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The Hidden Minority: New Jersey's Thousands of Gypsies

By Elisabeth Ginsburg

• Sept. 6, 1992

AT the Living Hope Fellowship Church in Hasbrouck Heights some weeks ago, a group of French gypsies was addressing a meeting about the charismatic Christian movement, which is spreading among European gypsies. At the end of the slide presentation, the group's leader looked around the crowded room and said: "I know that there are many gypsies in this part of the country, and I know why they are not here. They are afraid of the persecution that still goes on, even in the United States."

The absence of gypsies at the well-publicized event reflected the anomaly of gypsy life in New Jersey. There are thousands of gypsies in the state, but the vast majority carefully guard their identity. They keep to themselves, discouraging their children from spending too much time with schoolbooks or outsiders, trying to stave off assimilation.

The prejudice against gypsies, based upon the ancient stereotype of them as a nation of wandering con men, is not just in their imaginations. New Jersey statute 40:52-1K, enacted in 1917, reads, "The governing body may make, amend, repeal and enforce ordinances to license and regulate: roving bands of nomads, commonly called gypsies."

The law is still on the books. The New Jersey chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said it has never been challenged.

Prof. Ian Hancock, a gypsy who is a linguistics professor at the University of Texas, said there are about one million gypsies in the United States. No reliable estimates are available of the number of gypsies in New Jersey, although Professor Hancock and other authorities agree that the state has one of the nation's highest gypsy populations.

In New Jersey they are concentrated in the northeastern part of the state, especially in and around Newark, Paterson and Elizabeth. There are charismatic gypsy churches in Paterson, Montclair and the Orange area. There are also gypsy families in Atlantic City and in the Toms River area.

Whether from fear of harassment or a desire to keep to themselves, many gypsies were unwilling to speak with an outsider ("gadjay" in Romany) seeking to examine their way of life, but there were exceptions.

One was Frank Leo of Bayonne. The son of a fortuneteller, Mr. Leo dropped out of elementary school and worked in carnivals. He married young (in a traditional arranged match) and eventually started the machinery repair business that he still operates. He has owned a home in Bayonne for 20 years. Within his family and with other gypsies, Mr. Leo speaks Romany "with English words thrown in," he said.

Mr. Leo is a charismatic Christian, and his brother Steve is the pastor of a gypsy church in Elizabeth. Professor Hancock says that while the charismatic movement provides gypsies with love and acceptance in a hostile world, it also divides them from other gypsies by condemning traditional practices of fortunetelling and early marriage. Some gypsies feel that the focus on English literacy for Bible study also promotes assimilation.

Mr. Leo describes gypsies as "family people doing their best to survive." A shortage of formal education coupled with a wariness of outsiders keeps many gypsies ignorant of the possibilities for their lives, he said, and he envisions gypsy schools that would encourage literacy and prepare young people to ply trades and run businesses.

Barbara Taylor is a suburban housewife and a gypsy. Married to an outsider and separated geographically from her Louisiana family, she feels a profound sense of isolation. Out of deference to her husband's wishes, she insisted upon being identified by her maiden name.

Her life is full of contradictions. "I'm proud to be a gypsy," she said, but admitted that she also blushed uncontrollably when revealing her background.

She bristled when she spoke about gypsy stereotypes. "Most people are completely ignorant of what we are," she said. "There has been so much discrimination."

Ms. Taylor does not know any gypsies in New Jersey, she said. The gypsy social structure revolves around families, and her family is not from the state. "If you're not related, you don't have anything in common," she said.

A college graduate, Ms. Taylor has worked as a teacher and a librarian. She speaks and reads Romany. Her Romany vocabulary also contains some Greek words, a linguistic witness to the travels of her ancestors. Grew Up in Two Worlds

Ms. Taylor grew up in two worlds, in a family with a tradition of marrying outsiders. Her grandmother told fortunes for a living, and her mother worked as a fortuneteller until she was in her 30's.

Ms. Taylor defended fortunetelling, saying that it combines certain skills like tarot card and palm reading with character judgment honed by years of experience. Ms. Taylor's grandmother had many regular customers who returned year after year for her advice.

In the gypsy culture of Ms. Taylor's youth, the women earned the money and the men did not work. "They dressed nicely and 'hung out,' " she said. "They spent time polishing the car, and sometimes drove the women to and from appointments."

Ms. Taylor's children have grown up knowing their mother's cultural identity, but outside of the gypsy milieu. "My 20-year-old daughter is interested in and curious about gypsy culture, but my son would be socially embarrassed to be known as a gypsy," she said.

In an effort to fight stereotypes, Ms. Taylor agreed last year to appear with Professor Hancock on a television talk show about gypsy life. They canceled the appearance, she said, because they felt that the producer was more interested in reinforcing myths about gypsies than exploring the culture as it now exists in the United States.

Ms. Taylor has a strong attachment to her roots. "I am proud of how we have survived," she said. Difficulty in Getting a Start

John Nickels is a gypsy who owns a carnival in Wildwood. After 40 years in the same town, he said, he feels that he can speak without fear of official or public distrust. It was not always that way. When his grandfather began the family carnival business, he had a hard time getting established in the seaside town. At the time, Mr. Nickels said, most landlords in the area were unwilling to rent commercial property to gypsies.

Like many gypsies, Mr. Nickels had little formal education. Lack of education has blocked gypsies' advancement, he said, "but it has also blocked assimilation."

Traditional gypsy parents, hoping to keep their children from being attracted to nongypsies, withdraw them from school well before puberty. "If you marry an outsider, you lose your identity in this race," Mr. Nickels said.

But things are changing, he added. His own children and grandchildren have gone to public school. "Now some gypsies are going to college," he said. "We try to arrange marriages for them before they go."

Mr. Nickels is a member of the Romany Union, an international organization (whose membership included the actor Yul Brynner) that fights for the rights of gypsies worldwide. He has been particularly active in seeking to send shipments of food, medicine and clothing to the gypsy children in orphanages in Romania. Incidents of Harassment

Mr. Leo and Mr. Nickels say they have been harassed by the police in the past. When Mr. Leo and his family first arrived in Bayonne in the early 1960's, he said, the local police told them to "get out of town." Sometimes, he said, gypsy children who have grown up with Romany are teased by their classmates because of their speech patterns.

Mr. Nickels said that when he was a child, he and his family were refused service at a diner.

Police spokesmen in Newark, Elizabeth, Paterson and Toms River reported that local gypsy families did not pose a law-enforcement problem. Spokesmen for two of the departments also said that any bunco-type crimes traced to gypsies were committed by "out of town" or "out of state" gypsies rather than those living in the area.

Mr. Nickels and Professor Hancock said the rate of theft convictions among gypsies is probably about the same as that of the general population. One law-enforcement official suggested that police suspicion of gypsies might have been more pronounced a generation ago than it is now.

Perhaps one of the surest ways to locate New Jersey gypsies is to find their final resting places. In cemeteries like Rosedale Memorial Park, husbands and wives smile forth from color photographs inset into large monuments.

Some plots are fronted by paved areas set with permanently installed tables and chairs where family members can sit, eat and talk. Such places give gypsies a chance to reinforce their strongest ties -- family relationships, past and present.

clock This article was published more than  5 years ago

What it is like inside a tightknit, reclusive community of Irish Travellers

Photographer Mary Turner has spent years documenting a tightknit, reclusive community of Irish Travellers. Fueled by curiosity about how they were living their lives, she continues to document them to this day. Turner recounted her experience working on the project to In Sight below.

On Oct. 19, 2011, the British government began the mass eviction of 86 families of Irish Traveller heritage from their homes on a former scrap yard known as Dale Farm in Southeast England. Although the Travellers owned the land, the surrounding community would not tolerate their presence, and after a long legal battle they were eventually refused government permission to stay. The result was the largest eviction in U.K. history.

On a bleak day in January 2009, I first approached the disputed site in Essex. The site had long been the subject of a land dispute between the Traveller families, the Sheridans, who were living on the converted scrap yard, and Basildon Council. As it was not far from where I grew up, I decided to go along and see if I could meet the families and perhaps come away with a few photographs.

Looking back, it was as ignominious a start as I could possibly have hoped to make. I parked my car at the end of the winding, potholed road to the site and walked nervously up to the first lane of trailers. I stood in the rain and looked around at row upon row of closed trailer doors, a small group of children playing with stones in a yard and an elderly man eyeballing me as I tried to look casually as though I belonged there. Within less than 10 minutes, I was retreating hastily to my car followed furiously by a pack of possessed dogs. By the time I got home, I had promised myself I was never going back to Dale Farm.

But I did go back. Again and again. And over the next few years, that scene was to become as familiar to me as my own home.

It was a long road getting to know the deeply private families at Dale Farm. With good reason, they are deeply mistrustful of the settled community, especially those carrying cameras or notebooks. So for months my camera lay untouched as I sat in their busy trailers drinking tea, reading letters for the largely illiterate community, helping to make doctor’s appointments and decoding complex eviction notices from the local council.

But somewhere along the line, I was fortunate enough to meet Barbara and Jean Sheridan, two extraordinary women who have allowed me to document their lives and that of their families as they grow up.

Gradually, as the weeks turned into months, the Dale Farm Travellers stopped being my subjects and became my friends, and the minutiae of their everyday lives lost its novelty and became part of the fabric of my own life. I will never be able to speak for them as a Traveller, but as our lives have become peculiarly entwined, I have taken part in and photographed their eviction, communions, weddings, hope, grief and happiness.

There have been countless moments that you could not make up — the day they tried to get me to buy a Shetland pony on the Internet, the day they did my makeup “Traveller style.” It has never been less than entertaining.

I have been witness to the gradual introduction of more regular schooling, cellphones and the use of the Internet and Facebook into the lives of a largely illiterate community. These things are beginning to change their lives forever.

Although the eviction of Dale Farm reached its peak over a period of a few months in 2011, it was in fact the culmination of years of legal argument and a long battle over the property. The first Irish Travellers had moved onto the site in the early 2000s when they bought the yards from its owner, Raymond Bocking, who was running a scrap yard on the site for the Basildon Council.

Within a short time, more Sheridan family members arrived, thinking they had found a place to stay with their family members. But the surrounding settled community was becoming increasingly unhappy with the presence of a large number of Travellers living nearby. Gradually, over the years, the local people and the Sheridan families of Dale Farm became embroiled in the bitter battle that led, ultimately, to the devastating mass eviction in October and November 2011.

As eviction loomed, the deeply private community became a media sensation, with journalists arriving from all over the world to see it. As the Travellers’ final summer on the site turned to autumn, a group of young activists determined to halt the eviction set up a camp on the site, with eager journalists trying to infiltrate the group and find out its battle plans.

Meanwhile the Sheridans tried to get on with their lives. They are the most resilient people I have ever known. Although they were not used to such attention or such unusual people on their doorstep, and were nervous about the publicity, they welcomed the activists and their support. In private, though, they confessed that it all seemed a bit strange. They called them “the hippies people” as they watched them pitching tents and singing around campfires.

On Oct. 19, 2011, the eviction began at 5 a.m. Riot police poured down the hill behind the site and broke through the activists’ meager defenses within minutes, and then into Dale Farm. Photographers and camera crews rushed to the site as the Travellers opened the doors of their trailers in their pajamas and started to watch the destruction of their homes. I can still hear Nora’s voice as, pushed up against their long riot shields, she shouted over and over: “My home, this is my home; get away from my home.” And tiny Michelle Sheridan standing in her dressing gown in front of a group of riot police, their helmets and shields assembled, mobbed by news photographers, and saying through her tears, “You young men should all be ashamed of yourselves; your mothers would be ashamed of you all.”

The eviction of Dale Farm had begun. Over the coming days and weeks, police were a constant presence at the site. Bailiffs patrolled the yards and dug up the land around us. I stood and watched as Jeany’s mobile home, where her family had known so many happy times and where I had taken the first photograph that I was remotely happy with, way back in 2009, was loaded up onto a pickup truck and taken away to be disposed of. By the end of November 2011, there was nothing left of Dale Farm.

After Dale Farm

It seemed back in 2011 that no one believed the Dale Farm families really had nowhere else to go. But I knew them, as I know them now, and I have seen that this is the reality of their situation as the years pass.

In the first few weeks after the eviction, the Travellers pulled their trailers onto the road outside their old home and began attaching generators to get them through the winter. A year on, most were still there, parked on the potholed lane I had first run down years ago, chased by a pack of dogs.

Barbara and her small family are still there to this day. Sometimes when there is space in a family member’s yard on the legal side at the front of Dale Farm, which always existed, she is able to rent what they call a “camping closet” there, a yard to park her trailer on for a while.

Barbara is fortunate in this respect, at least. It means that her three sons, John, Richard and Dennis, still attend Crays Hill school, just down the road from Dale Farm. But for Jean, who had to move on, this was not the case.

Jean and her children, like many of the families, eventually decided that they could not live on the road at Dale Farm forever and set out to try to find permanent places to stay.

It is neither practical nor legal for modern Travellers to live permanently on the roadside. Jean talks constantly of how she wants her children to be educated. In 2011, she spoke to me about her hopes for her children’s future.

“I grew up on the side of the road. But I want for my Viviana what I hadn’t got. I want her to learn how to read and write. There is no such thing as living on the side of the road anymore. It’s different. Everything is Internets now and computers and texting, and everything like that. In probably another 10 years down the line, it’s going to be even more advanced. Everything is going to be computers and chips and that sort of thing. So you can’t live on the road. You’ve got to look into things from your children’s point of view.”

But Jean’s children — Viviana, John (“Button”), Richard and David — have been forced to do precisely that. Jean has never found anywhere permanent for her small family to live, and every couple of weeks she is forced to look for new places to stop. She and her family are traveling in France, where I have plans to visit them in the coming months to see the children who I have known for so long, and who are now becoming adults.

Staying with them on their journey around the United Kingdom or in temporarily rented yards, constantly hawking for work and looking for a place where they might be at last able to stay, I have witnessed firsthand their struggle.

Barbara once told me: “We learned to live with prejudice long ago; that’s part of our life. We’ve been prejudiced against, no one wanted us all our lives and that’s it. ‘Gypsies on the side of the road! Pikeys on the end of the street! Move ’em on.’ We take prejudice as a compliment.”

I’m not sure I really understood it until after the eviction from Dale Farm. Now, I have overheard prejudicial talk in local pubs, been turned away with them and eyeballed in public places, and felt the humiliation as police arrive in the lay-bys and public parks to explain that they are sorry, but that after a week more the families will have to move on. It is a constantly uneasy life.

But I have also been witness to what was always, to me, the important story of the Dale Farm Travellers. Not the eviction, but the warmth and humanity of this unique community, what we have in common and not what separates us. When I have felt like an outsider in my own world, the routinely ostracized Dale Farm families have shown me rare friendship and kindness. When I have been flat broke and moved into a new and shabby flat, they brought me a new duvet, pans and a kettle, and when I need a laugh, there is quite simply no one better to be with.

As I watch the children from Dale Farm grow up and away from the trauma of their eviction and face the challenges of Traveller life in the fast-moving modern world, my photographs are becoming an extensive archive of the lives of this much-derided community and, for me personally, a document of friendships that have changed my life.

In Sight is The Washington Post’s photography blog for visual narrative. This platform showcases compelling and diverse imagery from staff and freelance photographers, news agencies and archives. If you are interested in submitting a story to In Sight, please complete this form.

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Irish-American Heritage Month officially established in New Jersey

Irish-american heritage month in new jersey will "recognize the contributions of irish americans to the economic prosperity and culture of the state of new jersey.".

Governor of New Jersey Phil Murphy signed a joint resolution ( AJR63 ) designating the month of March as Irish-American Heritage Month. 

Irish-American Heritage Month will recognize the contributions of Irish Americans to the economic prosperity and culture of the State of New Jersey, the Governor's office says.

Approximately 1.3 million people in New Jersey claim Irish ancestry. Two New Jersey counties - Cape May and Gloucester-  are among the top 10 counties in the US with the highest percentage of Irish.

13.3% of New Jersey claims Irish ancestry, according to the US Census Bureau's 2016 - 2020 American Community Survey.

Governor Murphy, who has Irish roots, said on September 15: “For centuries, the Irish have settled in this country seeking the American Dream, and through their hard work, America prospered.

“The culture of our country would be much poorer if not for the Irish who came to our shores, and the generations of Irish people who have shaped New Jersey and our nation – with humility, faith, generosity, and warmth. As an Irish-American, I am proud to establish Irish-American Heritage Month in New Jersey.”

Primary sponsors of AJR63 include Senators Patrick Diegnan and Steven Oroho, and Assemblymembers Daniel Benson, Wayne DeAngelo, and Carol Murphy. 

Senator Diegnan said: “As the son of Irish immigrants, I know firsthand the contributions of the Irish. Irish immigrants are the embodiment of the American Dream.

“Irish American Heritage Month will honor the values of the Irish and celebrate their unique impact on our country.”

Senate Minority Leader Oroho said: "For centuries, the Irish people, like many immigrants, came to this country and settled in states such as New Jersey looking for a better life for their families. "That life change usually involved accepting difficult and dangerous jobs just to make ends meet. Their steadfastness and will to succeed through generations has left a measurable impact on our culture, and contributed immensely to our growth and prosperity as a state.

"This joint resolution, now law, will formally recognize the courage and determination of Irish-Americans, and honor them for their considerable contributions, which helped shape the New Jersey of today."

In a joint statement, Assemblymembers Benson, DeAngelo, and Murphy said: “Irish-Americans have played a crucial role in the growth and development of the State of New Jersey. With their rich history, heritage, and hard work, Irish Americans have forged a path for future generations to follow. We are honored to have the month of March recognize our ancestors’ sacrifices and contributions that continue to enrich our communities.”

Ahead of St. Patrick's Day 2019, Dermot Quinn, a professor of history at Seton Hall University, discussed the impact that Irish immigrants had on New Jersey, and vice versa:

Irish people have shaped New Jersey in profoundly important ways. And New Jersey has shaped Irish people in profoundly important ways. #StPatricksDay #IrishHeritageMonth pic.twitter.com/EjAtpIigfj — New Jersey (@NJGov) March 15, 2019

Earlier this year, Governor Murphy traveled to Ireland on a trade mission and met with Taoiseach Micheál Martin and US Ambassador to Ireland Claire Cronin.

Just wrapped the third day of our economic mission to Ireland. We met with government officials, held productive discussions, & met with over 50 companies interested in growing their businesses in NJ. The partnerships we are forming will undoubtedly grow our innovation economy. pic.twitter.com/ZhEmDgHt9X // — Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) April 26, 2022

• New Jersey's Irish American Governor on four-day trade trip to Ireland
• President Biden declares March as Irish-American Heritage Month

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From the Irish countryside to the American South: Traveller Emigration to the US

Irish Travellers are well known for moving around Ireland and the rest of the British Isles. But, over the years, they’ve also ventured further afield. From the early 1800s on, they began to arrive in the US and became a particularly prominent community in the American South.

Although the full story of the Traveller diaspora isn’t clear and there are few sources written by its own community members, here’s what we know about their arrival in the US.

Why Travellers left Ireland

Members of the Traveller community left Ireland for the same reasons as other Irish emigrants. Many left during the Great Famine in the 19th century, while others left during subsequent economic downturns.

But, over the years, Travellers had their own unique reasons to emigrate too. For example, to avoid discrimination and forced settlement.

During a lecture hosted by EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum, sociologist and human rights activist Dr. Sindy Joyce explored some of these reasons:

“Some families would have moved because of persecution; there were times when children were being taken off the community and being put into industrial schools,” she said. “But there were also times when it would have been for better economic opportunities… a lot of people of the Famine years would have moved because of the hardship.”

Some emigration to the US was even forced. As Ian Hancock, director of Romani Studies at the University of Texas, noted in 1986 : “From Cromwell’s time on, large numbers of British Travellers, including the Irish Travellers, were transported to the Americas.”

However, the largest period of migration to the US appears to have taken place in the mid-19th century, as a result of the Great Famine.

Where did they go?

According to a 1971 journal by Jared Harper and Charles Hudson, Irish Travellers first settled in Tonawanda, New York; Pittsburgh and Germantown, Pennsylvania; and Washington, D.C. This information, the journal says, comes from the Travellers’ own oral history.

The work of Frederick S. Arnold, an American folklorist, offers an insight into just how widespread the Irish Traveller community in the US was. In 1898, he visited a camp outside New York where a man called Lackey Costello offered to teach him some Cant – the language of Irish Travellers.

Arnold stayed at the camp for a couple of days. After this, he sought out other Irish Travellers to speak Cant with. He found them throughout the states of Connecticut, Massachussetts and New York.

Many of the first Travellers to arrive in the US in the 1800s moved South – particularly after the American Civil War. Later arrivals mainly lived in the North. The former are known as Sawries, while the latter are called Greenhorns, according to Hancock.

In the South, Irish Travellers became well-known as horse and mule traders.

Establishing communities in the South

During the Great Depression, the US government funded the Federal Writers’ Project which created travel guides for each state. The guides for Atlanta and Tennessee both mention Irish Travellers and their history there.

According to ‘ Atlanta, a city of the modern South ’, the roots of many southern Travellers can be traced back to families that initially emigrated to Washington and established a livery stable there. These were the Rileys, the McNamaras, the Carrolls, the Sherlocks, the Garmons, the Costellos, the Dartys and the O’Haras.

As time passed, they began to travel the country in their wagons and found further opportunities down south.

Annual gatherings

One group, led by a man called Pat O’Hara, established a base in Nashville, Tennessee. Then they moved on and settled in Atlanta, Georgia. Here, some Travellers purchased land but most of them eventually returned to the road.

However, in 1881, when a leading Traveller called John McNamara was buried in Atlanta’s Oakland Cemetery, the community established a strong tie with the city. So it became a tradition to have funeral masses in the Gothic, red brick Church of the Immaculate Conception once a year.

Warren LeMay from Cincinnati, OH, United States, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Here, the scattered community came together to hold funerals, weddings and business meetings every April. The Atlanta guidebook notes “the vigorous beauty of black-haired, blue-eyed Irish girls in the finery of bright dresses and costume jewelry”, while it labels the men as “good American citizens” because they enlisted during times of war.

At some point, it was decided to have annual reunions in Nashville, Tennessee, too. During the last week of April, Travellers who were based west of the Allegheny Mountains would set up camp here. Those to the east continued to gather in Atlanta.

In the 1940s, when the Tennessee guidebook was written, around 3,000 Travellers set up their green tents and trailers in a field below an underpass. In the local Mount Calvary Cemetery, visitors can still see elaborately adorned graves bearing Traveller names like Gorman and Sherlock.

Economic success

Throughout the 1800s, animal trading proved to be a successful business for Travellers in the South. As Harper and Hudson explain, some got jobs in large stock centres, while others drove animals out into the countryside to trade with farmers. Occasionally, they would open a shop and trade from there.

According to the Tennessee State guide , written in 1949, Irish Travellers bought many fine animals. But they were also known to take on sick mules and overworked horses, which often recovered under their care. Some families shared depots in cities like New Orleans and Atlanta where they could store their animals before selling them at auction.

The guide says they traded animals abroad too. In fact, it claims that “much of the mountain artillery of the Italian Army was carried into the hills of Ethiopia on the backs of mules bought for the Italian Government by the Irish Nomads.”

While it is difficult to confirm this assertion, Harper and Hudson note that the Travellers enjoyed a boom in mule trading during World War II. A newspaper article published in the Las Vegas Age on December 3rd, 1943, also gives some credence to the claim.

It reads: “In 1935, before Mussolini invaded Ethiopia, he practically denuded Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas of mules. The Italian government bought about 300,000.”

Discrimination

While the Irish Traveller community flourished in the US South, members weren’t always welcomed with open arms. In 1927, the state of Georgia introduced an anti-Traveller tax. It placed a $250 levy on each group of “horse-traders” or “gypsies”, who lived in tents or travelled in covered wagons and automobiles.

Irish Travellers in the South today

Despite the discrimination faced by some Travellers, the community still has a strong presence in the American South.

Murphy Village in South Carolina is probably the best-known community today. Located just a couple hours from Atlanta, it is home to around 2,000 Travellers of Irish descent. According to locals , the town is named after Fr. Joseph Murphy – a Catholic priest who convinced them to settle near his church back in the 1960s.

Today, roughly 10,000 people in the US identify as Irish Travellers. This is a significant figure considering the population in Ireland stands at around 30,000 . However, because the US census doesn’t record Irish Traveller ethnicity, the true number remains unclear.

To learn more about the emigration patterns of Irish Travellers, watch our lecture ‘ Irish Traveller Communities Abroad ’. EPIC’s Historian in Residence, Dr Maurice Casey, explores the topic in detail.

Nearby Communities

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This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Community Corner

Lost and found: the fascinating history of gypsies in bergen county, for roughly 70 years gypsies in the ridgewood area were accused of being witches, thieves and fortune-tellers; an expert says the nomadic lifestyle was 'forced' by legislation, alex zawacki , neighbor.

Gypsy Pond lies down a dirt path at the end of a crooked and narrow street which splits from Rock Road. It is still and quiet, mirroring the blue of the sky and the the trees which cluster around it. A little waterfall crests over a dam and winds away under a railroad bridge; part of the Susquehanna Railway. Along with a few discarded cigarette packs and the muted roar of nearby Goffle Road, these are the only signs of human habitation. But the pond, part of the larger Kingʼs Pond Park, has a hidden history. In the 19th century, when it was counted part of the then-expansive Ridgewood Township (which included Glen Rock and Midland Park), the pond was surrounded by a bustling camp of Romani travelers–the Gypsies from whom the pond derives its name. Little trace remains of them now, save in the Heritage Center of the Ridgewood Library, where their curious story has been preserved. “This shelf is all about the history of Ridgewood,” says historical librarian Peggy Norris, gesturing to a collection of carefully-tended books. “With the caveat that you canʼt believe everything you read.” A binder of centuries-old newspaper stories transcribed by Joseph Suplicki, a Ridgewood historian with the library, contains the first mention of the Gypsies. “A Witch In Bergen County,” trumpets the headline, taken from the Begen County Democrat in 1860. It tells the story of a “sort of gipsy fortune-teller” residing on Cherry Lane, now Lincoln Avenue. The unnamed woman is alleged to have swindled a Ridgewood resident out of a $20 gold piece after reading her palm, and spooked local residents into fearing “that she might bewitch them all... both man and beast.” A week later, the gold piece was returned, and a nearby Romani camp was ordered by the town to disperse. The group traveled into New York and encamped for a night in Orange County before returning. The pond around which they eventually made camp appears on old maps under the name of Morrowʼs Pond, a reference to the William Morrow & Son Woollen Factory which once stood near the site. Dams and spillways, once used by the mill, still remain. Farther up the trail, a small cluster of ruins stands in the middle of a small clearing. “Those were apparently a skating shelter, when the country club was on Lincoln Ave. Gypsy Pond would freeze on the winter, so they had ice skating,” Suplicki said. The story of Gypsies in Bergen County unfolds in scattered newspaper articles over a nearly 70-year period. One town blotter in the 1878 Democrat reports several wagonloads of Romani people passing through town in a week, and states that “at Ho-Ho-Kus they traded horses with E. Rosencrantz and Dickie. Neither are proud of their bargain.” The E. Rosencrantz mentioned is Elijah Rosencrantz, owner of the Hermitage. Some townspeople visited the camps, wherever they moved to, to have their fortunes told. Others feared them as witches. Ian Hancock, professor of linguistics at The University of Texas at Austin and one of the worldʼs foremost contributors to the study of the Romani people, says the common image of Gypsies as a nomadic group is incorrect. “Itʼs a misconception that we are a wandering people. Migration was forced by legislation,” Hancock said. The Gypsies in Ridgewood were certainly shifted by the town from one place to another. Some local farmers and landowners granted them the use of their land, often to the chagrin of the local papers. “Their horses run at large upon the highway, and are a public nuisance, annoying the farmers. The women stroll through the neighborhood, telling fortunes and picking up things that are lying around loose,” complained another Democrat article, this time from July of 1873. The Romani are a widely-dispersed people, believed to have originated from India. The word "Gypsy" comes from the Greek word for Egyptian, owing to the European assumption in the 16th century that the Romani had come from Egypt. Often excluded or exiled by state governments, their culture spread across Europe into the 20th century. “There are no traveling camps anymore,” Hancock said. “People have been settled since the end of World War II.”

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Exploring Irish Heritage in New Jersey

• March 5, 2019

This month, Historic Havens celebrates the Irish hearts that beat so strong in our area. The contributions made by brave Irish immigrants, and the heritage that their efforts continue to make in our daily lives, are immeasurable.

Much Irish history in the United States was preserved in oral traditions and brought to life by great authors and poets of the Emerald Isle. The best way to learn is to pull up a chair and listen, but here are some other ways to explore more of the Irish experience:

What is now the restored Howell Iron Works Company was originally an industrial community that flourished in the first half of the 19th century. Many Irish Catholic immigrants endured great abuse until John Roach came to work for the founder, Mr. Allaire. Roach came from Mitcheltown, County Cork, Ireland, and he was the first to allow the Irish workers to have a day off on St. Patrick’s Day.

On Saturday, March 16 from 11 am to 4 pm, the Village presents an 1830s St. Patrick’s Day Celebration at The Historic Village at Allaire. This family-friendly celebration features live Irish music from the Ballycastle Duo, Irish dancing from the Devrin Academy of Irish Dance, corned beef, cabbage, and soda bread cooking demonstrations, green ale tasting (non-alcoholic), and children’s crafts like make-your-own paper shamrock, and help the leprechaun find his gold.

Tickets in advance are $5 for adults and $3 for children. Day-of event pricing is $10 for adults and $7 for children ages 2 to 12; under age 2 are admitted free.

A must-visit for Irish Americans and those curious about their contributions is The American Irish Historical Society in New York City. It was founded in 1897 to inform the world of the achievements of the Irish in America; Teddy Roosevelt was among its members. The society is a national center of scholarship where current public issues are explored and the great renaissance in Irish culture is celebrated in lectures, concerts, art exhibits and a literary journal.

The spectacular building, located across from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, offers an extensive library with rare books and research archives. The richly appointed and elegant rooms in the headquarters can be booked to host private events.

The American Irish Historical Society is hosting “A Book Talk: Archbishop John Hughes and the Making of Irish America” by John Loughery on March 20, at 6:30 pm. Loughery will lecture on Archbishop ‘Dagger’ John Hughes, the Irish-American organizer, community advocate and outspoken evangelist who founded the Jesuit Catholic Fordham University and demanded the construction of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Hughes was a revered (and feared) power broker for his community in Manhattan and beyond.

On Wednesday, March 26 from 10:30 am to 1:30 pm, the historical society will host “Distant Ireland – Migrations to the New World.” Fintan Mullan, executive director, and Gillian Hunt, research officer of the Ulster Historical Foundation, will examine how Ireland and America are intimately entwined.

The experts will also show how to trace those elusive Irish and Scots-Irish ancestors. Fintan helped pioneer rootsireland.ie, the unique database with more than 20 million Irish historical records. Gillian carries out research for clients and is an experienced user of the General Register Office and the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.

The American Irish Historical Society is located at 991 Fifth Ave. in New York City. Tours are available. To learn more, visit aihs.org.

If you are inspired to learn more about Irish authors, Brookdale’s Lifelong Learning Center is offering a five-week course called “The Irish Literary Renaissance.” Irish historian Henry McNally will examine Irish authors Lady Augusta Gregory, William Butler Yeats, John Millington Synge, James Joyce and Sean O’Casey, focusing on their connections to the struggle for independence. The course runs on Tuesdays, March 26 to April 23, from 10 am to noon.

Of course, you’ll need to refresh yourself after all this education and exploration. As was mentioned, the best Irish history lessons are the ones you hear first-hand, so pull up a stool, order some grub and a pint at some of the area’s historic Irish eateries.

The Dublin House Restaurant & Pub is located in a building about 175 years old. The house traveled through several locations and renovations. After the Civil War, circa 1868, the house was remodeled in the Second Empire style popular between 1865 and 1880.

The Dublin House has a loyal following – some might say an unreal following, as the pub and upstairs offices and rooms are rumored to have a number of ghostly residents. Almost everyone there has a story, so ask around and keep your eyes open. The Dublin House Restaurant & Pub is located at 30 Monmouth St. in Red Bank.

Anyone who has gone over the Belmar Bridge has seen Kelly’s Tavern, a family tradition for four generations. In 1949, Ed and Mabel Kelly bought Rudy’s Twin Boro Tavern across the highway from today’s location. After Mr. Kelly’s death, his son, Bill, and his wife, Gerry, joined his mother in the family business.

After outgrowing the original tavern, the Kelly’s of today was built in 1959. A proud Irishman, Mr. Kelly was sure to pay tribute to the family’s rich Irish heritage. The Kelly family traces its roots all the way from County Monaghan and the town of Clones back on “The Old Sod.” During your visit, look for the large, hand-painted ancestral map of Ireland on the ceiling above the oversized bar, and authentic banners and coats of arms imported from Dublin.

Kelly’s Tavern is located at 43 NJ-35 South in Neptune City.

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For Irish Travelers, secrecy keeps outside world at bay

She's breaking a longstanding taboo just by talking to a stranger. Irish Travelers such as Sherlock are supposed to keep to themselves. Secrecy has ensured their survival for many years.

But that all changed last month with the rogue act of an Irish Traveler woman caught on videotape beating her child. Suddenly, the Travelers felt their culture was on trial.

Sherlock, 46, says her culture isn't nearly as peculiar or lawless as some folks say. "We're like any other community, and in any other neighborhood there's good and bad."

She's talking to a reporter only because a trusted friend has come along. No way will she pose for a picture. "We don't like to speak out," she says. "We stay to ourselves."

Descendants of nomadic Irish traders and tinsmiths known as the Tinkers who came to the United States 150 years ago, the Irish Travelers have protected their archaic culture by keeping the outside world at bay.

The older folks speak a Gaelic-derived language called Cant. Sherlock says outsiders don't understand the traditions that have kept the culture intact. Her life tells some of the story.

She left school in the eighth grade, like most Traveler girls, and entered into an arranged marriage at 17. Her husband took to the road doing home-improvement jobs and other work, as Traveler men have done for generations. Her three children, now grown, were reared in the Traveler tradition.

In a village of roughly 3,000 people, there are but a dozen surnames.

So many of the men have the same names that they go by nicknames: "Black Pete," "White Man," "Peekaboo," "Mikey Boy." People in Murphy Village are generally related, experts say: Cousins marry cousins, and always in arrangements that include a substantial dowry.

Unwanted publicity

The folks of Murphy Village rue the day they heard of Madelyne Gorman Toogood. The 25-year-old Traveler became infamous last month when she slammed her 4-year-old daughter into the back seat of an sport-utility vehicle in a shopping center near South Bend, Ind., and hit her over and over. A surveillance camera caught it all, and the footage was broadcast nationwide.

Then Toogood did the unthinkable, in the eyes of her fellow Travelers: She held a news conference and announced her ethnic origins. Toogood isn't from Murphy Village, but it didn't matter. It is here, the largest of the Traveler settlements, where police and journalists turned for clues into her life.

Law-enforcement sources say child abuse is rarely, if ever, discovered among the Travelers. And people here bristle at the possibility that others will think Toogood is one of them. She's from a different group in Texas.

"We had never met her," Sherlock says. The Irish Travelers came to the United States in the 1840s to flee the potato famine in Ireland. There are several thousand Travelers in the United States, including some of English and Scottish descent. Their precise numbers are unknown.

Toogood hails from a community in White Settlement, near Fort Worth. Another group settled outside Memphis. Scattered and smaller settlements of Irish Travelers are in northeastern states such as New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware.

Springtime traveling

Travelers share a distinctly suspicious view of the world, one shaped by their people's history of persecution in Ireland, where they were seen as an itinerant underclass. In the United States, they often are taunted as "Gypsies." The Travelers view themselves as at odds with outsiders, and even have a word for them: "country people."

Each spring, in caravans of trucks and trailers that have replaced the ornate covered wagons of yore, the men pull out of Murphy Village and fan out across the country to ply their trade. They are skilled driveway pavers, barn painters and roofers, often with regular seasonal customers. Sometimes their wives go along, depending on the ages of the kids.

But police in several states know some of these as something other than honest, hardworking folk. Some have a reputation, backed by arrests and convictions, as relentless con artists. They move around running home-improvement swindles.

Joe Livingston, an investigator with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division who is an expert on Traveler scams, estimates that 10 to 15 percent of the Murphy Village Travelers are thieves, or "yonks," as Travelers label the wayward among them.

"They basically would go door to door seeking home-improvement work, saying, 'Hey, I was working down the street and noticed your chimney needs some work and I'd be willing to do it for this wonderful price,' " says Tom Bartholomy, president of the Better Business Bureau in Charlotte, N.C.

Unsuspecting homeowners would agree and let them up on the roof. "Then they'd come down and say, 'Hey, this is going to take more than I thought. I need some more supplies. We're going to need a deposit.' And then they're gone.

"I've been with the Better Business Bureau 20 years, and it's happened every year, like clockwork, like the swallows of Capistrano," he said.

Toogood was arraigned yesterday in LaGrange, Ind., on charges of stealing fabric from a department store in Shipshewana, Ind. A not-guilty plea was entered on her behalf. Her husband, Johnny, has a long record of arrests under several names in several states and is wanted in Montana on a felony warrant for a home-improvement scam.

An eye to the future

Along Highway 25 in South Carolina, the evolution of the Irish Travelers is obvious. Where trailer homes once stood, today there are sprawling ranch houses and two- or three-story houses as large as any suburban McMansion.

You can still see the old trailers parked out back, or deeper in the woods. These nomadic people who once scraped out a meager living now are driving new Mercedes-Benzes, Lincolns and Cadillacs.

The women living in one newly built house, a mother and daughter, did not want their names used. They know the "country people" drive by and wonder where the money comes from.

Extended family members each contribute to the dowry that ensures a proper marriage. And people work long and hard to make life better for the next generation.

"It was something we prepared for for a very long time," the older woman said softly of her home.

These women are ready, though, for change. Neither went past the sixth grade. Both were married off as preteens. They want the next generation to have more opportunities in life, more choices.

Information from The Associated Press is included in this report.

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The Most Irish Towns in New Jersey

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The luck of the Irish is certainly with New Jersey.

According to the recent Census, more than 15 percent of Jerseyians claim they have at least a little bit of Irish heritage.

Why is New Jersey so Irish?

According to NJ Spotlight News , people from Ireland arrived in New Jersey as early as the late 17th century.

It wasn't until the Great Potato Famine that lasted from 1845 to 1850 that natives of Ireland really started moving to the United States, specifically New Jersey.

Seton Hall University Professor Dermot Quinn, author of “ The Irish in New Jersey: Four Centuries of American Life ,” said that Irish people of all kinds came to New Jersey.

With a name like Matt John Ryan, it's probably not shocking that I'm 100% Italian.

According to my Ancestry.com results, more than half of my background is right in Ireland.

They were even able to narrow things down to a specific neighborhood in Dublin.

That is a bucket list vacation for me.

The rest of my background is Scottish and English. There's a little German ancestry in there.

One thing is for sure, Irish or not, we know how to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in Jersey.

We are loud and proud of our green and I love it.

Here's how the results of "The Most Irish Towns in New Jersey" were broken down.

Zip Atlas used Census information to gather the New Jersey towns with the highest percentage of the population of Irish folks.

I included towns with a population of 5,000 or more.

NJ Residents are Moving to these 25 Cities

More from 94.3 the point.

Feeling lucky? These are the most Irish places in New Jersey

• Published: Mar. 16, 2018, 12:01 p.m.
• Rebecca Everett | For NJ.com

Marty Kobovitch may not be Irish, but he was decked out in green during the Belmar St. Patrick's Day Parade in 2013. (Andrew Mills/The Star-Ledger)

By Rebecca Everett | For NJ.com

It's St. Patrick's Day — the time of year when it seems like everyone, Irish or not, dons green and grabs a pint of Guinness to celebrate.

And while they say everyone is Irish on Paddy's Day, New Jersey actually does have a big community of people who can trace their lineage to the Emerald Isle.

According to 2016 census data, Irish is the second most reported ancestry in the state, after Italian.

About 14 percent, or about 1.26 million people, listed Irish as their first or second biggest bloodline on the most recent census. That's compared to 16 percent or  1.44 million for Italian.

This month, communities around New Jersey have seen their streets mobbed with people in green for  St. Patrick's Day parades and pub crawls. 

That made us wonder, what is the most Irish place in the Garden State?

The answer is, it depends. If you're looking at percentage, the prize goes to some of the state's smaller communities — several in Camden County — where as much as 37 percent of the residents have Irish ancestry.

But by the numbers, some of the state's bigger communities have thousands more Irish people, with nearly 24,000 in one township.

Here are the top five towns with the most Irish residents.

(Photo: Washington Township Facebook)

14,385 residents reporting Irish ancestry

• 48,301 population
• 29.8 percent Irish

The Gloucester Township Public Library. (Google Maps)

15,187 residents reporting Irish ancestry

• 64,049 population
• 23.7 percent Irish

P.J. Sweeney's Restaurant and Irish Pub in Brick Township. (Photo: Google Maps)

19,623 residents reporting Irish ancestry

• 74,969 population
• 26.2 percent Irish

(Photo: Richard Bell/Flickr)

21,282 residents reporting Irish ancestry

• 65,995 population
• 32.3 percent Irish

(Photo: Emilydickinsonridesabmx/Flickr)

23,828 residents reporting Irish ancestry

• 91,133 population

Here are the top five most Irish places in New Jersey by percentage of Irish residents.

(Photo: Google Maps)

34 percent reporting Irish ancestry

• 8,838 Irish residents
• 26,000 population

34.3 percent reporting Irish ancestry

• 6,334 Irish residents
• 18,464 population

Visitors to downtown Haddonfield get a carriage ride during a special event. (Photo | Raphael Webscapes, LLC)

34.7 percent reporting Irish ancestry

• 3,972 Irish residents
• 11,444 population

Haddon Avenue in Haddon Township. (Haddon Twp. Facebook)

35.7 percent reporting Irish ancestry

• 5,215 Irish residents
• 14,602 population

Residents watch the Gloucester City St. Patrick's Day Parade, Sunday, March 4, 2018 (Al Amrhein | For NJ.com)

37.7 percent reporting Irish ancestry

• 4,281 Irish residents
• 11,357 population

Check out photos from Gloucester City's 2018 St. Patrick's Day Parade

Check out more St. Patrick's Day coverage

Hoboken Leprecon 2018 in full swing (PHOTOS)

Clinton welcomes annual St. Patrick's Day parade

Jersey City parade: It's 'almost as big as Thanksgiving'

2 immigrants, 1 St. Patrick's Day lesson for Mr. Trump | Opinion

N.J.'s 20 best Irish pubs: Where to celebrate St. Patrick's Day

Musicians march in the 2018 West Hudson St. Patrick's Day Parade. (Joe Shine | Jersey Journal)

Rebecca Everett may be reached at [email protected] . Follow her on Twitter @rebeccajeverett . Find NJ.com on Facebook .

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• Beware -- The Irish Traveler Driveway Guys Are Bac…

Beware -- the Irish traveler driveway guys are back archived

peteglider said: These guys have been around and replaced quite a few driveways in the past few years. Of course, every year they disappear, numbers are disconnected, names change. That said -- the drive they've done appear to be done very well and look good... but... I was approached by someone -- I'd say the "low rent" version -- For the heck of it I drove by the roads he said they were working on.... no trucks anywhere, no drives look even remotely new.

critterlover

MickeyMouse

Sheltiemum3

Jasmo said: The "Irish Travellers" are a distinct group unto themselves. This is from Wikipedia: "Irish Travellers (Irish: an lucht siúil) or Pavee are a traditionally nomadic people of ethnic Irish origin, who maintain a separate language and set of traditions.[1][2] They live predominantly in the Republic of Ireland as well as having large numbers in the United Kingdom and in the United States.[2][3]," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Travellers

StarbellySneetch

The_Soulful_Mr_T

FC said: They did our driveway and garage floor and did a great job. I didn't even realize they were Irish Travellers. THey told me they were Ecuadorian, but what do I know?

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Irish Network New Jersey was proud to help host the 3 rd Annual Hoboken Irish Festival on Saturday, June 7. Thousands came out on a beautiful summer day and enjoyed Irish music, dance, culture and food. We are already looking forward to the 4 th annual Hoboken Irish Festival!

The #1 bar in New York City, according to Tripadvisor reviews—plus, see the rest of the 30 best

Posted: May 4, 2024 | Last updated: May 4, 2024

Highest-rated bars in New York City, according to Tripadvisor

Over the years, Tripadvisor has become the world's largest travel resource with 37.7 unique online visitors in the U.S. alone.

When the site was founded in 2000, the founders' goal was to provide travelers with an online platform to exchange reviews of destinations and hospitality businesses such as hotels and restaurants. Travelers from all over the world continue to use the site and app to determine where to stay, learn about the under-the-radar gems in their chosen destination, and where to eat, based on other travelers' reviews.

For hotels and restaurants, reviews can boost foot traffic to a location. But at times, they can be misleading in that they disproportionately cover more touristy areas while ignoring some local gems. In New York City, for example, a majority of highly rated bars were located in the Theater District—likely due to all the tourists who flock there and are more inclined to leave reviews.

Stacker compiled a list of the highest rated bars and pubs in New York City on Tripadvisor . Tripadvisor rankings factor in the average rating and number of reviews. Some bars on the list may have recently closed.

#30. Cornerstone Tavern

- Rating: 4.5 / 5 (67 reviews) - Detailed ratings: Food (4.0/5), Service (4.5/5), Value (4.0/5), Atmosphere (4.5/5) - Type of cuisine: Bar, Pub - Price: $$ - $$$ - Address: 961 2nd Ave, New York City, NY 10022-7744 - Read more on Tripadvisor

#29. Wildair

- Rating: 4.5 / 5 (44 reviews) - Detailed ratings: Food (4.5/5), Service (4.5/5), Value (4.0/5) - Type of cuisine: Wine Bar, American - Price: $$ - $$$ - Address: 142 Orchard St, New York City, NY 10002-3107 - Read more on Tripadvisor

#28. Tryon Public House

- Rating: 4.5 / 5 (55 reviews) - Detailed ratings: Food (4.5/5), Service (4.5/5), Value (4.5/5) - Type of cuisine: American, Bar - Price: $$ - $$$ - Address: 4740 Broadway Close to Dyckman Street, New York City, NY 10040-1032 - Read more on Tripadvisor

#27. Belle Reve

- Rating: 4.5 / 5 (48 reviews) - Detailed ratings: Food (4.5/5), Service (4.5/5), Value (4.0/5) - Type of cuisine: Bar, Pub - Price: $$ - $$$ - Address: 305 Church St, New York City, NY 10013-2407 - Read more on Tripadvisor

#26. Hellcat Annie's Tap Room

- Rating: 4.5 / 5 (47 reviews) - Detailed ratings: Food (4.5/5), Service (4.5/5), Value (4.5/5) - Type of cuisine: Brew Pub, Bar - Price: $$ - $$$ - Address: 637 10th Ave, New York City, NY 10036-2904 - Read more on Tripadvisor

#25. Loopy Doopy Rooftop Bar

- Rating: 4.0 / 5 (150 reviews) - Detailed ratings: Food (3.5/5), Service (3.5/5), Value (3.5/5) - Type of cuisine: Bar - Price: $$ - $$$ - Address: 102 N End Ave At the Conrad Hotel, New York City, NY 10282-1238 - Read more on Tripadvisor

#24. Arts and Crafts Beer Parlor

- Rating: 4.5 / 5 (45 reviews) - Detailed ratings: Food (4.0/5), Service (4.5/5), Value (4.5/5) - Type of cuisine: Bar, Pub - Price: $$ - $$$ - Address: 26 W 8th St, New York City, NY 10011-9023 - Read more on Tripadvisor

#23. Stout NYC

- Rating: 4.0 / 5 (89 reviews) - Detailed ratings: Food (4.0/5), Service (4.0/5), Value (4.0/5) - Type of cuisine: American, Bar - Price: $$ - $$$ - Address: 60 East 41st Street, New York City, NY 10017 - Read more on Tripadvisor

#22. Hale and Hearty Soup

- Rating: 4.5 / 5 (76 reviews) - Detailed ratings: Food (4.0/5), Service (4.0/5), Value (4.0/5), Atmosphere (3.0/5) - Type of cuisine: Soups - Price: $ - Address: 30 Rockefeller Plz Ste CONC33, New York City, NY 10112-0015 - Read more on Tripadvisor

#21. Juniper Bar

- Rating: 4.0 / 5 (103 reviews) - Detailed ratings: Food (4.0/5), Service (4.5/5), Value (4.0/5) - Type of cuisine: American - Price: $$ - $$$ - Address: 237 W 35th St, New York City, NY 10001 - Read more on Tripadvisor

#20. Dear Irving

- Rating: 4.5 / 5 (88 reviews) - Detailed ratings: Food (4.0/5), Service (4.0/5), Value (3.5/5) - Type of cuisine: Bar - Price: $$ - $$$ - Address: 55 Irving Pl, New York City, NY 10003-2317 - Read more on Tripadvisor

#19. Rumours Pub

- Rating: 4.0 / 5 (98 reviews) - Detailed ratings: Food (4.0/5), Service (4.5/5), Value (4.0/5), Atmosphere (4.5/5) - Type of cuisine: Irish, Bar - Price: $$ - $$$ - Address: 933 8th Ave, New York City, NY 10019-4202 - Read more on Tripadvisor

#18. Left Bank Burger Bar

- Rating: 4.5 / 5 (75 reviews) - Detailed ratings: Food (5.0/5), Service (4.5/5), Value (4.5/5) - Type of cuisine: American, Bar - Price: $$ - $$$ - Address: 194 Newark Ave, Jersey City, NJ 07302-2725 - Read more on Tripadvisor

#17. Lilly's craft and kitchen

- Rating: 4.0 / 5 (127 reviews) - Detailed ratings: Food (4.0/5), Service (4.0/5), Value (4.0/5) - Type of cuisine: American, Bar - Price: $$ - $$$ - Address: 675 9th Ave Btwn 46th and 47th street, New York City, NY 10036-3620 - Read more on Tripadvisor

#16. The Tailor Public House

- Rating: 4.5 / 5 (75 reviews) - Detailed ratings: Food (4.5/5), Service (4.5/5), Value (4.0/5) - Type of cuisine: American, Bar - Price: $$ - $$$ - Address: 505 8th Ave, New York City, NY 10018-6505 - Read more on Tripadvisor

#15. The Brazen Tavern

- Rating: 4.5 / 5 (94 reviews) - Detailed ratings: Food (4.5/5), Service (4.5/5), Value (4.0/5) - Type of cuisine: Bar, Pub - Price: $$ - $$$ - Address: 356 W 44th St, New York City, NY 10036-5425 - Read more on Tripadvisor

#14. Jasper's Taphouse

- Rating: 4.5 / 5 (94 reviews) - Detailed ratings: Food (4.5/5), Service (4.5/5), Value (4.0/5) - Type of cuisine: American, Bar - Price: $$ - $$$ - Address: 761 9th Ave, New York City, NY 10019-6336 - Read more on Tripadvisor

#13. Scruffy Duffys

- Rating: 4.5 / 5 (73 reviews) - Detailed ratings: Food (4.5/5), Service (4.5/5), Value (4.5/5) - Type of cuisine: Bar, Pub - Price: $$ - $$$ - Address: 639 10th Ave Between 45th & 46th Streets, New York City, NY 10036-2907 - Read more on Tripadvisor

#12. Haswell Green

- Rating: 4.5 / 5 (77 reviews) - Detailed ratings: Food (5.0/5), Service (4.5/5), Value (4.5/5) - Type of cuisine: American, Bar - Price: $$ - $$$ - Address: 240 W 52nd St Btwn B'way & 8th, New York City, NY 10019-5802 - Read more on Tripadvisor

#11. Boulton & Watt

- Rating: 4.5 / 5 (108 reviews) - Detailed ratings: Food (4.5/5), Service (4.0/5), Value (4.5/5), Atmosphere (4.5/5) - Type of cuisine: American, Bar - Price: $$ - $$$ - Address: 5 Avenue a, New York City, NY 10009-7944 - Read more on Tripadvisor

#10. Blackwell's Pub and Restaurant

- Rating: 4.5 / 5 (147 reviews) - Detailed ratings: Food (4.5/5), Service (4.5/5), Value (4.0/5) - Type of cuisine: American, Irish - Price: $$ - $$$ - Address: 150 E 47th St, New York City, NY 10017-2018 - Read more on Tripadvisor

#9. the Junction

- Rating: 4.5 / 5 (113 reviews) - Detailed ratings: Food (4.0/5), Service (4.5/5), Value (4.5/5), Atmosphere (4.5/5) - Type of cuisine: Irish, Bar - Price: $ - Address: 329 Lexington Ave, New York City, NY 10016-2659 - Read more on Tripadvisor

#8. Oscar Wilde Restaurant & Bar

- Rating: 4.0 / 5 (205 reviews) - Detailed ratings: Food (3.5/5), Service (4.0/5), Value (4.0/5) - Type of cuisine: Bar, American - Price: $$ - $$$ - Address: 45 W 27th St, New York City, NY 10001-6916 - Read more on Tripadvisor

#7. Westlight

- Rating: 4.0 / 5 (345 reviews) - Detailed ratings: Food (4.0/5), Service (4.0/5), Value (4.0/5) - Type of cuisine: Bar, American - Price: $$ - $$$ - Address: 111 N 12th St The 22nd floor of the William Vale Hotel, Brooklyn, NY 11249-1022 - Read more on Tripadvisor

#6. Connolly's Pub & Restaurant

- Rating: 4.5 / 5 (178 reviews) - Detailed ratings: Food (4.5/5), Service (4.5/5), Value (4.5/5) - Type of cuisine: Irish, Bar - Price: $$ - $$$ - Address: 43 W 54th St, New York City, NY 10019 - Read more on Tripadvisor

#5. Crompton Ale House

- Rating: 4.5 / 5 (205 reviews) - Detailed ratings: Food (4.0/5), Service (4.0/5), Value (4.0/5) - Type of cuisine: American, Bar - Price: $$ - $$$ - Address: 159WEST W 26th St Between 6 & 7th Avenue, New York City, NY 10001-6819 - Read more on Tripadvisor

#4. St. Cloud Rooftop

- Rating: 4.5 / 5 (332 reviews) - Detailed ratings: Food (4.0/5), Service (4.0/5), Value (3.5/5) - Type of cuisine: American, Bar - Price: $$ - $$$ - Address: 6 Times Square 17th Floor, New York City, NY 10036 - Read more on Tripadvisor

#3. Hama Japanese Cuisine

- Rating: 4.5 / 5 (187 reviews) - Detailed ratings: Food (4.5/5), Service (4.5/5), Value (4.5/5) - Type of cuisine: Japanese, Bar - Price: $$ - $$$ - Address: 11 W 51st St Lower Level, New York City, NY 10019-6994 - Read more on Tripadvisor

#2. Dutch Fred's

- Rating: 4.5 / 5 (289 reviews) - Detailed ratings: Food (4.5/5), Service (4.5/5), Value (4.0/5) - Type of cuisine: American, Bar - Price: $$ - $$$ - Address: 307 W 47th St, New York City, NY 10036-2403 - Read more on Tripadvisor

#1. Megan's Bar & Kitchen

- Rating: 4.5 / 5 (224 reviews) - Detailed ratings: Food (4.5/5), Service (4.5/5), Value (4.5/5) - Type of cuisine: Irish, Bar - Price: $$ - $$$ - Address: 7 W 45th St, New York City, NY 10036-4905 - Read more on Tripadvisor

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