Manhattan Irish Fest was founded in 1995, by Tim & Mary McGrath and Mike & Mary McHugh, who proposed the idea of a festival celebrating the town's Irish heritage to the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce.  The chamber, looking to increase the exposure to the town, wholeheartedly adopted the idea.

The Manhattan Chamber of Commerce ran the festival until 2000, when it had grown to a point where the small town's businesses became overtaxed. They gave the organizing of the festival over to the Manhattan Youth Athletic Association.  With a workforce of all of the children involved in soccer, baseball and softball, the labor pool was greatly increased,  allowing Manhattan Irish Fest to continue to expand and grow.

It seemed that five years is the maximum for any group to run the festival, before burning out on the volunteered work load.  In 2005, Manhattan Irish Fest was going to disappear.

At that point, the Irish American Society of County Will picked up the reins of the program.  Again borrowing on the experiences of past groups and building upon them, Manhattan Irish Fest has continued to grow and prosper, until, today, it is the prime St Patrick's Day celebration in the Southwest Suburbs!

While adopting Manhattan Irish Fest as a principal fund raiser, the Society also gives away most of the proceeds to Scholarships, community groups and local organizations.  While having a County-wide membership, there are deep roots of the Society in Manhattan.  The Society uses Harry's Buttons, an autistic sheltered workshop located in Mokena to manufacture the buttons, and the Lincoln-way Special Education District for publishing help.

The Irish American Society of County Will ran the festival by themselves from 2005 through 2009.  In 2010, coming to grips with the tremendous popularity of the festival, the Society partnered with the Manhattan Park District to broaden its base of support.  Please contact us regarding any improvements you would like to suggest to the festival organizers.

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Please contact us if you have any pictures to share.

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Irish Fest Through the Ages

A Letter to the Editor published 2.13.08 in the Manhattan American Newspaper:

Let's take a look back in time at what "Irish Fest" has done for our community. Sometimes we feel a bit inconvenienced on the day of "Irish Fest". Most of the benefits, however, outweigh any such inconvenience as we can see by the approximate numbers presented. Perhaps this is an opportunity to thank the past chair people, sponsors and the thousands of volunteers that have made this event a continuing success.

Irish Fest was started by the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce as a means to showcase the Village of Manhattan. The Chamber successfully ran Irish Fest for five years, from 1995 to 1999. During that period the Chamber was not only able to cover its budget, it was also able to fund many worthwhile and needed projects throughout the community. Some of those are as follows:

1. Village of Manhattan entrance signs $8,382.00
2. Refurbish banner/sign poles $2,000.00
3. Purchased and installed the Central Park Pond Aerator $1,850.00
4. Furnished and installed new electrical panel in Central Park $3,100.00
5. Donation to the Manhattan Park District for land acquisition $4,100.00
6. Refurbished the lighting in the Main Pavilion at Central Park $1,500.00
7. Provided three $1,000 scholarships for local high school students $3,000.00
8. Provided four $100 Savings Bonds for grade school students $ 200.00
9. Created a website for the Village of Manhattan $ 1,000.00
10. Purchased Internet Ready computers for the Manhattan Library District

Commencing in the year 2000 through 2004, the Manhattan Youth Athletic Association (MYAA) took over the reigns of the Fest and continued to expand it and do many terrific things with the Fest proceeds. Amongst those things that the MYAA was able to do were the following:

1. Create a website for the MYAA
2. Refurbish many of the athletic fields within the Manhattan Park District
3. Build the softball field at Manhattan Jr. High
4. Build the soccer fields at Smith Road
5. Revamped the field at Central Park
6. Completely updated the equipment for all of the teams within the MYAA
7. Purchased a field grooming machine at a cost of $10,000
8. Presented $50,000 to the Manhattan Park District Foundation
 

Thanks goes to the MYAA for keeping down the cost to taxpayers as well as the cost for the participants within the organization. The quality of MYAA programs definitely improved as well.

The Irish American Society of County Will (IASCW) helped with the Fest for many years prior to taking over in 2005. In 2005 the IASCW donated approximately $20,000 from the profits to the MYAA "Field Fund". Many members of the IASCW and its rugby team spent hours sealing the tennis courts and came to the rescue during power outages at the 2005 Fun Day and Family Fun Nite. Two $1,000.00 scholarships were given out in 2005 and two Irish-Way Scholarships were awarded to local students to study in Ireland as well. One of those students was a Manhattan resident. In 2006 two scholarships were again awarded to local students. Groups and teams benefited by at least $5,000 from sales of raffles at the event. $500.00 was donated to the Chamber of Commerce Scholarship Fund. Many projects from the Irish American Society were realized.

In closing, Irish Fest is a great community event to attend and also volunteer for. We look forward to all of the events for this year's Fest to be held on Friday, February 29 and Saturday, March 1, 2008.

Gail Anderson

Manhattan Style Unlimited

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