Jimmy Corcoran

Who was Jimmy Corcoran?

James J. "Jimmy" Corcoran was an Irish-born American laborer and well-known personality among the Irish-American community of the historic "Corcoran's Roost" and the Kip's Bay districts, roughly the area near 40th Street and First Avenue in Manhattan, and was widely regarded as the champion of working class Irish immigants between 1850 and 1880.

He is alleged to have been somewhat of an underworld figure, under the alias Paddy Corcoran, founding the Rag Gang which operated with his sons on the Manhattan waterfront during the late 19th century and presumably carried on by his son Tommy Corcoran for a decade after his death.