Woodlawn, in the Bronx, has had Irish residents since at least the 1840s, when Irish immigrants helped dig the Old Croton Aqueduct. The nickname “Little Ireland,” however, wasn’t used until much, much later. “Other immigrants move to a Little Ireland along the Bronx-Yonkers border” was cited in the New York (NY) Times in 1994. The “Little Ireland” moniker for Woodlawn was aggressively promoted in the 2000s.
 
Irish immigration to New York City was so great in the 19th century that the entire city has also been called “Little Ireland.”
 
   
Wikipedia: Woodlawn, Bronx
Woodlawn (population 7,741) is an Irish American middle class neighborhood at the very north end of the borough of the Bronx in New York City. Unlike some neighborhoods in New York, its boundaries are well-defined, as it is bounded by McLean Avenue to the north, which is approximately the New York City / Westchester County line, the Bronx River to the east, Woodlawn Cemetery to the south and Van Cortlandt Park to the west. Woodlawn is home to a large Irish American community, and is also the site of the famous Woodlawn Cemetery. The neighborhood is part of Bronx Community Board 12.
 
Overview
Katonah Avenue, which runs north-south through the heart of Woodlawn, is a popular destination for its many Irish pubs and restaurants, such as Rambling House and Mary’s Celtic Kitchen. All offer traditional Irish breakfast or brunch at reasonable prices. In addition there is The Emerald Isle Immigration Center, an Italian bakery, an Irish Butcher Shop, an Irish Barber Shop, and many other types of specialty shops.
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This neighborhood remains one of the few communities to which young and newly arrived Irish immigrants regularly arrive en masse. The Emerald Isle Immigration Center on Katonah Avenue and the Aisling Irish Community Center on McLean Avenue are two sources for the newly arrived as well as established Irish immigrants to Woodlawn and the United States. The neighborhood is sometimes informally referred to as “Little Ireland”.
         
New York (NY) Times
The Pub: A Center Of Ireland in Exile
By ELAINE LOUIE
Published: March 16, 1994
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Other immigrants move to a Little Ireland along the Bronx-Yonkers border.
 
The Sun (New York, NY)
Irish Illegal Aliens Win Clinton as Ally of Immigration Law Change
By DANIELA GERSON, Staff Reporter of the Sun | March 9, 2006
WASHINGTON - Not long after the pubs shut their doors for the night, the Bronx’s Little Ireland sprang back to life yesterday. Hundreds of the city’s newest wave of illegal Irish immigrants - students and carpenters, waitresses and nannies - descended on Woodlawn’s main strip, bundled against the cold and cracking jokes as they waited in the dark to board buses headed for Washington.
   
Irish Examiner
Tuesday July 8, 2009
Out & About
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“Woodlawn is a unique commumity in New York City and if you just walk down Katonah Avenue, you could well believe you are in Dublin,” said Council Member Oliver Koppell. “Restaurants, food shops and merchants bring you a touch, taste and feel for Ireland,”
 
“Little Ireland is one of the City’s hidden gems, and we’‘re pleased to highlight all the great dining, shopping and cultural offerings in the neighborhood of Woodlawn and Katonah Avenue in the Bronx with the ‘Nine in 09’ campaign,” said NYC & Company CEO George Fertitta who encourages all New Yorkers to visit .
 
IrishCentral 
Christine Quinn touts Woodlawn, N.Y. as ‘Little Ireland’
APRIL DREW @irishcentral July 08,2009 11:07 AM
Woodlawn in the Bronx was abuzz with excitement on Tuesday, July 7, as New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn brought an entourage of reporters and staff to visit “Little Ireland” in an effort to make other New Yorkers aware that you don’t have to get on a plane and travel 3,000 miles to visit the Emerald Isle.
 
“You just have to get in the car or get on the subway and you’re in Little Ireland,” Quinn told the Irish Voice and IrishCentral during her walkabout in Woodlawn on Tuesday.
 
New York (NY) Times 
Wearing the Green, in More Ways Than One
BY C. J. Hughes
JULY 21, 2011
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In the early 1840s, Irish immigrants showed up to dig the Old Croton Aqueduct, which sliced beneath what is now Van Cortlandt Park. Twenty years later, Ms. Olsen said, Irish laborers built the roads that wind through the cemetery, establishing a village outside its gates.
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By many measures, thriving Katonah Avenue could also be called “Little Ireland.”
 
YouTube
Bronx Tours - Little Ireland Tour in Woodlawn
Bronx Tours
Published on Apr 12, 2013
http://www.bronxhistoricaltours.com
   
Daily News (New York, NY)
Woodlawn awaits return of hundreds of Irish students seeking ‘a little Ireland’
Each summer, college students from the Emerald Isle looking for employment opportunities in New York seek housing in Woodlawn’s Irish enclave
BY DENIS SLATTERY Sunday, June 9, 2013, 4:56 PM
It’s an invasion of Irish proportions.
 
Early each summer, hundreds of college students from the Emerald Isle descend upon Woodlawn, a quiet north Bronx hamlet near the Yonkers border, eager for a taste of New York.
 
“Woodlawn really is like a little Ireland; it’s a home away from home,” said Ashley Campbell, a student from County Kerry. “It makes it a lot easier to adjust to the big city by having a place like that.”
     
Untapped Cities
01/28/2014 at 11:00 am
NYC’s Micro Neighborhoods: Little Ireland in Woodlawn, The Bronx
by Brennan Ortiz
Little Ireland
Woodlawn, The Bronx
In the northern Bronx, just above its namesake cemetery and east of Van Cortlandt Park, you can find New York City’s own Little Ireland. The neighborhood of Woodlawn Heights or simply Woodlawn, as it is better known, has been a destination for the Irish exodus in New York City. Though originally populated by Germans, Woodlawn is now predominantly Irish with its share of Italian-Americans as well. It is here that you’ll find the greatest abundance of four-leaf clover insignias on storefronts in all of the city.
 
Twitter
NYC & Company
‏@nycgo_press
Because it’s St. Patrick’s Day: http://bit.ly/1iwwr2H . NYC’s Little Ireland #Woodlawn #Bronx #FiveBoroughs #NYC
2:20 PM - 17 Mar 2014