The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1902-09-04
LIMERICK DUTCHMAN.
Descendants of PaIatine Pedestrians
Are StiIl Living Mt RRth-
keale, Ireland.

About year ago controversy was
carried on in the Sunday edition of
the Sun, with reference to the Palatine
emigration into Ireland, about the
years 1709-10, during the reign of
Queen Anne. 1t is well-known his
torical fact that about the time when
the great tide of Palatine emigration
set in toward the colony of New York,
and more especially to Pennsylvania,
about 1000 of this people were sent
over to Ireland upon the request of
the then lieutenant governor, and
were settled mainly in the county Linn
erick. These were of the same peo-
pie who SO largely populated Penn
sylvania, the descendants of whom
ly called Pennsylvania Dutch" many
of the same people settled in the valley
of the Mohawk, If the county of Scho-
harie, and along the Hudson in the
state of New York, writes William
Beidelman, from Rathkeale, Ireland,
to the New York Sun.
The controversy hereinbefore allud-
ed to came about in this way: A cor
respondent of the Sun, who is unknown
to the writer, stated that the descend
ants of these German Palatines were
still to be found at Rathkeale, preserv-
ing their German names, customs, hab-
its and in religion their Protestant
faith. This statement was replied to
by some Irishman, who claimed to be
a native of Rathkeale, who stated that
there were no German names at Rath-
keale, and no Protestants. Now, for
the truth, l came here with the sole
purpose in view to learn whether the
descendants of the Palatine were still
in this part of Ireland as distinct
people. They are still here in large
numbers. At the outskirts of Rath-
keale is a hamlet called Court Matrix,
which is the center of them in this
locality. Here the writer met a num-
Der of them. Mr.. Samuel Shier, a very
intelligent farmer, seems to be a sort
of king bee" among them. / met his
sons and daughters. all educated and
well informed. Other German names
one meets here, are such as Medler,
Muller, Bovenger, Becker, Reinha RI,
Heck, and many others. The number
of families in this neighborhood num-
Der about 200, and in the county of
Limerick the number of Palatine fam
lilies is estimated at about 1000. They
center about Adare, Ballygrave, Ar
bella and Court Matrix, the latter be-
M
many of these people emigrated to
America during the century just past,
and others will no doubt follow, as
America is the goal to which every
inhabitant of Ireland looks forward.
In reply to the statement that there
are no German Protestants at Rath-
keale, which is small place of not
more than 1000 souls, it is only neces-
sary to state that there are two Prot
estant churches here. one Meth odist,
or Wesleyan, as known here, and the
other Anglican. The Palatines, with
scarcely any exception. belong to
either one of them.
Until about a generation and half
ago these Palatines spoke the Pfalz-
ich dialect, which is still spoken In
Pennsylvania by a million of people.
Mr.. Shier informed me that his father,
who died some 20 years ago at the age
OF so years, was still conversant with
the dialect of his father; and the gem
erations before that spoke the dialect
pretty generally, but at this day it
has died out.