Micro New York neighborhood dubbed ‘Little Ireland’ has more affordable homes than

A New York City neighborhood dubbed ‘Little Ireland’ is only a short 30-minute train ride away from the center of the Big Apple and boasts affordable housing and a rich history. 

Just off the last stop of the 4 train in the Bronx sits Woodlawn, which is known for its beautiful 19th-century cemetery that doubles as an arboretum.

Despite its macabre graveyard, the community also holds a little secret and perhaps some good luck too. 

Hidden into the neighborhood is a micro-community known as Little Ireland that roughly spans two avenues and even has its own Emerald Mile that is doused in Irish history, spilled Guinness, and pride. 

‘It’s a community really,’ Irish Coffee Shop co-owner Muredach Hegarty told the DailyMail.com. ‘Everybody knows everyone.

‘We try to keep it as Irish as possible and as like home as possible.’ 

Hegarty immigrated to the US from Galway in 1999 and began working at the Irish Coffee Coffee, located on McLean Avenue, in 2000. The shop itself opened in 1993.

In 2019, Hegarty and his co-owner Amanda Doherty bought the shop and they’re keen on bringing the local Irish population a taste of home in the form of scones, Irish brown bread and shepherd’s pie. 

‘It keeps it Irish,’ he told the DailyMail.com in a phone interview. 

One thing that Hegarty loves about the neighborhood is that there are ‘many generations of Irish families’ and it can ‘feel like you’re in Ireland’. 

‘It has a small-town feel,’ he said. ‘People know your name.’ 

In fact, Hegarty knows most of his customers’ names and rarely meets a new patron. 

‘Everybody got everybody’s back,’ an employee at The Paddock told DailyMail.com about the community.  

And many of the businesses along the Emerald Mile have been owned by the Irish for decades, such as the Irish Coffee Shop. 

Anyone walking down the streets will see the color green, shamrocks and Irish flags flying high along McLean and Katonah Avenues, making it very clear to passersby exactly where they are. 

‘It’s paddy central,’ real estate agent Trudi Iglesias, who used to live in Woodlawn and immigrated from Ireland, told the DailyMail.com. 

‘I almost feel like I’m Irish every day here,’ a local told DailyMail.com while standing outside businesses decked out in shamrocks. 

Woodlawn has the highest concentration of Irish Americans in the US, Iglesias said, and has a ‘very vibrant’ and diverse Emerald Isle community. 

It also has stores that sell all the foods from home, including Irish Curry, Siobhan Ni Chiobhain, who teaches the Irish-Gaelic language, told the DailyMail.com. 

‘They have the things you want from home,’ she said. ‘It’s a real place for a home away from home.’ 

Chiobhain, who has lived in other Irish Bronx neighborhoods, said she feels more at home in New York than she did when she lived in New Zealand. 

‘I feel even more connected to Ireland than ever before,’ she told the DailyMail.com. ‘I felt apart of the community and welcomed… It’s really special.’ 

The Irish population began flooding the area during the Irish Potato Famine, which lasted from 1845 to 1852. 

And the tradition of a green beer on St. Patrick’s Day is even said to have started in the Bronx by Dr. Thomas Hayes Curtis, who unveiled the beverage at a social club in the borough in 1914, according to Welcome 2 The Bronx. 

The Irish community also built the New York and Harlem Railroad and the Hudson River Railroad, as well as, High Bridge – NYC’s oldest standing bridge. 

The Irish originally settled in Melrose and Mott Haven before eventually making Woodlawn – which started out as German – their home. 

Many famous Irish people and Irish Americans have come out of the Bronx, including NASA engineer Joseph Francis Shea, comedian George Carlin and best-selling author Mary Higgins-Clark.   

Despite its strong Irish heritage, Woodlawn has begun to change as New York City residents are desperate for affordable housing. 

Hegarty has noticed small families and new faces have begun to pop up in the neighborhood, but he welcomes those who decided to call Woodlawn and Yonkers – where parts of Little Ireland lie – home. 

‘It’s great, it’s fun!’ he told DailyMail.com. ‘And it is more affordable.’   

The average home listing price in the neighborhood is $157,000, compared to its much more expensive neighbor, Manhattan, which has an average listing price of $1.5 million, according to Realtor.com. 

It’s only a short 30-minute journey to Midtown Manhattan on Metro North or a 45-minute ride on the 4 train. 

Everywhere in the neighborhood is within ‘walking distance’ of public transportation and still has that city energy, Iglesias told the DailyMail.com. 

‘It’s got a big city feeling without the big city,’ she said in a phone interview. ‘No congestion.

‘If I was single, I would live in Woodlawn… It’s the closest thing you’re going to get to Ireland.’ 

Iglesias, herself, used to live on the borderline of Woodlawn and immigrated from Ireland in 1993. 

She still visits the neighborhood regularly and loves Rory Dolan’s, which she dubs a ‘staple in the community.’ 

New England has the highest population of Irish Americans in the US, with New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont and Rhode Island with the highest density, according to USA Today. 

New York also has a good amount of Irish Americans living in the state. 

More than 110,000 foreign-born US residents reported Ireland as their birthplace, according to the US Census. 

More than 30 million Americans claim to have Irish heritage in the US.