The year 1843 is memorable for the arrival of Rev. Anthony Fahy, with whose name the advancement of the Irish in Argentina will be forever identified.  This great patriarch was born at Loughrea, Co.  Galway, in 1804, and made his ecclesiastical studies at St. Clement’s convent of Irish Dominicans at Rome.  Being sent to the western states of America, he passed ten years in Ohio and Kentucky, after which, on the invitation of the Irish community of Buenos Ayres and by permission of the superior of his Order, he came to the river Plate at a time when the prospects of the country and of the Irish residents were far from promising.  The history of the Irish community since that time is in some measure a recital of the labors of Father Fahy.  He it was who helped his countrymen to choose and buy their lands which now are of such enormous value.  Their increasing numbers and prosperity in the camp districts obliged him to endow each of the provincial partidos was a resident chaplain.  Most of these clergymen were educated in Dublin, and soon showed their zeal not merely in religious, but also in social spheres.  Irish reading-rooms, libraries, and schools sprang up and laid the foundation for the refined Irish life of the present day in those districts.  Among other services, Father Fahy founded the Irish convent, bringing out some Sisters of Mercy under Mrs. Mary Evangelist Fitzpatrick from Dublin, to whom he gave it in charge.  Father Fahy died in harness in 1871 of yellow fever; he attended a poor Italian woman and on returning home was at once taken ill.  He lasted only three days and expired peacefully, a martyr to his sacred calling.  He died so poor that Mr. Armstrong had to discharge for him some small debts, and five others of his countrymen paid his funeral expenses.  A fitting memorial of the deceased priest, the Fahy College for Irish orphan boys in Argentina, has been erected in Buenos Ayres, and a magnificent monument of Irish marble, carved in Ireland, also perpetuates his fame.

The priests, still living, who were co-workers with Father Fahy and appointed by him to various partidos, are Monsignor Samuel O’Reilly, deservedly beloved by his parishioners, and the Rev. Father Flannery, whose appointment to San Pedro brought a great influx of Irish farmers into that district.  Among those who have gone to enjoy their eternal reward are the brothers, Rev. Michael and Rev. John Leahy, both of whom were indefatigable during the yellow fever in Buenos Ayres.  Rev. Father Mulleady, Rev. Patrick Lynch, Rev. James Curran, and Monsignor Curley were also among the Irish priests of that time.

The Fahy College is entrusted to the care of the Marist Brothers, who are largely Irish.  The community of Holy Cross of the Passionist Fathers, who have as provincial the distinguished North American scholar Father Fidelis Kent Stone, is almost entirely composed of Irish and Irish-Americans.  They have several establishments in various provinces of Argentina.  Irish priests are to be met with all over the country.  In Patagonia and the Chaco we also find a number of Protestant missionaries sent out by the Irish branch of the South American Missionary Society.