Canadian Journal of Irish Studies
Canadian Association of Irish Studies
Montreal's Ship Fever Monument: An Irish Famine Memorial in the Making
Author(s): Colin McMahon
Source: The Canadian Journal of Irish Studies, Vol. 33, No. 1, Ireland and Quebec / L'Irlande et
le Québec (Spring, 2007), pp. 48-60
Published by: Canadian Journal of Irish Studies
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25515660 .
Accessed: 30/11/2014 10:58
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
.
Canadian Journal of Irish Studies and Canadian Association of Irish Studies are collaborating with JSTOR to
digitize, preserve and extend access to The Canadian Journal of Irish Studies.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 132.206.27.25 on Sun, 30 Nov 2014 10:58:43 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Colin McMAHON
Montreal's
in the Making
Irish Famine Memorial
An
Monument
Fever
Ship
The Famine migration, which brought close to one hundred
thousand Irishmigrants to British North America in 1847, has
in public
persisted
as the seminal
memory
event
their most
a
in the history
forms."8
revolting
.into
city..
populous
of
Fearful
a virtual
"the
citi2en
Station,"
Quarantine
of
conversion
of the Irish inCanada. Despite the efforts of many historians
who have downplayed the significance of 1847 in relation to
groups and the Board of Health demanded that all incoming
immigrants be quarantined outside city limits on one of the
the larger wave
from
Catholics
Boucherville
that
of
Protestants
migration
brought
to the Canadas
in the thirty years
Ireland
to the Famine,1
to embark
forced
voyage
of
images
on the
to encounter
only
on
Irish-Catholic
starving
long and
perilous
and
prior
the best
at
quarantine
typhus
epidemic
Island or Grosse-Ile
have been
Partridge
deeply
in Canadian
historical
consciousness.
ingrained
popular
Famine
in the first
commemorations
Large-scale
organised
on Grosse-Ile
and last decades
of
the twentieth
century
stations
helped
the
iconic
site. Grosse-Ile,
even
-
In Pointe
Famine
Saint-Charles,
had
Grosse-Ile
their
of
recent
overview
was
and
of
port
While
of
thousand
Irish
the
up
on Grosse-Ile.
station
thousands of
ever
thrown
dying
of
dropped
St. Lawrence
[its]
state."6
Those
at Montreal's
immigrants
exhibiting
of two lazarettos
and
Canal
observed
48McMAHON
"all
near
city
in a
enough
for
typhus
sheds on
Street,7
of
"inundated
and wretched
of
Wellington
was
as
beings,
in the
vicinity
graves
of
For many
following
the
defining
The
focal
became
city
the
one
and misery
in
of
the
most
died,
in Pointe
sheds
burial
grounds
Saint-Charles.13
intent
moment
of
Fever
adjacent
of
worthy
Famine
remembrance
a boulder
Monument,
to
century
migration
the site of
the
fever
the
in
sheds
of
by representatives
Inaugurated
elite and a group
of workers
involved
Anglo-Protestant
in the construction
original
in the
Famine
in 1859 to mark
installed and inscribed
of
was
the Victoria
to
preserve
the monument's
Bridge,
from
the final
desecration
resting place of all immigrants who died during the typhus
of
1847.
often
Famine
over
Only
time
a
through
events
commemorative
Analyzing
process
did it
litigious,
to victims
of
point
as a memorial
recognised
migration.
and
at one
and
contentious,
to be
widely
in 1897, 1913, and
organised at the Ship Fever Monument
1942, this paper traces how groups of Irish Catholics laid
to the boulder
claim
More
of
as Montreal's
ground
of
purpose
of
Famine
Famine
memorial.
specifically, I will examine how collective
at
remembrance
twentieth
journalist
fever
the
point
Ship
the memorial
from
where
had
people
the
episode,
historical
identities inMontreal
the
in
riverbank
the
southeast
in Montreal
Catholics
tragic
a
represented
commemoration.
in
Irish
this
contexts
of
an
Saint-Charles.12
Catholic
bank
near
immigrants who were hastily buried
the
south
that
to construct
kilometre
six thousand
of them Irish-Catholic
the
sickly, and many
to continue
on
was
1847 that the epidemic finally abated, by
as many
time
while
transportation,
were
taken to the site
wretchedness
Montreal's Ship Fever Monument
which
come
with
to typhus, decided
or contain
as thousands
the
stricken with
suffering
contagion,
were
disease
in
It was
overcrowded
conditions.11
unsanitary
epidemic
that was
the quarantine
Joint
Emigrant
Easton
Mills,
original sheds.10 But the new facilities did little to alleviate
the
in the United States or Canada
wharves
the marks
from
mostiy
healthy
signs
three
principal
one
just
John
epidemic
on land
sheds
twenty-two
reputed
Pointe
the city's
fifty thousand
arrival
of
seventy-five
at the waterfront
off
debilitated
their journey to destinations
Lachine
the
shores
upon
waited
the
By June
the most
1847
with
were
who
sent
steamers
port
the summer
migration
the
moved
eventually
migrants
on
left a lasting
impression
so than
but none more
cities,
they
contend
Famine
to
yet
in 1847.5
Canadian
residents
the
have
in Montreal,
Famine
States,
in Canada
of
memory
Irish
During
to
had
Irish
disembarkation
many
a number
the
constructed
the United
Montreal.
memory
of
public
contested
to
Famine
of a
exception
in Canada
by Mark
the
Saint-Charles,
in mass
of
the
with
attention,3
of
how
Canadian
West
horrors
of Irish Catholics
groups
counterpart,"
as
as 1870.2 Yet,
the Famine
early
a considerable
the
been
of
subject
historians
examine
in a
"the
where
Montreal,
scholarly
McGowan,4
by
Famine
- or
not
additional
not until October
ensured
commemorating
Grosse?lie
has
amount
on
and
audience
representative
the only
significant
site to be commemorated
in Canada.
was
however,
the first
began
while
to a wide
images
status as Canada's
such
project
island's
to manage
city's
Mayor,
eventually fall victim
way
Pointe
the
However,
and Montreal's
who would
refugees
trans-Adantic
a
islands.9
Commissioners
for
the
and
negotiation
the
century.
among
migrants
late
While
Irish
who
site
as
construction
a
of
acts
staging
Irish
in changing socio-political
nineteenth
there was
Catholics
succumbed
This content downloaded from 132.206.27.25 on Sun, 30 Nov 2014 10:58:43 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
served
century
generally
to honour
to
typhus
into
the mid
a shared
sense
the memory
in 1847
and
to
their
safeguard
at moments
particularly
gravesite,
To Preserve
when
events
commemorative
the
Charles,
Fever Monument
a
uncovered
at
range
of Messrs.
Peto, Brassey and
the Victoria Bridge A.D.
of
Betts Employed
1859
a
of often
variety
agendas.
competing
political
exposed
to preserve
the memorial
site and in their
their struggle
in
rituals
and rhetoric
search for meaningful
commemorative
and
In
were
often
confronted
that
differences
with
the
their
divided
and
class
community.
a
to
continued
group,
near
in the
of
absence
Irish
that
political
position
in the city, reflected
occupy
Catholic
However,
landscape.
an
number
increasing
and
society,
influence
to a new
memorial
the Famine
neared,
now
several
Catholics,
a
greater
this
tenor
nationalist
of
degree
the
context,
that
considerable
affluence
Though
of
adversity.
the Famine
migrants
of
who
across
the Lachine
immediate
effort
to
made
to
of
burial
the Victoria
the next
five
Bridge
commemorative
to attract
site began
of
thousands
years,
commenced
attention.
labourers,
the
even
Irish workers
in
graves
the
fever
took
sheds
which
the British firm responsible
into
were
many
enough,
unsettling
a cross"
outside
their
doors
further
reminder
spot."14
As
be
monument
that
"the
"a small mound
have
as
served
a
the
monument
1859, workers were purportedly
remains
that
forgotten,"
upon
The
of
would
of
they
their
poor
countrymen
to erect
"determined
of
a
a
had either been dredged from the bed of the St. Lawrence
the construction
during
a few hundred
yards
of
from
the
or
bridge
the gravesite.16
out
taken
On
of
a field
December
engineer
a
group
James
of workers
Hodges,
under
concluded
the
supervision
"the Herculean
of
1,
chief
business,"
using a derrick to hoist the thirty-ton rock and affix it upon
a six-foot
stone
tombstone
the
pedestal.17
following
On
this massive
dedication
was
and
misshapen
While
usage."
the assurance
with
until
to
the
symbol
of
entrance
the
a
powerful
that "the great
recognising
"the bodies
that
the day
of
of
the faithful
resurrection."18
the preponderance
graves,
of Irish Catholics buried
of
representatives
was
between
of
indicative
Catholics
a
Witness,
and
editorial
the
the Roman
the
growing
Protestants
Such outbursts were
in the
tensions
Catholic
animus
that
in Montreal,
this
conceal
its
ceremony
views,
anti-papist
also
featured
as
Catholicism
its
treasonable
sect
"a
designs."19
to be
since mid-century,
with
associated
increasingly
context,
for
inextricably linked to rising sectarian
city where,
was
known
dedicatory
Roman
characterising
no care
to
takes
Montreal
well
paper
on
reported
of
representatives
the
Irish
in
Catholic.20
being
Anglo-Protestant
establishment were clearly not interested in identifying the
victims of typhus as predominantly Irish-Catholic and risk
to
as evidence
the Famine
even
As
genocide.21
to "treat
could
they
but would
steer
of
dutiful
the
clear
of
British
Christians,
dead
with
which
looked
and
misgovernment
do what
they would
reverence
and
any memorial
exercise
a
to
credence
regard,"
into
delving
the increasingly politicised history of the Famine, for fear
of exacerbating strained relations between Irish Catholics
Anglo-Protestants
Less
than
twenty
Famine
Montreal,
fracturing
1859, just threeweeks before theVictoria Bridge opened for
traffic,
that
that
boulder
granite
irreverent
any
existed
and
spot."15
took the form
from
Bridge
a monument
that might
lend
inaugurating
nascent
movement
of radical Irish nationalism,
environs
at a "sacred
they lived and worked
to
hurried
construction
of
the
complete
they
so concerned
the presence
Betts,
the bridge, had
febrile
formerly
throw
Victoria
at the ceremony
In
that
bridge in the autumn of
would
and
stone's
rest undisturbed
an
to the mass
Brassey
for building
these
housing.
not
and
Peto,
If
converted
next
residence
up
from
which
unskilled Irish Catholics, found themselves working at the
northern end of the Bridge at the very spot where the typhus
victims were buried in 1847.As many as five hundred English
and
a
just
constructed
Montreal
Over
including
the dedication
performed
religious bigotry was routinely preached from the
and
pulpit
propagated by the press. The same edition of the
their
that
workers,
years
to the
chaplain
where
compatriots who died in 1847. Itwas not until 1854 when
construction
to the
twelve
hierarchy were not invited to the 1859 dedication ceremony
and thus denied the opportunity to consecrate the ground in
which lay the bodies of their faithful. Their notable absence
there was
a memorial
create
erected
Despite
remained
-
in Griffintown
canal
sheds
the current
Ellegood,
construction
in the mass
inMontreal
lived and worked in close proximity to the
burial site - in the industrial milieu of Pointe Saint-Charles
and
in the fever
from atop the pedestal. Bishop Fulford then addressed
the assembled crowd. Standing in front of the monument
to a close
in Famine
in times
many
Francis
and destructive pestilence" of 1847 denied a proper burial
to its victims, the Anglican Bishop brought the ceremony
prior to the FirstWorld War gradually gave
resiliency
of Montreal,
Bishop
engineering ingenuity and industrial progress-Fulford vowed
that "the bodies of those lying here interred be preserved
embattled
resonated
and Reverend
newly
to
of 1847, one
the events
approach
recalling
on
to focus more
Irish Catholics'
celebrating
to Canada
and their
contributions
pioneering
tended
historic
of
Irish
enjoying
in Montreal.
In
commemorations
that
of
were
and
undertones
way
crowded
as the centenary
removed from Ireland and fully integrated into
generations
Canadian
in Montreal's
space
symbolic
as
they,
the Anglican
of Protestants
Protestant
regularly reminded of the relatively disadvantaged economic
and
of
Fulford, Reverend Canon Leach, who had ministered
earlier,
ideological
were
also
They
In the presence
small minority
the fifteen years following the Famine jubilee, Irish Catholics
no
of 6000 Immigrants Who
the Remains
1847-48
is erected by theWorkmen
in the Construction
This Stone
the
Ship
memories
organised
of historical
from Desecration
died of Ship Fever A.D.
seen to be neglected by its Anglican caretakers or
violated by incursive industrial operations in Pointe Saint
it was
Irish-Catholic
even
and
Irish-Catholic
community
radically
years
nationalist
after
the
also
memory
coreligionists
a
in Montreal.22
relations
had
with
advantage
particularly
of
while
influx
into
potential
of
their
francophone
within
the city's
fissures
exposing
itself. Unlike
those who
of
construction
influential cohort of Irish Catholics
the
Irish
the
the
advocated
an
Famine,
in the city did not see
up memories
dredging
were
they
attempting
of
the
Famine,
to maintain
the
engraved:
CJIS/RCfil
This content downloaded from 132.206.27.25 on Sun, 30 Nov 2014 10:58:43 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
33:1 49
integrity of Irish parishes in the city. In 1866 when Bishop
Ignace Bourget, in an attempt to allay Irish fears about the
of
realignment
reminding
by their French-speaking
Catholics
letter
pastoral
the assistance
they were
Catholics
in 1847, many
offered
Irish
St. Patrick's
with
reacted
a
wrote
boundaries,
parish
the Irish of
outrage.
congregation,
Patrick Dowd
and Thomas
by Father
D'Arcy
not
let it be known
in
that they were
interested
McGee,
on the Famine
as itwould
weaken
only
dwelling
experience,
some
in Montreal.
their already vulnerable
position
Clearly
were more
Irish Catholics,
those
who
established
particularly
an
to
in the city, were
and longer
settled
eager
project
image
represented
of respectability and preferred not to be pushed to recall the
destitute state inwhich the Irish arrived in 1847.23
the wake
In
of
this
a
however,
controversy,
look
interest
upon
Catholic
of
in
Ship
landmark.
remembrance
the Famine
remembering
the
Fever
Monument
The
first
Irish
by
as an
growing
and
began
Irish
important
albeit
collective,
at
Catholics
to
act
informal,
the memorial
site
took place in July 1870, ironically the same year that tide to
site was
the memorial
of Montreal
in
to
transferred
Father
perpetuity.
the Anglican
Bishop
of St.
the pastor
Hogan,
Ann's, led a small group that brought Father M.B. Buckley,
a
on a tour of notable
from
Irish
Ireland,
visiting
priest
was
to see the
sites in the city.
Significandy,
Buckley
brought
so many
so
of
countrymen
plot of land "where
[his] fellow
to
For
monument
the
his visit
miserably
perished."
Buckley,
was
but he was
particularly
by the mention
moving,
perplexed
of
in the monument's
"6,000
immigrants"
inscription.24
he wondered,
not
"did
say Irish?"25 Despite
"Why,"
they
this glaring
omission,
further
strengthened
of the
Redemptorists
Irish
to
claims
the monument
the mid-1880s,
by
assumed
when
control
of
were
the Fathers
St. Ann's
Church.
They introduced the tradition of visiting thememorial
an annual
hold
the
souls
of
are
there
interred."26
These
year.
of
the
of
thousands
in June "for
Irish Catholics
acts,
the site unattended
leaving
The True Witness
and Catholic Chronicle,
tangled
and
grass
plot
neglected
Montreal's
in the
city
the sturdy
where
man's
of
chapter
formed
just three
(AOH),
by the desolate
fraternal
of
bones
state
lamented
riot
feet
seldom
of
years
for much
the
the fact
weed
the Ancient
the
over
the
1895,
stray."27 By
of Hibernians
earlier, was
distressed
equally
As
grounds.28
amandate
of
mouthpiece
that "the tall,
luxuriandy
Order
the burial
with
organisation
to
play
to the
present
day). As
a sense
the most
nationalist of the Irish societies inMontreal,
also
in the memorial
interested
of
nationalists
viewed
their
as the most
committed
therefore,
by
a
there."29
the burial
that the
Ship
Irish-Catholic
were
ideological
of
heinous
the British
powerfully
site for
persuasion,
the many
against
symbolic
Irish
historical
militandy
theAOH were
reasons.
political
the Famine
historical
Catholics,
event
For
was
wrongs
and was,
that
Montreal's Ship Fever Monument
of more
"men
This
plain
the plot
landscape
on
and
of
to be
intended
an
trustees
its Anglican
it that way.
keeping
increasingly disillusioned with the monument
Though
its caretakers,
and
never
memorial
possession
to the AOH
reminder
was
Monument
Famine
were
denomination
to take
attempt
as an unwelcome
Fever
intent
one
than
scuttled
site served
Irish
were
societies
not
from
deterred
site tomark the Famine
jubilee.
a commemorative
was
1897
event
19,
September
on a scale "never
seen
in
the
before
of
organised
history
the Irish Catholics
to the five
of Montreal."30
In addition
On
thousand
who
Irish Montrealers
the
walked
to the
thousand
of
the guests
of
Catholic Archbishop
Father
then
M.P.
their
Bruchesi
Strubbe,
of
pastor
of
president
for the
the
the
crowd
occasion
leaders,
including
Dr.
parish,
J.J. Guerin,
Society, Michael
and Mr.
Justice
Anne,
Curran, Judge of the Superior Court of Montreal
orations
that
drew
their perspective,
on
the
Canadian
the most
only
since
who
their
the
in
took
as martyrs
died
Their
came
that
French
Irish
it also
the Famine,
had
overcome
had
in their
been
served
across
between
summer.32
during
the
self-flagellation
1847 not
to which
in the
years
adversity
fifty
as a reminder
of how derelict
to honour
duty
to
and ministered
orphans
oscillated
courage
and
nuns,
that calamitous
message
ceremony
From
tropes.
faith.
priests,
throughout
insistent
Frank
delivered
self-congratulation.
Collectively
remembering
an occasion
to celebrate
the
presented
degree
Montreal's
they
and
Quinn,
exiled in 1847 and
the St. Lawrence
that of
by
the Irish
commemorative
and
of
nationality
families
of
nationalist
the Irish who were
shores
their
preserving
was
only matched
familiar
upon
and
After
stage.
offered prayers, several of
St. Ann's
Ste.
the united
on
positions
St. Patrick's
of
riding
twenty
immense
for
Irish-Catholic
prominent
church
some
site.31 As
the
erected
took
bunting
Street and followed
requiem,
platform
honour
most
a
and
St. Ann's
grounds,
commemorative
sang
city
a
around
city's
burial
reputed
to the
the
gathered
the
from
spectators lined Wellington
the procession
choirs
banners
carrying
route
two-kilometre
in Griffintown
Several
of
could
be invoked as part of the struggle for Irish
independence.
50McMAHON
that
buried
a Catholic
to maintain
and
the memory
of
their
predecessors.
the history and traditions of Ireland among the
diaspora, the
AOH took it upon itself to act as guardians of the site (a role
it continues
grounds
But
infrequent
a
erect
the monument,
around
to the cemetery,
with grass and flowers. However, Bishop Bond, speaking
on behalf of the Archdeacon, denied their request on the
perished
site to
repose
whose
were
however,
in scale,
Irish Catholics
the
a fence
at the entrance
the needs
commemorative
small
and
service
Requiem
to construct
cross
appropriating thememorial
in the city, primarily those
number of Irish Catholics
affiliated with St. Ann's parish inGriffintown, were beginning
to show
In their bid to gain ownership of the site, delegates from
theOrder approached Anglican Archdeacon Ker, promising
Catholics
site
had
from
at
speakers
the opportunity
the
commemorative
yet
Anglican
to
secure
authorities.
to the Catholic
took
that Irish
over
control
the
proprietary
For Father
it was
Strubbe,
essential that the land upon which
transferred
event
to express their
disappointment
Church,
the monument
stood be
so that the
cemetery
could
be properly consecrated and prayers for the dead
performed
regularly.33
Catholics
Frank
departed..
Under
from
such
acquiring
circumstances
that prevented
the property,
Strubbe
and
Irish
Justice
Curran
"the bones
of
the
suggested
transferring
.to a more
Cote
des
fitting
place,
namely,
Neiges
This
to relocate
the remains
is not
proposal
Cemetery."34
that
surprising
considering
that
This content downloaded from 132.206.27.25 on Sun, 30 Nov 2014 10:58:43 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
since
the mid-nineteenth
had looked to
century Catholic and Protestant Montrealers
romantic
the
landscape
on Mount
cemeteries
of
as
Royal
respectable and dignified burial sites for their dead.35When
compared to the 365 picturesque acres of Cote des Neiges
Cemetery, designed by surveyor and architect Henri-Maurice
Perrault, the bleak, industrial milieu of Pointe Saint-Charles
some
struck
at
commemorative
the
even
inappropriate,
as a
ceremony
resting
sacrilegious,
place
ceremony
even
expressed
To
grounds.
to the
at
leaders
Ship Fever Monument
jubilee
that marked
the site of
North
statuary
at the end
and Europe
context
this
it is easy
enough
In
the burial
of
the nineteenth
to see
why
Curran referred disparagingly to the 1859 memorial
rock"
primitive
the Famine
and
Irish
recommended
should
the monumental
shaft
cemetery,
Neiges
be
as
of
worthy
a year
built
to
commemoration
of
des
the Patriotes
a more
one
1847,
Irish monument
authentically
that would
enhance
"the
to the victims
people, not only of this city and Dominion,
race
the world
In its coverage
over."37
of
reputation
of
the
Irish
but of the Irish
the event
of
The True
Witness andCatholic Chronicle pronounced
that the Ship Fever
Monument
and
an
Irish
"came
from
monument,"
the
throughout
hands
stranger
a sentiment
echoing
jubilee
is in no
that
sense
resonated
ceremony.38
into Montreal's
of
hub
and
industry
transportation,
began
in 1898 to lobby Bishop Bond and the Anglican Church to
sell
the memorial
site.
on
Intent
the track
acquiring
land near
the entrance of the bridge, the GTR viewed the monument
as an
to
impediment
development.
to
reluctant
relinquish
ownership
to his
in trust,
predecessor
agreed
that would
take statements
from
Bishop
of
land
to
Bond,
though
that was
passed
a committee
organise
no
remains
The
lack of
evidence
of
a
dog,
obtained
by theAnglican committee persuaded Bishop Bond that the
site was not a burial ground, increasing the likelihood that
GTR
soon
would
the
acquiring
Many
attempt
in
succeed
land
itwas
Irish Catholics
to violate
possibility
of
put quite
plainly
the
this
moving
to
designed
were
collective
to the
railway's
anger
any
desire
to prevent
and
by the GTR's
the memorial
turning
management
Quinn and Father Strubbe, who
had
incensed
of
sanctity
the monument
protect.
site. The
to violence
by M.P.
was
Michael
insisted that "if [theGTR]
serious
trouble
and
perhaps
the
the
power
their
"to
pledged
out
carrying
resolution
and
of
seen
be
as
action
any
unworthy
appearance
of
As
desecration."42
proposed
however,
not
it would
consensus,
be
easy
by
that
given
Irish
the
delegates
to maintain
the
to the
site
renowned
author
voice
- did continue
Mary
Anne
registered
in
that
righteous
object"
memorial
ought
sites were
sale.43 One
projected
the
-
including
the few women
of
commemorative
discourse
to look upon the boulder as "a holy and a
alternative
the
one
Sadlier,
sale of the
some
While
company.
railway
in the
Catholics
city did not speak as one regarding the proposed
not
to be moved,
suggested
proposal
a
of
variety
as news
of
spread
the monument
assigned
to a piece of property on the
dividing line of the Mount
Cote
and
Royal
soon
proved
des
prescient,
cemeteries.44
Neiges
was
which
Another,
to relocate
to St.
the boulder
Patrick's Square "in the heart of St. Ann's Ward
Irish-Catholic
greatest
survivors
of
century
Montreal
led
in all Canada..
Parish
the terrible
the
these
and
the
burial
in
Catholics
about
uncertainty
the turn
By
worship."45
responses
by Irish
surrounding
[sic], the
so many
.where
still
scourge
varied
to considerable
the monument
the
of
fate
ground.
All of
"the loud protestations and warmly debated
and resolutions" that had been put forth by Irish
opinions
Catholics
as the
several
since
Ship
blocks
1898
irrelevant,
however,
proved
was
moved
unceremoniously
to St. Patrick's
near the
Square,
Wellington
Fever
ultimately
Monument
west
Street Bridge.46 In the earlymorning
seven
Square
Street
constructing
was
monument"
famous
a flat car that was
on
and
who
quickly
was
set
into
responsible
to light that the GTR,
the
site
of December
set to work
carpenters
later "the
hours
of
the bones
have
as "unauthorized
favour
any remains
from
to
anticipated,
about
Apart
they
Together
in their
individuals presuming to act on behalf of Irish Catholics who
people
personal
having
of the memorial
site, and dig a series of test pits
knowledge
near
the monument
"to ascertain
or not there were
whether
in the
vicinity."39
were
discovered.
in the
representative of the views of all the Montreal Irish, the
delegates at Hibernia Hall attempted to muffle dissent,
of
by the lack of regard that a number
Encouraged
of prominent
Irish Catholics had for the Ship Fever
theGrand Trunk Railway (GTR), which since
Monument,
1852 had helped transform much of Pointe Saint-Charles
expression
project."41
whose
of 1837 and 1838.36 In addition to petitioning for a Famine
memorial that was more appropriately dignified in design,
there were voices that called for what they imagined would
means
every
by
burial
in Cote
earlier
the memory
honouring
as "that
a monument
that
formal
immigrants...interred
St. Charles."
Determined
may
Justice
more
given
Irish
6,000
at Point
denouncing
and cities throughout
America
century.
the
in
comparison
that was
being
crude
appeared
and marble
bronze
with
of
remains
a
such
commemorative
disenchantment
greater
the boulder
some,
polished
the
erected at a feverish pace inMontreal
be
the
prevent
Irish-Catholic
were
sentiments
representatives from Irish societies met in Hibernia
Hall on November 29,1898 to protest the sale of the site to
theGTR and pass a resolution objecting to "the desecration
cemetery
migrants.
as
[sic]"40 These
when
of
highly
Famine
for
they would refrain from any desecration of the last resting
place of the unfortunate Irish emigrants at Point St. Charles
from
its
run down
a
21,1900
A
platform.47
few
to
the
conveyed
the track on St. Patrick
much
place.48 After
speculation
for the sudden move,
it came
having failed to secure ownership
had
trustees,
Anglican
ahead
gone
and
taken the monument
out of the path of progress and into
the heart of Griffintown.
Though some Irish Catholics had themselves at one
point
contemplated
one
more
deemed
had
of
the
effect
affection
of
for
Irish,
authentically
generating
the site and
an
its
to St. Patrick's
displacement
as amemorial
stood
or
the monument
moving
Square,
to the
martyrs
the
constructing
heist
railway's
amount
unprecedented
stone memorial.
the boulder
of
1847
With
now
but
also
only
came
to
symbolise the indignities suffered by their descendants
inMontreal
a half
century
later.
violence at the hands of the Irish people of Ste. Anne Ward
Presenting
a united
living
front
CJIS/RO&I
This content downloaded from 132.206.27.25 on Sun, 30 Nov 2014 10:58:43 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
its
not
in
33:1 51
what
condemning
they
as an act of
perceived
fixture in St. Patrick's Square. In its new setting the boulder
iconoclasm,
representatives from Irish societies met on May 5, 1901
in the basement of St. Gabriel's Church in Pointe Saint
Charles.49
weeks
Three
in St. Patrick's
a
later
was
larger meeting
this one
including
Presbytery,
a document
organised
representatives
they
that was
Montreal"
various
sentiment
sent
to
to Montreal's
and
Bond,
the
of
expression
the
of
newspapers,
of
Catholics
Anglican
culminating
that
the Irish had historically suffered "for Faith and Fatherland,"
they insisted that "Irishmen to-day still look upon this burial
place as holy ground, not only because it is the resting place
but
the reason
for
that
to force
they urged the Anglican Archbishop
desecration,"
to
the GTR
also
restore
to
the monument
the
in Pointe
site
local
the protests against theGTR came primarily from
Irish
to cast
Irish
the
The
Canadians.53
the country
has
monument"
True Witness
just three
that "the
to tell
that
concern,
effort
by all
a
Chronicle,
had
looked
askance
Irish Catholic
the Irishmen
the Irish
of
press
to touch
hands
be not allowed
the
sacrilegious
of the Irish victims
of persecution,
Famine
and
in 1847-48."54
Prominent
in the Irish
pestilence
figures
in the year
echoed
these
sentiments
community
following
the removal
of the monument,
"It was
that not the
insisting,
last
resting
this violent
of
spoliation
the
of
with
interfering
the monument.56
railway
tracks
ground,
had no
publicly
refuted
the property,
But the GTR,
and was
return
laid down
three
site was
ever
as a
used
cemetery.57 Though Archbishop Bond shared this opinion,
he did feel strongly that the land should remain
undeveloped
a memorial
"because
a
indicate
very
stone
sad and
been
[had]
event
important
placed
in the
history
of
the
country." Irish groups did not appreciate being told that the
land
they
considered
sacred
a
was
spurious
Famine
burial
trustees
amonument
of
Monument
This
GTR
that
looked
they increasingly
some solace was
taken in
Nonetheless,
of theArchbishop's
Fever
so abhorrent
uneasy
to reverse
shared determination
to its
posters
their
electoral
alliance,
however,
upon
its decision,
and
the monument
not
compel
remained
and
social
once
Montreal's Ship Fever Monument
that we
this
societies
suspected
not
would
crepe
its removal."
forgive
paper.61
In
celebrating
once
again made
smear
of
their
campaign
While
still an aide-memoire
opponents
centrepiece
permanence,
the
by
to
to protect
the
originally
the
a
object
to preserve
and
desecration
cemetery's
the graves
of
the monument
As
level. An
meant
the Pointe Saint-Charles burial site, now
in the centre of Irish-Catholic Montreal
of
symbol
at a local
constructed
meanings
promising
the integrity of
stood displaced
their
some
for
a
in the city had failed
forebears.
its ten-year
approached
anniversary
in St. Patrick's Square, it seemed unlikely that itwould
to
restored
its
original
in Pointe
position
be
Saint-Charles,
especially given that the attention of the city's Irish Catholics
was
from
diverted
increasingly
Grosse-Ile.
movement
The
the quarantine
island
Montreal's
to build
generated
Famine
an enormous
interest
to
site
Celtic
cross
from Montrealers,
particularly those affiliated with the AOH whose Quebec
City division was spearheading the project. By 1908, when
it was
at the
announced
in Montreal
annual
of
banquet
the Canadian
that
the St. Patrick's
provide
the spot where
would
government
site atop
on Grosse-Ile
Hill
to
mark
Telegraph
of Irish were
thousands
it
looked
like
buried,
the
quarantine
as the
Charles
locus
Society
and Canada.
was
This
in
made
had
station
of
notion
was
on
to the
profound
that
impact
eight
long
migration
in 1847, but the city's
Ship Fever
once
marked
the
wide
thousand
for
an
participants,
a
proper
episode
the
Celtic
forty-six-foot
over Montreal's
shadow
commemorative
Reference
the Famine
burial
of
event
in
cross
Famine
eventually
This content downloaded from 132.206.27.25 on Sun, 30 Nov 2014 10:58:43 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Irish
had
For
an event
"No
and
was
grounds
the mark."62
standing
the Grosse-Ile
commemoration,
appropriate
so
of
grim
history."63
While
a
of
1909.
15,
that
booklet
commemorative
large
August
Saint
in Quebec
in the official
the
as a "monument
memento
cast
had
reflected
with
conjunction
on Grosse-Ile
Monument
at Pointe
the site
supplanted
Famine
commemoration
had had upon Montreal
1909
52McMAHON
Ste.
to the
and
parishes
that even being
clear
for
When
Irish
him with
his
win,
itwith
covering
was...more
learning
to restore the Ship
could
the cemetery."59
of
sentiment
charging
the
the organisers
which
drew
site.
original
from
meeting
it became
to Irish
"with
dismissed
site, nor did they relish having to consult with the Anglican
as their own.
test
Catholic Chronicle put it, "the desecration of the cemetery is
published
event
held
it to
upon
to
by which
then M.P.
Gallery,
the GTR
and "consented
at a
1901,
a free
as a
the
plot
dumping
the memorial,
and now
of
replacing
that the
the notion
had
which
part
using
of
intention
the
and demanded
and
controversy
of maligning the memory of 1847 could ruin a reputation
within the Irish-Catholic community. As The TrueWitness and
on
graves."55
Whether bowing to pressure applied by Irish groups in
Montreal or from further afield, theAnglican Archbishop, still
the official titieholder to the land, gave formal notification to
the railway inAugust 1901, accusing it of illegally
trespassing
and
the monument
raised
in December
place
Irish of Montreal alone, but the Irish throughout Canada,
from Sarnia to Halifax [who] were indignant and protested
against
Daniel
with
shameful reminder that Irish Catholics
insist
it that
upon
issue was
as a
of Montreal
of Canada
of
political
a touchstone
the victims of 1847, the boulder had been ascribed political
made
cherished
and Catholic
earlier
years
reported
lent its voice
itmay
all whom
a concerted
also
as "a national
stone
that
newspaper
at the monument,
and
there was
groups,
of
including
collaborated
monument
Saint-Charles.52
While
share
one of our own people who had allowed himself to be a
consenting party to it."60Seizing the political opportunity,
Gallery's rivals in the 1905municipal elections rekindled long
simmering suspicions of Gallery by placarding the boulder
it is a spot
marking
a sad but heroic
our
in the
of
race."
epoch
history
Expressing
"bitter
that the monument
should have been
removed
regret
to preserve
from
it was
the old cemetery
intended
from
of Christians,
its
something
of
removal
Archbishop
to the
Referring
in the Famine
became
community,
had
Anne,
"a unanimous
Irish
Council.51
City
of persecution
forms
as
described
soon
Irishness in Ste. Anne Ward.58 Rumours had circulated since
1900 that some prominent figures within the Irish-Catholic
from each of the Rvt Irish parishes of Montreal.50 Together
formulated
to attract
continued
other
place
national
lasting
and Canadian
on
Grosse-Ile
memorial,
the
effect
the
of
restore
the
Fever
Ship
of
site was
the memorial
in several
mentioned
August
national
Cummings,
across
To
the graves."
great
"A
condemned
the AOH,
[that] dared to
in the city of Montreal
greedy corporation
lay tracks
of
president
applause,
the
event
of Montreal,"
citizens
to
seemed
Society
taken
"still
fresh
members
of
take
With
from."64
in the memories
the AOH
of
to
order
several
procure
thousand
the
the GTR
in
a
on
petition urging the Railway Commission to deny the GTR's
application and preserve the historic burial site.66By the end
of February 1910 Irish-Catholic societies had generated
considerable interest in this issue through the press and had
managed to enlist the support of City Council, which agreed
to
a
send
legal
Commissioners
the burial
the
of
Railway
meeting
to protest
the expropriation
of
issue debated
of
the plot
land
in
question
commercial
M.P.
for Ste. Anne,
Doherty,
on behalf
of
evidence
presented
in Montreal,
Catholics
cited a number
who
Kavanagh,
of Irish
interests
of affidavits given by long time residents of Pointe Saint
in
Charles
These
1901
the monument
after
affidavits,
one
including
had
been
removed.
knowledge
and
Kavanagh
Doherty
the monument
it originally
a road.
The
that
in the area
also
a
the site was
that
called
Ship
With
of
and
sheds,
yards,
societies were
Canon Ellegood, Anglican
own
not
could
the
yards
witness
if the
recall
to be used
for
and
to
memorial
those
site,
who
On
Order
Saint-Charles,
cemetery
near
the
was
that
[the
not
the
a
"for
railway
congestion."
which
Biggar,
in the past and
cemetery
the
extension
Referring
confirmed
to his
that burials
of
land in
question.70
the contrary,
Biggar
the GTR's
that the main
lawyer argued
to the old
sheds located
immigrant
some distance
Basin
from
the
plot of
or unaware
Either
to
of evidence
ignoring
located
Wellington
next
even
called
into
question
the
the
from
feet
of
construction
in
remained
plot
the
to maintain
dollars
site.72
the GTR
settled,
to its
original
that the site in Pointe-St-Charles
had traditionally had for
"no
contending
that
person
regarded
tracks.73
returned
at the north
spot
of
end
of
representatives
Although
"as
for
fought
17,
August
of Hibernians
they
Irish
of
the decision
to
hoped
the
prevent
an iron fence,
to
appease
installing
the return of the monument.75
the Ancient
delay,
a
to oversee
ready
as
in scale as the one
grand
to commemorate
the Famine
were
at
almost
earlier
years
a
after
1913,
ceremony,
sixteen
year's
last
jubilee.76An assemblage of Montreal
of
representatives
Society,
the Ancient
had
platform
In
by
been
led by
of Hibernians
a number
of
and
St.
from
guests
and the United States, gathered at St.
they followed
to the memorial
procession
and
Irish Catholics,
Order
accompanied
Quebec City, Ottawa,
flags
erected
for
the occasion.
a route
decorated
a
site, where
in front
Standing
of the Irish flag bearing the harp and sunburst, T.M. Quigley,
President,
County
the memorial,
now
gave
proclaiming
in its proper
national
a short
that
account
historical
of
"the
Ship Fever Monument
for all time."
resting
place
J.J. Regan,
the AOH,
his colleague's
reiterated
of
president
to the boulder
and
"As
message
by pointing
promising,
long
as Irishmen
live they will not be
The memorial,
forgotten."
for
would
forever
stand as a potent
reminder
of the
Regan,
Famine, particularly
the "fidelity shown by [its] victims"
and
"callousness
the
unparalleled
displayed
by
authority."
Departing from this nationalist reading, Charles Doherty
adopted amore conciliatory tone in his speech, paying tribute
to the
and
of Montreal,
people
and
English,
Having
two
rededication
observing
Irish,
"Catholic
who
that
years
ceremony
and Protestant,
succoured
represented Irish Catholics
Commissioners
the
significance
Irish
Catholics,
of
site
fifteen
the
for
thousand
transaction
including
had
organised
was
consecrated
understood
purposes."69
represented
by WH.
to avoid
statements,
been
in
immigrants in 1847 took place in various sites throughout
Pointe
entire
initially disheartened with
AOH
kept. While
secular
the GTR,
was
land had
"it was
that
the property
was
essential
Callaghan,
is any
plot
to
known
chaplain to the Bridge workers
maintained
response,
their
J.P.
railway acquiring any part of the property,"74 by 1913 the
GTR had done enough to improve the appearance of the
streamers
of
two
Commissioners,
Railway
with
argued
at
present
land
close
a
constituted
Father
cemetery.
precisely
at St.
curate
asserted
that a cemetery
Anthony's,
a number
were
of ground
of Catholics
where
be buried,
were
of
whether
records
regardless
that
arguments,
returned,
the memorial
memorial
the
the monument
Patrick's
cemetery.68
representatives
what
In
be
to allow
retained
Fever
Church.
cemetery,
never
site] was
would
to
the Railway
the
Ann's
1859, who
part
possession of theAnglican Bishop of Montreal, but by June
1912 the land surrounding the enclosed memorial site was
sold to theGTR for six thousand dollars, with the stipulation
Catholic and Anglican churches to thewitness box to define
as a
the
expropriate
stood
tide
rededication
Sister
by ninety-year-old
given
Reed, of the Sisters of Charity, stated that bodies were buried
in 1847 in the spot marked by themonument and that itwas
common
to
permission
where
the
Charles
purposes.
and Henry
the
session was whether
two-day
was
a cemetery
and therefore
the
during
the property could be bought or expropriated for
whether
in some
theVictoria Bridge, by that time a busy network of railroad
site.67
Itwas not until January 1911 that thematter was finally
adjudicated by the Railway Board of Commissioners. The
central
these
that
fact
of
Commissioner
where
to a
representative
in Ottawa
to
listening
took
reputed burial ground except for a thirty-foot plot of land
to heart.65
signatures
vicinity
general
accommodate
and St. Patrick's
message
Cummings'
of
in the
little
and
were
in the
that bodies
buried
persuaded
to
of the monument.
In a
ruling designed
the interests
of both
Mabee
parties,
granted
however,
the
the Irish parishes of the city, they managed
Along with
short
it was
where
pedestal
commemorative
to the
place
the Railway Board,
Mabee,
remained unconvinced
that the Ship Fever Monument
marked the precise location of the burial ground. He
the Chief
was,
Cummings
urged the "Men of Canada [to] never rest until it is replaced
there was
that
down
people
of
ceremony."71
two
After
days
kind
during the dedicatory ceremony on
notably, radical Irish nationalist Matthew
15.Most
and
went
delivered
speeches
on
as a cemetery,
place
some
to the burial site in Pointe Saint-Charles. The
state
sorry
to
the movement
reinvigorating
Monument
the
immigrants."
in front of the Railway
chose
earlier,
Doherty
to a close
on
the controversy
French
surrounding
a
to
bring
note
cheery
by
the monument
the
CJIS/RC?l
This content downloaded from 132.206.27.25 on Sun, 30 Nov 2014 10:58:43 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
33:1 53
"had produced the good effect of awakening in the breasts
of Irishmen a duty that had perhaps grown dormant in the
of
lapse
years."77
such
commemorative
Despite
to return
the
Fever
Ship
simply motivated
the historical
of
record
was
not
to
what
had
protect
a rare,
if rudimentary,
the
century,
competing
the
collective
city's
power
the
crowded
the
of
historic
with
two
some
ethnic
dominant
national
identity,
in "the
memories."78
public
the
Though
and
the
of
agendas
historically
significant
The
of
absence
was
landscape
elites
heritage
in the
in
was
what
in Montreal's
a
ways
of
and
economically
and
population,
Montreal's
industrial
and Pointe
Irish
slums
Irish
However,
such
the
cannot
in
neighbourhoods
as Verdun,
Victoriatown,
as unskilled
labourers.79
as a
underclass
regarded
powerless
Despite
the adverse
conditions
in the southwest
experienced
by many
to exercise
of
the city, they
considerable
region
managed
and
their
elected
twentieth
century
Catholics who
Canadian
socio-economic
Irish
was
significant
to
system
often
to middle
enclaves
the hill.80 Two
by
the
early
of
Irish
had been integrated long enough
which
affluence,
from
a
still disproportionately
class and largely
working
into the
a
of
degree
the move
away
by
accompanied
class neighbourhoods
after
generations
while
enjoy
the Famine,
represented
excluded
from
of
Anglo-Protestant
lines and residential
it is likely that by the beginning of the twentieth
most
Irish-Catholic
first
and
foremost,"
that
this
identification
Ireland
or
it
subvert
were
Montrealers
is also
important
not
did
in Montreal
to Canada
and
the outset
of
John
a
of war
Redmond,
by assuring
Rule more
54McMAHON
that
than
could
strong
Charles
leader
"nothing
a united
desire
to
cause.82
express
loyalty
At
independence.
echoed
the sentiments
Irish
could
aid
stand
ties
suggests that Irish
simultaneously
for Irish
Doherty
of the
for
police,
where
Parliamentary
the cause
of
the Empire
by
Party,
Home
the
stance
the
symbols
of
their fellow Irish Catholics who
of
rhetoric
and
Empire
into Canadian
Irish
many
removed
generations
was
society
ongoing
even
in the
Catholics
from
city,
Ireland,
struggling
Catholics
in the
Stone
the AOH
year
and
at this time
that
(a practice
on
last
the
to
day)
of May
St. Patrick's
Men's
Young
annual
this
Sunday
Auxiliary,
St. Ann's
century
that
continues
its Ladies'
League,
to the
drawn
again
of nineteenth
It was
Every
the Gaelic
once
reminder
powerful
to Montreal.
ritualised.
of
were
city
as a
Society,
they would
then walk
were
wreaths
laid,
in
to the monument
procession
and
recited,
prayers
addresses
delivered.86 For a relatively small group of Irish Catholics,
no more
often
numbering
commemoration
of
events
of
than
maintain
helped
1847.
two
this
hundred,
some
sense
of
Irish
sense
the
Irish Catholics'
site, renewing
the monument
and the burial
site
workers
annual
connection
of
ownership
In
August
itmarked.87
Construction
employed
by Kennedy
in the excavation
of a passenger
tunnel
engaged
Company
at the
city
approach to theVictoria Bridge unearthed what test pits dug
Committee
by the Anglican
to uncover:
the remains
of
wood,
recognise
necessarily
to the nationalist
allegiances
The experience of the First World War
Catholics
to
Irish
the
Ship
workers
"Canadian
loosen
in the
organisation
and representatives of the Catholic hierarchy would gather in
front of St. Ann's church. Led by Irish pipers and mounted
of
traversed
class
increasingly
were
now much
less likely to be
They
castigated
as outsiders,
a label more
often
reserved
for Jewish,
Italian,
and Chinese
who
had
settled
Syrian, Ukrainian,
immigrants
more
in Montreal.81
recendy
century
distrust
A grisly discovery in 1942 once again raised the
profile
the
boundaries.
While
with
Irish migration
to the
walks
Irish Catholics,
the
elite,
ruling
of
to the
above
in the ranks
its parent
of
assimilation
several
Society,
number
Moreover,
representatives.
there were
sign
the battalion
up
the persistent
to reconcile their dual national identities.
The exigencies
of wartime
left the Ship Fever
Monument
but
the
largely neglected,
by
early 1920s groups
members
local political influence, repeatedly returning Irish Catholics
as
of
became
together
lumped
inMontreal.
reject
Irish memorial
lived in
be
fairly
sentiment
complex,
those
In
city.
Irish Catholics
and worked
Catholics
the
third of
class
working
heardand
Saint-Charles, many
overcrowded
one
they comprised
in other
in
group
disadvantaged
where
of
to
committed
and the cause of war.85
conscription
ideas over how
the war
should
be waged
and
competing
Irish independence
could be achieved
that the
indicate
and
Catholics' longstanding position as a politically marginalised
Griffintown,
a
remained
The
how
memorial
consequence
betrayal
to
began
process
sites
controversy
to break
the decision
and
and challenge many
reinstallation
decided
as a
anti-British
and
shape
city.
Irish
some
who
the
over
United States, had by 1917 adopted amore militant
of the Ship Fever Monument publicly affirmed Irish claims
to the memorial site, it did not immediately signal a shift in
the
of
of the Irish at home and abroad.84The AOH inMontreal,
which in the early days of the war had distanced itself from
the
groups'
Irish
leaving
contest
to
Irish Montrealers
seen
was
cultural
plaques
Rebellion
conscription in Ireland and Quebec, enlistment in the Irish
battalion dropped off and the Rangers were disbanded. For
By the beginning of the twentieth
excluded
largely
in
in the wake
Force. However,
Expeditionary
of 1916 and the growing
Easter
of
of
symbol
promoting
notions
Catholics
Canadian
Saint-Charles
to set
duty
straight
a
was
it
also
1847,
political
struggle
as an Irish landmark:
come
to be viewed
was
city
to Pointe
a sense
by
landscape of Montreal.
monuments
the movement
rhetoric,
Monument
people."83 This call to arms inspired the Montreal Irish in
1914 to establish the Irish Canadian Rangers, a regiment
that would eventually form the 199th Battalion of the
Fever
of
Memorial.
forty-four
years
typhus
Over
victims
the
earlier
had
failed
in the
vicinity
course
of a month,
inadvertently disinterred "coffins of rotting pine
blackened
by
time,"88
holding
the
remains
of
twelve
individuals who had been buried in 1847 in "a long trench
like grave
at the foot
of
For Irish-Catholic
Street."89
Bridge
who
claimed
the
organisations
immediately
as those of Famine
remains
the
as
served
refugees,
discovery
a
reminder
of
the
of
poignant
1847,
centenary
approaching
and once
interest
in "the sad and terrible
again stirred popular
of the Irish
story of the great migration
people."90
was
The
a vindication
also
for those who
discovery
in Montreal,
had
long
hallowed
argued
that
ground.
This
the
was
Ship Fever monument
not
the first time
Montreal's Ship Fever Monument
This content downloaded from 132.206.27.25 on Sun, 30 Nov 2014 10:58:43 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
stood
that
on
remains
of
Famine
migrants
found
were
Bones
in Montreal.
unearthed
had
been
in the
1870s
the
during
The
of
excavation
away
theWellington Basin (near the old emigrant sheds), in 1886
when the foundation of the Royal Mill on Mill Street was
a construction project on the
dug,91 and in 1914 during
site of the Seminary of Saint Sulpice.92 But what made
near
exhumation
the
Fever
Ship
Monument
the
particularly
mistaken
the
impression...that
were
buried
immigrants
six
in the
thousand
as suggested by the GTR and Anglican authorities in 1898.
For John Loye, the President of the United Irish Societies
of Montreal, the discovery of the bodies "prove [d] that this
area
the burial
comprises
ship's fever," putting
the authenticity
of
of
Irish
Famine
of
ground
to rest any
lingering
the memorial
victims
the 6,000
misgivings
as the
grounds
of...
to
be
Approval
remained
officially
from
next
to the monument.
and
Bishop
remains
next
the CNR
were
to
and
were
the Railway
to the monument.
to accept
develop
site.95 The
what
to establish
the
of
stone
of
monument
the
the
the
controversy
recognised
Irish Catholics
of
"some
this
in
superintendent,
for
organising
sentimental
United
with
States
this
"inasmuch
that
and
to
dispatches
who
of
assumed
in other
and
majority
of
so
they
in the past,
lands who...have
its victims."99
originated
Johnston
the Ship Fever
thus organised
acknowledged
the
(All Saints' Day) that accommodated
across
the
victims
religious
IrishMontrealers
plot,"
what
recounting
1847 and expounding
This
a memorial
newfound
commemorative
site
of
spirit
often
had
kept
summoned
cooperation
C.B.
Association,
to
Brown,
present
President of the St. Patrick's Society
for five
hundred
gesture
"marking
Ship Fever victims
their friends
of St.
of
and
for
goodwill
as a
dollars
in the Re-Internment
and...their
Patrick's
that
at loggerheads with Anglican
even inspired the President of the Irish
Benevolent
cheque
interest
the
towards
Society."102
Such bridge building between Catholics and Protestants
is illustrative of the extent to which perceptions of Irish
ethnic identity in Montreal had changed since the last
large-scale
an
at
ceremony
public
the
site
of
the
Fever
Ship
almost thirty years earlier. By 1942 the historical
of
contributions
the
in Montreal
Irish
national
Anglo-Canadian
the
had
become
meta-narrative.
as
Irish
"pioneers
who
part
In
so much
contributed
a very
Taking
different
track
than
had a generation before, the CNR promised
In
Irish
and
respect
dignity
to their
memory"
so much
contributed
These
and
was
beyond
speeches
Catholics
accolades
his
to the
their
of
earthly
"members
to the
bestowed
the GTR
to "endeavour
resting
a
of
life of
pioneer
a
by
powerful
Dr.
urged
reproach.
delivered
also
patriots.
Society,
L.P.
those
cast
the re-interment
during
as Canadian
themselves
Nelligan,
past
in attendance
ceremony
pioneers
of St. Patrick's
president
at the memorial
site to
look upon the plight of Famine
refugees in 1847 as more
that,
"the
The
a
their
to
recognising
in Ireland
it is assumed
that
the
national institution like the CNR indicate that by the time
of the Second World War the patriotism of Montreal's Irish
a connection
all denominations,"
Plague
represented
a re-interment
on November
observance
authorities.
by the ceremony
large group who
this country."104
than
that the Roman Catholic religion was the faith of most of
the victims,"
speeches
significance.
at
Protestants
Catholics
responsibility
set out
While
historic
to preserve
with
as a tribute
place
organisations
CNR's
general
in Canada,
of
the summer of
during
to the nation.103
the land
remains,
many
across
early life of this country" be honoured for their contributions
appreciative of both the religious and
therein
to a range
listened
site's
the
that
Irish
the
twelve plain gray
swept
correspondence to theAOH and St. Patrick's Society during
the run-up to the 1942 ceremony, R. C.Johnston felt it fitting
importandy,
they
the site had
for
the
Carlisle,
a "raw wind
As
Irish-Catholic organisations
of
to
quick
appreciate
into a ceremony
of
enter
Johnston,
interest
epidemic
as the
in
bones
site,
of
and
bunting
Monument
predecessors
attracted
More
re-interment
be "sympathetically
the
it had
which
Bishop
R.C.
the
the
sanctioned
of
the memorial
thereof."97
In his
to
and
city
of
origins
delicacies
character."98
the
also
in 1859.96
significance
in Montreal
and were
the
around
shops
litigation about ownership
trusteeship
the historic
the
of the CNR and the Anglican
little more than a superficial
of
involving "some
and/or
and
Carlisle,
Bishop,
that the discovery
believing
had originally
motivated
his
While representatives
Church initially showed
understanding
were
aware
tracks
visible.
the crowd faced a platform draped with purple and black
with
predecessors,
the monument
of
component
were
caskets
Protestant
re-interring
their
location
Arthur
Anglican
the re-interment,
the area was
Unlike
the
quick
its network
to
amenable
at the memorial
site
compatriots
of
the ceremony.
They
gathered
Protestant
Emmett McManamy,
the Canadian National Railways (CNR), which had absorbed
theGTR in 1923 and assumed ownership of the landwhere
the bodies were unearthed. To the relief of Irish associations,
the
was
moment was indeed unique as it brought together Catholics
cemetery
who
authorities,
Anglican
of the memorial
lot, and from
proprietors
their
civil
the
and
the bodies
rebury
sought
of
group
on
about
migrants.94
was
Dixon,
John
of Montreal,
Dean
bringing his brief Anglican service to a close.101 By 3:10
p.m. the contingent of Irish Catholics had joined a small
happened
In conjunction with the Ancient Order of Hibernians
and the St. Patrick's Society, Loye's United Irish Societies
decided that the final step in establishing the sanctity of the
site would
Monument,
to the Ship
their way from St. Ann's
next to the freshly dug grave, in which
the monument,"93
about
plot
ceremony had made
for
unfortunate
site
2:30 p.m. a solemn Libera was held in honour of the 1847
typhus victims. The event had been carefully choreographed
to ensure that by the time Irish-Catholic participants in the
Fever
significant was that it provided material evidence that Irish
immigrants had also been buried around thememorial site.
No longer could Irish Catholics be dismissed as having "a
a few blocks
began
at
at St. Ann's
where
Church
observances
day's
religious
the memorial
from
a
tragedy:
"their
passing..
.has
served
to build
a
great
nation where hatred and spite and bigotry have
disappeared."
that "Ireland is not in this war officially,"
Acknowledging
Nelligan took great pride in pointing out that "the Irish
of
and
1
from
people
triumph,
are
in it,
now
fighting
that men's
souls may
as
be
always
free,
that
that
liberty
tyranny
may
and
divide100
CJIS/RC?l
This content downloaded from 132.206.27.25 on Sun, 30 Nov 2014 10:58:43 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
33:1 55
and
oppression
and fear, may,
by God's
hunger
the onward
march
of humanity."105
shadow
longer
no
help,
Though
there were Irish Catholics in 1942, including John Loye, the
President of the United Irish Societies, who rejected the
symbolism of empire and militarism, most Irish Catholics in
the city were
to
of
the war
effort, willing
accept
supportive
in the British
Canada's
Commonwealth,
and, as was
place
at the re-interment
to use
made
evident
ceremony,
prepared
as
in
their past to reconstitute
Canadian
themselves
patriots
the
present.106
The patriotic proclamations
of Irish Canadians in
1942 must be considered in light of the fact that Ireland
was
the
neutral
member
only
1942
with
tension
Canada
Ireland when
of
wording
World
that led to
policy
the allied powers.
in its own
contretemps
the Irish government
Resources
to the
objected
Mobilization
categorised Irish citizens living in Canada as British
While the situation was quickly diffused when the
subjects.107
government
deferrals
from
to grant
agreed
in Canada
citizens
Ireland's
service,
military
Irish
assert its independence during wartime did make for uneasy
relations
between
these
in Canada,
Ireland
Commonwealth
did not prevent
This
advocate
of
territory
of
restoring
"the
Ireland,"
Hearne
platform.109
at the
the whole
different
representatives with whom
down
Looking
the open
upon
than
perspective
he
grave,
a voice
forever
speak
here
today
which
to us
it calls
the
suffering and old sacrifice."While
to his
reference
for
aspirations
across
calls
across
century,
telling
as
of
reunification
north
destiny
the
land
from
and
the
Irish
no
which
the Irish
national
were
organisations
of the site
national
these men
came."110
who
of
in the
diplomat,
as part
Irish
the
destiny,
more
in terms
of
of
at
spoke
both
the
re-interment
Hearne
Saint
nationhood
unlike
However,
century.
the
For
which
upon
interpreted
historical
urging
sprang,"
the people
and
in Pointe
immigrants
intervening
who
of
men
the future
the foundation
symbolised
refugees
Ireland's
these
for
Canadians
constructed
which
fears
the graves
ceremony,
was
from
to "have
the crowd
Charles
race
the
sacrifices
journey
the
representatives
to
inclined
interpret
the Irish contributions
of
of
the
Famine
to
fulfill
local
Irish
taken
significance
to Canadian
Even
though participants in the 1942 ceremony at
the Ship Fever Monument were
ostensibly united in the
twin
tasks
of
re-interment
the event
surrounding
to the memorial
ascribed
in 1897
and
and
political
1913,
which
messages,
and
reveals
remembrance,
that various
site. Much
1942
rhetoric
meanings
like the commemorations
a
transmitted
the
the
event
range
was
of
were
historical
a multi-vocal
was
what
quite
had
intended
Montreal's Ship Fever Monument
Given
government.
it is not
the Famine
arrived
migrants
the monument
that
the
their
marking
in the city could agree
Fever
Ship
its
was
Monument
in
architects
victims
typhus
the
surprising
in stone.
the
marking
national
particular
no
of
1859
or
religious identity. This certainly did not deter Irish Catholics
in Montreal,
those
especially
in the Pointe
in the
working
residing
class
below the hill, from taking a vested interest
Saint-Charles
burial
and, by extension,
grounds
itsmemorial stone.While rarely looked upon with unbridled
affection before the turn of the twentieth century, the Ship
came
Monument
as an
artefact
of
to be
object
was
in ways
"an
Irish
by
of
groups
by various
a certain
it
directed
utility:
a sacred
site and a
pivotal
unintended
by its makers,
deemed
Thus,
became
used
seen
with
an
Irish
race,"
social
memory
the Ship Fever
1942,
By
historical
ownership,
the
to nurture
the Famine migration.111
Monument's
of
emblem
Catholics
and
integrity,
placement
had been fiercely contested and negotiated, but in the process
Irish Catholics had succeeded in transforming it into the
most evocative and cherished Irish historical landmark in
Montreal.
Pierre
Eieux
Nora's
deMemoire
one
offers
that
paradigm
helps explain how this boulder become imbued with somuch
meaning
for
historic
sites
void
Irish
created
in the
city. Nora
were
constructed
the
by
disappearance
societies.
pre-modern
in
memory"
Catholics
and monuments
that
argues
to fill the
or "true
spontaneous
Over
of the
the course
of
first half of the twentieth century Irish Catholics inMontreal,
several
removed
generations
from
diverse
had
Ireland,
an
become
for whom
of
the
increasingly
group
living memory
was
Famine
remote.
Within
Nora's
migration
conceptual
we
can
see
to
that
the
and fix the
framework,
urge
preserve
monument
in Pointe
as a Famine memorial
Saint-Charles
was
in some
what
driven
ways
no
ostensibly
by
Irish
Catholics'
"need
to represent
existed."112
longer
Irish Catholics may well have been motivated
in
urge
the memorial
desire
to assert
to resurrect
site was
themselves
a buried
past,
that
twentieth
century
conscripted
relationships."113
performed
their
by the
inMontreal.
politically
an historic site
significant inMontreal
the
but
also mediated
was,
"the
after
past
In this context,
by Irish Catholics
1897 and 1913 transformed
56McMAHON
systems
the CNR, Anglican
Anglo-Protestant
a mute
it to be:
tombstone
of
graves
unconscious
development.
memories
with
negotiate
thing that Irish Catholics
however,
the monument
old
to contend
popular
at stake,
of
meaning
set
still not
was
of
after
the
One
upon,
never
avoiding making explicit
the
close
in Montreal,
event.
and south under an Irish republic, he did speak of "the great
of
that
historical
the ocean,
of
levels
interests
to what
claimed
to
forced
also
various
attention
those who died in 1847 as Ireland's own: "Out of this clay
will
and
of
the
he shared the
complex.
into the mid
had
only
conflicting,
competing
to a century
authorities,
number
Irish Catholics
the
sometimes
and
century
not
Catholics
the
constructing
ongoing
the nineteenth
were
they
community,
Fever
and
socially
indeed
of power brought to bear by the GTR,
of
national
the monument
viewed
and
changing,
for
centre
at
appearance
a well-known
As
of
integrity
a somewhat
Irish Canadian
an
making
in Montreal.108
ceremony
from
gravesite
was
from
spat,
diplomatic
re-interment
Commissioner
who
Hearne,
John
this
nations.
the High
of
Irish
century,
neighbourhoods
to
efforts
political
was
and political priorities vying for prominence within their own
1847
Act,
which
Canadian
with
of
process
latter half
the
twentieth
gravesite
and
entangled
the National
remain
The
Monument
Fever
Ship
From
a
War,
Ireland
between
became
to
the Commonwealth
the Second
during
considerable
In
of
orchestration.
all,
in defence
a
Declaring
political
of present
act -
one
power
and protests
the monument
the burial grounds
This content downloaded from 132.206.27.25 on Sun, 30 Nov 2014 10:58:43 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
conscious
at the
beginning of
the ceremonies
around
by an
interest
between
in Pointe
an
into
Saint-Charles
of Anglican
site. The
refusal
charged
of
their role as trustees
ideologically
to
relinquish
authorities
and its removal by the GTR
the Ship Fever Monument
1900 provided the necessary impetus for Irish Catholics
as custodians
themselves
position
the authenticity
of
that
ensured
repeated
the monument
to celebrate
Catholics
the memorial
they
Famine
By 1942, when
much
and
the pioneering
confident
in
that
the
site,
in Canadian
Fever
of
While
negotiated
Famine
memory
at a local
political
remembrance
of
the monument
to
the memorial
amount
unprecedented
newspapers
commemoration
and
the
level,
but
in
of
organisations
on Grosse-Ile
commemorations
identity.
the
from
across
GTR's
a certain
process
interest
also
The
ignominy
it garnered
an
Irish-Catholic
Canada.
led Irish
removal
The
organisations
1909
in
of
reciprocal.
Many
the affairs
of
in Ireland,
and
relevant
beyond
Like their counterparts
the
as a
site
catalyst
in Boston,
those
New
twentieth
periodically
a means
of
maintaining
sense
meaningful
interested
to project an
experience
borders.
of
groups
Liverpool,
in the late nineteenth
centuries
a
counterparts
and were
Canada's
and
York,
inMontreal
as
Irish Catholics
their
in the diaspora, particularly
Irish Catholics
and early
the
remembered
Famine
and
identities
constructing
of connection
to their
Irish
heritage. Considering the power and resiliency of Famine
memory, the struggle inMontreal to claim the Ship Fever
as a Famine
in
exercise
simply
and
were also shaped by broader
and
that was
identity
Pointe
largely
abreast
in drawing on shared historical
and
was
in Montreal
in 1900 brought
site,
the diaspora
memorial
manipulating
a
consequence
was
the
past
of
the
more
to
that went
Saint-Charles,
which
produced
on
the
shape
decline
around
multilayered
reflected
a
than
of
forms of remembrance. Amidst
posturing
were
at the Ship Fever Monument
of
kept
throughout
legitimacy
their
of
notice
worked
ultimately
was
Montreal
towards
unmediated
the Famine
Montrealers
Saint-Charles,
inMontreal
or
were
Montrealers
to take more
States
which
forMontreal's Irish Catholics to lay claim to the Ship Fever
Monument. This interest directed from the outside Irish
Monument
the Irish to
of
the memory
Anglophone
very
society. Now
to
promote
Monument
Irish-Catholic
invoking
Irish were
the United
experience
counterparts.
Francophone
contexts
integrity
to which
adversity.
lend them a certain political
to other
relation
the
assimilated
the Ship
evolution,
would
migration
overcome
and patriotic contribution
national
Canada's
more
at
event
to use
position
preserving
the extent
the discovery of remains inspired another
integrated
in a
the
had
Irish
homecoming
allowed
Irish
upon
forebears
memorial
large-scale
eventual
in
the
against
Saint-Charles
to reflect
site and
their
and
The
success
their
the
site, as Irish Catholics
transgressions
in the present.
to Pointe
be
of
of
that past
also
of
part
and
in Pointe
world
questioning
the railway
grounds,
became
desecration
the monument's
determined
not
the site. By
of
burial
attached to the memorial
mythology
were
the Famine
in
to
Canada
political
present,
traditional,
the politicking
the memorial
narratives
about
the historical
in
site
the past
consciousness
of ordinary Irish Catholics in the city,whose understanding
of the Famine was shaped by family and parish life, Irish
Raphael
and
and
larger national
diasporic
the century
at what
1847. By
since
looking
to as "unofficial
refers
sources
of historical
associations,
community
networks
across
Samuel
in which history and
knowledge," like commemoration,
intersect, it is possible not only to bring new
memory
to our
perspectives
understanding
of
the past
but
also
to
gain insight into how social groups in changing socio-political
contexts
have
transnational
used
history
identities.114
to construct
local,
national,
CJIS/RC?l
This content downloaded from 132.206.27.25 on Sun, 30 Nov 2014 10:58:43 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
and
33:1 57
11
Hundreds
Notes:
1
See Donald
H. Akenson,
theEvidence and the
Being Had: Historians,
Irish inNorth America
(Port Credit: P.D. Meany,
1985); and Cecil
Irish
Houston
and
William
and Canadian
J.
J. Smyth,
Emigration
Settlement: Patterns, hinks
Press,
andhetters
(Toronto:
1990).
2
The Irish inAmerica
Maguire,
and Co.,
3
See Marianna
(London:
Longmans,
Grosse lie: Gateway toCanada
1984); Marianna
O'Gallagher
O'Gallagher,
Eire-Ireland
Memorial,"
32:1
(1997):
20-40/
1832-1937
and Rose
(Sainte-Foy:
Canada's
Padraic
Carraig
Famine
6
Laighin,
The Untold Story: the Irish in
The Holocaust
Revisited,"
and Lorna Reynolds
1, ed. Robert O'Driscoll
(Toronto:
"Grosse-Ile:
vol.
of Canada,
1988), 75-101; Rhona Richman-Kenneally,
See It, Now You Do:
"Now You Don't
the Irish in the
Situating
Material
Culture of Grosse
lie," Eire-Ireland38:3&4
(2003): 33-55;
Kathleen
"Famine
O'Brien,
Visual
Commemorations:
in Ireland's
Silences,"
ed. David
Commemoration,
Visual
of
employees
a close
Dialogues,
Great Hunger:
and
Silence, Memory
and Christine Kinealy
(Lanham:
died
Black
from
Department.
Gatineau,
Buildings,
see A.B.
the Montreal
Quebec.
has had many monikers
Ship Fever Monument
the
the Typhus
Stone;
Stone;
including
Immigrant
and, most
recently, the Black Stone or Black Rock.
Construction
John Weale,
15
Ibid.,
rates
agenda paper, 1995, Historic
at the Canadian
of Canada Archives
Board
13
The
(London:
including
and
clergyman,
1847," HSMBC
of Historic
14
James Hodges,
sheds,
Anglican
1847 mortality
Monument
and
Stone
in 1847 -
typhus
in the fever
one
the Emigration
at Montreal's
look
"The
of the Great Victoria
75.
1860),
over the years,
the Irish Stone;
Bridge
in Canada
76.
16
Affidavit
of Thomas
and Archives
Canada
Fennell,
George
vol.
(LAC), RG46,
23 January
1911, Library
45, vol. 119, file 13761,
p. 189.
A. Valone
of America,
Press
271-93; Kathleen
O'Brien,
2002),
the Politics
in Quebec
of Memory
"Language, Monuments,
and Ireland," Eire-Ireland38:1
&2 (2003): 141-160; Sylvie Gauthier,
"Le Memorial:
An Irish Memorial
at Grosse
He in Quebec,"
Ireland's
University
12
For
Inventory
(Sainte-Foy: Carraig
Masson
1847
Eyewitness Grosse-Ile
Dompierre,
"Grosse-Ile:
Books,
1995); Michael
Quigley,
Arts
at least four
of
Typhus Epidemic
Sites and Monuments
145.
1868),
Books,
Canada,
ordinary Montrealers
some while
to the
tending
immigrants
fourteen nuns, eight Catholic
priests,
McCullough,
Francis
John
Green
Celtic
of Toronto
University
of
17
Montreal
Gazette,
10 December
18
Montreal
Witness,
7 December
1859.
and
Great Hunger:
and Christine
Silence, Memory
and Commemoration,
ed. David
A. Valone
Press of America,
(Lanham: University
Kinealy
2002),
Andre
Charbonneau
and Andre
Sevigny, Grosse-Ile: A
Record of Daily Events (Ottawa: Minister
of Canadian
1997);
Heritage,
294-310;
Andre
Charbonneau
and Doris
A Register of Deceased
Drolet-Dube,
lie in 1847 (Ottawa: Minister
of Public
Services Canada,
1997); Colin McMahon,
Works
and Government
the Past: Commemorating
Master's
thesis, Concordia
"Quarantining
on Grosse-Ile,"
the Great
20
the Saint
Just three years prior to the monument's
inauguration,
Patrick's Society, a fraternal
organisation
long open to all Irishmen,
reconstituted
itself as an exclusively
Catholic
Irish Society.
no. 30
5
For a useful
arrived
outline
in British
of where
North
and inwhat
America
Scott W
See, "An unprecedented
to Canada," American
Immigration
numbers
Review
of
1847
see
and Irish Famine
of Canadian
Studies
Report
of the Board
of Health
for
Archives,
the City of Montreal,
12 August
Fonds
de la Ville de Montreal,
for the treatment
and often
designed
from infectious
diseases.
suffering
8
Pilot and Journal of Commerce, 12
at this site were
June 1847. Facilities
to include an additional
six buildings
but still
eventually
expanded
not
accommodate
9
Pilot and Journal
10
Francis
ofMedical
the influx of
of Commerce,
sick immigrants.
19 August
of the Irish-Catholic
to
analysis
response
Bourget's
letter see Rosalyn
"The geopolitics
of the Irish
Trigger,
Montreal,"
parish in nineteenth-century
Journal ofHistorical
Geography 21-A (2001): 559-61.
24
Rev. M.
a Tour
B. Buckley,
Diary
of
& Walker,
64-65.
1889),
Bryers
Montreal's Ship Fever Monument
inAmerica
(Dublin:
Sealy,
and Catholic Chronicle,
26 November
27
True Witness
and Catholic Chronicle,
1 April
28
in
Founded
1836
in New
1898.
1897.
York
the AOH
City,
eventually
to Ireland, Australia,
States
and
expanded
throughout
and England.
The first Canadian
was established
Scotland,
chapter
on November
inMontreal
six thousand
20,1892.
By 1909, almost
the United
Irish-Canadians
had
Nova
Brunswick,
29
Montreal
Journal
65.
26
True Witness
New
1847.
"Irish Emigrant
Fever," British American
Badgley,
and Physical Science
1848): 260-62.
(February,
58McMAHON
an
25
is a hospital
of patients
quarantine
For
1859.
pastoral
Catholic
Ibid,
1847, City of Montreal
1847 Immigration
file.
lazaretto
23
7 December
Witness,
30:4
(2000): 429-53.
6
8.
Irish Catholics
the summer
during
influx': Nativism
Creating Canadian Historical Memory,
McGowan,
22
Montreal
2001.
University,
Creating Canadian Historical Memory: The Case of
Series Booklet,
of 1847, Canada's Ethnic Group
Canadian Historical
Association,
2006).
(Ottawa:
21
Mark
Irish Famine
4
Mark McGowan,
theFamine Migration
could
19
Ibid.
at Sea and on Grosse
Persons
7
A
1859.
Gazette,
30
True Witness
inQuebec,
Ontario, Manitoba,
joined divisions
Island.
Scotia, and Prince Edward
2 March
1910.
and Catholic Chronicle,
31
Montreal
22 September
1897.
1897. The Irish societies
Gazette, 20 September
represented
in the procession
included
the Ancient
of Hibernians,
Order
the
Catholic Order of Foresters,
the Catholic Mutual Benefit Association,
the Irish Benevolent
Society, and St. Patrick's Society.
This content downloaded from 132.206.27.25 on Sun, 30 Nov 2014 10:58:43 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
32
A
to
by Montreal's
City Council
special committee
appointed
to the Queen,
an address
the Imperial government
and to
estimated
"the
of the provincial
the three branches
government
draft
to about
of Orphans,
within
the first fortnight,
amounting
to
and likely to increase at the end of the season,
five hundred,
of Montreal,
of the City Council
of ameeting
thousands." Minutes
number
23 June 1847, City of Montreal Archives, Fonds de laVille de
1847
Montreal,
33
True Witness
34
1901, LAC, RG 30, vol. 2077, file "Documents
August
at Point St. Charles, Montreal."
Monument
57
True Witness
58
St. Anne's
1901.
and much
Griffintown
of
Pointe
Saint-Charles.
59
True Witness
and Catholic Chronicle,
28 December
1901.
1897.
22 September
60
Ibid.
Ibid.
61
Montreal
Montreal,
"The Cemetery
and Cultural Memory:
Urban History Review 31:1 (2002): 52-62.
G. Watkins,
1860-1900,"
20
62
The Grosse-Isk Monument
Cote
1897.
des Neiges,
the
Gazette,
September
in 1855, three years
main Roman
Catholic
cemetery, was founded
the main
its
for Protestants,
after Mount
cemetery
Royal,
opened
Gazette,
38
True Witness
20 September
1897.
and Catholic Chronicle,
39
Montreal
Herald,
40
Montreal
Daily
41
Montreal
Herald,
30 November
1897.
22 September
1898.
Star, 30 November
30 November
1898.
Ibid.
43
True Witness
44
Montreal
and Catholic Chronicle,
30 November
Herald,
45
True Witness
63
24 December
and Catholic Chronicle,
5 January
Star, 22 December
Gazette,
22 December
49
General
Minutes
51
True Witness
Souvenir Issued on theOccasion
of theMonument
to
Erected
43.
1909),
Gazette,
16 August
65
Montreal
Gazette,
28 February
66
Montreal
Daily
1909.
1910.
Star, 28 February
1910.
Ibid.
68
Montreal
Gazette,
69
Montreal
Daily
70
Montreal
Gazette,
71
Montreal
Daily
24 January
1911.
Star, 23 January
24 January
1911.
1911.
Star, 24 January
1911.
and Montreal:
hoyola
158.
Slattery,
A
History
(Montreal:
Palm
1962),
73
True Witness
and Catholic Chronicle,
22 June
1912.
1900.
74
Montreal
Gazette,
25 January
75
Montreal
Gazette,
18 August
1911.
1900.
of
the
Saint
Patrick's
St. Patrick's,
St. Ann's,
St. Mary's,
76
Montreal
Daily
commemorative
St.
called
thousands
off
of
30 September
that a
Herald,
1912,
reported
event was
for 29 September
1912 but
organised
due to inclement weather,
to the
of
disappointment
local Irish Canadians
the trip from Quebec
the monument
from
and Catholic Chronicle,
1 June
1913.
of
was
included
parishes
and St. Gabriel's.
Anthony's,
1909,
1900.
Meeting
Society
24 April
Montreal,
1901, Concordia
Archives, Montreal,
University
P026
Saint Patrick's Society of Montreal
1864-1984.
fonds,
50
These
15th,
64
Montreal
72
T.P.
1898.
Commemorative
on
August
5.
Ibid,
Publishers,
Daily
48
Montreal
1900.
1898.
and Catholic Chronicle,
46
True Witness
47
Montreal
24 February
Co.,
Printing
67
1898.
1911.
theIrishVictims of thePlague of 184748 (Quebec City: Telegraph
gates.
37
Montreal
24 January
Gazette,
of the Unveiling,
36
Montreal
52
included
Ward
28 December
file.
Immigration
and Catholic Chronicle,
35
See Meredith
42
and Catholic Chronicle,
Regarding
and hundreds
more
to celebrate
City and Ottawa
St. Patrick's Square.
who
made
the return
of
1901.
77
Montreal
Gazette,
18 August
1913.
Ibid.
53
True Witness
and Catholic Chronicle,
and Catholic Chronicle,
55
True Witness
would
56
The
of Parliament
Reverend
the Diocese
15 June
William
of Montreal
for the riding
Bennett
of
2001),
Making Public Pasts: The Contested Terrain
1891-1930
(Montreal: McGill-Queen's
ofMontreal's
University
116.
1901.
79
and Catholic Chronicle, 28 December
to serve as
of Montreal
Mayor
on
go
78
Alan Gordon,
Public Memories,
1901.
Press,
54
True Witness
Member
27 April
Ste. Anne
Lord
1901. J.J.Guerin
and
(1910-1912)
(1925-1930).
Bond,
Archbishop
to the GTR
of Canada,
Company
See Herbert
Brown Ames,
The City Below
a
Study of Portion of the city ofMontreal, Canada
of Toronto
Press,
1972), 105.
80
Suzanne
"The
Cross,
Dorothy
Master's
thesis, McGill
University,
of
Irish
1969,
theHill: A
(Toronto:
in Montreal,
Sociological
University
1867-1896,"
81-96.
1
CJIS/RCfcl
This content downloaded from 132.206.27.25 on Sun, 30 Nov 2014 10:58:43 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
33:1 59
100
R.C.
81
of
and Patricia Thornton,
"The Challenge
Sherry Olson
in Nineteenth-Century
Catholic
Montreal,"
Community
the Irish
"The
inMontreal,
Irish
1867-1896,"
101
Montreal
102
A.A.
268.
RG
83
Montreal
84
Robin
14
Gazette,
B. Burns,
1914.
September
"The Montreal
Gazette,
26 March
86
Montreal
Gazette,
30 May
1917.
in the city reported on the discovery
language newspapers
re-interment
but with
the exception
of Ea
ceremony,
ran stories on
5
and
French
October
Presse, which
31,
August
in the city did not take much
notice of the
language newspapers
in 1942.
Gazette,
4 August
89
Montreal
Gazette,
31 October
90
Montreal
Gazette,
4 August
1942.
to R.C.
16 November
Johnston,
Monument
"Documents
Regarding
Gardiner
2077,
Charles,
9 November
Monument
Gazette,
92
Eiverpool
Catholic Herald,
93
Montreal
94
Montreal
95
R.C.
Daily
105
Montreal
Gazette,
2 November
106
Montreal
Gazette,
16 March
1942.
1942.
107
Fred McEvoy,
Relations
"Canadian-Irish
the Second
during
World War," Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 5:2 (1977):
212-13.
1942.
1942.
108
After
1942.
to draft the new Constitution
helping
to Canada
appointed
High Commissioner
he would
fill until 1950, when
he was named
United
States.
Johnston
1910.
6 June
4
August
to
109
Montreal
August
file.
Gazette,
16 March
110
Montreal
Gazette,
2 November
111
Montreal
Gazette,
18 August
97
Reverend
Arthur
Carlisle,
1942.
Burying Ground
of Montreal,
Archives
1913.
29 October
Ship Fever Memorial
Re: Old
112
Pierre
file.
- Point
St. Charles,
Ship Fever Memorial
Nora,
Columbia
Realms
ofMemory:
University,
1996),
Ibid.
13 November
Monument
the French Past
(New
4
113
Gordon,
Making
Public Pasts,
168.
1942, LAC RG30,
at Point St. Charles,
Ibid.
60McMAHON
Rethinking
xii.
114
Samuel, Theatres ofMemory,
Raphael
Culture (London: Verso,
1994).
98
toMr. Gardiner,
R.C. Johnston
vol. 2077, "Documents
Regarding
Montreal."
99
1942
1942.
Right
of Montreal,
Archives
1942, Anglican
Ireland, Hearne
in 1937, a position
to the
ambassador
1898.
York:
96
Memorandum
of
1914.
Star, 30 November
Gazette,
1942, Anglican
1March
1942, LAC,
at Point St.
Montreal."
was
91
Montreal
1942, LAC,
at Point St.
Montreal."
104
to Emmett McManamy,
R.C. Johnston
RG 30, vol. 2077, "Documents
Regarding
1927.
88
Montreal
31 October
Montreal."
87
English
and the
Irish cemetery
29 October
Carlisle,
file.
Ship Fever Memorial
Arthur
103
to J.L.
9 November
R.C. Johnston
1942; RC. Johnston
Whitty,
to Emmett
9 November
1942, LAC, RG 30, vol.
McManamy,
at Point
"Documents
Monument
St. Charles,
2077,
Regarding
CCHA
Historical Studies52 (1985): 80.
85
Montreal
Gazette,
30, vol.
Charles,
Irish and the Great War,"
to
Right Reverend
of Montreal,
Archives
Histoire
Sociale/Social
History 35:70 (2002): 357.
82
Cross,
Johnston
1942, Anglican
Montreal's Ship Fever Monument
This content downloaded from 132.206.27.25 on Sun, 30 Nov 2014 10:58:43 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Past and Present in
Contemporary