New York City is located on the Eastern Atlantic coast of the United States, at the mouth of the Hudson River. New York City is made of five boroughs separated by various waterways. Brooklyn and Queens occupy the western portion of Long Island, while Staten Island and Manhattan are completely on their own land mass. Bronx, to the north, remains attached to the New York State mainland. The Consulate General of Ireland is based in Manhattan. 

According to the 2010 US Census Bureau figures, the population of New York City is just under 8,200,000 people. The overall population of New York State is 19,400,000. 

The Irish community is one of New York's major and important ethnic groups, and has been a significant proportion of the City's population since the waves of immigration in the late 1800s. 

Irish in New York

By 1830 Irish migrants represented almost one-fifth of New York City’s residents and as a result of the potato famine in Ireland, many Irish families were forced to emigrate from the country. By 1854, between 1.5 and 2 million Irish left Ireland and between 1847 and 1851, 848,000 had reached New York. In the United States, most Irish became city-dwellers. With little money, many had to settle in the cities that the ships landed in. By 1850, the Irish made up a quarter of the population in Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. 

Today, Irish-Americans play a significant role in New York and this is most evident on St. Patrick’s Day (17^th March) each year, when New York is home to the largest (over 150,000 people march in the parade and two million spectators line the route along Fifth Avenue) and oldest (they started having one in 1762) St Patrick’s Day parade in the world.