Steve Marino, “Here’s the church, here’s the steeple, open the door and see all the people: Newport’s early Irish community and Rhode Island’s first Catholic church.”
The 1820s were tough times for Newport. No longer was the harbor the international entrepôt that it had been during the colonial era. The mills along Thames Street were yet to be built and summer visitors were scarce. Yet, in 1828 Benedict Fenwick, Bishop of Boston, procured a lot of land with a schoolhouse on