Ireland

inn at Hempstead. John Ireland, grandfather of
the stage historian, was a merchant of Hunt-
ington, L. I., and an ardent British sympathizer;
during the British army's occupancy of Long
Island he served as assistant commissary. Jo-
seph Ireland, father of Joseph Norton, moved
into the city of New York, and established, at 82
Dey St., the prosperous business which his sons
inherited. After an education of only an ele-
mentary character, Joseph Norton Ireland suc-
ceeded his father, and retired in 1855. He was
married, June 10,1845, to Mary Amelia, daugh-
ter of Walter and Mary (Van Nostrand) Titus,
and adopted daughter of John S. and Amelia
(Titus) Avery. In 1857, he moved to Bridge-
port, Conn., where he maintained his residence
during the remainder of his life, although his
love of the theatre caused him to make frequent
and extended visits to New York. He had the
grace of friendliness, and ample leisure and
means, all of which contributed to his friend-
ships among the theatrical people whose reminis-
cences and records he accumulated.

At first his collection of documents was a
hobby; its development into a book he explains
in the preface to his Records of the New York
Stage: "The collecting of theatrical memoranda
has been an amusement of the author since early
childhood, ... it has been his daily habit to re-
cord the dramatic events of the metropolis. Pos-
sessing a large amount of material, ... in 1853,
he wrote and contributed to the Evening Mirror
several theatrical sketches over the signature
1LN.D/ " These proved so useful to others that
he finally was persuaded to attempt an entire
book. Although he had few graces as a writer,
he had those qualities of honesty and industry so
requisite to his task. The result was his Records
of the New York Stage, from 1750 to 1860 (2
vols., 1866-67). No one except the pioneer Wil-
liam Dunlap \_q.vJ\ had previously attempted to
chronicle any extensive portion of American the-
atrical history; and Ireland's book, for almost
forty years the only reliable book in its field, is
still regarded as accurate. It identified the au-
thor with the dramatic world of his day. He be-
came an honorary member of The Players and of
the Dunlap Society. He wrote also two biog-
raphies of actors, marked, in spite of his heavy
style, by industry and sympathy: Mrs. Duff
(1882), the first full-length account of that re-
markable woman; and A Memoir of the Profes-
sional Life of Thomas Abthorpe Cooper (Pub-
lications of the Dunlap Society, no. 5, 1888),
and contributed five chapters, on "Thomas Ab-
thorpe Cooper," "Mary Ann Duff/' "James H.
Badcett," "Hairy Placide," and "Clara Fisher,"

Irene

to Actors and Actresses of Great Britain and the
United States (5 vols., 1886) by Brander Mat-
thews and Laurence Hutton. The Charlotte
Cushman of Lawrence Barrett (Publications of
the Dunlap Society, no. 9, 1889) bears on the
title page the sub-title, "With an appendix con-
taining a letter from Joseph N. Ireland." This
letter gives a record of all the parts played by
Charlotte Cushman. In 1880 he published Some
Account of the Ireland Family, Originally of
Long Island, N. ¥., 1644-1880. After a few
years spent in retirement he died in his eighty-
second year at Bridgeport, where he was buried.
[Some Account of the Ireland Family (1880) ; obit-
uary notices in N. Y. Herald, Dec. 30, 1898, and N. Y.
Tribune of the same date; the prefaces to his several
works; city directories of New York and of Bridge-
port, Conn.] E.S.B—y.

IRENE, Sister (May 12, i823-Aug. 14, 1896),
philanthropist, known in her girlhood as Cath-
erine Fitzgibbon, was born in the Kensington
district of London, England. At an early age she
came to the United States with her parents, who
settled in Brooklyn, N. Y. During a visitation
of Asiatic cholera in that city she was stricken
with the disease and after the last rites of the
Church had been administered she was given up
for dead. While hearing and understanding what
was going on about her and yet unable to speak,
she made a vow that if her life were spared she
would enter religious work. After recovery she
joined, in 1850, the Roman Catholic community
of Sisters of Charity, taking the name of (Mary)
Irene. While still a novice she was sent to teach
in St. Peter's School, Barclay Street, New York
City, where she passed fifteen years, attaining in
that time a place of unique influence. It was said
of her in that period of her life that her qualities
of tact and sympathy made her a trusted coun-
selor of many both within and without the circle
of her pupils. More and more she formed con-
tacts with the city's poor and unfortunate.

Until after the Civil War a foundling hospital
had never been considered essential in the scheme
of New York charities. It was the custom of
the police, after each morning roundup, to con-
sign to the inmates of the almshouses on Black-
well's Island the tiny waifs picked up during the
night Such care as the paupers could give the
infants did not avail to save many lives; a large
percentage of these babies died within the first
few weeks. Meanwhile the number of abandoned
children was increasing with the city's growing
population. Finally, under the leadership of
Archbishop (afterward Cardinal) McCloskey
[g.v.], it was proposed that an asylum should be
opened under the management of the Sisters of
Charity, and Sister Irene was named as the first

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