Founded by Irish Diocesan priests in the early part of the 20th century, in Chatham, New Brunswick, St. Thomas University has had a long-standing spiritual, intellectual and emotional connection with a vital, unique, and living Irish cultural tradition. Settled by pre- Famine Irish, the province of New Brunswick boasts one of the oldest indigenous Irish populations in North America. Furthermore, only the province of Quebec accepted more Irish Famine refugees during the Great Hunger of the 1840s, when over 30 000 immigrants passed through the ports of Saint John, Saint Andrews, and the Miramichi.