Madam Speaker, I rise today to address Motion No. 18, sponsored by the member for Etobicoke—Lakeshore, which seeks to have the House recognize March of every year as Irish heritage month.
Over the course of our history, we have seen the many ways of Irish immigration to Canada. Some have put forth a theory that Irish explorers came to Canada before the Norse. I have to say this is a bit of a stretch because half my ancestry is Irish, and the other half is from the Vikings.
Even though the historical records show that Irish immigrants came to Canada as early as the 16th century, I want members to know that the Irish fishermen first came to the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. As a matter of fact, Canada is home to the only Irish-language place name outside of Europe. When fishermen from southern Ireland arrived in Newfoundland in the 17th century, they called it Talamh an Éisc, or land of the fish, and this name still survives today.
Seeing as Newfoundland is my home, let me tell members a little more about this. I am sure members did not know that over 20% of our population today is of Irish descent. We have more in common with our friends in Ireland than one might think, but when we look at the map we are the first place west when they depart from Ireland. Between 1770 and 1780, more than 100 ships and thousands of people left Irish ports for the lucrative fishery off Newfoundland and Labrador. These migrations were some of the most substantial movements of Irish peoples across the Atlantic in the 18th century.
Over the years, they created a distinct subculture in Newfoundland and Labrador, and their descendants carried on many of the traditions. In certain places around the province, Irish culture is still richly evident. Between people, culture and, yes, even the landscape, I have five reasons why Newfoundland and Labrador has often been dubbed the most Irish place outside of Ireland.
The scenery and the landscape in my province are often compared to that of Ireland. The towering cliffs, rugged coastline and rich greenery make it easy to see why the Irish felt at home when they first arrived here in the 1700s. It can be hard to distinguish between the two at times.
Do members know what to scrob means, or what a sleeveen is? There are more varieties of English spoken in Newfoundland and Labrador than anywhere else in the world. Our dialects date back four centuries, and most of the accents are flavoured by southern Ireland. Some Irish settlers only spoke Irish Gaelic, and while it disappeared from the island early in the 20th century, it left a number of traces that are still found today.
There are a number of places in my province where the Irish connections run deep. Located in the southeastern part of the Avalon Peninsula, the Irish Loop is the heart of Irish culture and heritage in Newfoundland and Labrador. Tilting, a small community nestled on Fogo Island, was the home to the first Irish settler, Thomas Burke, who arrived in 1752. To this day, the town of Tilting is adorned with Irish flags by groups of people who are proud to display their heritage. Tilting is both a national historic site and a provincial heritage district, and for very good reason.
With scenery and landscape so similar to the Emerald Isle, it is easy to see why so many compare Newfoundland and Labrador to Ireland. However, it is really the people of the province where the true connection lies. Beyond the lilts and the accents and the songs and the jigs, there is a sense of camaraderie and pride akin to a place where people leave their doors unlocked all the time, as we still do today, and we stop to have a chat with everyone we see. They are real, genuine people, friendly and welcoming, which is all the more powerfully felt because of the historical undercurrent of hardship and self-reliance.
Also in Newfoundland and Labrador, St. Patrick's Day is a public holiday. Across the islands, pubs and houses and sheds are filled early with people celebrating over hearty breakfasts, which then lead to an evening of green beer, as my colleague mentioned, and plenty of Irish song and dance.
Global Greening, an initiative by Tourism Ireland, sees a host of major landmarks and iconic sites across the world turn green on St. Patrick's Day. The greenings are emblematic of the relationships that Ireland has built with countries around the world in the spirit of friendship, respect and partnership, so it is fitting that we will see many buildings aglow with green lights on March 17, and many of them will be in Newfoundland and Labrador.
That is enough on my province of Newfoundland and Labrador. We know that records from New France include many Irish names and it has been estimated that perhaps as much as five per cent of the population of New France was Irish.
The period starting from 1819 onward to the last quarter of the century is when the beginning of the intensive immigration from Ireland started. During that period, the majority of the thousands of immigrants who were arriving each year in Canada was from Ireland.
These large groups of Irish immigrants continued to pour into Canada until well after Confederation when their numbers began to decline to a much smaller, but still steady flow.
A sizeable group of immigrants arrived between 1823 and 1825, creating a 2,000-strong settlement in Peterborough, Ontario, named after Peter Robinson who commissioned the 12 ships that carried them to Canada.
In 1871, the Canadian census provides a snapshot of the numbers of Irish in Canada in the late 19th century. It shows that in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia over 846,000 persons were of Irish origin. I have to remind members that Newfoundland and Labrador had not joined Confederation then, hence why our numbers are not included.
There is a popular misconception, though, that immigration from Ireland to Canada only began with the Irish potato famine, also called the great hunger, that began in 1845. The potato was the main form of sustenance in most Irish households and the catastrophic failure of the potato crop over successive years resulted in farmers being unable to produce sufficient food for their families' needs. The devastating disease rotted the potatoes in the ground, rendering their entire crops inedible and destroying that primary food source for millions of people. The potato crops would not recover until after 1852.
Those who could, left Ireland. They did so through dangerous and overcrowded ships. The crowded, unsanitary conditions to which people lived on the ships crossing the Atlantic created the uncontrolled spread of disease, such as cholera and typhus, as was alluded to earlier. Thousands ended their journey across the Atlantic in a watery grave or in the graves in Grosse Isle, Quebec or in Partridge Island off St. John, New Brunswick, where the immigrants were quarantined upon their arrival.
Through there is a partial record of those who died at sea, the complete record will never be known. Thousands of those who made it to Grosse Isle but later died had their resting place marked with a striking Celtic cross erected to their memory. On Partridge Island, a Celtic cross also stands as a memorial to the Irish immigrants who died there.
The history of the Irish in Canada is not just of the disaster of the potato famine, but also a story of economic and social success. The Irish recognized the opportunities that their new homeland offered. In the early years of their arrival, the Irish naturally gravitated toward the ports, the cities and areas of high employment in the eastern provinces as well in Quebec and Ontario.
However, as their prosperity increased, many would venture even further west. An early cluster of Irish ranchers was recorded around Fort Macleod in the 1870s and 1880s. By 1916, Alberta had over 6,500 Irish immigrants and another 51,000 who could trace their ancestry back to Ireland. That was according to the federal census at that time.
In that same period, Winnipeg had a population of over 19,000 people of Irish heritage. Out of the almost 59,000 people living in British Columbia in 1881, over 3,000 listed their ethnicity as Irish in the Canadian census.
According to David A. Wilson, who authored The Irish in Canada, the Irish quickly adapted to Canadian life and by 1871, the percentage of Irish who were merchants, manufacturers and professionals, white-collared workers and artisans was virtually identical to that of the population at large.
While it would be naive to think that there were not struggles during the early decades after their arrival, like many immigrant communities that came after them, the Irish endured and pushed forward to become an important part of the foundation of Canadian society.
Our history books are filled with the names of many people of Irish descent in every occupation one can imagine, but especially in the music world. Perhaps one of the best-known Irish names and a person who significantly influenced our history is Thomas D'Arcy McGee, an early visionary of Confederation, who my colleagues before have mentioned.
Born in Ireland, he arrived in 1857 and was elected the next year to the legislative assembly of the Province of Canada. He was a key player of Charlottetown and the Quebec City conferences that laid the groundwork for Confederation in 1867. He was known for his advocacy for minority rights and his opposition to extremism. Some of the goals that McGee aspired to for our country have become government policies, most notably, our emphasis on immigration as a means to build and strengthen Canada.
The establishment of an Irish heritage month would provide Canadians of all backgrounds the opportunity to learn, appreciate and celebrate the many contributions that Canadians of Irish heritage have made to Canada and—