<GNOCDC>Irish Channel Neighborhood Snapshot

Home Pre Katrina Home Orleans Parish Central City/ Garden District Irish Channel Snapshot

This information is pre-Katrina.
Although the information on this page is out-of-date, we are continuing to make it available, as it provides insight about this neighborhood pre-Katrina.

Post-Katrina, we will not be making any changes or updates to this page. As a result, you may find outdated information and broken links.

For current data about New Orleans and its neighborhoods, visit our homepage.

Irish Channel Neighborhood Snapshot

Census 2000 Data Tables: People & Household Characteristics, Housing & Housing Costs, Income & Poverty, Transportation, Employment, Educational Attainment, Immigration & Language, Disabilities, Neighborhood Characteristics

The Irish Channel is a true melting pot of cultures and peoples. Many consider it one of New Orleans most interesting neighborhoods.

Some of the Irish Channel's early history

Irish peasants fleeing the potato famine in the 1840s and 1850s debarked at Adele Street and were channeled from there to the rest of the country.

Irish Channel's name and boundaries

Purists insist that the Irish Channel was originally only one street, Adele Street, which only ran two blocks, from St. Thomas to Tchoupitoulas, and lay between Josephine Street and St. Andrew Street.

There are also several versions of how the Irish Channel got its name. One story is that Irish seamen coming up the river would see the light outside Noud’s Ocean Home Saloon on Adele Street and cry out “There’s the Irish Channel!” Another story is that Adele Street was often flooded after a rain and it seemed like a channel. The truth is that it was probably called the Irish Channel because so many Irish immigrants lived there.

While there were wealthy, prominent Irish people, the Irish who came after the 1840s were largely penniless and had to work as laborers. With no money to explore beyond their debarkation point, many lower-income Irish settled right on that spot.

Along the river there were slaughterhouses, tallow factories, steam driven cotton presses and even a sugar refinery. Work could easily be found in the area for butchers, blacksmiths, bricklayers, saddlers and draymen. As was true elsewhere in the country, the Irish of New Orleans were often considered "expendable" labor. Many were killed while employed at dangerous construction work and other manual labor. The riverfront was also home to petty thieves and prostitutes.

Those who survived the recurring epidemics of yellow fever and saved their money became small businessmen or entered local politics, which helped them to prosper and gain prestige.

Houses and bars

	© Photo by Gary Scheets, courtesy of NOLA.com
	The crowd outside Parasol's Bar during the 2002 St. Patrick's Day festivities.

The Irish lived simply in small cottages. Shotgun houses – single, double and camelback – predominated the neighborhood. Whereas the Irish Channel neighborhood itself was respectable, the riverfront saloons gave it a bad reputation. Today, many of the neighborhood bars are gone, but several bars, including Parasol’s Bar on Constance Street are still present to entice Irish people to celebrate their heritage. In fact, Parasol’s is the starting point for the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade that marches through the Irish Channel.

The Best of New Orleans' review of Parasol's restaurant
www.bestofneworleans.com/cuis/restreviews/parasols.html

Photos of St. Patrick's Day Parade from NOLA.com
www.nola.com/stpatricks/gallery.ssf

Change in since 1970

To learn more about the modern history of the Irish Channel, visit our article Change in the Irish Channel: Thirty years of data about a historic New Orleans neighborhood.

Web sites for more information

Irish Channel Study Committee Report, February 7, 2001
www.new-orleans.la.us/cnoweb/cpc/irsh_chnl/Irish%20Channel%20A.htm

Relocate New Orleans description of the Irish Channel
www.relocateneworleans.com/neighborhoods/irish.cfm

LSU's Religion and Ethnicity: The Irish Channel and Irish Identity in New Orleans
www.artsci.lsu.edu/phil/faculty/payne/Projects/LaRel/AGernon/gernon04.html

Encyclopedia Louisiana
www.enlou.com/time/year1858.htm

1999 Land Use Plan New Orleans City Planning Commission
www.new-orleans.la.us/cnoweb/cpc/1999_dist_nine.htm/

Magazine Street: New Orleans’ Home-Town Hoods
www.travelbase.com/auto/localview-new.cgi?article=1512

Books & Articles

Aury, George. “Irish Channel has Modest Roots.” Times Picayune. Historic Neighborhoods series. 6/30/01.

Scott, Liz. “Luck of the Irish Channel.” New Orleans Magazine. 3/92.

Huber, Leonard. New Orleans: a pictorial history from earliest times to the present day. New York: Crown, 1971.

Garnet, Joan and Widmer, Mary Lou. Beautiful Crescent: a History of New Orleans. New Orleans: Garner Press, Inc. 1984.

New Orleans City Guide. Federal Writers’ Project of the WPA for the City of New Orleans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1938.

Home Pre Katrina Home Orleans Parish Central City/ Garden District Irish Channel Snapshot

Last modified: February 10, 2003