NEWPORT, R.I. – Salve Regina University history professor and department chairman John Quinn will give a talk on “Catholics in Antebellum Newport” on Thursday, Feb. 2 at 5:30 p.m. at the Old Colony House, Washington Square.
Sponsored by the Newport Historical Society, Quinn’s talk is open to the public. Tickets for society members are $1 and for the general public, $5. For reservations, call 846-0813.
New England was inhospitable territory for Catholics from the colonial era until the Civil War. Quinn will explore the history of Catholicism in Newport, specifically focusing on the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Quinn’s article, “Expecting the Impossible? Abolitionist Appeals to the Irish in Antebellum America,” appeared in the December 2009 issue of The New England Quarterly, and his fall
2009 sabbatical work on the history of the Catholic Church in Rhode Island has been
presented at a national conference.
He recently received a recognition award from the university’s Antone Fund for Academic Excellence for balancing a substantial teaching load and a tremendous commitment to service with an active, ongoing research agenda.
His book, “Father Mathew’s Crusade: Temperance in Nineteenth-Century Ireland and Irish America,” was published in 2002, and he consistently publishes and presents new research on the Irish and Irish-Americans, abolition, slavery, and the Catholic Church in Rhode Island.
Quinn joined the Salve Regina community in 1992 after serving as an instructor in the history department at the University of Notre Dame. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and both a master's and doctoral degree from the University of Notre Dame.