But it is not in the material things of life alone that the Irish have been in the van.  Thousands of Americans have been charmed by the operas of Victor Herbert, a grandson of Samuel Lover, and with lovers of music the strains of Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore’s band still linger as a pleasant memory.  Edward A. MacDowell, America’s most famous composer, was of Irish descent.  The colossal statute of “America” on the dome of the National Capitol was executed by Thomas Crawford, who was born in New York of Irish parents in 1814; Henry Inman, one of the very best of portrait painters, was also born in New York of Irish parents; John Singleton Copley, the distinguished artist, came to Boston from Co.  Clare in 1736; Thompson, the sculptor, was born in Queen’s Co.; another noted sculptor was William D. O’Donovan of Virginia; and Augustus Saint Gaudens, one of the greatest sculptors of modern times, was born in Dublin.  Other sculptors of Irish race have been elsewhere mentioned.  Among America’s most talented artists and portrait painters may be mentioned George P. Healy, William J. Hennessy, Thomas Moran, Henry Pelham, Henry Murray, John Neagle, and William Magrath, all of Irish birth or descent.

Ireland has given many eminent churchmen to the United States.  The three American Cardinals, Gibbons, Farley, and O’Connell, stand out prominently, as do Archbishops Carroll, Hughes, McCloskey, Kenrick, Ryan, Ireland, Glennon, Corrigan, and Keane, all of whom have shed lustre on the Church.  History has given to an Irishman, Francis Makemie of Donegal, the credit of founding Presbyterianism in America, while among noted Presbyterian divines of Irish birth were James Waddell, known as “the blind preacher of the wilderness,” Thomas Smyth, John Hall, Francis Allison, William Tennant, and James McGrady, all men of great ability and influence in their day.  Samuel Finley, President of Princeton College in 1761, was a native of Armagh, and John Blair Smith, famous as a preacher throughout the Shenandoah Valley and the first president of Union College (1795), was of Irish descent.  Among the pioneer preachers of the western wilderness were McMahon, Dougherty, Quinn, Burke, O’Cool, Delaney, McGee, and many others of Irish origin.

Irishmen and their sons have founded American towns and cities, and the capital of the State of Colorado takes its name from General James Denver, son of Patrick Denver, an emigrant from county Down in the year 1795.  Sixty-five places in the United States are named after people bearing the Irish prefix “O” and upwards of 1000 after the “Macs”, and there are 253 counties of the United States and approximately 7000 places called by Irish family or place names.  There are 24 Dublins, 21 Waterfords, 18 Belfasts, 16 Tyrones, 10 Limericks, 9 Antrims, 8 Sligos, 7 Derrys, 6 Corks, 5 Kildares, and so on.

Immigrant Irishmen have also been the founders of prominent American families.  One of the most ancient of Irish patronymics, McCarthy, is found in the records of Virginia as early as 1635 and in Massachusetts in 1675, and all down through the successive generations descendants of this sept were among the leading families of the communities where they located.  In Virginia, the McCormick, Meade, Lewis, Preston, and Lynch families; in the Carolinas, the Canteys, Nealls, Bryans, and Butlers; and in Maryland, the Carrolls and Dulanys are all descended from successful Irish colonizers.