Irish Quebecers
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]
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.[4] Irish culture and community organizations are mostly kept alive by the English-speaking population such as the United Irish Societies of Montreal.[5] Many others assimilating into the French-speaking majority population .
Saint Patrick's Day Parade
The longest-running Saint Patrick's Day parade in Canada is held each year in Montreal, Quebec. The parades have been held since 1824 and have been organized by the United Irish Societies of Montreal since 1929. 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.[6]
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Young Participants in Montreal's St Patrick's Parade
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Montreal St Patrick parade marshal trying to stay warm
History
New France (1608–1763)
In the seventeenth century, Irish residing in France were among those sent to colonize the Saint Lawrence Valley in New France. After the Reformation, Irish Catholic nobility, soldiers, and clergy would serve Catholic Monarchs in France, Spain, and the Low Countries. Nearly 35,000 Irish served in the French military in the seventeenth century. By 1700 there were approximately one hundred Irish-born families among the 2,500 families registered in New France, along with an additional thirty families of mixed Irish and French backgrounds.[7][8] Only 10 colonists had arrived from Ireland directly.[9] In the early eighteenth century, many Irish Catholics arrived from New England seeking to practice their religion more freely. During the Seven Years War, French authorities also encouraged desertion among the Irish serving in the British army in North America. In 1757, Governor Pierre Rigaud de Vaudreuil raised an Irish company consisting of deserters and prisoners of war who had served with the enemy British army; this company returned to France after the war.[7] Most of these Irish soldiers, settlers, and deserters assimilated into French-Canadian society. Many French Canadian surnames are derived from the names of Irish settlers from this time (e.g. Sullivan to Sylvain, O'Brien to Aubry, Moran to Morin) [7][10][11]
Lower Canada (Early 1800s)
Overpopulation and the enclosure movement in Ireland along with established commercial shipping routes between Quebec City and ports in Dublin and Liverpool encouraged large waves of Irish emigration to Lower Canada starting in 1815.[12] Most of these emigrants would come to cities in Lower Canada, establishing Irish communities in Montreal (1817)[13] and Quebec City (1819).[14] In Quebec, most Irish Catholics settled close to the harbour in the Lower Town working in the shipyards and on the wharves. By 1830, they constituted 7,000 of 32,000 inhabitants. The Montreal population was more transient, attracted to labor in large construction projects such as the Lachine Canal before moving on to Upper Canada and the United States. In 1825 Irish Catholics and Protestants constituted about 3,000 people out of a total city population of 25,000 and were about equal in number. Irish Catholics in formed distinctive neighbourhoods in the western portion of the city and later in Griffintown near the Lachine Canal works.[15] Irish Catholic settlers also opened of new agricultural areas in the recently surveyed Eastern Townships, the Ottawa valley, and Gatineau and Pontiac counties. Irish from Quebec would also settle in Saint Sylvestre and Saint Patrick in the Beauce region of southeastern Quebec.[15]
Irish became heavily involved in political life and newspaper publishing in Montreal. Many Irish leaders were involved in the Parti Canadien, Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society, and other French Canadian republican patriotic groups involved in the Lower Canada Rebellion of 1837-1838.[16] The Saint Patrick's Society of Montréal was founded in 1834 as an Irish patriotic organization with a political motive to counter the republican sentiments, with both Catholic and Protestant members sharing values of loyalty to the British Crown. The society vigorously defended the colonial government during the rebellion.[17]
The Great Irish Famine and Confederation (1840s to 1870s)
The famine hardened the attitude of Irish Catholics towards the British and Irish Protestants. Irish Catholics would fight fiercely to preserve a distinct identity from both Quebec Protestants and French Canadian Catholic populations. 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. The Saint Patrick's Society would be revived as a Catholic organization in 1856.[20] Distinct English Catholic schools, affiliated with French Catholic school boards, developed in the 1840s and 1850s.
Post-Confederation & Modern Day Quebec
English language Irish Catholic institutions continued to expand in the late 19th and early 20th 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. Intermarriage between the Irish and 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 than with English-speaking Protestants.[21]
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.
The Saint Patrick's Day parade of Montreal, Quebec is still the oldest organized large parade of its kind in Canada. 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.[22]
Famous Irish Quebecers
- La Bolduc
- Pat Burns
- Robin Burns
- Jean Charest
- Jim Corcoran
- Sir Edmund Flynn
- Frank Hanley
- Daniel Johnson, Sr.
- Daniel Johnson, Jr.
- Pierre-Marc Johnson
- Patrick Kennedy
- Dr. Larkin Kerwin
- Joe Malone
- Paul Martin
- Thomas Mulcair
- Brian Mulroney
- Emile Nelligan
- Edmund Bailey O'Callaghan
- Marianna O'Gallagher
- Patrick Roy
- Robert Guy Scully
- Kevin Tierney
- Georges Vanier
- Georges Dor
See also
- List of Irish Quebecers
- French-speaking Quebecer
- English-speaking Quebecer
- Scots-Quebecer
- Griffintown
- Irish influence on Quebec culture
- Montreal Irish Rugby Football Club
- Irish roots of Quebec reel music
- Irish diaspora
- Irish Canadians
- Irish Americans
- List of Ireland-related topics
- Culture of Ireland
Notes
- ↑ Ethnocultural Portrait of Canada Highlight Tables - 2006 Census: Quebec
- ↑ Statistics Canada 1996 Census: Top 25 Ethnic Origins in Quebec
- ↑ Taïeb Moalla, Les Irlandais du Québec : à la croisée de deux cultures, in Tolerance.ca, retrieved on February 3, 2007
- ↑ Statistics Canada Population by selected ethnic origins, by census metropolitan areas (2001 Census) (Montreal)
- ↑ United Irish Societies of Montreal Statistics Canada
- ↑ Don Pidgeon (2007-07-03). "Montreal's Saint Patrick's Day Parade: History". United Irish Societies of Montreal.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Mark G. Mcgowan. "Irish Catholics: Migration, Arrival, and Settlement before the Great Famine". The Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples. Multicultural Canada. Retrieved 2012-04-25.
- ↑ Peter Toner, "Irish", in The Canadian Encyclopedia, retrieved on February 17, 2008
- ↑ Jacques Leclerc, "La Nouvelle-France (1534-1760). L'implantation du français au Canada", in Aménagement linguistique dans le monde, TQLF, Université Laval retrieved on February 17, 2008
- ↑ "The Irish in Quebec - General Facts". Canadian Irish Studies Foundation. Retrieved 2012-04-25.
- ↑ Taïeb Moalla, Les Irlandais du Québec : à la croisée de deux cultures, in Tolerance.ca, retrieved on February 3, 2007
- ↑ Mark G. Mcgowan. "Irish Catholics: Migration, Arrival, and Settlement before the Great Famine". The Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples. Multicultural Canada. Retrieved 2012-04-25. "the combination after 1815 of falling prices, population pressures, the inability of tenants to pay rent, the movement to "enclose" lands for pasture, and increased evictions and subsequent landlessness convinced many Irish that there was little future for themselves and their children in rural Ireland."
- ↑ Don Pidgeon. "The Continuity of St. Patrick's Parades in Montreal". Retrieved 2012-05-25. "In 1817, the beginning of the Irish community here, the observance of St. Patrick's day was marked by special dinners and the celebration of religious services."
- ↑ "Saint Patrick's Church: History". Retrieved 2012-04-25. "1819 Celebration of Mass on St. Patrick's Day in Jesuit Chapel - first public expression of social religious life of Irish in Quebec."
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Mark G. Mcgowan. "Irish Catholics: Migration, Arrival, and Settlement before the Great Famine". The Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples. Multicultural Canada. Retrieved 2012-04-25.
- ↑ "Irish radicalism and the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec and Ireland, 1833-1834: O'Callaghan and O'Connell compared".
- ↑ "Politics and the Irish in Rebellion-era Montréal". Library and Archives Canada. 2008-11-03. Retrieved 2012-04-25.
- ↑ Mark G. Mcgowan. "Migration, Arrival and Settlement: The Great Famine and Beyond". Retrieved 2012-04-26.
- ↑ "2008 Irish Studies Symposium: November 3 & 4 Session III: The Irish in Quebec". The Shamrock and the Maple Leaf: Irish-Canadian Documentary Heritage at Library and Archives Canada.
- ↑ K.J. James, University of Guelph, Ontario. "Politics and the Irish in Rebellion-era Montréal".
- ↑ Taïeb Moalla, Les Irlandais du Québec : à la croisée de deux cultures, in Tolerance.ca, on February 3, 2007
- ↑ Concordia Journal 20 March 2008
References
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 0-9698581-1-6
- O'Gallagher, Marianna and Rose Masson Dompierre (1995). Eyewitness: Grosse Isle, 1847, Livres Carraig Books, 432 p. ISBN 0-9690805-9-X
- 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 0-921745-00-1
- Fitzgerald, Margaret E. (1988). The Uncounted Irish in Canada and the United States, Toronto: P.D. Meany Publishers, 377 p. ISBN 0-88835-024-4
- O'Gallagher, Marianna (1984). Grosse Île: Gateway to Canada, 1832-1937, Carraig Books, 184 p. ISBN 0-9690805-3-0
- O'Gallagher, Marianna (1981). Saint Patrick's Quebec, Carraig Books, 124 p. ISBN 0-9690805-0-6
- 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)
External links
- United Irish Societies of Montreal - Organizers of Montreal's St Patrick's parade
- 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 Canada, 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
- Whyte, Robert. The ocean plague; or, A voyage to Quebec in an Irish emigrant vessel, embracing a quarantine at Grosse Isle in 1847. With notes illustrative of the ship-pestilence of that fatal year. Boston : Coolidge & Wiley, 12 Water Street, 1848. Accessed July 18, 2012, in PDF format.
- Constitution of the St. Patrick's Society of Quebec. Established in 1836. Incorporated by Act of Provincial Parliament. Quebec : Printed by E.S. Pooler, 1850. Accessed July 18, 2012, in PDF format.
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