• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Effie Caldarola
          • John Garvey
          • Father Ed Dougherty, M.M.
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
  • Advertising
  • CR Radio
  • Printing
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Cassie Kilroy Thompson

Cockeysville dig yields insights into Irish life

September 24, 2009
By George P. Matysek Jr.
Filed Under: Local News, News

A summer archeological dig near St. Joseph in Cockeysville unearthed brown broken bottles and tea cups, coins, a beer token, buttons and children’s toys – clues into the daily life of Irish immigrants who manned area limestone quarries and worshipped at St. Joseph beginning in the mid-19th century.

But what wasn’t discovered also tells the story of the Irish enclave of a Baltimore County community then known as Texas. There were no rosaries, prayer cards or crucifixes.

“It’s rare to find religious items,” said Dr. Stephen Brighton, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Maryland, College Park, and director of the dig.

“What we find is usually things that are discarded,” he explained. “People held onto things that were very dear to them. It shows the sacredness of such objects. Even when people die, they don’t throw them away.”

The six-week dig, which yielded 400 bags of artifacts, was conducted at the end of Church Lane, on the site of what had once been a tavern at the center of town. Before selecting the site, Brighton conducted more than two years of research, examining the landscape and interviewing residents about the history of the area.

Brighton worked with a team of students from the University of Maryland, uncovering a rectangular Portland cement box that he believes was used by the tavern for cold storage. Beneath the container was a privy.

St. Joseph Church, a monument of immigrant faith, stands within walking distance of the now-closed dig. The Irish immigrants built the church using limestone they quarried themselves, the anthropologist said.

“Irish Americans may have looked like other Americans and they may have spoken English, but the first thing they had to prove was their respectability,” said Brighton, noting that Irish immigrants were regarded as crude and superstitious by many in the wider American culture.

“The core was their faith – being Catholic,” he said.

Most of the Irish who settled in Texas came from Ballykilcline, a rural area on the Emerald Isle that was hit hard by the potato famine in the 1840s.

“They were evicted from Ballykilcline because they couldn’t afford to pay rent,” said Cassie Kilroy Thompson, a parishioner of St. Louis in Clarksville who grew up at St. Joseph. President of the Ballykilcline Society, Thompson has conducted extensive research in Maryland and Ireland.

“The British government sent them here,” Thompson said.

Strolling through the tidy parish cemetery, Thompson pointed to the many Irish names on tombstones and noted that many parishioners trace their roots to Ballykilcline and Roscommon County in Ireland. The family of Wilmington Bishop W. Francis Malooly, former Baltimore auxiliary bishop, is connected with Texas and has ancestors who came from Knockcroughery, Thompson said.

“I know that there are other descendants of those settlers out there,” she said. “I am looking at as many ways as possible to connect to them.”

For more information, visit www.friendsoftexasmaryland.org.

Print Print

Primary Sidebar

George P. Matysek Jr.

George Matysek, a member of the Catholic Review staff since 1997, has served as managing editor since September 2021. He previously served as a writer, senior correspondent, assistant managing editor and digital editor of the Catholic Review and the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

In his current role, he oversees news coverage of the Archdiocese of Baltimore and is a host of Catholic Review Radio.

George has won more than 100 national and regional journalism and broadcasting awards from the Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association, the Catholic Press Association, the Associated Church Press and National Right to Life. He has reported from Guyana, Guatemala, Italy, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland.

A native Baltimorean, George is a proud graduate of Our Lady of Mount Carmel High School in Essex. He holds a bachelor's degree from Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore and a master's degree from UMBC.

George, his wife and five children live in Rodgers Forge. He is a parishioner of the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Homeland.

View all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

Latest Local News

Archbishop William Lori announces clerical appointments, including three retirements

Bishop Lewandowski blesses Preakness festivities, offering invocation at Alibi Breakfest

Archbishop Lori calls for stepped-up support of pro-life efforts

A tough transition made easier at Baltimore area Catholic high schools

Sister Jean Clare Rohe, O.S.F., oldest member of Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia, dies at 104

Latest World News

Vatican foreign minister visits Ukraine in sign of solidarity, support

Pope, Bono launch Scholas educational initiative

World must never lose hope that peace, fraternity can prevail, pope says

Catholic college graduates praised for pandemic resilience

Religious brothers can be superiors of orders with priests, pope says

Catholic Review Radio

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Vatican foreign minister visits Ukraine in sign of solidarity, support
  • Archbishop William Lori announces clerical appointments, including three retirements
  • Pope, Bono launch Scholas educational initiative
  • Bishop Lewandowski blesses Preakness festivities, offering invocation at Alibi Breakfest
  • Archbishop Lori calls for stepped-up support of pro-life efforts
  • World must never lose hope that peace, fraternity can prevail, pope says
  • Catholic college graduates praised for pandemic resilience
  • CCC collection supports local, global Catholic media and communications
  • A tough transition made easier at Baltimore area Catholic high schools

Search

Membership

Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2022 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED