coleman’s Irish Pub on Tipperary Hill and the Shamrock Run for the last two decades the week before the parade, no city in America celebrates St. Patrick’s Day quite like Syracuse.
This is no accident.
Here, in the home of the only upside down-traffic light in the United States – a tangible reminder of the rebellious spirit in the heart of many of us that trace ancestry back to the Emerald Isle – the history of this region and this city is inextricably linked to the tens of thousands of Irishmen and women and their descendants who played such a vital role in building it.
Based on the enthusiasm and the size of the crowds, St. Patrick’s Day seems to provide a welcome respite from the atomization and polarization that characterizes so much of contemporary American life.
People of all political stripes get together to celebrate a common heritage.
That, perhaps, or at the very least, it is a good excuse to get together, have some fun amidst the thaw of winter (theoretically). Nonetheless, the size and scope of the annual celebration is a testament to how far the Irish in America have come.
With St. Patrick’s Day and spring looming, I find myself thinking about a few things in no particular order: my Irish ancestry, beer, and cookouts.
Central New York, of course, has a rich history and proud traditions tied to each one of these subjects. Syracuse is home to one of the country’s richest Irish heritage communities, Tipperary Hill, and it hosts one of the largest Irish Festival’s in the United States every fall.
The Irish tradition here stretches back more than two centuries, as Irish immigrants were one of the first groups to settle this area in large numbers.
Locally, the first Irish settler in the area, Patrick Riley, arrived in Salt Point (Salina) in the spring of 1793, a year before Onondaga County was even formed.
Like the thousands that would…
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