Immaculata U Finally Revealed As Mass Grave For Irish Catholics
I mean, hey, we could have told you that when we were undergrads at St. Joe’s! HIYO! No, but really: Historians digging around near Immaculata University believe they’ve found the storied mass grave site of 57 Irish workers who died near the site in the mid-1800s:
In June, 1832, a group of 57 Irish immigrants from Donegal, Tyrone, and Derry arrived in Philadelphia. They were brought to Chester County by a fellow Irishman named Philip Duffy as laborers for the construction of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad, Pennsylvania’s pioneering railroad. Within six weeks, all were dead of cholera and possibly violence, and were buried anonymously in a ditch outside of Malvern.
Behind it all is a story of bigotry and general weirdness the Irish were subjected to during those days in America, and the Duffy’s Cut Project is diligently researching the matter. Check out their site for more.
March 24th, 2009 at 11:46 am
They probably tried to order a “cheesesteak wid” at Geno’s, but had those funny accents.
March 24th, 2009 at 11:49 am
it’s funny cos it’s true.
March 24th, 2009 at 11:59 am
Are there any concerns that the burial site might be leaching whiskey into the water supply? (I kid–I’m married to an Irish Catlick.)
I read somewhere that the canals that run north from Trenton along Rt 29 were dug by Irish laborers. By hand. And I don’t mean shovels: I mean fingers.
My wife’s family were Irish blacksmiths in Trenton, and her grandfather wrote stories about his neighborhood for the Saturday Evening Post. The old Irish neighborhoods were destroyed decades ago, but apparently Norman Rockwell did an illustration of one of her grandfather’s stories, called “Blacksmith’s Boy”, about a horse shoeing race her great-grandfather had with a rival blacksmith.
None of which is the least bit useful to anyone, but hey–it’s lunch.
March 24th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
To mark this occasion I plan on listening to every Thin Lizzy album I own in sequence, though Mick Moloney’s version of “Paddy Works on the Railway” would suffice.
See also “McAlpine’s Fusiliers” or “Building Up and Tearing England Down”.
March 24th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
this was on cbs news @ 11 last night. i was actually surprised they put on something historical.