Father Anthony Dominic Fahy : Short Biography

Father Anthony Dominic Fahy was one of seven children born in County Galway in 1805 to Patrick Fahy and Belinda Cloran. His parents would have been relatively well off as they ran a brewery on Barrack Street in the town of Loughrea. Many of the Fahy children pursued lives in the Church. 

When he was 22, Anthony entered into the Dominican Order and spent his first year close to home in Athenry, County Galway. He then went on to study theology and philosophy in Rome where he was ordained in 1831. Three years later, Fr Fahy embarked upon his first mission. He went to Somerset, Ohio, but he returned to Ireland after just two years due to poor health. Once recovered, Fr Fahy was anxious to return to the missions, but it would be some time before the opportunity arose again. 

In 1844, at the age of 39, Fr Fahy embarked upon the journey to Argentina where it was intended that he would minister to the growing Irish community in Buenos Aires. He was extremely diligent in his duties and went above and beyond what was expected of him. Not only did Fr Fahy tend to the spiritual needs of his flock, but he also provided marriage counselling, financial advice, interpretation services, and even served as a matchmaker. He also assisted in growing the Irish community by arranging for a group of girls from his native Loughrea to emigrate to Buenos Aires. Not one to forget his roots, he also established a famine relief fund for the destitute Irish back home. In his letters to the Archbishop of Dublin he advocated for Argentina as an ideal destination for those Irish who wished to escape the poverty and hunger at home. He also sent a large sum of money to All Hallows College in Dublin with the specific intent that it be used to educate priests to be sent on the missions to Argentina. 

Fr Fahy died in Argentina of heart disease while tending to the sick in 1871.