Toasters and Boasters: John D. Crimmins's St. Patrick's Day (1902)

Abstract

The North American celebration of St. Patrick's Day on or near March 17 has, during recent decades, been marked by an ever-growing accretion of slogans and symbols. In practically any gift shop, posters of rainbows and pots of gold announce approach of holiday, as do greeting cards whereon lep rechauns declare Top o' mornin' to ye, and command, along with familiar lapel button, Kiss me I'm Irish. Yet all this is of recent origin. The ear liest commemorations of day in North America were of a very different order. Central to these early St. Patrick's Day observations were banquets and other formal events that featured multiple toasts. In colonial America and in early republic, these events included tributes to the glorious memory of King William1 followed by playing of God Save King.1 Moreover, cele brants were as likely to hail commerce and local politics as they were to praise Saint Patrick; for instance, this toast was delivered at a 1766 New York gathering: Success to Sons of Liberty in America; may they never want Money, Inter est, nor Courage to Maintain their Just Rights (SPD 26). We learn these facts in St. Patrick's Day: Its Celebration in New York and Other American Places, 1737-1845, a privately published work by a New York con tractor and amateur ethnologist who possessed an intense pride in his Irish her itage. John Daniel Crimmins (1844-1917) was one of New York City's most prominent citizens of Irish descent in late nineteenth century. The son of immigrants?his father was also a contractor?Crimmins played a prominent role as a New York businessman; in addition to buildings, hospitals, and church es, Crimmins's firm constructed much of city's elevated railway system and laid its earliest underground telegraph and telephone lines. At one point, Crim mins employed 12,000 workers. He was a leading donor to building of St. Patrick's Cathedral, and maintained a lively membership in such Irish organi