Here is an excerpt from an interesting article in Voices of NY about an Irishman who admires the Polish community in Greenpoint:
“…living among Poles reminds McDonagh of Ireland.
Greenpoint, similar to pre-boom inner-city Dublin, is littered with old factories, warehouse buildings and loft-spaces primed to be re-envisioned by architects and city-planners … In 2011, the Polish in Ireland superseded the British as the largest non-national community in the state. They are now part of the genetic landscape back home.
Also, Greenpoint was largely an Irish community for decades before the Poles got here in the 70s. Most of the families on my block are Irish.