Breezy Point Irish united in building for the future

“It’s east Ireland over here,” explained Jim Killoran in his green baseball cap on his way to Mass.

Others have nicknamed this place “the Irish Riviera”. But it didn’t feel like your typical St Patrick’s Day.

Here in Breezy Point in Queens, New York, the mostly Irish residents have been coming to terms with the devastation left by Hurricane Sandy which battered down their seaside homes last October. Their St Patrick’s Day was not a celebration of craic and ceoil and culture of the old sod, but more a quiet appreciation of the spirit that has helped them slowly rebuild their neighbourhood — one of the worst affected by the severe weather that hit the East Coast of America five months ago.