Patrick Ferriter (1856-1924): an Irish Scholar at Home and Abroad

Scholarly research from the 1980s onwards on emigration from Ireland to New York informs us that by the second half of the nineteenth century, the city was home to a significant number of Irish migrants. Research by the late Professor Kenneth Nilsen, in particular, makes for fascinating reading about the efforts of a number of literate Irish speakers who, on settling in New York, set about actively promoting their native language in the city. Early records of the Catholic Church in New York also yield some evidence of the use of the Irish language. The city’s first Catholic pastor, for example, an Offaly-born Capuchin friar by the name of Father Charles/Maurice Whelan (1741–1806) began ministering in St. Peter’s Church in 1785, and was described as being “more fluent in Gaelic and French than in English.” Following the establishment in Dublin of the Irish literary society known as the Ossianic Society on St. Patrick’s Day 1853, moreover, a New York branch was founded in 1858 and devoted itself, among other things, to Irish-language instruction.