The Diaspora of Irish has seen ex-pats moving to every corner of the earth and New York has been a particularly popular place for hundreds of thousands of them down through the years. The Bronx and Queens are full of people from the Emerald Isle, while another area of the city is emerging as a common destination and that is Long Island.

The area is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City (Queens and Brooklyn), and two of which are mainly suburban (Nassau and Suffolk).
There is now a strong Irish contingent gathered in the area and one county in particular is well represented and that is Monaghan. For this year's edition of the yearbook, we speak to a Farney County native, who has resided in the States for the past 30 years and that is Cremartin's very own Seamus Kerr, son of Paddy(RIP) & May Kerr from Annyalla.
January 20th 1981 is a significant date in American history as it is the date that Seamus arrived in the States along with his friend Terence Buckley, oh and it was also the day that Ronald Regan became the 40th President of the United States of America. I first stayed with Tom & Anne McArdle, originally from Annyalla. They were kind to accommodate me; they made me feel like family. I still keep in touch with them.
The intention of the two young men from Monaghan was to stay a year, but 30 years later. Seamus is now well and truly settled on long Island. That is not to say that he has forgotten his roots and regular trips are still made back to the 'home country'.
Before deciding to head off to the States, Seamus was a tough tackling centre back on the Cremartin under-21 football team, while he was just making his marking on the junior side before his departure.
"The year before I left, we won the under-21 and junior B championships, which were fair achievement for the club at the time. A few years after I left, the club went Senior for a while and they were a decent side, but emigration took its toll and many lads left the area," revealed Seamus.
"RTE actually did a programme on the Cremartin club to highlight the problem of emigration during the eighties and at one stage there were ten of that team over here in New York, which just shows you how the club was decimated."
Seamus' love of Gaelic football never waned following his move stateside and he continued to play throughout the eighties. "I played with the Monaghan club over here for a few years. At that time the football was very competitive and there was a good few teams here and the standard was fairly high." The present county manager, Eamon McEneaney, was a player that played with us in New York. I hope he brings Monaghan to the next level.
For the past few years, Seamus has been involved with the Long Island Gaels club and indeed for the past three years, he has been president of the club as well as coaching the under 16 team. Established in 2000, the Long Island Gaels has a short but rich history. The club is mainly comprised of Irish American people who strive to promote Irish heritage and culture.
Long Island Gaels in their short existence boast players from numerous counties in Ireland including Antrim, Armagh, Carlow, Cavan, Clare, Cork, Derry, Donegal, Down, Dublin, Kerry, Kildare, Laois, Meath, Monaghan, Roscommon, Sligo Tipperary, Tyrone, Waterford, Westmeath and Wexford.
At present the club has a number of underage programs from under-8 up to minor, while they also have an adult team as well. They have players from the North Shore to the South Shore, from Huntington to Point Lookout. At present they are training and playing in Molloy College in Rockville Centre. They compete against twelve other clubs around the Tri-State area. Long Island Gaels is the only Gaelic football club on Long Island. The underage program is supported and sponsored by the Irish American Society, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and the Rockville Centre Parade Committee. "The club has made huge strides since it was first established eleven years ago. We place a great emphasis on the underage structure and we have gone from having 20 kids playing to over 100 now.
My wife Jackie is the recruitment officer in the club. Jackie's parents are actually from Monaghan originally." Rose (RIP) Broomfield & John (RIP) O'Hare, Drumhowan.
2009 was a particularly proud year for the Kerr family as daughter Nicole (15) was chosen to represent the New York under-14 New York All Stars in the National Feile finals that were held in Co Kildare.
"It was great for Nicole to be selected for the Feile, with two other Long Island Gaels players, Shannon and Cathryna Hughes and we had a great time over there. The tournament was very well organized. My two other children, Ryan (19) and James (17) have also played with our club. "Our senior team manager, John Moore, has two sons that have also represented New York All Stars in Ireland. Gareth played with the minor team in Croke Park this past year and Sean was on the under-14 team. For a small club like ours to get such recognitions, is great."
2010 was a massive 12 months for the Long Island GAA club as they held the Continental Youth Championships (CYC). This is an annual weekend tournament of Gaelic football and hurling organized by the Gaelic Athletic Association. It is contested by teams from the USA and Canada, and is a separate competition from the existing youth championships in the New York, Canadian, and NACB areas. It began in 2004, and its location rotates around various cities from year to year. The age of players ranges from Under 8 to Under 18.
"Hosting the CYC really put us on the map with regards to being recognised as a club out here. It brought a great buzz to the area and there was a lot of interest generated. Most of our players would be first or second generation Irish, but after that weekend, a lot of Americans were keen to get involved."
Seamus admits that there has been an increase in the population of the Irish community in Long Island and many of these would hail from the place of his own origin. "There are a lot of Irish here now as people have started to realize that with so many heading to The Bronx there is not enough work to go around, so they have decided to come down here instead. We would get a lot of students for the summer and we usually can accommodate them work wise, and they play with the club, but the only problem is the majority of them head home when we reach the play-offs, which is on an almost annual basis in the intermediate championship.
"The Monaghan contingent here is very strong also. Our two main sponsors are Niall Gunn, who owns Monaghan's Pub and Pat Curley, who owns the Cannon's Black Thorne: both of them are from Monaghan, while many people involved in the club are also from Monaghan." Monaghan players currently playing with us are Bonny Duffy (Ballybay), James Connelly (Latton), Ross Connelly (Harps) and Kevin O'Callaghan (Inniskeen). In saying that, our minor board chairman, Philip Hughes, has four children that play for us. Philip has been involved almost from the beginning, playing with the senior team.
I would like to congratulate my home club, Cremartin for winning the Junior Championship this year. My Uncle John Kerr (RIP) was the president of the club but he died in 2010, he would have been proud. The club gave him a guard of honor, which I was sincerely thankful for. I have 4 nephews and 3 nieces playing under age with Cremartin. Paddy, Barry, Aidan, Cathal, Michele, Emma and Niamh, all Kerrs. My uncle Packie McQuade is the president of the Clontibret club and former county player. So, there was and is plenty of football in the air.
This year, Seamus with his wife Jackie, was guest of honor at the Long Gaels Annual Dinner Dance. It was a great honor for all his hard work and endeavors with the club. There were 300 people at the affair. In 1993, he also had the privilege to be guest of honor at the Monaghan football Club for his contributions to the club; he was the treasurer for some years in the 90's.
With all of this going on in his life, he finds time to be a member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH), the Monaghan Society and run his own construction company, Primetime Home Improvements and keeps a busy family life, but he says "It's all great!" Tweet

Most Read Stories