March 17, 2022 – As you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day today, remember the reason for the season. While raising your glass of Guinness or Jameson and amoung the many sláintes, remember the generations of Irish immigrants who laid the foundation for the celebrations of today. Even though it’s a day to celebrate Irish heritage, it is also a day to remember our historical past and the values of our migrant relatives. St. Patrick’s Day has recently been criticized for propagating Irish stereotypes, for promoting excessive drinking and ignoring the cultural and religious significance of the day.
Irish immigration to Canada began as early as the 17th Century with the numbers increasing significantly in the wake of the Irish famine. The Great Potato Famine known as The Great Hunger- An Gorta Mór (1845-1852) resulted in one million Irish men, women and children perishing by starvation and disease while another one million emigrated to escape this fate.
They left a tough life and came to a tough life. It is hard to imagine the struggles these families endured. Coming from horrendous conditions in their homeland to being transported on coffin ships only to find themselves in quarantine stations and fever sheds in a foreign land. Landmarks such as the Black Rock in Montreal are a tragic reminder not only of the numerous loss of life but of the hardships they endured to get here. Dr. Gearóid ÓhAllmhuráin, a professor of Irish Studies at Concordia University, brings to our attention that when we remember our Irish ancestors who came across, we remember and think about all displaced immigrants. The ‘Irish experience’ in the 1840s represents the new immigrants of today. In the last few decades we still continue to experience global displacement.
St. Patrick’s Day is a day of commemoration and a day of remembering the Irish immigration experience. So celebrate and pay homage to where they came from but remember their histories of how and why they got here. Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Sláinte.
Interview with Dr. Ó hAllmhuráin on CTV: https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=2162373