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New Oppoutunities
Irish-Canadian immigration history gathered momentum in the 1760s when advertisements appeared in Ireland's Ulster province offering "industrious farmers and useful mechanics" the opportunity to emigrate to British North America (as Canada was then known) with the promise of at least 200 acres of land per household. (Irish Genealogy Toolkit) -
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Irish Canadians
This period the population of Irish in Canada almost doubled, motivation being distress in the homeland, land scarcity, unemployment, and the promise of higher wages. -
Potato as staple crop
Potato had become a staple crop for even the poorest in Ireland. -
Peter Robinson Trip #1
Peter Robinson, an ex soldier was sent to bring an experimental emigration of two shiploads of poor formers from Ireland to settle in upper Canada. (O'Brien)
http://webhome.idirect.com/~obrienr/probin.html
This link leads to the letter that Peter Robinson wrote about the 1823 Emigration to the Bathurst District of Upper Canada. -
Peter Robinson Trip #2
After the first successful trip, Peter Robinson was sent back to Cork (Ireland) in 1825 to bring a much larger group to modern day Peterborough, named after Peter Robinson. (O'Brien) -
Significant Irish Populations
By the 1830s, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, PEI and Upper and Lower Canada had significant Irish populations. Some immigrants spread throughout the countryside, partly because land from recent timber operations was cheap, but generally because the Irish tended, unlike the Scots or English, to remain in the ports, such as Halifax and Saint John, where they provide cheap immigrant labour.(The Canadian Encyclopedia) -
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Grosse Ile
Located in the middle of the St. Lawrence River, Grosse Île was a quarantine station for the Port of Québec from 1832 to 1937. At the time, the island was the main point of entry for immigrants coming to Canada. For the Irish on their way to Canada this was their first stop, many people were quarantined at the hospital here. -
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Immigration Increase and Decrease
"The stream of Irish peoples, which had coursed steadily during the 1840s, became floodwaters during the famine years.The fifteen thousand who arrived in New Brunswick during the peak year of 1847 indicated a seventeen-fold gain over 1843's figure. Immigration rates de- creased dramatically after 1848, and by 1855 numbers would once again be on a par with 1843".(See, 431) -
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Potato Famine
Beginning in 1845 and lasting for six years, the potato famine killed over a million men, women and children in Ireland and caused another million to flee the country in hopes of a better future and escape the nightmare at home. -
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Rate of Irish Emigration
"The pre-famine rate of emigration in 1845 was at around 50,000 per year. The next year 1846 as the famine started to hit hard 100,000 left. The peak was in 1847, the hardest famine year when 250,000 left. It continued at an average of around 200,000 per year for the next five years, before beginning to fall again." (Maps and Pictures) -
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Famine Migration
"During the Famine Migration from Ireland, tens of thousands settled farms and towns of Upper and Lower Canada. The effect of the Irish immigration into Canada's population within such a short span of time was enormous. At the height of the Great Famine years--1847 and 1848, the lingering sickness, disease and poverty adversely affected Canada's local populations in or surrounding its port towns." (Finding an Irish Ancestor Using Canadian Records) -
Toronto's Population Increase
When Toronto's Roman Catholic parishioners attended church services on 15 May 1847, they were read a letter from Bishop Michael Power that urged them to prepare for a sudden influx of refugees from one of the worst human disasters of the 19th century. Over the next six months, Toronto's population of 20 000 temporarily swelled as more than 38 000 migrants escaping the Irish Potato Famine landed on the city's waterfront. (The Canadian Encyclopedia) -
Coffin Ships Head to Quebec
By June 14,000 Irish immigrants had been shipped to Quebec most of them overcome with disease or death. Many Irish landlords paid the fee in order to evict them from their property. -
"When the Irish Came"
"This wave was so dramatic that most Canadians erroneously think of 1847 as the time "when the Irish came.""(Canadian Encyclopedia) -
Census Report
Census reports 208,252 deaths. 180,000 emigrate in 1848. (Timeline- The Irish Potato Famine) -
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"Famine Irish"
The "Famine Irish," who supplied a mass of cheap labour that helped fuel the economic expansion of the 1850s and 1860s, were not well received. They were poor and the dominant society resented them for the urban and rural squalor in which they were forced to live.
(Canadian Encyclopedia) -
Newcomers to Canada
"By the time the famine abated and Irish-Catholic immigration dropped precipitously in the early 1850s, tens of thousands of newcomers had landed, ensconced themselves in urban enclaves, and moved into hinter- land communities in search of farmland and work."(See, 431) -
Irish as second largest ethnic group in Canada
By 1867, they Irish were the second largest ethnic group (after the French), and comprised 24% of Canada's population. -
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Immigration to Canada
Between 1902 and 1914, of the approximately 2.85 million newcomers who arrived on Canadian soil, 1.18 million had English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh or other British roots. Reasons for immigration vary from collape of social structure in Europe and search for better oppoutunities in Canada.
