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There's a row of lead laundry sinks on the third floor of an old building on the Lower Manhattan waterfront where Irish women worked in the 19th century. And beyond the laundry drying racks, Gaelic graffiti appear in ghostly but bold script on the old brick walls. "Erin Go Bragh" is writ large. So is "Faugh a ballagh" (clear the way), a famous battle cry, perhaps recorded by a man on his way to fight with the famous Irish Brigade in the Civil War. Underneath some old wallboard, restoration workers found the drawing of a Gaelic harp.
The sinks and the graffiti are being preserved as part of the South Street Seaport Museum's upcoming permanent exhibition, World Port New York. The hidden spaces and artifacts of the thriving businesses in the original 1812 Federal-style brick commercial buildings known as Schermerhorn Row at Fulton and South Streets will be visible to the public for the first time.
"There were several waves of Irish immigration. And in particular, women found their way into services," said Peter Neill, president of the Seaport Museum. "Many came here until they got domestic service uptown. There's not much evidence left of the role of women in downtown New York,"...