This theme was written around 1964 by Mary McCarthy, born in 1906 on Red Island, the daughter of Denis McCarthy and Sarah Withers.

  Red Island is the southernmost of the eastern group of islands in Placentia Bay. It is three miles wide and four miles long, and gets its name from the red of the rock of which the greater part of the Island is formed. It is seven miles from the mainland, the nearest point being Point Latina, Argentia. Red Island was part of the Parish of Argentia until the Americans built the Naval Base there, when the centre of the parish was moved to Freshwater and Red Island became part of the Parish of Merasheen, a neighboring island in Placentia Bay.

  Red Island was first settled by two Irishmen from County Cork, Thomas McCarthy and Thomas Tobin. This would be about 1813. Thomas McCarthy had come to Newfoundland to work with an older brother who had settled on an island in Placentia Bay, then called the Rams, now Iona. When he decided to marry and build his own home, he was not satisfied with the Rams as a fishing station, but having visited Red Island he found that it had a much better harbour. Fishermen of the past and present have vouched for their good judgement in choosing this site as Red Island has an excellent harbour and fishing can be carried on there all year.

  Thomas McCarthy married Mary Kelly of Southeast, Placentia. Fourteen children were born of this marriage, seven sons and seven daughters. The McCarthy families on Red Island today are descendants of two of these sons, James who married Sarah O'Connor of Carbonnear, and Thomas who married Jane O'Reilly of Argentia. Two of the sons married but have no living descendants, two others, Denis and Patrick, in their early twenties, met death by drowning, and one died in childhood.

  Of the seven daughters, five married and have many descendants living in Newfoundland and the United States. Catherine married Denis Ryan of Toslow, Placentia Bay West. Nellie married Rose from LaManche, formerly of Placentia. Julia married Patrick Lambe, and Elizabeth his brother, Thomas. Nora married John Doody of Cork, Ireland.

  The Lambe brothers had come to Red Island from Bar Haven, then called Barren Island. Their parents had lived in Placentia prior to going to Barren island. They established on Red Island a fishing supply business, and in a short time the sons and sons-in-law of Thomas and Mary McCarthy brought other settlers to the Island. John Dunphy came from Argentia, Stephen Mulrooney from St. John's. Both married sisters of Patrick and Thomas Lambe. Walsh came from Merasheen, Barry from Port Royal, Counsel from St. John's, Norman from Long Harbour and Cheeseman from Rushoon. On the death of Thomas McCarthy, his widow married James Fagan from St. Mary's and had one child who later married Reddy from Fermeuse.

  Thomas McCarthy is buried in the cruciform cemetary at Freshwater, where on the building of the U.S. Naval Base, the bodies of those who had been buried in Argentia, were moved. He died in 1845 at the age of 56. The descendants of Thomas Tobin left Red Island many years ago.

  My father, Denis Patrick McCarthy, the last of the "grandchildren" of Thomas and Mary McCarthy, died in Boston in 1960. He had lived on Red Island from 1866 to 1952, and had seen Red Island reach a peak population of 587. The population today is rapidly diminishing due to centralization of people in larger areas.