Changing Attitudes toward Irish Canadians: The Impact of the 1847 Famine Influx in the Province of Canada

Author Information

Cian McEneaney

Abstract/Description

Throughout the nineteenth century, Canada regularly received Irish immigrants who became a tolerated and important part of Canadian society. However, between 1845 and 1852, Ireland endured a dreadful famine which saw more than two million Irish paupers emigrate, with their destinations varying across the world. A large portion of Irish famine immigrants travelled to the comparatively empty British North American colony in Canada, passing almost entirely through Quebec. Canadians at first welcomed the idea of large numbers of immigrants to help expand the western frontier, but with a massive exodus of Irish paupers fleeing Ireland in 1847, what arrived in the ports of Quebec ended up terrifying the people of Canada. The deplorable condition of the immigrants strained the Canadian social institutions beyond their means, and shifted the view of Irish Canadians into a negative light. Although quarantined at Grosse Isle, and various other makeshift quarantine stations throughout the St. Lawrence River valley, the unexpectedly diseaseridden immigrants caused typhus, cholera, and dysentery to run rampant wherever they arrived, claiming the lives of thousands of Canadians, as well as many of their own. Societal conditions set in place by previous generations of Irish immigrants to Canada, which allowed them to be a welcomed part of Canadian communities, were broken by this new wave of Irish exiles, and caused public opinion to turn against the Irish immigrants. The betrayal of social norms caused a violent Protestant-Canadian nativist response that lasted for decades after their arrival.

Note on the Author

The son of an Irish immigrant, Cian McEneaney is an enthusiastic student of Irish and military history and the acting curator at Fort Taber-Fort Rodman Military History Museum in New Bedford. After graduating in the spring of 2021 with a Bachelor’s in History and Irish Studies from BSU, Cian plans to attend Trinity College, Dublin in 2022 to pursue a Master’s Degree in Modern Irish History.

Recommended Citation

McEneaney, Cian (2021). Changing Attitudes toward Irish Canadians: The Impact of the 1847 Famine Influx in the Province of Canada. Undergraduate Review, 16, 90-106.
Available at: https://vc.bridgew.edu/undergrad_rev/vol16/iss2/11

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