It’s never a complete surprise to me when something outrageous has its origins with the Irish. Sometimes called the Wild Irish, waaay back when. (The Fightin’ Irish, if you’re Notre Dame inclined…)
Sorting books this afternoon and I came across The Westies: Inside the Hell’s Kitchen Irish Mob, by T. J. English. Beyond noting the irony of English writing about Irish, I was curious as to how Hell’s Kitchen came to be called that. New Yorkers likely know exactly where that part of Manhattan is located. Year’s ago, there would be no question that it was THAT part of Manhattan that ought to be avoided if you didn’t have business there.
It’s not too far from the Broadway stages, so it later became a destination for up-and-coming actors and actresses who couldn’t afford the fancier places to live. These days, a realtor is more likely to show an apartment or loft in West Midtown, which is a gentrified name for the area, more fitting to the current higher rent prices.
But, Hell’s Kitchen? Where did that come from?
It’s been called that for so long that there are differences of opinion about the origin, but the area was home to the early Irish immigrants (along with the Five Points district, made famous in the film Gangs of New York), and according to the Irish Cultural Society of the Garden City Area: In 1835, Davy Crockett considered the neighborhood and said, “In my part of the country, when you meet an Irishman, you find a first-rate gentleman; but these are worse than savages; they are too mean to swab hell’s kitchen.”
Of course, Crockett’s ancestors sailed over from Ireland, and his father John was among the Overmountain men who defeated British Major Patrick Ferguson at the Battle of King’s Mountain during the Revolution. (Those predominantly-Irish “mountain boys” were another feisty bunch, but I digress.)
The “less-than’gentlemen” Crockett described lived in Five Points, those Irishmen who were just too mean to swab the other Irish tenements.
These days, folks are more likely to associate the phrase with Chef Gordon Ramsey, who has made a mark raking wannabe culinary artists over the hot coals on his Hell’s Kitchen TV show.
But if you have an appetite for some Hell’s Kitchen history, check out The Westies, or (as Chef Kenny used to say) “may you die roarin’ for a priest.” (Kidding, there. Among the Irish, that’s a terribly mean thing to wish on someone, I’ve come to understand.)
May the road rise up to meet you and the wind be always at your back! (Now, that one I mean!)
Come visit!
McHuston
Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 South Main St. Broken Arrow OK!
