The year is 1968 and the demographics of Inwood are changing.
The above documentary, “Goodbye to Glocamorra,” examines the role of the Catholic Church, namely Good Shepherd, as the neighborhood begins its transition. The film was produced by Radharc and aired on Irish television.
This was a very interesting piece, how the area changed so quickly within 10 years or so,
Having spent almost 2 years in Inwood, I left that very good, safe Irish neighborhood 0n the morning of 22 April, 1960 for basic training in Parris Island S.C. Four years later my honorable discharge from the Marine Corps did not gain me fast citizenship. I was finger-printed, photographed and investigated for 6 weeks before my application was approved. (while I lived in Fordham, Bronx). In 1974 I returned to Inwood and lived in Seaman Ave until the late ’90s. By then the neighboorhood had changed and was no longer a safe place in which to live, so I moved upstate. For the rest of my life I’ll always have ford memories of the Inwood I knew when I first arrived there with a permanent visa in 1958. – a very nice, safe Irish neighborhood.
For historical background on the Inwood Irish and Good Shepherd consult Robert W Snyder’s “The Neighborhood Changed” The Irish of Washington Heights and Inwood Since 1945″ on pp. 439-460 in “The New York Irish”, edited by Ronald H Bayor and Timothy J Meagher, published in 1996 in Baltimoe by The Johns Hopkins University Press. Copies for onsite reference may be consulted at the US History, Local History & Genealogy collection in Room 121 at the New York Public Library at 5th Ave.-42nd Street.
WhenI was a kid in the 1950s we were allowed to walk the streets, play basball in the park down by the Hudson River and roller hockey in the PS52 schoolyard, and even ride the subway to Yankee Stadium without our parents.
Sorry to say but this documentary illustrates how racism permeated the neighborhood in 1968. Fear of outsiders, the loss of “our neighborhood”, insensitivity to people who don’t look like, sound like, worship like the Irish. Making it worse (or not) is the role the church plays in this – quietly documenting the ugly side of Irish Catholic Inwood and its fear and hatred of newcomers to the neighborhood. The scene when the Fordham Univ grad says a black person would be beaten if he walked into an irish bar in Inwood (and should go to Harlem for a drink), in 1968 no less, is just sad to hear. I’m glad things have changed-the Irish dominance ended and now this is a reasonable neighborhood; marked by a degree of interracial harmony that didn’t exist then. I don’t mourn for the past if that’s what it looked like one bit. It boggles the mind to know talk like that was acceptable and points to an ugly side of our fine neighborhood.
I lived in Inwood from 1941 to 1949 when I joined the U.S. Army at age 16 and served with Eisenhower. I returned in 1953 got engaged to a Irish Girl and married. I became a New York City Police Officer and served for 21 years. During WWII we played Marbles on Cooper Street, their were no Cars for lack of Gas. We now live in Monroe, NY. We have 4 children, 10 Grand Children, 4 Great Grandchildren. We often think of our wonderful days living in INWOOD.