The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1912-11-09
IRISH ARGENTIN
The Irish Colony and Its Leaders
Father Fahy and His Work.
written Specially for The Catholic
Bulletin.)

|
Take an aeroplane here in st. Paul,
fly eighty degrees due south, then
turn east for some fifteen more, and
you will find yourself nearly over
large city on vast plain by wide
expanse of water By careful plotting
you can alight in a spacious square
and admire the beautiful cabilde and
other stately buildings around you.
On inquiry you will be told with high
bred courtesy that the square is the
Plaza Victoria, the city, Buenos Aires,
the country, the Argentine Republic,
and the expanse of water, that maj
este river, La Plata. You run a fair
chance of detecting in the liquid in
donation of your informant his Irish
birth or descent; and, if so, you may
wager two to one that he halls either
personally or ancestrally from the
town of the Carrigies'' in County
West Meath.
The Irish Colony.
Everyone presumes that there are
Irish in the Argentine Republic, be-
cause there are Irish all over the
globe But few seem to know that
the Irish colony in that southern land,
though small in numbers, has forged
it's way to high distinction in every
department of, national life. Irish
estancieros are among the wealthiest
in the land. They own and stock
leagues on leagues of the richest pas
lures; and the commission on their
wool-exports alone has enriched more
than one Irish broker. The Duggan
Brothers banking company was, some
years ago, the fifth wealthiest in the
world. AS a financier, Don Eduardo
Casey, banker also, was for years
the confidential adviser of the nation
al and state treasury departments,
and is said to have received an ex-
tensive territorial concession from the
government for saving it in a
crisis of impending embarrassment.
Don Miguel Mulhall was in his
days acknowledged by Gladstone
to be the greatest living Stats
tician. He was member OF
the British Association and other
learned societies, and started the
Daily Standard of Buenos Aires, the
first English paper, and still the most
influential, on the southern continent.
His wife, too, has written several
works of high literary merit. Some
time ago, General Donovan, one of
the ablest commanders of the Argen-
+ioa hiroco1f in
the Indian wars. And as the latest
/ link in the Irish Argentine tradition
of eminent service of the republic, we
may mention Vice Admiral O'Connor's
recent tactful and diplomatic man.
agement of the Argentine fleet in
Paraguayan waters-managemen for
which he received on his return a
most enthusiastic ovation from his
countrymen. Finally, even in a sum-
mary, an honorable place is due to
Doctor Santiago O'Farrell for forensic
and popular eloquence of genuine Gel
, tic ring.
Such is the magnificent record
of the Irish Argentine colony, a
record of which the mother country
is justly proud. But it has other
, claims on the admiration of Ireland
and the Irish race. It is intensely
= Catholic, intensely attached to "the
1 ould sod," and, at the same time, in.
? tensely Argentine in loyalty and love
to the country of it's adoption. In
proof, it will suffice to state that it
has it's own Irish academies and col.
, leges for the education of it's children
it's own Irish homes for it's orphans
{ it's own Irish churches, it's own Irish
1 pastors, and, not least, it's own excel
t lent Irish newspaper, the Hiberno
r Argentine Review.
Father Fahy, the Apostle of Argentina
> Most, if not all, of this prosperity
+. is primarily due to the apostolic zeal
= and paternal solicitude of Father
L Fahy, whose memory holds hal
;, lowed place in every Irish Argentine
heart, and whose name cannot be
t spoken by those who knew him with
r out tremor of the voice and moist
I eyes. The story of his life was TOLD
:, a few months ago in The Catholic Bull
,, letin in connection with the unwilling
of fitting memorial to his honor in
the Recoleta cemetery of Buenos
) Aires. But it will not be amiss to ado
J. a few words that may suggest clue
r to his benefcent influence over those
e Irish emigrants. Noble achievement
e is too rare not to give it, when found
o the widest publicity.
From 1S43 to 1871, Father Fab!
o lived and labored among his "chil
; dren," ever faithful to duty and per
sistent in urging on them far-sightet
paternal advice on their temporal in
terests. He took pains to know his
n flock individually, he became a per
n sonal friend to each, won his conf
e dence, and not rarely became the de
r positOry of his earnings. Every Eng