History

One of the major achievements of the New Haven Gaelic Football and Hurling Club, founded in 1949, was the inauguration of the annual "Field Day" in 1963. The first Field Day included exhibitions of Irish dancing, a Gaelic football game against County Leitrim, a hurling match (Kilkenny v. Cork), a youth football game, a tug of war and a road race.

The event was repeated annually and, in 1966, Feis competitions were joined with Field Day activities then called the "Feis and Field Day." That first year almost 400 dancers participated, with the stage lit by automobile headlights for the final competitions. Music, art, singing and language entries grew in numbers and by 1977, it was the largest such competition in the country, with 1,600 entrants from the United States, Canada and Ireland. In 1989, the Feis and Field Day expanded to a weekend Irish festival (first for 3 days, now 2) changing it's name to the Connecticut Irish Festival. However, the Feis remains to be called the "New Haven Feis" with the North American Feis Commission. Hundreds of club members and friends volunteered to assist and guide cultural exhibitions, music, dance, evening concerts and sports. In addition to the spotlight on national and international step dancing competition there are demonstrations of such skills as bread baking and Irish lace making and information about genealogy, set dancing and music of uileann pipes. Here, more than anywhere, are the children and grandchildren of those founding club members, carrying on the traditions of Irish culture.

The Irish American Community Center, parent of the New Haven Gaelic Football and Hurling Club and sponsor of the Connecticut Irish Festival, reflects the passion and reverence for Irish sports, music, dancing, language and customs brought to America and safeguarded for posterity by Ireland's sons and daughters who arrived in this area over many decades.

The following are descriptions, and a bit of history, of some of the activities that are the foundation of the Irish American Community Center, where the culture, language, music, dance and sports of Ireland flourish. GAELIC FOOTBALL as early as 1866,Connecticut newspapers reported "hurley" matches among Irish factory hands. Subsequently, in the late 1940, young Irish immigrants grouped together to promote organized Gaelic football in New Haven– at a time when the social life wasn't good…no dances, no football, nothing to interest a young Irish man or woman.The number of Irish immigrants had decreased during World War II, but when the war ended, immigration once again flourished and by 1948 several recently-arrived young men regularly gathered for pickup Gaelic football games.From those casual games and conversations more than a half century ago was born the organization that is today the Irish American Community Center, with a membership in excess of 1,200.