The Irish standard., 1902-07-19
GERMANS IN LIMERICK.
Offspring of Palatine Protestants In
Ireland.

The following letter recently ap-
pcarea i'll the New York Sun:
Sir: About Il yelr ago Il controversy
was carried on in the Sunday edition
OF the Sun. with reference to the Pal
atine emigration into Ireland, about
the years 1709-10, during the reign of
Queen Anne. 1t is Il well known his
tol1cal fact, that about the time when
the great tide Of lalHinr emisr;,tion
set i'll toward the colony of New York,
and more especially to PENNSYLVANIA,
about four thousand of this people
were sent over to ireland upon the
request of the then Lieutenant Gov
ernor, ana were settled mainly in the
County Limerick. These were of the
same people who SO largely po,u-
lated Pennsylvania the descendants nr
whom still speak Il German dialect
commonly called "pcnnsylvau.a
Dutch" Many of thc same people
settled in the Valley Of the Mohawk. in
the county Of Scloharic, and al ing the
Hudson in the state of New York.
The controversy hercinncfnrc al
lud@l TO came about i'm this way: \
correspondent of the Sun. who is
unknown to the writer, stated that tile
descendants of these German pAllinps
were still TO he found at Iathkralr.
preserving their German names, GUS
toms, habits, and in religion their
Protestant faith. This statement was
replied to by some lrishman, who
claimed to he Il native u' Rnthkcal~.
who stated that there wcrr 10 Ger
man names ut Rnlhkcllc. Au,I no Pro
tcstants. Now, for the truth. came
here with the sole purpose i'm view, to
learn whether the descendants of the
Palatinc were still in this part of Ire
land Hs a distinct people. They are
still here in large numbers. At the
| outskirts of Ratlkcalc is Il hamlet
| called Court MatriX. which is the cen
tire of them in this locality. Here the
writer met a number of them. MIR.
Samuel Slier, Il very intelligent farm
er, seems to be Il sort of "kiny bee"
among them. | met his sons ana
daughters, all educated and well in
formed. Other German names one
meets here, are such as Medlcr, Null
Ter. Rovcngcr, Becker. Rcinhart, Heck,
and mIny others. The number Of fam
lilies in this ncighblrllOod number
about two hundred. arnl in the county
of limerick the number OF P;latine
families is estimated at about two
thousand. They centre ABOUT Adarc,
Ballygravc, Arbcla and Court Matrix,
the latter being the parent colony. OF
course, many Of these people cmigrat-
cd to America during the century just
past, and others will no doubt follow,
rs America is the goal to which every
inhabitant Of Ireland looks forward.
In reply to the statement that there
are no German Protcstants at Ratl-
kealc, which is u small place of not
more than two thousand souls It is
only necessary to state that there are
two Protestant churches here, one
Methodist, or Wesleyan, as known
here, and the other Anglican. The
Palatines, with scarcely any exception,
belong to either one of them.
Until about generation and Il half
ago these Pantincs spoke the pfnlZici
dialect, which is still spoken in Penn
sylvania by million of people. Mr.
Shicr Informed mo that his father
who died some twenty years ago at
the age of 80 years, was still convcrs-
ant with the dialect of his father, and
the generations before that spoke the
dialect pretty generally, but at this
day it has died out.
So much in reply to the writer in
the Sun of about q year ago, who
claimed that there were no German
names and 10 Protcstants ut Rath-
kcaIc i'm Ireland. / have met them
face to face, broke bread with them,
ana made the acquaintance Of some
Of them, who have promised to visit
me in Pennsylvania. Most Of them
are prosperous and welIto-do. One of
Mr.. Shicr's sons said that he intended
to visit New York Mt an early day, and
wished to know whether he cJuld do
it on E1OO. T mention this to show
the state of the material welfare of
some of them.
I trust that this letter will be con-
elusive to the renders Of the Sun, that
there are German names at Rathkeale,
and Protestants as well, notwithstand-
ing the assertion OF an Irishman, who
claims the place as the place Of his ma
tivity, to the contrary
WILLIAM BEIDELMAN.
Rathkeale, Ireland, July !.