Glimpses of Emerald Isle
Threads of green color city history
There are a number of other ways to pick up Milwaukee’s Irish accent that don’t involve tap beer dyed green.
It helps, for starters, to remember that Milwaukee’s Irish roots run deep.
For much of the 19th century, the Third Ward was Milwaukee’s biggest Irish neighborhood. (And, by many accounts, its most boisterous — you don’t get the nickname “the Bloody Third” by accident.) That all ended on Oct. 28, 1892, when a fire destroyed more than 15 city blocks and more than 400 buildings, including hundreds of homes, and left 1,900 Irish-Americans homeless.
A historical marker at 200 N. Broadway helps the Third Ward remember the fire, and another marker, at N. Water and E. Erie streets, commemorates another tragedy in Milwaukee’s Irish community: the 1860 sinking of the Lady Elgin in Lake Michigan, which claimed the lives of many members of the Milwaukee Guard, the Irish militia, and, by some estimates, affected one out of three Irish homes in the Third Ward.
Another way to mark the Third Ward’s Irish roots: Get in step with the “Shortest and Smallest St. Patrick’s Day Parade,” which kicks off at 5 p.m. Friday in Catalano Square, at Broadway and Menomonee St. The McMenamin Irish Dancers perform at 4:30 p.m. The Historic Third Ward Association, which sponsors the event, says the parade is 280 steps long.
Among the other places to spot Milwaukee’s Irish roots are the Merrill Park neighborhood — in the past, home to such famous Irish residents as actors Pat O’Brien and Spencer Tracy and Milwaukee politicians John Doyne and William O’Donnell — and the Jeremiah Curtin House, the fieldstone house thought to be the only surviving example of an Irish immigrant cottage in Wisconsin, now a county-owned landmark at 8685 W. Grange Ave., Greendale. The house is open to the public, but only by appointment May 15 to Oct. 15; for information, call (414) 2738288.
In the Milwaukee Public Museum’s European Village, there’s the Irish House, a cottage occupied by an elderly woman knitting a fisherman’s sweater. According to the museum’s Facebook page, the exhibit references the Old World tradition of making dis-
tinctive sweaters for fishermen in the family — not just for warmth, but so the distinctive design would help identify the wearer if he was lost at sea.
Although both were busier last weekend for the downtown St. Patrick’s Day parade, the Irish Cultural & Heritage Center, 2133 W. Wisconsin Ave., and CelticMKE, 1532 N. Wauwatosa Ave., Wauwatosa, keep the Gaelic candle burning bright year-round.
And of course there’s the dancing — lots and lots of Irish dancing in Milwaukee this weekend. How much? Take the Trinity Academy of Irish Dance in Milwaukee: Its dancers will be performing at eight different venues on Friday, including with Gaelic Storm at the Pabst Theater, 144 E. Wells St., at 8 p.m.
Oh, and no worries on the corned-beef thing this Friday: Archbishop Jerome Listecki has granted dispensation for St. Patrick’s Day, lifting the traditional ban on eating meat on Fridays during Lent.