IRISH QUEBECERS

'Irish Quebecers' are residents of the Canadian province of Quebec who have Irish ancestry. In 2001, there were 291,545 Quebecers who identified themselves as having partial or exclusive Irish descent in Quebec, representing about 4% of the population^[1]. Some demographers, however, speculate that about 40% of Quebecers have Irish ancestry on at least one side of their family tree^[2].

Contents

Demographics

Saint Patrick's Day Parade

History

Notes

References

Sources

See also

External links

Demographics

In 2001, there were 291,545 Quebecers who identified themselves as Irish representing 4.1% of the population. This represents a decrease 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 ^[3]. Irish culture and community organizations are mostly kept alive by the English-speaking population, with the others assimilating into the French-speaking majority population ^[4].

Saint Patrick's Day Parade

The longest-running Saint Patrick's Day parade in Canada occurs each year in Montreal, Québec. 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.^[5]

History

Quebec has seen substantial immigration from Ireland in its history, especially during the Great Irish Famine (1845-1849). The majority arrived in Grosse Isle, an island in present day Quebec 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 on or near the island. From Grosse-Ile, most survivors were sent to Montréal. Most of these immigrants continued on to settle in Canada West (formerly Upper Canada, now Ontario) or the United States. The orphaned children were adopted into Quebec families and accordingly became Québécois, both linguistically and culturally. Some of these children fought for their right to keep their Irish surnames, and were largely successful.[2].
The Irish established communities in both urban and rural Quebec. Irish immigrants arrived in large numbers in Montreal during the 1830s and were hired as labourers to build the Lachine Canal. In the 1840's and 1850's, they laboured on the Victoria Bridge, living in a tent city at the foot of the 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.

The Irish would go on to settle permanently in the close-knit working-class neighbourhoods of Point-Saint-Charles and Griffintown. The Irish would fight fiercely to preserve a distinct identity from both Quebec Protestants and French Canadian Catholic populations [3]. 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) 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.
Nevertheless, mixing between the Irish and the French Quebecers was also common. In the pre-Quiet Revolution religious Quebec, the common Catholicism of the two groups meant they were more likely to intermarry, more than with the English and Scottish Protestant settlers. According to Marianna O' Gallagher, three factors would explain the assimilation of some Irish immigrants into French Canadian society: "The cordial reception that the Irish received in Quebec, the mixed marriages and the frequentation of French-speaking churches".^[6]
Some typical "French" patronyms are in fact gallicized Irish surnames. For example, the Aubry would owe their surname to the O'Brien, the Barrette to the Barrett, the Bourque to the Burke, the Guérin to the Gearan or Geary, the Mainguy to the McGee, the Morin to the Moran, the Nolin to the Nolan, the Riel to the Reilly or O'Reilly, the Sylvain to the Sullivan or O'Sullivan. ^[7]
There are also many francophone families who have anglicized Irish surnames. One of those families is the Johnson family, a political dynasty that gave Quebec three Premiers, all of different parties and ideologies.
French-speaking Quebecers make up roughly 80% of the total population of some 7.5 million Quebecers.
While many Irish lost their culture as they assimilated into francophone Quebec culture, many maintained their cultural heritage as part of the English speaking community of Quebec, especially in Montreal.
Many descendants of Irish Quebecers amassed large fortunes in Montreal 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. 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 has adopted, and adapted, the Irish reel 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.

Notes

References

1. Statistics Canada Top 25 Ethnic Origins in Quebec
2. Taïeb Moalla, ''Les Irlandais du Québec : à la croisée de deux cultures'', in Tolerance.ca, retrieved on February 03, 2007
3. Statistics Canada Population by selected ethnic origins, by census metropolitan areas (2001 Census)(Montréal)
4. United Irish Societies of Montreal [1]
5. Montreal's Saint Patrick's Day Parade: History Don Pidgeon
6. Taïeb Moalla, ''Les Irlandais du Québec : à la croisée de deux cultures'', in Tolerance.ca
7. Ibid., According to journalist and historian Louis-Guy Lemieux, based on studies made by the United Irish Societies of Montreal)

Sources

★ Grosse Île: Gateway to Canada, 1832-1937, , Marianna, O'Gallagher, Carraig Books, ,

★ Eyewitness: Grosse Isle, 1847, , Marianna, O'Gallagher, Livres Carraig Books, ,

★ Saint Patrick's Quebec, , Marianna, O'Gallagher, Carraig Books, ,

★ The Shamrock Trail: Tracing the Irish in Quebec City, , Marianna, O'Gallagher, Livres Carraig Books, ,

★ Les Irlandais du Québec : à la croisée de deux cultures Moalla, Taïeb

See also

★ English-speaking Quebecer

★ List of Irish Quebecers

★ Irish influence on Quebec culture

★ Irish roots of Quebec reel music

★ Irish diaspora

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★ Irish Canadians

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★ Irish Americans

★ List of Ireland-related topics

★ Culture of Ireland

★ Culture of Quebec

★ Quebec Irish suranmes

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★ Johnson

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★ Roy

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★ Ryan

External links

★ The Shamrock and the Maple Leaf: Irish-Canadian Documentary Heritage at Library and Archives Canada

★ The Irish in Quebec

★ United Irish Societies of Montreal

★ Saint Patrick's Day and the Irish in Quebec (in French)

★ The Irish of the Frampton(Quebec) area

★ St. Columban-Irish

★ Canada's AUBRY family traced to a BRENNAN who was the first Irish immigrant

★ Tec Cornelius : The First Irish Immigrant in Canada