September 2, 1933 – April 21, 2026
Athleague, Co. Roscommon, Ireland
Terence "Terry" Connaughton, beloved husband, father, grandfather, and one of the great Irishmen of his adopted city, passed away peacefully surrounded by his family on April 21, 2026. He came of age in the Ireland of the early 1950s, a country in economic despair that sent tens of thousands of young Irish people across the Atlantic in search of a better life. In 1952, nineteen-year-old Terry Connaughton made that journey himself, arriving in New York in the suit sent back to him by his brother Benny, a hurl and boots over his shoulder, and the whole of a new world before him. What he built in the decades that followed — in sport, in service, in community, and in family — was extraordinary.
Early Life & Coming to America
Terry was born in Athleague, Co. Roscommon, the third youngest of five children of the late Dorothy and Peter Connaughton. He attended Athleague National School and Roscommon Christian Brothers School, where his love for the Games of the Gael took root early. By his late teens ,he was captaining the Roscommon Minor hurling team, losing the Connacht final to Galway in 1951. He then returned the following year to defeat them and claim the Connacht Minor Hurling Championship, the first time Roscommon had done so in over 45 years.
In 1951 he emigrated first to London, and in 1952 he arrived in New York. His first Sunday in the city, he found his way to Gaelic Park in the Bronx and joined a team, playing for the next twenty years with the Clare hurling club. The team won three consecutive championship titles in the late 1960s, and he earned the honor of playing for the New York All-Stars against Wexford in 1957.
Military Service & The New York City Police Department
Like many young Irishmen of his generation seeking a path to citizenship, Terry served two years in the United States Army during the Korean War, stationed in Stuttgart, Germany. He went on to join the New York City Police Department, where he served with distinction for twenty years. On St. Patrick's Day 1969, he was selected as the uniformed officer to blow the whistle at high noon and send the Saint Patrick's Day Parade up Fifth Avenue, Badge No. 8095, white gloves and all.
Upon retiring from the NYPD in 1977, Anne and Terry brought the family back to Roscommon, with 32 suitcases and five young children in tow. Within weeks of arriving, it was clear that after so many years, Inwood had become home and a year to the day later, the Connaughtons returned to Inwood and their beloved Good Shepherd parish.
A Life in the GAA
Few figures shaped the GAA in New York as profoundly as Terry Connaughton. Though recognized far more as a hurler, he also played football for both Roscommon and Good Shepherd for fifteen years, always acknowledging that he was a far better hurler than a footballer. He played with the Clare hurling club for twenty-one years (1953–1974), and when the immigration drought of the early 1980s thinned the ranks of young players arriving in New York, he answered the call and pulled on the Clare jersey once more in 1980, cheerfully admitting he was, by then, “almost drawing the pension.” He served as Vice-President of the New York GAA Board in 1971, 1972, and 1973, and was elected President in 1974, and again in 1988 and 1989. His 1988 presidential term was historic: It was the first year that the New York GAA became formally affiliated with Croke Park, ending a seventy-year period of limited recognition. During that tenure he also extended the playing area at Gaelic Park by fourteen yards and had the pitch completely re-sodded.
Terry was also the man who got Ladies Gaelic Football up and running in New York, calling the very first organizing meeting in September 1991 and serving as Chairman of the New York Ladies Board for its first four years and later named Honorary Lifetime President. He managed the Good Shepherd team to three Junior Championships in the 1980s, and his life in Gaelic sport was recognized by the GAA itself in an oral history project. Over the years, he was honored by countless Irish and civic organizations for his contributions.
Terry attended fifty consecutive All-Ireland finals at Croke Park, often with his children beside him, and could reliably be found holding court at the Burlington Hotel on All-Ireland Sunday morning. Nothing annoyed Anne's Meath relatives quite as much as having to call New York to get their hands on an All-Ireland ticket.
The Riverdale Steak House (The “Steak House”)
After his police career, Terry operated the Innisfree Pub in Inwood before a tip from his accountants in 1979 led him to a pub-restaurant on Riverdale Avenue in the Bronx. He took it over and kept the Riverdale Steak House name because, as he always said, it was already successful. Over the next four-plus decades, it became a true institution: an authentic Irish spot staffed by the local Gaelic sports community, his nieces out for the summer from Ireland, and anyone else looking for a job who was told to see Terry at the Steak House and he or she would be “looked after.”
The Steak House hosted Irish Taoiseach Brian Cowen, the late Maureen O’Hara (who came in on St. Patrick’s Night 1999 after serving as Grand Marshal), actor Robert Mitchum — who became a regular while filming nearby, departing each visit by shaking hands with everyone in the room — and Mayor Rudy Giuliani, among many others. More recently, HBO’s City on a Hill and the film God’s Pocket filmed scenes at the restaurant. Until recently, Terry made daily trips to the Steak House to have lunch with Anne and to chat with friends, longtime customers, staff, and whichever children or grandchildren happened to be around.
The family wishes to express their deepest gratitude to the staff of the Riverdale Steak House — many of whom have given years, and in some cases decades, of loyal and loving service.
Family
The story of Terry and Anne begins, as so many Irish stories do, at Gaelic Park. One Sunday, Anne ran into a neighbor from home, a young Fr. Sean Connaughton, who was staying with his cousin Terry on Sherman Avenue. Sean introduced Anne to Terry, and that was it. They were married in 1963 and together for more than sixty years.
He was an extraordinarily devoted father who brought his children everywhere, at a time when that wasn't really the "done thing." As Anne always said, he was the first father to push a pram in Inwood Park. He took his children on countless trips back to Ireland, driving from one end of the country to the other for a good match — always having tons of laughs, singularly focused on finding the best restaurant in every town they passed through, and always singing Irish songs at the top of their lungs in the car.
He is survived by Anne and their five children: Terry Jr. (Carrie), of Boston; Eileen (James), of New York; Mary-Anne (Mike), of Riverdale; Eamon of Pompano Beach; and Donal (Caroline), of Yonkers; and by his fourteen beloved grandchildren: Conor, Haley, Kenzie, Ava, Harry, Elizabeth, Grace, Anna, Pearse, Ronan, Donal, Nieve, Keelyn, and Cormac, who adored his great sense of humor, fun and the fact that he could be counted on to have a crunchie on his pocket for them.
In 2023, Terry celebrated his 90th birthday in his native Roscommon and with his wife’s family in Oldcastle Co. Meath, surrounded by family and friends, a fitting homecoming for a man who carried Ireland with him every day of his life in New York.
Reposing will be held on Friday, April 24th from 3:00 - 8:00 PM at Riverdale-on-Hudson Funeral Home, 6110 Riverdale Ave. A Mass of Christian Burial will take place on Saturday, April 25th at St. Margaret of Cortona Church at 9:15 AM. Interment will follow at Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, NY. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Kesem.org, the Athleague Hurling Club or St Brigids GFC Ballinacree.
May perpetual light shine upon him.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.