Who are you the past whispered? I wasn't sure. Born in Montreal to French - Irish parents and moved to America at age 4, I wasn't able to connect with my roots. The past whispered again and I began my search. The search for my elusive great-grandparents took me to County Cavan, Ireland, northern France and Belgium. The Past Whispers...
Winner of the 1991 QSPELL Prize for Non-fiction One of Canada’s founding peoples, the Irish arrived in the Newfoundland fishing stations as early as the seventeenth century. By the eighteenth century they were establishing farms and settlements from Nova Scotia to the Great Lakes. Then, in the 1840s, came the failures of Ireland’s potato crop, which people in the west of Ireland had depended on for survival. "And that," wrote a Sligo countryman, "was the beginning of the great trouble and famine that destroyed Ireland." Flight from Famine is the moving account of a Victorian-era tragedy that has echoes in our own time but seems hardly credible in the light of Ireland’s modern prosperity. The famine survivors who helped build Canada in the years that followed Black ’47 provide a testament to courage, resilience, and perseverance. By the time of Confederation, the Irish population of Canada was second only to the French, and four million Canadians can claim proud Irish descent.
A solid contribution to social and urban studies, this fascinating collection of oral histories details the life and times in Canada's "cradle of industrialization." Contributors to this book were all born between the 1920's and 1950's and remember growing up around the east end of the Lachine Canal near the Montreal harbour. It was a time when ships from far away places still navigated the canal and this historic working-class area hummed with the sounds of factories. Families were often large and the streets teemed with children. These oral histories follow contributors' lives to the present day. The book also discusses the redevelopment and evolution of the area. Well-illustrated with archival photos, with bibliography, and an introduction by the author.
The Past Whispers is once again entered in Blogging from A to Z 2020 This years inspiration is 'Good Reads', books about the Irish and French in Canada and the United States. I hope you come back every day for new books to consider.
From the Emerald Isle to the Cream City by Carl Baehr.
Irish-Milwaukee history begins with the first Irish immigrants who arrived during Milwaukee's founding in the mid-1830s. Irish laborers helped shape the city by cutting down bluffs, filling in marshes, digging a canal, and creating streets. They were joined in the late 1840s by more Irishmen who were fleeing the Great Famine and starvation in Ireland. It's a history populated with heroic figures like Patrick O'Kelly, the city's first Catholic priest and the founder of Milwaukee's first Catholic church; John O'Rourke, the first editor of the Milwaukee Sentinel; and Timothy O'Brien, who emerged as a hero during the cholera epidemics as well as other colorful characters like the scoundrel Robert B. Lynch, kindhearted Hannah Kenneally, the "White Irishman" John White, firefighting hero Patsy McLaughlin, and militia leader John McManman. And it's a tale of overcoming some of Milwaukee's biggest tragedies: the sinking of the Lady Elgin, which cost the lives of 300 people, most of them from the Irish Third Ward; the Newhall House hotel fire, which took more Irish lives; and finally, the Third Ward Fire, which destroyed hundreds of buildings and scattered the Irish to other parts of the city. This historical tour captures it all--from the difficulties in adapting to American ways, as seen through events like the Leahey riot and the lynching of Marshall Clark, to the successes, such as the founding of the city of Cudahy by a poor Irish immigrant, the film stardom of Tory Hill's Pat O'Brien and Merrill Park's Spencer Tracy, and the many people who have Milwaukee streets and parks named for them. From the Emerald Isle to the Cream City describes how the Irish influenced the political, educational, religious, and sports landscape of Milwaukee and their impact on other ethnic groups, overcoming early poverty and bigotry to help make Milwaukee the city that it is today.
A group of Irish amateur genealogists from a small Galway town are seeking to connect with descendants of 156 emigrants known as the “Primrose” girls after the name of the ship they sailed on to Canada in 1853...more
An attempt to recreate Ireland’s archives destroyed in a fire in June 1922 has been successful to a “greater extent than ever previously imagined,” the historian behind the project has said...more
Perhaps the most recognizable architectural symbol of Mile End is the Church of St. Michael the Archangel of 1914-5, on Saint-Viateur Street at the corner of Saint-Urbain. The church, designed by Aristide Beaugrand-Champagne, was built for an Irish Catholic community, as expressed by omnipresent shamrock motifs; yet the overall style of the building is based on Byzantine rather than Western architectural traditions. Even more striking, the church has a slender tower that resembles a minaret. The building has been shared since 1964 with the Polish Catholic mission of St. Anthony of Padua, which officially merged with the parish of St. Michael in 1969 to form the current parish of St. Michael's and St. Anthony's;masses are celebrated in Polish and in English. At the turn of the last century there was something of a migration of Irish-Canadian working people from their overcrowded Point St. Charles and Griffintown haunts north into Mile End. In 1902, the Catholic archbishop of Montreal, Mgr. Paul Bruchési, gave his approval for a new parish to be created. The first mass was said upstairs of a fire hall at Laurier and Saint-Denis that no longer exists. Their first small church building was on rue Boucher near there; it no longer exists.
By 1914 the growing parish decided it needed something bigger and grander. In July of that year excavations began. Work stopped briefly when war broke out that autumn, but resumed in April 1915, and the church was ready to use by that December. The price tag was $232,000 and the church could hold 1400 people. This information comes from a booklet published in 1927 when the parish was already 25 years old. The text describes, and images show, that the dome and the cap on the tower were both decorated with patterns, and the massive façade with the words Deo dicatum in honorem St. Michaeli and a smaller motto on a banner over the doors. Those flourishes are gone, but carved shamrocks are still part of the façade, a nod to the time when the parish was pretty well a monoculture, with priests called McGinnis, Fahey, McCrory, Walsh, O’Brien, Cooney and O’Conor and church wardens Keegan, Gorman, Dillon, McGee and Flood.
Also, unusually, there’s no mention of bells, and no evidence that the tower ever contained any: unlike most church towers it’s closed all the way to the top.
Nineteenth-century maps and other documents show the name Mile End as the crossroads at Saint-Laurent Road (now Boulevard) and what is now Mont-Royal Avenue. Originally, this road was Côte Sainte-Catherine Road (heading west) and Tanneries Road (heading east). It is probable that the name Mile End was inspired by the East London suburb of the same name. Contrary to popular belief, the place is not precisely a mile away from any official marker. It is, however, a mile north along Saint-Laurent from Sherbrooke Street, which in the early 19th century marked the boundary between the urban area and open countryside. (Several decades later, the Mile End train station near Bernard Street was situated coincidentally one more mile north along Saint-Laurent from the original crossroads.)
Mile End was also the first important crossroads north of the tollgate set up in 1841 at the city limits of 1792. From the crossroads to the city limits the distance was 0.4 miles (0.64 km). The city limits were located 100 chains (1.25 miles or about 2 km) north of the fortification wall, and intersected Saint-Laurent just south of the current Duluth Avenue. As early as 1810, there was a Mile End Hotel and tavern, operated by Stanley Bagg, an American-born entrepreneur and father of the wealthy landowner Stanley Clark Bagg. The earliest known published references to Mile End are advertisements placed by Stanley Bagg, in both English and French, in The Gazette during the summer of 1815. He announced in July: "Farm for sale at St. Catherine [i.e., Outremont], near Mile End Tavern, about two miles from town...". On 7 August, he inserted the following: STRAYED or STOLEN from the Pasture of Stanley Bagg, Mile End Tavern, on or about the end of June last, a Bay HORSE about ten years old, white face, and some white about the feet. Any person who will give information where the Thief or Horse may be found shall receive a reward of TEN DOLLARS and all reasonable charges paid. STANLEY BAGG. Montreal, Mile End, August 4, 1815.
A photograph of 1859 shows members of the Montreal Hunt Club at the Mile End tavern. The road variously known as Chemin des Tanneries (Tannery Road), Chemin des Carrières (Quarry Road), or Chemin de la Côte-Saint-Louis led to a tannery and to limestone quarries used for the construction of much of Montreal's architecture. The village of Côte Saint-Louis (incorporated 1846) sprung up near the quarries, its houses clustered east of the Mile End district around the present-day intersection of Berri Street and Laurier Avenue.
It was to serve this village that a chapel of the Infant Jesus was established in 1848 near Saint Lawrence Road, on land donated by Pierre Beaubien. In 1857-8, the chapel was replaced by the church of Saint Enfant Jésus du Mile End. The church, made even more impressive by a new façade in 1901-3, was the first important building in what would become Mile End.
In the city of Montreal. Address: 335 Avenue Saint-Willibrord, Verdun neighborhood. The registers of this parish opened in the year 1913. A pastor resides there since this last date. Canonical Erection: July 7th, 1913. The territory of this parish is included within the limits of the city of Verdun. This parish was founded for the English-speaking Catholics of the parish of Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs-de-Verdun and part of the parish of Saint-Gabriel. This is why she was placed under the patronage of a saint of English origin. Saint Willibrord was born in England around the middle of the seventh century. He has been nicknamed the Apostle of Holland. He died with merit on November 7, 739 at the age of 81 years.
In the city of Montreal. Address: 124 rue du Couvent. This parish was founded for English-speaking Catholics. The parish registers opened in 1908, and a parish priest resides there since this last year. Canonical erection: June 18, 1908. The territory of this parish is circumscribed as follows: on the east by Atwater Street, on the west by the limits of the city, on the north by the Canadian Pacific Railway and on the south by the Lachine Canal. Pop. 3,000. The parish closed in 1990.
St. Ann’s Church was the heart of Griffintown’s Irish Catholic community. Built in 1854, it was Montreal’s second English Catholic church after St. Patrick’s (1847). Whereas the “lace-curtain” Irish around St. Patrick’s consisted of merchants, skilled workers and professionals, St. Ann’s parishioners were known as “shanty Irish” -- unskilled labourers employed in factories, in construction or on the docks. The population of Griffintown began declining after World War II and, in the early 1960s, the municipality decided that Griffintown no longer had a future as a place for people to live. It was rezoned as industrial commercial in 1963 and, in 1967, approximately a third of the neighbourhood was demolished to make way for the Bonaventure Expressway. Having lost most of its parishioners, St. Ann’s Church was torn down in 1970. A few years ago the City of Montreal ‘restored’ the foundations of the church and today the site is a park with benches instead of pews.
Following the authorization of the Récollets to settle outside Quebec , with the appointment of Mgr. Jean-Baptiste de La Croix Chevrieres of Saint-Vallier in 1688, the order moved to Montreal and undertook the construction of a church to be opened in 1693. It would be the work of brother Didace Pelletier who also led the work of the convent of Trois-Rivières . It is located on the quadrilateral of Notre-Dame , Sainte-Hélène , Récollets and Saint-Pierre streets . A monastery is added to the church in 1705. The master builder of the site is a man named Pierre Couturier. New works were undertaken in 1713 for the façade of the church with the sculptor Jean Jacquié dit Leblond. A fence is built in 1722. In 1760, after the capitulation of the colony , the church was ceded to the British occupier. It serves as a barracks until 1792, while the goods of the Récollets are sequestrated around 1810. In 1818, the expansion of Montreal, with the construction of St. Helena Street, led to the demolition of the west wing. The Sulpicians also settled in the old church in 1831. They enlarged and embellished it by adding a portal taken from the old Notre-Dame church demolished in 1829. The church was then used to worship Catholics Irish who use it until 1847. Become a school, the site is finally destroyed in 1867.
The interior décor including the church altar was preserved and moved to the church of Notre-Dame des Anges on Lagauchetière Street.
The latter building later became the church of the Chinese community; it still exists to this day.
The Verdun, Côte St. Paul district has been another bastion of the Irish community since the 1870’s. Located next to “The Point”,the region catered to the mid-income dwellers, among them the immigrants from
various European nations including the Irish, Scots and the British. Montreal. Address: 1558 Avenue of the Church. The registers of this parish opened in the year 1874, date of the arrival of the first resident parish priest. Canonical Erection: December 10, 1875. Civil Erection: December 24, 1875. The territory of this parish has been detached from the parishes of Saint-Henri-des-Tanneries , Saint-Pierre River and Côte Saint-Paul. The parish was put under the patronage of St. Paul probably because of its neighborhood with the parish of Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs-de-Verdun , formerly known as "Village of the Saint-Pierre River".
(1879) – Rev. M. Campion, Rev. P.F. O’Donnell, presiding. Located at 724 Craig Street East in south central Montréal, This Irish church was somehow associated with Saint Bridget, another parish of the same district of Faubourg Quebec. Our Lady of Good Counsel was located at the corner of Craig (St-Antoine) and Panet Streets.
At the Archives, the church records can be found under Notre Dame du Bon Conseil. The parish of Notre-Dame-du-Bon-Conseil was first erected under the name of "Sainte-Marie-de-Montréal", for the English-speaking Catholics of the parishes of St. Bridget , St. Vincent de-Paul , Saint-Eusebe , Saint-Pierre and part of Sainte-Catherine. The registers of the parish opened in the year 1881. Canonical erection: December 20, 1879. The canonical decree erecting this parish was published in the Official Gazette. On the occasion of the blessing of the church, the parish was put under the patronage of Notre-Dame-du-Bon- Advice. Today it includes English-speaking Catholics from the parishes of St. Bridget , St. Eusebius , St. Peter and St. Vincent de Paul. Pop. 2,255. The parish closed in 1984, and the church was demolished.
The Church of St. Michael and St. Anthony is a Roman Catholic church located in Mile End, Montreal. It was originally built as the Church of St. Michael and frequented by Irish Catholics. Because of the growth of the Polish community in the area, in 1964 a Polish mission was inaugurated in the church and the church's name was expanded to "St. Michael and St. Anthony". The church exemplifies cultural hybridity, being a Byzantine-styled church, built for Irish Catholics, in a multicultural neighbourhood, and being home today to mostly Poles and Italians. The church has also been noted for its Byzantine Revival architecture, complete with a dome and minaret-styled tower, making it "one of the more unique examples of church architecture in Montréal. Construction on the Church of St. Michael the Archangel began in 1914, for what would grow to become the largest anglophone parish in Montreal. After a brief delay following the commencement of World War I, the church was completed in 1915 at a cost of $232,000, with a capacity of 1,400 people. Though Mile End was originally a predominately Irish neighbourhood, the Polish community grew such that the two communities "merged into one", and to reflect this change, St. Anthony was appended to the parish name, reflecting the "Conventual Franciscans' devotion to St. Anthony of Padua." Today, the church is recognised as the focal point for the Polish Catholics of Montreal. The church was built in the Neo-Byzantine style of architecture, accompanied by a large turquoise dome and minaret-style tower. It was designed by architect Aristide Beaugrand-Champagne [fr] (1876–1950), who was inspired by the Hagia Sophia (originally an Orthodox basilica) in Istanbul (formerly Constantinople). The church also features elements of Gothic and Roman architecture, as well as lombard bands and window tracery reminiscent of Middle Ages castles. The church's dome features one of the first uses of reinforced concrete in Quebec. The interior roof of the dome features a neo-Renaissance-style fresco of St. Michael watching the fall of the angels, painted by Italian Guido Nincheri, who painted other churches in Montreal.
Bertha Burns 1892 - 1955
My maternal grandmother, Bertha Burns Bernard had her funeral service at Saint Michael the Archangel in September of 1955 and then interred at Cote de Neige Cemetery. Bertha was born in 1892 in Quebec City to George Burns and Elizabeth Williamson, the youngest of four children, the others being Albert, William, and Ethel. She and her mother, Elizabeth moved to Mile End in Montreal around 1920 after the death of her father George. Bertha married Ovila Bernard in 1925 and they had four children, Norman, Pauline, George, and Lorne. Bertha only had two grandchildren as Norman and George died young and never married. She never knew her only grandson as he was born 9 years after her death. She was able to enjoy her only grand-daughter for four years, it would have to be enough as fate took the child to the United States and Bertha would die under mysterious circumstances three years later.
The registers of this parish opened in the year 1901, date of the appointment of the first resident parish priest. The church is built on Western Avenue, between Redfern and Clarke Streets. Canonical erection: February 12, 1901. The canonical decree erecting this parish was published in the Official Gazette of 1901, Part of Sainte-Cunegonde annexed in 1904. The territory of this parish is included in the city of Westmount. It includes part of the parishes of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce , Sainte-Élisabeth , Saint-Henri, Notre-Dame-de-Montréal, Sainte-Cunegonde and Saint-Jacques-le-Majeur . The city of Westmount is located west of the mountain of Montreal; hence the name "Westmount". The erection of the parish was decided in the year of the jubilee ordained by His Holiness Pope Leo XIII, in 1900. Hence the choice of St. Leo the First as titular. Pop. 4,000. The Church of Saint-Léon-de-Westmount was designated a national historic site of Canada in 1997.
In the city of Montreal. Address: 1967 rue Saint-Jacques. Saint-Henri district. Canonical Erection: July 2, 1867. Civil Erection: February 23, 1875 The territory of this parish has been detached from Notre-Dame-de-Montréal. The city of Saint-Henri was incorporated December 28, 1876. The parish has long been called "Saint-Henri-des-Tanneries". This name of tanneries comes from the fact that at the beginning of this parish, tanneries were opened by Messrs. Lenoir dit Rolland. During its canonical erection, the parish included the villages of Délisle, Saint-Augustin, Ferme Saint-Gabriel, Saint-Pierre River and Saint-Henri-de-la-Côte-Saint-Paul, where built the church: hence the name of Saint-Henri, given to the parish. Pop. 10.675.
In the city of Montreal. Canonically erected on June 16, 1917 for the English-speaking Catholics of the parishes of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce and Saint-Pierre-aux-Liens. The parish registers open in the year 1917. This parish is served by the RRs. PP. Jesuits at Loyola College, 2001 Sherbrooke Street West. It is for this reason that the parish was placed under the patronage of St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus. Pop. 650. (Source: Magnan, Hormisdas, Historical and Geographical Dictionary of Parishes, Missions and Municipalities of the Province of Quebec, 1925
In 1896, Loyola College was founded by English-speaking Canadian Jesuits. It was the English-speaking section of Collège Sainte-Marie de Montréal and split off to become its own institution. In 1917, the parish of St. Ignatius was started for the local English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish population in the area. Masses were held on the campus of Loyola College. In 1964, Loyola High School separated from the college. In 1966, a new church was built as a separate structure apart from the college. In 1968 discussions begun to merge Loyola College with other colleges. This resulted with the creation of Concordia University on 24 August 1974. In 1982, Loyola High School moved to new building and the Jesuits handed over administration of the church to the Archdiocese of Montreal who continue to serve the parish.
