McCarthy/Bannon Family Collection (2010-10)

Biographical note

Patrick Joseph McCarthy was the youngest of seven sons born in 1846 in Greenvagh Parish, County Sligo, Ireland to Patrick and Alice (Cullen) McCarthy. The family immigrated to the United States when Patrick was a toddler. Their ship landed in Boston, and while in quarantine at Deer Island both his mother and father died. Patrick and his six brothers were all separated and placed in orphanages.

At the age of twenty he moved to Providence, R. I., where he resided with his eldest brother John and made occasional investments in real estate. He entered Harvard Law School, and graduated with his law degree in 1876. When he was elected in 1907, McCarthy was the first mayor of Providence born in a foreign country. He favored eight-hour workdays for City laborers, retirement divisions for teachers, and pensions for members of the police and fire departments. The Cranston Armory was built during McCarthy's term.

Mr. McCarthy married in 1875, Anne M. McGinney, of Providence, who died in 1880, leaving three children. One of these children, Mary Josephine, who married William H. Bannon of Central Falls, R. I., and lived in Mansfield, Massachusetts.