Our Mission

Preserving Irish Culture for Future Generations

The Centre honors and promotes Irish culture through music, dance, language, and tradition, enriching the cultural fabric of the United States. Our festivals, exhibits, and community events educate and unite people from every background.

About Michael J. Quill Irish Cultural & Sports Centre

History & Grounds

The Michael J. Quill Irish Cultural & Sports Centre stands as a beacon of Irish heritage and pride — a place where history, tradition, and community come together. Established in 1987 by dedicated community leaders, this nonprofit organization is driven by a single mission: to preserve and share the rich tapestry of Irish culture and artistry. Located on a stunning 58-acre site in East Durham, NY, the Centre welcomes thousands of visitors each year to experience the vibrant legacy of Irish Americans in the Northeast.

This is far more than a cultural venue. It is a gathering place that comes alive during our cherished events. Each year we host the East Durham Memorial Day Weekend Irish Festival, drawing nearly 20,000 people from across the East Coast to celebrate Irish music, dance, and spirit. Other cornerstone events include Catskills Irish Arts Week, the Traditional Irish Music Festival, the East Durham Feis, and the Celtic Festival. Together, these festivals build a community of shared heritage and joy, welcoming Irish Americans and people of all backgrounds alike.

Our grounds reflect the dedication poured into this Centre. Nine years of work and an $800,000 investment transformed the property into a fully developed site, complete with a main entrance road, well-maintained fields, expansive parking, and facilities built for large gatherings. An 80’ x 144’ pavilion serves as the focal point during events, alongside our cultural information office, the Peter J. O’Neill Library, and the John E. Lawe Memorial, which honors a former President of the Transport Workers Union (TWU). We are especially proud of our regulation-size Irish football field and our community little league field, which support Irish and local sporting traditions side by side.

The grounds also hold meaningful symbols of Irish history and resilience. A meticulously reconstructed Donegal Irish cottage, brought over stone by stone from Ireland, sits on our property as a preserved piece of authentic Irish life. Outside the cottage lies a remarkable man-made map of Ireland, featuring every county and its flag — a striking visual tribute to the island we celebrate.

In memory of those who were lost, the Centre features a 9/11 memorial with a solemn replica of the Twin Towers. And as a reminder of Ireland’s era of religious suppression, a Mass Rock stands on our grounds, where Mass is celebrated periodically in honor of those who once had to practice their faith in secret.

Our office on Route 145, fondly known as “Tír na nÓg,” is open from April through October, inviting visitors to explore, learn, and connect with Irish culture. Come experience this living tribute to Irish heritage, where every acre of land, every building, and every event tells the story of the Irish-American spirit and its enduring legacy.

Authentic Donegal Irish Cottage

The Michael J. Quill Irish Cultural & Sports Centre dedicated its historic Donegal Irish cottage in 2004 — a cherished piece of Ireland’s rural past, rebuilt in East Durham, NY. The cottage was originally built more than 200 years ago in a quiet townland eight miles from Ardara, County Donegal, a picturesque town of roughly 725 people. For generations it was home to the Shovlin family, preserving the essence of traditional Irish life.

Years later, Gerry Laverty, a celebrated Irish designer from Dunkineely, County Donegal, purchased the cottage for his wife and four children. In the early 2000s, the Michael J. Quill Irish Cultural & Sports Centre arranged to have it disassembled piece by piece for the journey across the Atlantic. The chimney and central wall crossed first, followed by the rest of the structure and many of its original handmade furnishings. After arriving in New York Harbor, every piece was carefully transported to East Durham and reassembled by hand — a testament to Irish heritage standing on American soil.

The cottage’s thatched roof and stone walls are typical of Irish rural homes and a timeless emblem of Irish culture. The renowned Irish-American painter Edmund O’Sullivan captured the cottage in its original Donegal hillside setting, and reproductions of that painting are available for purchase through the Centre — a treasured keepsake of Irish tradition.

At our festivals, we burn Irish turf around the cottage, demonstrating the age-old practice of cutting and drying peat from the bog for warmth and cooking in the damp Irish climate. For visitors who want to bring a piece of Ireland home, authentic Bord na Móna turf is also available for sale.

Throughout the season, the Donegal cottage hosts demonstrations, music lessons, educational talks, and cultural events, giving visitors a chance to step directly into the sights, sounds, and traditions of Ireland. With each event, it stands as a living tribute to the resilience and spirit of Irish culture — an experience that bridges past and present.

Thank you for your continued support of this extraordinary piece of Irish heritage.

The Mass Rock (Carraig an Aifrinn) at the Michael J. Quill Irish Cultural & Sports Centre

Tucked into a quiet, secluded corner of our grounds, the Mass Rock stands as a powerful symbol of Irish resilience and faith. Quarried in Kingston, NY, this stone is a solemn reminder of the Penal Times in Ireland, when Roman Catholics were forced to practice their faith in secret — first under the threat of Cromwell’s army, later under the Penal Laws of 1695. Bishops were banished, and the Registration Act of 1704 required priests to register before they could preach. Those who defied these laws risked capture by “priest hunters,” who were also charged with arresting Presbyterian preachers under the Act of 1709.

The Mass Rock connects us to a long history of religious persecution in Ireland. Similar stones are found in Scotland, where Presbyterians held outlawed open-air religious services known as conventicles. In Ireland, worshippers would often take a stone from a ruined church, move it to a hidden location, and carve a simple cross into its surface, creating a concealed place to celebrate Mass. Because these services were illegal, they were never publicly scheduled — word was passed quietly among parishioners. By the late 17th century, worship had begun moving into small thatched Mass houses, and some Mass Rocks took on a new role as sites for traditional “patterns”, or pilgrimage rituals. The Archaeological Survey of Ireland and the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage both hold records of these sacred sites.

In later generations, open-air Masses became rare, limited to rural areas and special occasions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, however, with indoor gatherings restricted, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) Ireland revived the tradition by celebrating Mass at Mass Rocks across the country.

Our Mass Rock in East Durham now serves as an enduring emblem for the local Division of the Ancient Order of Hibernians. Each year, a special Mass is celebrated at this hallowed stone, paying tribute to those who kept their faith alive through the hardest of times. It is an annual celebration of a heritage rooted in strength, faith, and the enduring spirit of the Irish people.

Peter McKiernan, “Mr. Catskills” — Arts Week Scholarship and Permanent Memorial

Peter McKiernan, known to everyone as “Mr. Catskills,” passed away on September 29, 2020, after a 16-month battle with cancer. Peter was a tireless advocate for keeping Irish culture and tradition alive in East Durham, and his loss is still felt across this community. To know him was to love him, and it is hard to imagine East Durham without his joyful presence. In his honor, the Centre has established an Arts Week Scholarship and a permanent memorial on our grounds, keeping his spirit alive for generations to come.

The Embodiment of Irish Culture

Peter’s love for Irish culture began in the Catskills, where he spent childhood summers with his parents, June and Hugh, and his older brother Michael, visiting from Brooklyn. By 19, he knew his calling: to sing, play guitar, and dance — especially in East Durham, the place that had captured his heart. Over the years he performed at every resort and pub in town, spending his final two decades in residence at The Blackthorne. Across more than fifty years on stage, he embodied the hospitality and warmth the Irish are known for, greeting everyone with a huge smile and making them feel at home in the Catskills.

Peter’s kindness and generosity were legendary. Known for his wit and his one-liners, he loved pulling fellow musicians and audience members up on stage — especially children — to share in the music and the dance. Many young performers had their very first stage experience because Peter waved them up. He was particularly fond of Irish Arts Week each July, when visitors come from near and far to immerse themselves in Irish culture from morning until late into the night. As Peter would say about Arts Week and everything else in East Durham: “How great is this?!” We believe he would be truly honored by the memorial and scholarship in his name, which will let children and adults alike experience the joy of Arts Week in the town he loved so dearly.

Peter’s generosity knew no bounds. He was always the first to offer his talents free of charge at fundraisers, and he played countless events for friends without ever taking payment. He sang and played at baptisms, communions, confirmations, graduations, birthdays, weddings, and anniversaries — and, though it saddened him, at many funerals, often joking that the early hours of church services went “going against musician’s hours.” For Peter, friends were family, and he treated them that way. Alongside his beloved parents and his brother Michael, all of whom have passed, and his cherished niece Kelly Ann and grandniece Kennedy, he held his friends close, delighting in watching them grow, marry, and start families of their own. He often joked about playing for a second generation and dreamed of performing for a third.

Now it is our turn to give back to the man who never said no to anyone in need, and who always went the extra mile to make things happen. Please help us honor Peter “Mr. Catskills” McKiernan by contributing to the MJQ Irish Centre, where his legacy will continue to inspire everyone who gathers here.

Rest in peace, Mr. Catskills. You earned your wings, and we were all blessed to have had you in our lives. There will never be another like you.

Michael Joseph “Mike” Quill (September 18, 1905 – January 28, 1966)

Mike Quill founded the Transport Workers Union of America in 1934 and served as its first International President. Born in the village of Kilgarvan, County Kerry, in 1905, he came of age during the Irish revolt against British occupation. His involvement in the rebellion forced him to leave the country for America, where he found work building the IND (Independent) subway in New York City. He held a series of other jobs before becoming a force for change on the IRT (Interborough Rapid Transit). Times were hard, and the 12-hour day and seven-day workweek were all too common.

New York’s transit workforce — largely Irish-born and steeped in Irish Republican politics — had reached its breaking point just as the leader it needed emerged. Quill’s audacious approach to organizing led to the formation of the Transport Workers Union. TWU’s pioneers coined the motto “United-Invincible,” believing that only an organized, united front could win fair working conditions for themselves and their members. They also fought for workplace equality and spoke out against discrimination based on race, job title, and ethnicity.

By 1935, Quill was agitating openly for the union, setting up his soapbox at lunch hour outside the powerhouses and in the shops. Those shop-gate meetings made him a familiar figure across the transit property, and in 1936 he took the union’s message to radio to reach the broadest possible audience. Through the mid-1930s, TWU’s founders organized strikes and sit-ins against the powerful transit companies until the operators finally recognized that the union had built real power and was there to stay.

Mike Quill, President and founder of the TWU, stands on a soapbox during a shop-gate meeting
outside the IRT Powerhouse on 59th Street in New York City, 1937.

Reflecting on those years, Quill once recalled: “We were no experts in the field of labor organization, but we had something in common with our fellow workers — we were all poor, we were all overworked, we were all victims of the 84-hour week. In fact, we were all so low down on the economic and social ladder that we had nowhere to go but up.”

In the early 1940s, transit workers from New York, Ohio, Nebraska, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania joined the TWU. By the end of the decade, transit employees in San Francisco and Houston had come in as well, and airline and railroad workers were joining by the thousands.

Quill is probably best remembered for his role in the 1966 New York City transit strike. Transit had always been a political football, and in 1966 the question of who would pay for it loomed large. Quill, ailing and weakened by a series of heart attacks, refused to be swayed by politicians’ pronouncements or editorial-page attacks. Branded an “irresponsible demagogue” and “lawless hooligan” by the press, he wanted only what was fair for his members — even at the cost of a strike.

TWU had put its economic demands on the table in July 1965, but negotiations dragged on with no movement from the Transit Authority. At the top of the union’s list were wage increases to offset the cost-of-living surge driven by Vietnam War inflation.

John V. Lindsay was elected mayor in November 1965. Unlike his predecessor, Robert Wagner, he took no active role in the negotiations. The TA pleaded poverty, and with no leadership from City Hall, it made the union no offers. The mayor-elect, meanwhile, left for a Caribbean vacation.

December 26, 1961 — New York, NY. Transport Workers Union President Michael J. Quill holds up a poster as he announces a TWU strike vote for December 27 to authorize a city-wide bus and subway strike at midnight on Sunday, December 31 — New Year’s Eve.

As the clock ran down, the union made strike preparations as it had so many times before. Procrastination was nothing new from transit management. This time, though, the new mayor appeared either not to believe Quill would follow through or to think he could force the transit workers into submission. Whatever the reasoning, he was wrong.

The mayor arrived at the last minute on New Year’s Eve, and the Transit Authority finally put a package on the table. It was too little, and it came too late. On the morning of January 1, 1966, TWU members finished their last runs, and by 8:02 a.m. the final train had rolled into the terminal. No buses or subways would run for ten days.

An injunction was issued that first day to halt the strike. In one of dozens of press appearances, Quill tore it up in front of the television cameras. Over the course of the strike, 64 camera crews from around the world covered the walkout and its leader, and the four major networks kept crews on call 24 hours a day at the Americana Hotel in case of late-breaking news.

On the second day, TWU reduced its economic demands. The TA made no response. The only reply came from a judge, who issued arrest orders for violating the injunction: six TWU leaders and three Amalgamated Transit Union leaders were to be taken into custody at 11 a.m. on January 4. Quill’s answer was blunt: “The courts may have their finest hours, but they’ll not break us. We will not settle for one penny less than our objectives.”

The next morning, he walked into the Americana Hotel ballroom to meet the press, the mediators, and his negotiators. The strike was visibly taking its toll, but he did not flinch: “The judge can drop dead in his black robes. I don’t care if I rot in jail. I will not call off the strike.”

Once he was jailed, Quill’s condition worsened and he was rushed to Bellevue Hospital. Arrested alongside him were International Secretary-Treasurer Matthew Guinan, International Vice President Frank Sheehan, Local 100 President Daniel Gilmartin, Local 100 Secretary-Treasurer Ellis Van Riper, Local 100 Recording Secretary Mark Kavanagh, and ATU officers John Rowland, William Mangus, and Frank Kleess.

TWU’s second line of leadership, headed by Secretary-Treasurer Doug MacMahon, stepped in to run the strike. Negotiations continued, and on January 10 City Hall saw a labor demonstration of 15,000 pickets, with members of other TWU locals and other New York trade unions joining the strikers. The following day, with help from the mediators, both sides finally moved. At 1:37 a.m. on January 13, MacMahon announced that the union was recommending a settlement. Quill listened to the announcement from his hospital room.

Near the end of his life, Quill named what mattered most to him: “Do you know what I’m most proud of? That in TWU we have eliminated racial discrimination in hiring and in promotions and within the union’s ranks.” He went on to list the Black, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, and women members then holding appointive and elective office — at a time when few unions could say the same.

The settlement was worth more than $60 million and raised wages from $3.18 to $4.14 an hour, along with an additional paid holiday, increased pension benefits, and other gains. But the cost of the strike could not be measured in dollars. Quill had been moved to Mount Sinai Hospital for further care and was released three weeks after his jailing. He gave his final press conference in the Americana ballroom that day, and that night he celebrated the victory in a speech to thousands of TWU stewards — the troops who had made the strike work.

With the strike over, he was released from police custody. He came marching out with his wife, Shirley, a broad smile on his face and his shamrock cufflinks flashing. Death took the founder and builder of the TWU on January 28, 1966, just days after his release. As the TWU Express reported that month:

Mike Quill “did not hesitate or equivocate. He died as he lived fighting the good fight for TWU and its members.”

Today the TWU is dedicated to bettering the lives of working families. It works to safeguard and improve the working conditions and living standards of all workers, and to demand respect, dignity, and equality for every one of them. Its members make airplanes fly, railroads run, buses, subways, and bikes move, and casinos succeed. Nearly 140,000 transportation workers strong, the TWU moves America. In more than 90 years, it has grown to include members in nearly every state and in countries around the world, across the rail, air, and transit divisions that make up the union today.