The Saint-Colomban parish and cemetery are situated in the province of Québec located 67 km north of Montréal in what was the Lac-des-Deux-Montagnes (Lake of Two Mountains) seigneurie. The Saint-Colomban parish and cemetery are historically significant because they were the homes and final resting places of many of Lower Canada’s earliest pre-Famine Irish settlers. During the 1820s, many Irish immigrants made their way to the port of Montréal from Ireland and from this group of Irish families came the first wave of Irish immigrants to the Saint-Colomban region beginning in 1821.

Kelley O’Rourke conducted interviews with descendants of Saint-Colomban’s Irish settlers to reconstruct the lives of these early Irish emigrants, who left their former lives in Ireland to build a new home for themselves and their families. It was a hard life, and they were successful for a time, but the land made it difficult to sustain a livelihood, so they moved on. These interviews tell the story of who they were and what happened to them. The Saint-Colomban church and cemetery, as well as a few old homes, are all that remain of the once flourishing Irish community in Saint-Colomban, Québec.

Following the British conquest of New France in 1760, the Treaty of Paris of 1763 formalized the transfer of power from France to Britain, bringing the Seven Years’ War to an end. This treaty resulted in significant territorial changes, as France ceded most of its North American colonies, including New France, to the British. The British renamed the territories Lower Canada (Québec) and Upper Canada (Ontario). The land in the Seigneurie du Lac-des-Deux-Montagnes was controlled by the Sulpicians, a French society of diocesan priests, often known for their roles as wealthy, educated elites, academics, and missionaries. Contrary to other missionaries at the time (like the Jesuites), the Sulpicians never took vows of poverty. After the British conquest, the Sulpicians in Montreal separared from the Sulpcians in Paris in order to swear allegiance to the British Crown and keep their landholdings. However, Mohawk of Kanehsatà:ke had an existing agreement with the Sulpician Priests, formalized by the Two Dog Wampum Belt, which was presented to British officials after the Conquest in 1763 to ensure the protection of their land from white settlement. The British betrayed this agreement and recognized the Sulpician priests as the sole owners of the land. Since Mohawk of Kanehsatà:ke’s rights and title to the land were never formally recognized, they depended on the Sulpicians to hold the land for them in trust. The Sulpicians violated the Two Dog Wampum agreement by selling 98% of the land to settlers, including the newly arrived Irish immigrants. Consequently, settlers acquired much of their property not aware of the former agreement.

Long before the Great Famine of 1847, many Irish emigrated willingly, fleeing the ongoing tensions in Ireland caused by British colonialism, crop failures, and state-sponsored agricultural restructuring projects. Québec was an ideal place for the Irish because it was predominantly Catholic, allowing them to freely practice their religious views, build their own churches, and maintain their cultural identity. Father Patrick Phelan and Father Richard Jackson (a Protestant convert himself), both Sulpician priests, helped relocate Irish families from Montréal to Saint-Colomban by gifting them land through the Society of the Gentlemen of St. Sulpice. The Irish were issued the initial lots of about 83 acres each beginning in 1821. The parish of Saint-Colomban was formally established in 1836. Mary Phelan Skehan donated the land for the parish in 1832, while Edward Elliott donated the land for the cemetery. As the Parish grew, Gerald Phelan gave more land to the cemetery in 1937, which helped to enlarge it. Initially, settlers attended Mass at Ste. Scholastique before constructing a chapel in 1835. The largest concessions in the area had reached full settlement by 1837.

PhD candidate Léa Denieul Pinsky from Concordia University has created an interactive online map that explores the history of settlement colonialism in the Seigneurie des Deux-Montagnes. This area includes the present-day municipalities of Oka, Pointe-Calumet, Saint-Placide, Saint-Joseph-du-Lac, Mirabel, Saint-Eustache, Saint-Benoit, Saint-Jérôme, and Saint-Colomban. The map vividly illustrates what settler colonialism looks like through the systematic parceling and allocation of lands to settlers to the detriment of Indigenous people who had been living and using the land in diverse ways. The project recently received the David Woodward Award for Best Digital Map and was made possible through the financial support of the Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Société et Culture (FRQSC).

Be sure to explore it! Mapping Archives: Mowhawk Land Disposession by Sulpician Priests