Sunday, December 18, 2011

Excerpt from link to Book on Detroit Below (search Cork Town)


"It is in this manner that old Detroit, the backbone of our ancient
community, has solved its social problems concerning those who
came here in the long ago as "furriners."

Detroit has been a melting pot for almost two and a half cen-
turies. When first they came here we had Dutch Town, meaning
the vast east side German settlement and Cork Town, home of the
Irish on the west side. And, of course, there were the French and
the Belgian and the Hungarian and the Italian and other "towns."

But, except for the newcomers of the last generation, these are
all gone now. They gather from all over the city and its environs
various meetings but the sentiment is for their fathers and
mothers and their forebears rather than any national ties.

I know one fine Irish citizen born in Cork Town whose mother
and father were born in Dublin. He married an east side German
girl whose parents were born in Munich. One of his two sons
married a French girl, another married a Belgian and his daughter
married an Italian. And their children are reaching an age when
they will soon be seeking mates. That is Detroit and that is the
greater part of America." p. 295

No comments: