It would be easy to point to great individual instances of successful Irishmen in the wholesale and the greater retail business of the city, but enough has been said here to show how strong is the hold of the Irish here and how great their stake in the fortune and wealth of the city. Nevertheless, one may well be surprised to note how little that is distinctly Irish, as apart from Catholic or Protestant, Democrat or Republican (to mention a couple of lines of emotional and rational cleavage), meets the eye in the city’s edifices or public monuments. In the churchyard of St. Paul’s Protestant Episcopal Church are three notable monuments—a monolith to the memory of Thomas Addis Emmet, another to the memory of Dr. William James MacNevin, and a monument in the wall of the church itself over General Montgomery of Revolutionary fame. In Trinity churchyard is the tomb of Robert Fulton. In Central Park there is a bust of Thomas Moore, the Irish poet. The list ends somewhere there—pretty meagrely. There are and have been many Irish societies, patriotic, social, benevolent, literary and musical, but although the existence of one runs back over a century and a quarter and has always included in its ranks the most flourishing of Ireland’s sons, without any regard to politics or religion, it has never owned a home of its own. Like the others, it is housed from occasion to occasion wherever the choice of its officers may lead it, yet it has long owned a considerable building fund. Another body, large in numbers, is understood to own a building site, but there the matter rests. This, to the lover of Ireland, is not an encouraging condition. One would expect to see a number of splendid edifices devoted to Irish social, scientific and artistic objects. One would expect to see fine monuments in public places to the great men of Irish-American history—such even as those late-comers, the Italians, have erected to their countrymen, to wit: the fine Columbus pillar, the Garibaldi, the Verdi and the Verazzano monuments. Should there not be a trumpet note of change sounded over these glaring deficiencies? Should not there be at least one great Celtic Institute founded with a large and imposing auditorium for Irish gatherings, and with suites of rooms and smaller assembly halls for such organizations as the American-Irish Historical Society’s New York Chapter, for the Gaelic, the literary, the artistic, musical, benevolent and social Irish organizations of the city not religious in character? It is easily within the reach of accomplishment. It but needs the effort of a few of the really rich and public-spirited men of Irish blood to give it the proper financial basis and provide thereafter for its economical management. Among other things it would insure the much-neglected history of our race in New York a chance to be the object of real service, instead of as now, the hobby of comparatively few.