PATERSON - The name "Silk City" contains a certain irony as one of the toughest towns around, New Jersey or anywhere, defined by what immigrants built here out of the Industrial Revolution and beyond, Irish Americans proudly among them.

On St. Patrick's Day today, an Irish daughter came to City Hall in downtown Paterson to receive the Hibernian of the Year award from Mayor Andre Sayegh.

The mayor celebrated the distinguished honoree for possessing the tenacity, resilience, and toughness of her forebearers, the kinds of people who fled the Irish Potato Famine to work and worship in America, who built Paterson's St. John the Baptist Cathedral.

"Not only is she the first woman Democrat to be the governor of New Jersey, but what did she have to do to get there?" Sayegh pointed out in City Council chambers. "It was not easy. It was a donnybrook. She beat not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, but six men to become the governor. Ladies and gentlemen, it is with great honor that I present the 2026 Hibernian of the Year to Governor Mikie Sherrill."

The Governor said the Irish American story remains vital to America because it is the story of American immigrants. She said bad, self-interested government created the potato famine. Her beloved grandfather, Bill Donovan, had managed to get his family on the right path after they survived hard immigrant roots only to have to confront the American Depression, also the cause, she said, of bad government.

"Good government can make the difference between making sure your family has opportunity," said the Governor, drawing a parallel with the present day. "In the federal government now, all the money is going to the top. The president has become a billionaire overnight, while working people see costs go up."

Sherrill said her administration is focused on the needs of working people and helping them to success. With that in mind, "Here today, in the year of our Lord 2026," she gave the Irish Blessing:

"May the road rise to meet you, May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, The rains fall soft upon your fields. ...May you be in heaven a full half-hour before the devil knows you're dead!"

Kathleen Long, former Sayegh chief-of-staff and former business administrator of Paterson, now with the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA), reminded the crowd of the beauty of the Irish "culture of hopefulness." Long paid tribute to the thousands of Irish who fled the famine of 1847 to settle in the city's Little Dublin neighborhood, in the area of Spruce and Oliver.

"They were once the city's dominant immigrant community," said Long.

"One story highlights American community," she added.  "In 1847, that year of Black Death, the Choctaw Tribe of Oklahoma learned of the potato famine from missionaries, just after having endured their own Trail of Tears. They raised $170, the equivalent of $5,000k today, sent through Quakers to Ireland for famine relief. In 2017, the Irish erected a sculpture in Cork called 'Kindred Spirits.'

"All is not lost in times of challenge, Mayor Sayegh," said Long, paying tribute to the African Americans who traveled from the South to Paterson, the Bangladeshi, the Turks, all of the world's tough and tired travelers who made their way here.

"We too can succeed where we find community," Long told the mayor and the governor.

Taking the podium moments later, Sayegh cracked, "I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge some of our local Irish elected officials." The mayor then stood in silence in the roomful of just about every other ethnic identity except Irish, long enough for the crowd to laugh, as he proceeded to introduce "Assemblyman Al 'Mc' Abdelaziz," before making every name of every present elected official from Paterson an Irish name on St. Patrick's Day 2026.

Those in attendance included, for the record, Assemblyman Al Abdelaziz, Passaic County Commissioner John Bartlett, Council President Dr. Lilisa Mimms, Councilwoman Maritza Davila, Councilwoman Ruby Cotton, Councilman Luis Velez, Councilman Ibrahim Omar, Councilman MD Forid Uddin, and many, many more.