Irish Quebecers (French: Irlando-Québécois) are residents of the Canadian province of Quebec who have Irish ancestry. In 2006, there were 406,085 Quebecers who identified themselves as having partial or exclusive Irish descent in Quebec, representing 5.5% of the population.[1][2] 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.[3]
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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.[4]
The longest-running Saint Patrick's Day parade in the world occurs each year in Montreal, Quebec. 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]
There may have been up to 5% of the population of settlers of New France (Acadia and Canada principally) who were from Ireland.[6] 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.[7] It is known that there were Irish soldiers in the armies of Montcalm.[8]
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-Île, most survivors were sent to Montreal. 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. [1].
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 and many men were hired as labourers to build the Lachine Canal. 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 of 1837-1838 [2].
In the 1840s and 1850s, they laboured on the Victoria Bridge, living in a tent city at the foot of the bridge (see Goose Village, Montreal). 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 Pointe-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".[9]
French-speaking Quebecers make up roughly 80% of the total population of some 7.5 million Quebecers. Many Irish assimilated into francophone Quebec culture, 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.[10] 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.[11]
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 (Union nationale, Parti libéral du Québec and Parti Québécois).
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.
On March 17, 2008, on the 175th anniversary of Montreal's St. Patrick Society, Quebec Premier Jean Charest announced the creation of the Johnson chair of Irish studies at Concordia University.[12]
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