And because of a terrific programme of music and lectures at Glucksman Ireland House, including a big commemoration of the late, great John McGahern and a couple of lectures by women academics - one on the truths behind the stereotype of the Irish servant girl, one on the key role played by Irish nuns in the development of care for the sick in New York - exactly the kind of fields of enquiry, by the way, which are thriving in the US for reasons which the managers of NUI Galway, who are in the process of downgrading their respected Women's Studies programme, would do well to ponder.

And there's much more Irish-flavoured stuff around. There's an Irish-American television series called The Black Donnellys - "We can't compete with The Sopranos, " Frank McCourt said. "We haven't the cuisine" - and then there's Scorsese's The Departed.

Last week, the wonderful Lower East Side Tenement Museum organised a panel discussion with Frank McCourt, Terry Golway, Pete Hamill and other famous Manhattan Irish-Americans about where the Irish presence is in New York now, and whether it is mostly a legacy. A large audience shoehorned itself into a trendy corner bar - which would once have been a saloon - to listen to these stars on this subject. There probably hadn't been as many Irish people in the area, Peter Quinn remarked, since the Draft Riots (riots by poor Irish immigrants in 1863 against being drafted by Lincoln to fight in the Civil War on behalf of blacks, with whom they habitually vied for jobs).

I made the rather obvious point that where Irishness resides in Manhattan now is in high culture. And that, in some ways, equals a retreat from importance. The only visceral, deeply-felt bond between IrishAmerica and Ireland was green nationalism, and now it is a spent force. Since the Anglo-Irish and St Andrew's agreements, the urgency has gone out of the identity politics of the island, and therefore out of any Irish-American political issue, except immigration policy. The old bulls - Teddy Kennedy, John Hume and Martin Galvin, for example - have not been replaced by young bulls.

What there is is status on the performance side of the entertainment business, in most of the arts and, up to a point, in the print media.

But there's not, to my mind, a Manhattan-Irish intelligentsia, or an Irish philanthropic/social establishment or indeed, any Irish establishment.

The Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism, John O'Donoghue said - when he recently launched a plan for an Irish Cultural Centre in Manhattan, to which Gabriel Byrne is generously giving his time and energy - that "the Irish in America have made a significant contribution to American culture in business and politics. It is only right and fitting that we celebrate this proud tradition? by developing an Irish cultural centre". But why culture to celebrate business and politics? Why celebrate one thing with another thing?

Why not, to celebrate business success, develop mutually aiding business strategies?

The Chinese and Egyptians and many another immigrant group are powerful commercial forces for each other. Why not, to celebrate the importance we once had in politics, work to establish a post-Northern Ireland Irish-American political presence? It is very noticeable here, when full-page petitions to do with foreign or domestic issues are printed in the newspapers, that few if any names beginning with Mac or O have signed. And why is there no IrishAmerican journal of current affairs? The Jews of New York are a vibrant presence in talk, action and publication in the politics of the city and the country, but the Irish are not.

Any truthful description of Irish-American culture - of the entire ethos and way of life - would place it firmly in blue-collar America, away from high culture or from any of the arts, even the domestic ones. The macho AmericanIrish image even takes on a slightly antisocial colouring on St Patrick's Day, at least in the area where I stay when I'm in New York - a middle-class, family-oriented, very Jewish area. The local parade is by no means something I hear praised. The big, tired men in windcheaters, jeans and white sneakers and the women who look as if they've been around the block come out of the bars and take over the occasion. And drinking can't be shared, as distinctive foods can, or dancing can, or decorative styles, such as you see in parades in Chinatown, can, and it has no iconography.

There's nothing in the Irish drinking culture for children, and modern America worships children.

If the government of the Republic of Ireland wants to do something vibrant for itself and its Irish-American element, why doesn't it recognise this disconnect? Why not think along the lines of education and media and job and professional opportunities we might assist in providing to the diaspora? 'Culture' sounds great, but it is the easy option, not to mention that it is dependent on gifted individuals and not on the state. Where are John O'Donoghue's fellow ministers? What are they doing for the Irish presence in New York?