Na Gaeil san Áit Ró-Fhuar
1800-1845: Settlement and Legacy Building
“Bhí eorna ‘na cruacha ann agus cruithneacht ‘na guaille; Bhí muileann an tsiúcra bán ann agus ní áirím an sú craobh.”
There was stacked barley there, and wheat to the shoulders; There were white sugar mills, and I don't see the raspberry
- Collected by Seaghan Ó Coinnigeáin (1)
Discover the story of Irish immigrants in 19th century Canada. Despite challenges, they kept their language and left a lasting impact on the country.
As the 19th century unfolded, the language situation in Ireland began to change. While most people still spoke Irish, English assumed the role of the language of power, law, and commerce. This is essential to understanding Irish migration to Canada, as Irish remained the primary language for many people leaving Ireland during this time.
Growth and Settlements
After the Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815, Ireland's population grew, but conditions for Irish speakers in Ireland degraded as they were heavily marginalized under colonial policies. This led to increased emigration.(2) Relief settlements were set up in Canada to divert Irish emigrants from going to England.(3) The densely settled East Coast of Canada(4) gave way to expansion further west, driven by opportunities in lumbering, canal construction, and agriculture. Along the Rideau Canal in Ontario, Irish was so common that a translator was needed to resolve disputes. Further west, in modern Manitoba, some of the earliest settlers in the Red River Colony of Assiniboia originated in County Sligo.
Challenges and Division
There were numerous challenges for Irish immigrants to Canada. They faced prejudice from British settlers,(5) and Irish labourers endured harsh conditions, unpaid wages, and violence on worksites such as the Rideau Canal.(6) The Catholic Irish also faced hostility from other laborers who believed they were taking away their work opportunities. The establishment of Protestant Orange Lodges throughout Canada celebrated the eradication of Gaelic culture and the British colonization of Ireland. These profoundly affected the acceptance of the Catholic (Gaelic) Irish, and in response Fenian and Catholic societies emerged.
Language Across Society
By the 1840s, over 450,000 Irish lived in Canada, and many could speak Irish. Canadian port authorities in the 1840’s frequently commented on “the inability of entire shiploads of immigrants from Ireland to speak English.”(7) The Irish language was not just for farmers or workers. Irish speakers could be found at all levels of society. Notable figures like James Fitzgibbon, a native Irish speaker, and hero of the War of 1812, played pivotal roles in Canadian history.(8) Proinsias Ó Coileáin was an Irish speaker who founded free press in Canada and advocated for the rights of the Catholic Irish. In cities like Toronto and Halifax, Irish was widely spoken and became a vibrant part of the emerging Canadian settler culture.
For citation, please use: Ó Dubhghaill, Dónall. 2024. “1800-1845: Settlement and Legacy Building.” Na Gaeil san Áit Ró-Fhuar. Gaeltacht an Oileáin Úir: www.gaeilge.ca
Any views expressed are those of the author alone, and may not reflect the views of Cumann na Gaeltachta. Any intellectual property rights remain solely with the author.
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Image Citation: 1851. Emigrants Arrival At Cork - A Scene From The Quay. Illustrated London News: London. May 10.
Clearing in the New Ireland settlement of Grenville, Quebec. Adapted from: Alexander Henderson / Library and Archives Canada / PA-181769
Co. Dhún na nGall. “The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1046, Page 320” by Dúchas © National Folklore Collection, UCD is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. The only native raspberry in Canada is the smaller and darker black raspberry, not commercially cultivated until significantly later.
Between 1780 and 1845, an estimated 1,750,000 Irish emigrated from Ireland. After the end of the Napoleonic war, when travel became safer and Ireland's food was no longer being used to support the British army causing further population growth, two-thirds of emigrants departed for Canada.
Irish people from strongly Gaelic areas, like those from Muscraí in County Cork, moved to Peter Robinson’s settlements in the Ottawa Valley and Peterborough in the 1820s. “Many of the evicted smallholders and cottiers whom the government shipped to Canada in 1823-1825 were at least bilingual Irish-speakers, and in 1826 the unassisted emigration of the east Cork poet Pádraig Cúndún demonstrated that by then even the complete ignorance of English was no longer an insurmountable barrier to the lure of the New World.” Miller, Kerby A. 1985. Emigrants and Exiles. Toronto: Oxford University Press.
11,000 Irish (mostly Catholic) settle in Halifax between 1815 and 1839, 10,000 Irish (mostly Catholic) settle in PEI at this time, and another 65,000 Irish settle in New Brunswick from 1827-1835
British lawmakers at the time warned that Irish migration threatened “the degradation of our people by commixture with a foreign race; lower in intelligence, lower in habits of order and self-restraint, lower in ideas of comfort and moral independence, lower, in short, in all the qualities which constitute civilized men.” Westminster Review. Quoted in: Murray, Hugh. Historical Account of Discoveries and Travels in North America. Vol. 2. London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, & Green, 1829. Some contemporary authors asserted that the Irish were a relic stone age population, not yet been outcompeted by other races only because they were island-bound.
In 1843, Irish workers peacefully protesting their conditions on the Beauharnois Canal in Quebec were fired upon by British troops. In the Ottawa Valley and Bytown (now Ottawa), Irish lumbermen clashed violently with the majority French Canadian lumbermen, resulting in the Irish-French “Shiners’ War.”
Ó Néill, Diarmuid, ed. 2005. Rebuilding the Celtic Languages. Ceredigion: Y Lolfa. 289.
James Fitzgibbon was born in An Gleann, Co. Luimnigh, and famously was the officer who Laura Secord warned of an impending American surprise attack. An effective peacemaker, he soothed sectarian violence of the Orange Irish and Scottish in their attacks on the newly arrived Catholic “Ballygiblin” Irish immigrants at Ottawa’s Carleton Place in 1824. He restored the peace again in 1836 when Irish Catholic canal workers were accused of rioting and criminality by settlers at Cornwall.
All other cited references, numbers, or quotations as from: Ó Dubhghaill, Dónall (Doyle, Danny). 2019. Míle Míle i gCéin: The Irish Language in Canada. 2nd Ed. Boralis Press: Ottawa.
Canadian Colonial Token
“Pure Copper Preferable to Paper” featuring an Irishman holding a shillelagh and shamrocks, wreathed in oak leaves and shamrocks . This coinage, one of many Early Canadian tokens with Irish imagery, was especially popular in Lower Canada (modern Québec)
Dúidín Pipe
A staple of Irish peasant life, the simple clay pipe (in both the shorter Dúidín and longer Beannacht Dé styles) were necessary elements of Gaelic wedding and funeral traditions. Found off the coast of Nova Scotia. Image courtesy of Parks Canada.
Blackthorn Shillelagh
This cane, dated 1833-1867 and collected in Kemptville, Ontario, is an ornate example of an Irish blackthorn stick. Less ornate blackthorn sticks were used as small arms weapons for Irish stickfighting, common at fairs, weddings, funerals and most other gatherings.
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