Irish Catholics in America

Margaret Anne Cusack

An Illustrated History of Ireland

1868

start of chapter | Chapter XXXVII

Nor have the Catholics of America overlooked the importance of literary culture. A host of cheap books and serials are in circulation, and are distributed largely and freely in convent schools, collegiate establishments, and country parishes; and with a keen appreciation of the religious necessities of the great mass of non-Catholics, of which, unfortunately, English Catholics are oblivious, tracts are published in thousands for general reading, and given to travellers in the railcars, and steamboats.

Nor has a higher class of literature been overlooked. The gifted superior of the Congregation of St. Paul has been mainly instrumental in getting up and superintending the labours of the Catholic Publication Society, which, in addition to the multitude of valuable works it has published, sends forth its monthly magazine, well entitled The Catholic World, which is unquestionably the best serial of its kind, and may vie with those conducted by the most gifted Protestant writers of the day, while it is far superior to anything which has as yet been published by the Catholics of this country.

Featured Books

An American widow’s account of her travels in Ireland in 1844–45 on the eve of the Great Famine:

Ireland’s Welcome to the Stranger

Sailing from New York, she set out to determine the condition of the Irish poor and discover why so many were emigrating to her home country.

Mrs Nicholson’s recollections of her tour among the peasantry are still revealing and gripping today.

The author returned to Ireland in 1847–49 to help with famine relief and recorded those experiences in the rather harrowing: Annals of the Famine in Ireland.

See more of our books »

The Ocean Plague: or, A Voyage to Quebec in an Irish Emigrant Vessel is based upon the diary of Robert Whyte who, in 1847, crossed the Atlantic from Dublin to Quebec in an Irish emigrant ship. His account of the journey provides invaluable eyewitness testimony to the trauma and tragedy that many emigrants had to face en route to their new lives in Canada and America. The book is also available in Kindle.

The Irish in America by John F. Maguire provides a substantial and invaluable account of the extreme difficulties faced by pioneer Irish immigrants in North America during the 19th Century. The book is also available in Kindle.

The Scotch-Irish in America tells the story of how the hardy breed of men and women, who in America came to be known as the ‘Scotch-Irish’, was forged in the north of Ireland during the seventeenth century. It relates the circumstances under which the great exodus to the New World began, the trials and tribulations faced by these tough American pioneers and the enduring influence they came to exert on the politics, education and religion of the country.

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