1843: left Ireland for Argentina (September).
1844: arrives in Buenos Aires
from Liverpool in the brig Plata (11 January).1847: writes to the Archbishop of
Dublin to recommend the Irish to emigrate to Argentina. At the same
time, heads a committee to launch the Irish Relief Fund, which remits
£411-1-10 to Dublin for the victims of the famine in Ireland.
1848: opens the Irish Immigrant
Infirmary of Buenos Aires, primarily to provide refuge and nursing to
the sickly newcomers. Eventually, the infirmary became a permanent
hospital on a small scale for all who needed medical treatment.
1849: a negative article against Buenos
Aires Governor Juan Manuel de Rosas is published in the Dublin
Review (March). Fr. Fahy writes a letter to La Gaceta
Mercantil to support Rosas and to express his 'gratitude towards this country and its Government.' He is thanked
for his intervention by the State Congress.
1850: purchases a property in the
outskirts of the city facing the streets now known as Riobamba and
Tucumán, with the intention of raising thereon an important Irish
Hospital.
1852: having arranged for Capilla San
Roque on the corner of Defensa and Alsina streets in Buenos Aires (and
immediately adjacent to Convento San Francisco) to be used by the Irish community, Fr. Fahy provides benches, an organ, a
confessional and a pulpit. Every six months, he travels to the
interior parishes of the province and, during five or ten days, he
held stations in different districts to say Mass, administer the
sacraments, and preach.
1853: arranges and pays for the
expenses of six seminarians of
All Hallows in Dublin to be especially prepared to act as Irish
chaplains in Argentina.
1856: divides the territory into four
chaplaincies, and each one is entrusted to a resident chaplain, with Fr. Fahy
as their Dean or Vicare Forane. The Sisters of Mercy arrive in Buenos
Aires (24 February). Fr. Kirwan is sent by Fr. Fahy to visit the
Catholics residing in Falklands/Malvinas Islands.
1859: the Sisters of Mercy are in
charge of the Convent, the School for Girls, the House of Mercy, the
public Chapel and the Hospital.
1862: opens a school for boys, which is directed
by Fr. Kirwan and Fr. Curran.
1863: All Hallow seminarians sponsored
by Fr. Fahy are ordained and travel to Argentina. Fr. Thomas Carolan
arrives in 1859 and is appointed later to the western chaplaincy. In
1860 Fr. James Curran lands and remains in the city. Fr. James Kirby
arrives in 1860 but dies two years later. Fr. Michael Connolly is
ordained in 1860 and is sent to replace Fr. Kavanagh in the southern
district. Fr. Largus Michael Leahy arrives in 1862 and is appointed to
Carmen de Areco, and Fr. Patrick J. Dillon arrives in 1863 and is sent
to Merlo.
1864: Fr. Fahy and Fr. Eduardo O'Gorman
are named Honorary Canons of the Cathedral Church of Buenos Aires by
President Bartolomé Mitre (19 May).
1865: a committee of Irish residents
and others offer £600 to Fr. Fahy to buy his personal house. He hands
to money over to the Sisters of Mercy. The Irish Hospital of Buenos
Aires is equipped with an additional wing in Riobamba and Viamonte
streets, including a ward, dispensary, kitchen and eight rooms.
1867: six new Irish chaplains are
incorporated to the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, including Fathers
Patrick Lynch, Samuel O'Reilly, Thomas Mulleady, Felix O'Callaghan,
John Baptist Leahy, and Edmund Flannery (arrived in 1868). Their
studies at All Hallows were financed by Fr. Fahy.
1868: directly and through his
chaplains and the Sisters of Mercy, Fr. Fahy provides important
services to the community during the cholera outbreak.
1871: dies of a heart attack during the
yellow fever outbreak (20 February). His remains are buried in
the diocesan clergy vault of Recoleta cemetery, and later removed to a monument built by
Earley sculptors of Dublin. |