February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Harry Keaney
The Great Irish Fair, held annually in Brooklyn’s Coney Island, is five months away, but longtime chief organizer Al O’Hagan is hoping to soon have one important question answered: where will this year’s event take place?
For the last 17 years, the fair, which benefits Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens, has taken place the weekend after Labor Day in Steeplechase Park. This year, however, Steeplechase Park will not be available because the New York Mets are to start construction of a minor league baseball stadium on the site.
According to the final environmental impact statement by New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, only two planned events now take place on the Steeplechase fairground, the Great Irish Fair and the Ramadan Festival.
For generations, Coney Island has been a magnet for the Irish. Indeed, according to O’Hagan, it was an Irishman who began the amusement attraction for which Coney Island became famous.
Furthermore, O’Hagan said it was the Hibernians who helped create Steeplechase Park, transforming it from what was an unsightly dumping ground into the first special events park in New York City.
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O’Hagan is now hoping that New York City’s administration will do for the Great Irish Fair what the Hibernians did for Steeplechase Park. Specifically, the city is eyeing a site one block away from Steeplechase Park, adjacent to the Abe Stark Skating Rink, according to O’Hagan, who himself works with the Coney Island Chamber of Commerce. O’Hagan is hoping the city will clean up the site, enabling it to be used for the Great Irish Fair.
"It’s probably more than half the size of Steeplechase Park," O’Hagan said.
Last Tuesday, O’Hagan met in City Hall with representatives of Mayor Rudy Giuliani to discuss the site and tomorrow, Wednesday, they are to have a follow-up meeting at the site on Coney Island.
"I’d say we are three to four weeks away from definitely having the park," O’Hagan told the Echo after last week’s meeting.