Joe Tobin of the Emerald Society Pipe Band.
With an honor guard of University of Pennsylvania Navy ROTC cadets, an Irish piper, and dozens of churchgoers and representatives from local Irish organizations, the life and accomplishments of Commodore John Barry, revolutionary war hero and father of the US Navy, were remembered again, as they always are on Memorial Day, on Sunday at Old St. Mary’s Church in Philadelphia.
Barry, who was born in Wexford, Ireland, in 1745, came to the colonies as a young man with a long history at sea to offer his service to the new American Congress. The government bought his ship, the Black Prince, and renamed it Alfred. Lt. John Paul Jones hoisted the first American flag in its rigging.
Barry took over the Lexington, a ship with 14 guns, which sailed out in March 1776 and barely a week later, engaged in battle with the British man-of-war Liverpool, which he captured and brought into Philadelphia. Over the course of the next few years– the Revolutionary War years–Barry served valiantly in several campaigns, including on land in the Battles of Trenton and Princeton. In 1780. Barry and his men captured three enemy vessels and he was later wounded in battle.
After the war, Barry was appointed number one on the list of Captains in the US Navy, his commission signed by General George Washington.
He died at 58, and was buried in the graveyard of his parish church, St. Mary’s, the second Roman Catholic Church in Philadelphia. Built in 1763 as an adjunct to the city’s oldest Catholic Church, St. Joseph’s, St. Mary’s is celebrating its 250th birthday this year. Archbishop Charles Chaput, head of the Philadelphia archdiocese, co-celebrated Sunday’s Mass with Pastor, Msgr. Paul A. DiGirolamo.
