Going Green: Celebrating Irish Heritage in San Francisco

And as a month of merriment kicks off notable anniversaries and new community initiatives, glad grace, as Yeats would say, between Ireland and San Francisco continues to arise.

In August 2022, a new leader landed on our fair shore: Micheál Smith, Ireland’s Consul General to the Western United States. His tenure here also coincides with the 90th anniversary of the Irish Consulate in San Francisco, which will be celebrated in April.

“San Francisco was the third consulate opened in the United States by Ireland, a fledgling country at the time. It represented the influence and importance of this city and the West Coast,” Smith tells the Gazette. “There are more people of Irish heritage in California than any other state in the union. And from the 1850s onwards, the Irish have made an impact here: Jasper O’Farrell, the City’s first surveyor. Malachi Fallon was the first chief of police. John Downey was California’s first Irish-born governor.”

Originally located in the Monadnock Building at Third and Market streets, the consulate was opened in 1933 by diplomat Matthew Murphy. According to a recent essay for the Irish Literary and Historical Society of the San Francisco Bay Area, written by Irish author Dermot Keogh, following the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922, Dublin sought closer political and economic ties with the U.S.

Yet amid those early days, the City’s halls of power were far, few and mostly not accessible to a majority of Irish, who had fled their homeland in the 1840s to escape the crushing poverty, political strife and famine that engulfed the island nation. The most brutal year of the Great Hunger was 1847, when more than one million Irish citizens died and an equal number emigrated to greener pastures in coastal American cities.

A lucky few like James Clair Flood, the son of Irish immigrants, literally struck it rich with the Comstock Lode silver mine he operated. But most of these Black ’47 refugees were more likely to work said mines during the California Gold Rush. Occupying shacks that cropped up around Potrero Hill (originally dubbed “Irish Hill”) and Mission District boardinghouses, they also helped build the railroads, opened mortuaries and toiled at mills, dairies, docks and slaughterhouses.

On Sundays, these immigrants sought respite on Mission Street at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, built in 1851 to serve this growing flock. And they congregated at that most famous cultural import: the City’s first pubs, where they sang their oft-sad songs of home.

This month, pubs, halls and churches reverberate with March Madness, a wholly different meaning among the City’s vibrant Irish community. March 17 commemorates the Feast Day of Saint Patrick, the primary patron saint of Ireland. But the calendar is packed with back-to-back events — resounding with pipers, step-dancers, fiddlers, toasts and tribute events — that bracket the 172nd St. Patrick’s Day Parade on March 11. Presented by the United Irish Societies, this proud “Wearing of the Green” along Market Street is one of the nation’s original “auld sod” celebrations and largest west of the Mississippi.

“San Francisco is a West Coast hub. We have eight consulates, plus the Washington, D.C., embassy, in the States,” explains Smith of Ireland’s U.S. diplomatic footprint, its largest globally. “We’ve 70 million people of Irish heritage, our diaspora, around the world. Thirty-two million of those are in the U.S.; 2.3 million are in California. And 750,000 Irish-born and Irish-Americans live and work in the Bay Area.”

Smith notes that Ireland is the seventh-largest investor in California’s economy as well. More than 300 West Coast businesses employ some 75,000 people in Ireland, with Silicon Valley behemoths — including Apple, Google, Amazon, LinkedIn and Meta — maintaining headquarters in Dublin and Cork.

“Relocating to the San Francisco Bay Area for work was top of the list for my family,” says Smith, who moved here with his wife, Claire, and their four children. “This is where innovation happens every day: It’s the epicenter of technological developments that will impact people’s lives, work, society, sport and the economy.”

In December 2021, under the leadership of former Consul General Robert O’Driscoll, the consulate moved from its longtime home on Pine Street to One Post Street. There, with views over its original consulate, O’Driscoll rebranded the consulate as Ireland House — which also houses Tourism Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and the office of the European Commission — and hosts robust programming by visiting scholars, authors, business leaders and diplomats on topics ranging from the modern-day influence of Saint Brigid to the Silicon Valley economy.

On the City’s outer shores at 45th Avenue and Wawona Street, the nonprofit UICC — a buzzing hive of cultural events, live music, educational programs and community gatherings — is the successor to long-gone Irish benevolent associations (Knights of the Red Branch, Ancient Order of the Hibernians). Opened in 1975, it was lovingly built by 800 volunteers led by UICC’s stalwart immigrant founders, including the late Tom Hayes, Rita O’Mahoney, John Moylan and Patrick Dowling, for whom the center’s jewel-box library of San Francisco Irish history, run by librarian Jennifer Drennan, is named.

But in 2018, due to shifting economic headwinds, the center closed. Yet the ensuing pandemic inspired members to rally and innovate in August 2020 by utilizing its outdoor parking lot, where UICC launched Wawona Gates — a beer garden filled with live music, pub fare and good craic.

Now under the leadership of current president Liam Reidy, UICC is in the midst of fundraising for its Irish Center 2025 Project. The ambitious proposal — still awaiting final approvals — aspires to construct a new $74 million, six-story, 100,000-square-foot building (including an aquatics center, gym, concert stage, museum and expanded library, along with a rooftop garden and restaurant) at its current location, which is in dire need of major structural upgrades.

“This is the largest Irish center project plan today in the States. Our core mission remains a gathering place for Irish arts and culture,” shares Reidy. “But the Outer Sunset lacks a large event space to serve all our communities. While more housing is a citywide priority, how many new developments include space for art exhibitions, dance studios or office space for nonprofits? We plan to build it and they will come!”

Another deep-rooted nonprofit serving their community is the Irish American Immigration Pastoral Center, founded by Father Brendan McBride, a warm-hearted friend to many.

The Donegal-born priest, also president of the Irish Apostolate USA, landed here in 1997 to provide chaplaincy services to Irish in need of support. While McBride previously worked in New York, those services included his advocacy to assist new immigrants in finding jobs Along with Celine Kennelly, the center’s executive director, this dynamic duo has developed a vast array of programs, from summer job placement for J-1 visa students, housing, employment and cultural outings to health and wellness programs.

“Before 9/11, there was a huge, young Irish population here and the work was plentiful. Visas weren’t a big issue because they needed the laborers,” recalls McBride.

A quarter-century later, the undocumented remain top of mind for McBride, who works with immigration centers around the country to lobby politicians: “We’re still struggling with the minefield of immigration and always working to see if there’s a pathway to find for them. Many left Ireland 20 years ago. They’re strangers in Ireland and they’re undocumented here. It’s a very uncertain future.”

The center serves 4,000 annually. And it works closely with the consulate on crisis cases that require services both diplomatic and humanitarian. McBride’s compassion and skill was instrumental to families following the 2015 apartment balcony collapse in Berkeley that killed five J-1 students and an Irish-American and seriously injured seven others.

“The way you find out about your community is being in your community,” notes Kennelly. “Cultural competency is a big part of our work.” People often learn about the center through its annual Celtic Voices Christmas Concert. Then they realize that connection extends beyond maintaining ties to their heritage. The center also assists with complex life issues, such as care for an elderly parent.

“COVID was difficult on many of our older members. We’re providing more mental health and self-care initiatives. In the last six months, younger people joined our AA community,” shares Kennelly. “The relationships we’ve built allow us to provide support, and friendship, in a safe space as our members work through their journey.”