Irish Immigrants in 19th Century Canada essays

Irish Immigrants in 19th Century Canada essays Of all the ethnic groups to migrate to British North America, the Irish are perhaps the most neglected and ignored in Atlantic Canadian history, the reasons for which are varied and complex.[1] The Scottish settlers are widely acknowledge, after all Nova Scotia means New Scotland, and the French identity is strong from when the area was united under the title of Acadia.[2] The English have a long Maritimes history basing most of the colonial war with the French, and the Aboriginal Canadians existed in the area at least one thousand years before any of the others.[3] However, since European colonization began, the Irish have always been present, with the largest concentration in Saint John, New Brunswick, a primary immigration port in the New World, and a city with stronger connections to Ireland than Boston, Massachusetts.[4] In fact Saint John was the destination for more than thirty thousand Irish fleeing the Potato Famine in Ireland between 1845 and 1854, with roughly sixteen thousand of them arriving during 1847, called Black 47 due to the fact that it was the worst year of the famine.[5] Moreover, a large number of Irish moved to Miramichi to work in the lumber camps.[6] Miramichi and the rest of northern New Brunswick was Roman Catholic, while the southwestern areas, except for Saint John which was mainly Catholic, were predominantly Irish Protestant.[7] The Irish made up more than one third of the entire population and were the single largest ethnic group, more numerous than the French, at one time in New Brunswick, in fact one of the original names proposed for the province was "New Ireland."[8] Although, the Irish population has dwindled through the years due to inter-marriages, even today most New Brunswickers can trace their ancestry back to Ireland.[9] Most of the Irish in Nova Scotia lived in Halifax, however, large numbers of Irish could be fou...