Most people don’t know the true story why thousands of poor peasant Irish farmers came to Canada in the1840’s. Yes, there was a potato crop failure because of a potato blight and the Irish were starving. But that’s not the whole story. To understand how the Irish people suffered you have to go to Grosse Ile, an island in the St. Lawrence River, 50 km east of Quebec City.
There certainly was a famine — the Great Famine of 1847-48 — but you could call it an artificial famine. People were starving, but not because there was a shortage of food in Ireland. Food was going elsewhere. It happens even today in countries with evil regimes. Produce from Ireland’s rich agricultural countryside was harvested, transported east and the larger amounts shipped to Britain for the absentee landlords and the British markets. The Irish, many of them tenant farmers on what used to be their own land, were allowed only to raise a small crop of potatoes, turnips and cabbage, their main diet. What little they had was shared with friends and neighbours.
Grosse Ile dominates the Isle-aux-Grues archipelago in the St. Lawrence River and it is an interesting place. From 1832 to 1937, this cold, windswept rocky island served as a quarantine station for the Port of Quebec, the main point of arrival for immigrants to Canada until World War 1. In those years, more than four million immigrants entered Canada at Quebec City. Doctors and inspectors boarded the many ships anchored at Grosse Ile. If any of the passengers were found to be ill, everyone on board would have to be examined on the island. Those who were healthy could well end up getting sick and die on the island. The cramped buildings and tents had hundreds of sick people with cholera or typhus sleeping on boards with bits of straw for bedding. In the black days of 1847, most of the island’s temporary residents slept in army tents.
You will be touched, as I was, by the human drama that marks Grosse Ile history. Some of the buildings might even remind you of a concentration camp, especially the restored Disinfection Building. It held massive ovens for steaming clothing and powerful showers for cleansing bodies. The huge equipment is still in place just as it was in the late 1800’s. I saw a sign near a furnace stating it took 1500 tons of coal annually shipped in from Nova Scotia to run the operations on the island.
More than 7500 people are buried there, most of them Irish who fell victim to typhus in 1847. Some say that number could be as high as 12,000.
Parks Canada gives guided tours of the island between mid-May and mid-October. On shore there’s a large sign that says: Grosse Ile and the Irish Memorial National Historic Site of Canada.
It’s weird seeing two canons on the island pointing to the river. Who were they shooting at? If a ship did not stop to let the doctors and inspectors on board to examine the European immigrants, a shot would be fired over the bow of the ship.
A shuttle takes visitors to the village. A walking trail leads to the Celtic Cross and the Memorial. The completely restored Disinfection Building houses an exhibition allowing you to relive the extraordinary events that mark the island’s history.
Next Friday Friday is St. Patrick’s Day, this column will have more interesting Irish history.
