Irish Quebecers
Encyclopedia
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
province of Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
who have Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
ancestry. In 2006, there were 406,085 Quebecers who identified themselves as having partial or exclusive Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
descent in Quebec, representing 5.5% of the population. Historian and journalist Louis-Guy Lemieux, however, claims that about 40% of Quebecers have Irish ancestry on at least one side of their family tree.
Demographics
In 2006, there were 406,085 Quebecers who identified themselves as Irish representing 5.5% of the population. This represents an increase from the 1996 count of 313 660. They are spread more or less uniformly across the province.In the Montreal region, there are 161,235 Irish, with about 78,175 (48.5%) of these being English-speaking.
Saint Patrick's Day Parade
The longest-running Saint Patrick's DaySaint Patrick's Day
Saint Patrick's Day is a religious holiday celebrated internationally on 17 March. It commemorates Saint Patrick , the most commonly recognised of the patron saints of :Ireland, and the arrival of Christianity in Ireland. It is observed by the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion , the Eastern...
parade in the world occurs each year in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
. The parades have been held in continuity since 1824; however, St. Patrick's Day itself has been celebrated in Montreal as far back as 1759 by Irish soldiers in the Montreal Garrison following the British conquest of New France
New France
New France was the area colonized by France in North America during a period beginning with the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Spain and Great Britain in 1763...
.
New France
There may have been up to 5% of the population of settlers of New France (Acadia and Canada principally) who were from Ireland. In 1966, the Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) of the Université de Montréal began reconstructing the population of "Old Quebec" from the beginning of French colonization to the late 18th century. Of the 8527 founding colonists of French Quebec, 89.8% were from France. The rest (10.2%) were from Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Ireland. It is known that there were Irish soldiers in the armies of MontcalmLouis-Joseph de Montcalm
Louis-Joseph de Montcalm-Gozon, Marquis de Saint-Veran was a French soldier best known as the commander of the forces in North America during the Seven Years' War .Montcalm was born near Nîmes in France to a noble family, and entered military service...
.
British rule
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
in its history
History of Quebec
Quebec has played a special role in Canadian history; it is the site where French settlers founded the colony of Canada in the 17th and 18th centuries.-Paleoindian Era :...
, especially during the Great Irish Famine (1845-1849). The majority arrived in Grosse Isle
Grosse Isle, Quebec
Grosse Isle Also known as Grosse Isle and the Irish Memorial National Historic Site, the island was the site of an immigration depot which predominantly housed Irish Immigrants coming to Canada to escape the Great Irish Famine, 1845-1849...
, an island in present day Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
which housed the immigration reception station. Thousands died or were treated in the hospital (equipped for fewer than one hundred patients) in the summer of 1847; in fact, many boats that reached Grosse-Île had lost the bulk of their passengers and crew, and many more died in quarantine
Quarantine
Quarantine is compulsory isolation, typically to contain the spread of something considered dangerous, often but not always disease. The word comes from the Italian quarantena, meaning forty-day period....
on or near the island. From Grosse-Île, most survivors were sent to Montreal. Most of these immigrants continued on to settle in Canada West (formerly Upper Canada, now Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
) or the United States. The orphaned children were adopted into Quebec families and accordingly became Québécois
French-speaking Quebecer
French-speaking Quebecers are francophone residents of the Canadian province of Quebec....
, both linguistically and culturally. Some of these children fought for their right to keep their Irish surnames
Irish name
A formal Irish-language name consists of a given name and a surname. Surnames in Irish are generally patronymic in etymology, although they are no longer literal patronyms, as Icelandic names are...
, and were largely successful. http://www.umanitoba.ca/colleges/st_pauls/ccha/Back%20Issues/CCHA1935-36/Gallagher.html.
The Irish established communities in both urban and rural Quebec. Irish immigrants arrived in increasingly large numbers by the 1820s through to the early 1830s, most arrived in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
and many men were hired as labourers to build the Lachine Canal
Lachine Canal
The Lachine Canal is a canal passing through the southwestern part of the Island of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, running 14.5 kilometres from the Old Port of Montreal to Lake Saint-Louis, through the boroughs of Lachine, Lasalle and Sud-Ouest.The canal gets its name from the French word for China...
. They became heavily involved in political life and newspaper publishing in Montreal, more so than anywhere else on the continent at the time. Many Irish leaders were involved in the Lower Canada Rebellion
Lower Canada Rebellion
The Lower Canada Rebellion , commonly referred to as the Patriots' War by Quebeckers, is the name given to the armed conflict between the rebels of Lower Canada and the British colonial power of that province...
of 1837-1838 http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6688/is_63/ai_n28698899.
In the 1840s and 1850s, they laboured on the Victoria Bridge
Victoria Bridge (Montreal)
Victoria Bridge , formerly originally known as Victoria Jubilee Bridge, is a bridge over the St. Lawrence River, linking Montreal, Quebec, to the south shore city of Saint-Lambert....
, living in a tent city at the foot of the bridge (see Goose Village, Montreal
Goose Village, Montreal
Goose Village was a neighbourhood in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Its official but less commonly used name was Victoriatown, after the adjacent Victoria Bridge...
). Here, workers unearthed a mass grave of 6000 Irish immigrants who had died in an earlier typhus epidemic. The Irish Stone remains at the bridge entrance to commemorate the tragedy.
Pointe-Saint-Charles
Pointe-Saint-Charles is a neighbourhood in the borough of Le Sud-Ouest in city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.-Geography:...
and Griffintown
Griffintown
Griffintown is the popular name given to the former southwestern downtown part of Montreal, Quebec, which existed from the 1820s until the 1960s and was mainly populated by Irish immigrants and their descendants....
. The Irish would fight fiercely to preserve a distinct identity from both Quebec Protestants and French Canadian Catholic populations http://www.collectionscanada.ca/ireland/021019-1602-e.html. With the help of Quebec's Irish Catholic Church led by priests such as Father Patrick Dowd, they would establish their own churches, schools, and hospitals. St. Patrick's Basilica was founded in 1847 and served Montreal's English-speaking Catholics for over a century. Loyola College (Montreal)
Loyola College (Montreal)
Loyola College was a Jesuit college in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It ceased to exist when it was incorporated into Concordia University in 1974. A portion of the original College remains as a separate entity called Loyola High School....
was founded by the Jesuits to serve Montreal's mostly Irish English-speaking Catholic community in 1896. Saint Mary's Hospital was founded in the 1920s and continues to serve Montreal's present-day English-speaking population.
Post-Confederation & Modern Day Quebec
Nevertheless, mixing between the Irish and the FrenchFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Quebecers was also common. In the pre-Quiet Revolution
Quiet Revolution
The Quiet Revolution was the 1960s period of intense change in Quebec, Canada, characterized by the rapid and effective secularization of society, the creation of a welfare state and a re-alignment of politics into federalist and separatist factions...
religious Quebec, the common Catholicism
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
of the two groups meant they were more likely to intermarry, more than with the English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
Protestant settlers. According to Marianna O'Gallagher
Marianna O'Gallagher
Marianna O'Gallagher was an Irish Quebecer historian from Quebec City. A former Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul nun, she wrote extensively on the history of the Irish in Quebec City, was involved in the creation of Grosse Isle National Historic Site and the revival of the Quebec City...
, three factors would explain the assimilation
Cultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation is a socio-political response to demographic multi-ethnicity that supports or promotes the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the dominant culture. The term assimilation is often used with regard to immigrants and various ethnic groups who have settled in a new land. New...
of some Irish immigrants into French Canadian
French Canadian
French Canadian or Francophone Canadian, , generally refers to the descendents of French colonists who arrived in New France in the 17th and 18th centuries...
society: "The cordial reception that the Irish received in Quebec, the mixed marriages and the frequentation of French-speaking churches".
French-speaking Quebecers make up roughly 80% of the total population of some 7.5 million Quebecers.
Many Irish assimilated into francophone Quebec culture
Culture of Quebec
The Culture of Quebec emerged over the last few hundred years, resulting from the shared history of the French-speaking majority in Quebec. It is unique to the Western World; Quebec is the only region in North America with a French-speaking majority, as well as one of only two provinces in Canada...
, transforming its music, dances and food. Others assimilated into the English speaking community of Quebec, especially in Montreal.
The records of the United Irish Societies of Montréal suggest that many patronyms of seemingly old-stock French Quebecers are in fact gallicised Irish surnames. Thus the Aubrys would owe their name to the O'Briens, the Barrettes to the Barretts, the Bourques to the Burkes, the Guérin to the Gearans or Gearys, the Mainguys to the McGees, the Morins to the Morans, the Nolins to the Nolans, the Riels to the Reillys or O'Reillys, the Sylvains to the Sullivans or O'Sullivans. However, since many of these surnames, (such as Burke and Guérin) originally came to Ireland from Normandy following the Norman invasion of the 12th century, it seems more likely that some Irish-Quebecers simply reverted back to the original French spelling of their Irish name
Irish name
A formal Irish-language name consists of a given name and a surname. Surnames in Irish are generally patronymic in etymology, although they are no longer literal patronyms, as Icelandic names are...
.
There are also many francophone families who have anglicized Irish surnames. One of those families is the Johnson family, a political dynasty
Political families of the world
A political family is a family in which several members are involved in politics, particularly electoral politics. Members may be related by blood or marriage; often several generations or multiple siblings may be involved....
that gave Quebec three Premier
Premier of Quebec
The Premier of Quebec is the first minister of the Canadian province of Quebec. The Premier is the province's head of government and his title is Premier and President of the Executive Council....
s, all of different parties and ideologies (Union nationale
Union Nationale
Union Nationale may refer to several political parties:*Union nationale , Canada*Union Nationale Rwandaise*National Union , Union nationale in French*Chadian National Union, Union Nationale Tchadienne, known as UNT...
, Parti libéral du Québec
Parti libéral du Québec
The Quebec Liberal Party is a centre-right political party in Quebec. It has been independent of the federal Liberal Party of Canada since 1955....
and Parti Québécois
Parti Québécois
The Parti Québécois is a centre-left political party that advocates national sovereignty for the province of Quebec and secession from Canada. The Party traditionally has support from the labour movement. Unlike many other social-democratic parties, its ties with the labour movement are informal...
).
Many descendants of Irish Quebecers amassed large fortunes in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
in the 1920s, but most lost their fortunes in the Stock Market Crash of 1929 . Irishmen were also instrumental in building Victoria Bridge in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
. Near the entrance of this bridge is a great stone bearing an inscription commemorating the Irish who died after arriving to the city. One of the greatest influences the Irish had and still have on their new compatriots is within music. The music of Quebec
Music of Quebec
Being a modern cosmopolitan society, today, all types of music can be found in the Canadian province of Quebec. What is specific to Quebec though are traditional songs, a unique variety of Celtic music, legions of excellent jazz musicians, a culture of classical music, and a love of foreign rhythms...
has adopted, and adapted, the Irish reel
Reel (dance)
The reel is a folk dance type as well as the accompanying dance tune type. In Scottish country dancing, the reel is one of the four traditional dances, the others being the jig, the strathspey and the waltz, and is also the name of a dance figure ....
as its own.
Begun in 1824, the Saint Patrick's Day parade of Montreal, Quebec is still the oldest organized large parade of its kind in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
.
On March 17, 2008, on the 175th anniversary of Montreal's St. Patrick Society, Quebec Premier Jean Charest
Jean Charest
John James "Jean" Charest, PC, MNA is a Canadian politician who has been the 29th Premier of Quebec since 2003. He was leader of the federal Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1993 to 1998 and has been leader of the Quebec Liberal Party since 1998....
announced the creation of the Johnson chair of Irish studies at Concordia University.
Famous Irish Quebecers
- La BolducLa BolducMary Rose-Anna Travers, was a French Canadian singer and musician. She was known as Madame Bolduc or La Bolduc. During the peak of her popularity in the 1930s, she was known as the Queen of Canadian Folksingers. Bolduc is often considered to be Quebec's first singer/songwriter...
- Pat BurnsPat BurnsPatrick Burns was a National Hockey League head coach. Over 14 seasons between 1988 and 2004, he coached in 1,019 games with the Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins, and New Jersey Devils...
- Jean CharestJean CharestJohn James "Jean" Charest, PC, MNA is a Canadian politician who has been the 29th Premier of Quebec since 2003. He was leader of the federal Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1993 to 1998 and has been leader of the Quebec Liberal Party since 1998....
- Jim CorcoranJim CorcoranJim Corcoran is a Canadian singer-songwriter and broadcaster.-Biography:Jim Corcoran was born in Sherbrooke, but went to high school and his obtained his B.A. in Boston, Massachusetts in the late 1960s...
- Sir Edmund Flynn
- Daniel Johnson, Sr.
- Daniel Johnson, Jr.
- Joe Malone
- Pierre-Marc JohnsonPierre-Marc JohnsonPierre-Marc Johnson, , is a Quebec lawyer, physician and politician. He was the 24th Premier of Quebec from October 3 to December 12, 1985.- Early background :...
- Brian MulroneyBrian MulroneyMartin Brian Mulroney, was the 18th Prime Minister of Canada from September 17, 1984, to June 25, 1993 and was leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1983 to 1993. His tenure as Prime Minister was marked by the introduction of major economic reforms, such as the Canada-U.S...
- Emile NelliganÉmile NelliganÉmile Nelligan was a francophone poet from Quebec, Canada.-Biography:Nelligan was born in Montreal on December 24, 1879 at 602, rue de La Gauchetière. He was the first son of David Nelligan, who arrived in Quebec from Dublin, Ireland at the age of 12. His mother was Émilie Amanda Hudon, from...
- Edmund Bailey O'CallaghanEdmund Bailey O'CallaghanEdmund Bailey O'Callaghan, was a doctor and journalist.Born in Mallow, County Cork, Ireland, he studied medicine in Paris and immigrated to Lower Canada in 1823 where he became involved in the political reform movement of the Parti patriote...
- Patrick RoyPatrick RoyPatrick Edward Armand Roy is a former Canadian ice hockey goaltender. Nicknamed "Saint Patrick," Roy split his professional career between the Montreal Canadiens, whom he played with for 10 years, and the Colorado Avalanche, whom he played with for 8 years, both of the National Hockey League...
- Robert Guy ScullyRobert Guy ScullyRobert Guy Scully is a Canadian television producer, interviewer and host, and a former journalist. He started as a TV broadcaster with the French "la Société Radio-Canada" in Québec, and subsequently also joined the Canadian English language network, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation...
See also
- List of Irish Quebecers
- French-speaking QuebecerFrench-speaking QuebecerFrench-speaking Quebecers are francophone residents of the Canadian province of Quebec....
- English-speaking Quebecer
- Scots-QuebecerScots-QuebecerThe Scot-Quebecers , are Quebecers who are of Scottish descent.-Background:Few Scots came to Quebec before the Seven Years War. Those who did blended in with the French population...
- GriffintownGriffintownGriffintown is the popular name given to the former southwestern downtown part of Montreal, Quebec, which existed from the 1820s until the 1960s and was mainly populated by Irish immigrants and their descendants....
- Irish influence on Quebec culture
- Montreal Irish Rugby Football ClubMontreal Irish Rugby Football ClubMontreal Irish Rugby Football Club is a rugby union club based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.-1950s:When the Montreal Irish played their first game in September, 1957, it was suggested that the Art of Coarse Rugby had gained a valuable new patron...
- Irish roots of Quebec reel musicReel (dance)The reel is a folk dance type as well as the accompanying dance tune type. In Scottish country dancing, the reel is one of the four traditional dances, the others being the jig, the strathspey and the waltz, and is also the name of a dance figure ....
- Irish diasporaIrish diasporathumb|Night Train with Reaper by London Irish artist [[Brian Whelan]] from the book Myth of Return, 2007The Irish diaspora consists of Irish emigrants and their descendants in countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, Mexico, South Africa,...
- Irish Canadians
- Irish Americans
- List of Ireland-related topics
- Culture of Ireland
In English
- O'Brien, Kathleen. "Language, monuments, and the politics of memory in Quebec and Ireland", in Éire-Ireland: A Journal of Irish Studies, March 22, 2003 (online excerpt)
- Burns, Patricia (1998). The Shamrock and the Shield : An Oral History of the Irish in Montreal, Montreal: Véhicule Press, 202 p. ISBN 1-55065-109-9
- O'Gallagher, Marianna (1998). The Shamrock Trail: Tracing the Irish in Quebec City, Livres Carraig Books, 35 p. ISBN 0969858116
- O'Gallagher, Marianna and Rose Masson Dompierre (1995). Eyewitness: Grosse Isle, 1847, Livres Carraig Books, 432 p. ISBN 096908059X
- Toner, Peter. " Irish", in The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Foundation, 2008
- Grace, Robert J. (1993). The Irish in Quebec, an introduction to the historiography. Followed by An Annotated Bibliography on the Irish in Quebec, Institut québécois de recherche sur la culture, 265 p. ISBN 2-89224-186-3
- O'Driscoll, Robert and Lorna Reynolds (1988). The Untold Story. The Irish in Canada, Toronto: Celtic Arts of Canada, 1041 p. ISBN 0921745001
- Fitzgerald, Margaret E. (1988). The Uncounted Irish in Canada and the United States, Toronto: P.D. Meany Publishers, 377 p. ISBN 0888350244
- O'Gallagher, Marianna (1984). Grosse Île: Gateway to Canada, 1832-1937, Carraig Books, 184 p. ISBN 0969080530
- O'Gallagher, Marianna (1981). Saint Patrick's Quebec, Carraig Books, 124 p. ISBN 0969080506
- Guerin, Thomas (1946). The Gael in New France, 134 pages
- O'Farrell, John (1872). Irish Families in Ancient Quebec Records with some account of Soldiers from Irish Brigade Regiments of France serving with the Army of Montcalm, 28 pages - Address delivered at the annual concert and ball of the St. Patrick's Society, Montreal, 15 January 1872 (reprinted 1908, 1967)
- D'Arcy McGee, Thomas (1852). A History of the Irish Settlers in North America. From the Earliest Period to the Census of 1850, Boston: P. Donahoe, 240 p. (online)
In French
- Simon Jolivet, et al. "Premier dossier : Le Québec, l’Irlande et la diaspora irlandaise", in Bulletin d'histoire politique, volume 18, numéro 3 (spring 2010).
- Timbers, Wayne (2001). Britannique et irlandaise; l'identité ethnique et démographique des Irlandais Protestants et la formation d'une communauté à Montréal, 1834-1860, 107 leaves; McGill, Thesis (M.A.)
- Sheehy, Réjeanne (2000). L'alliance irlandaise Sheehy au Québec, Chicoutimi: Éditions Entreprises, 118 p.
- Dagneau, G.-H. (1998). Révélations sur les trois frères O'Leary de Québec, Québec: Société historique de Québec, 117 p.
- Moalla, Taïeb. "Les Irlandais du Québec : à la croisée de deux cultures", in Tolerance.ca, 2006
- Leclerc, Jacques. "La Nouvelle-France (1534-1760). L'implantation du français au Canada", in L'aménagement linguistique dans le monde, 2008
External links
- Being Irish O'Quebec, exhibition at McCord Museum
- LAC. "The Shamrock and the Maple Leaf", exhibition of Irish-Canadian documentary heritage held by Library and Archives CanadaLibrary and Archives CanadaLibrary and Archives Canada is a national memory institution dedicated to providing the best possible account of Canadian life through acquiring, preserving and making Canada's documentary heritage accessible for use in the 21st century and beyond...
, updated March 10, 2006 - Gail, Walsh. "The Irish in Quebec", in The Irish in Canada Web site
- Roux, Maryse. À la St-Patrick, tout le monde est irlandais! (in French)
- McLane, Dennis. The Frampton Irish Website
- Aubry, Louis. Tec Cornelius: The First Irish Immigrant in Canada, Presentation to the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa, Conference, 2002
- Canada's AUBRY family traced to a BRENNAN who was the first Irish immigrant
- United Irish Societies of Montreal
- St. Columban-Irish