New York Archives! Des Herlihy's Christening

Last weekend one of my cousins from New Jersey, John Goodheart, visited me and gave me a dvd. My father's side were from Kilkenny but before this they all came from a farm in Graigue Upper in the parish of Doneraile, Co. Cork. This side were O'Regan and Linehan. He had an Aunt Margaret from this branch who lived in Manhattan. This lady had a daughter, also called Margaret who had two girls, Ann and Peggy. When my parents went to New York after the war, they became good friends with Peggy and Ann. I have attached some clips of my parents at Ann's wedding and one of my mother on her own is when she is behind the Bridesmaid, Ann's sister, Peggy. Peggy is John Goodheart's Mother. The longer clip is film of my Christening. You will see me, Jimmy and Terry. The lady in red is my mother, the man in the bowtie is my father and the man in the beige suit is his brother Jim. At the start you see my mother with me and as the camera moves across to the door of the Church the next two gentlemen are Paddy and Jim. The lady in the blue coat is Peggy, my Godmother.Terry, Jimmy and I were baptised at St. Albert's Church at 427 W. 47 Street between 9th and 10th Avenue. We lived in an apartment directly opposite at 428 W. 47 Street. The Church was demolished some time ago. St. Albert's was a Belgian Church and my brother Jim tells the story that this was the Church which King Leopold of Belgium visited when he came to New York. Michael Cannon visited us here on one of his trips to New York when he was working as a sailor. His ship had docked on the Hudson River and he just walked up a few blocks to our apartment. We moved to Jamaica, Queens in 1954 and it was here that several more Cannons, O'Hanlons and Fogartys came to visit us.I spent a week last May in Manhattan retracing our history in Manhattan. I found the hospital we were born in, St. Claire's on W 52nd and 9th Ave. and some places where my father had worked. Two fun details about W. 47th Street. A few doors down from our apartment is a plaque on a wall marking the house where the publisher of the New Yorker magazine lived. He had a housewarming party when he moved in and one of the guests was Harpo Marx of the Marx Brothers who were big favourites in our house. On W. 47th between 8th and 9th Avenue is a synagogue which was known as the Actor's Temple. Illustrious entertainers such as Jack Benny and Ethel Merman among others worshipped here but what I like most (and our brother Patrick will be delighted to read) is that a Stooge or two of the Three Stooges also worshipped here. The building's theatrical heritage has been retained; it is now a theatre.

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