Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to rise in the House today to discuss my colleague's motion about Irish heritage and celebrating the contributions of the Irish immigrant community to Quebec and Canada. Doing so is our duty and our pride.
A few years ago, the papers said that everyone in Quebec is Irish. As many as 40% of Quebeckers say that Irish blood flows in their veins. That speaks to the significant contribution of the Irish to Quebec as well as to Quebeckers' love for Ireland, the Irish, and all those who have been part of the story of Quebec.
I hear my own name spoken in the House with the correct pronunciation. My name, Gill, is an English name with Gaelic roots. Gill means “stranger”. We are all strangers to each other until such time as we become part of a shared history. My Gaelic roots became English. My ancestors then migrated to what is now the United States and from there to an indigenous Abenaki community near Trois-Rivières. Now I am here in the House. Clearly, Ireland has gotten around. As with many peoples, we are its conduit.
I am therefore very proud to talk about this today. I said that half, if not all, Quebeckers have Irish blood. There is a real love affair between the Irish and Quebec. It was not always easy at first, particularly because of the language barrier. History tells us that there were already Irish immigrants raising families in Quebec when it was still New France.
Over the years, with other waves of immigration, Quebeckers felt very close to their Irish brothers, who practised the same religion as they did at the time, Catholicism. They also shared a similar way of life because most Irish people who settled in Quebec were labourers, working-class people, much like many Quebeckers.
I spoke about that time and reminded members that Irish blood runs in the veins of Quebeckers. There comes a time when we feel as though the other has become a part of us, because we have embraced their culture and way of life. I enjoy literature, and perhaps this is a misrepresentation, but if we study literary, cultural, artistic and architectural history, we see how the Irish contributed to building the Quebec society we know today. We owe a lot to Ireland, and that includes folk music.
We see it in those expressions of Irishness that have become perfectly natural to us. We no longer say that something is Irish, because it is part of who we are. We no longer make the distinction. It is part of who we are, but we still admire it.
I mentioned traditions. This admiration is also part of our collective psyche in Quebec. Ireland is an integral part of our culture, in a very down-to-earth way, through its history and all we can learn from it, by its genealogy, by what we have taken in, by what is as real as our blood, and by our collective imagination, in other words, that which escapes us.
It is also all these people we see around us every day. Just think of La Bolduc—I will refrain from singing—born Mary Travers, a great Quebecker of Irish origin. There are others, such as the actress Debbie Lynch-White, who is now in Quebec: two moments in time, two different centuries.
Clearly, these are two women who have left their mark on Quebec, who have left their mark on the essence of Quebec, two women who are adored by Quebeckers.
I have been talking about people, but there is also our way of life. In hockey, for example, the Irish had the Montreal Shamrocks. The way of life is the same. I could drop some other names. One was mentioned earlier in other circumstances, but I could also talk about Mr. Mulroney. I am the member for Manicouagan. We have political figures. The boy from Baie Comeau is from my region. He is also part of the heritage.
There are many others, of course. I thought perhaps I would stand in this House and quote one of the great Irishmen. He has Irish ancestors, but sometimes people forget that. He is one of our great Quebec poets of the late 19th and early 20th century. He is in our imaginations. People quote him, sometimes without realizing who it is. This shows that we need to be grateful to them, that we must bear witness to their existence, to their contributions.
Sometimes, fates collide. I am very happy because one of my ancestors, Charles Gill, was also a poet and painter and a friend of Émile Nelligan. Now, I am going way back with this ancestor. I am not friends with this poet, but it is interesting to see how fates can collide.
Émile Nelligan is one of the great poets of Quebec. I am so happy and honoured to share a poem of his in the House. I think it fits right in with the spirit of this motion and I would also say that it is a declaration and expression of love.There was a mighty ship, of solid gold 'twas wrought:
Its masts reached to the sky, over oceans unknown;
The goddess Love herself, flesh bare and hair wind-blown,
Stood sculpted at its bow, in sunshine desert hot.
A treach'rous shoal it struck one dark and stormy eve,
Where sailors sirens' songs unwitting sweetly lull,
And then a shipwreck dread did sink its golden hull
Into the murky depths, grave granting no reprieve!
There was a ship of gold, and through its ghostly side
Such riches it revealed, for which fell pirates vied,
Neurosis, Hate, Disgust, among themselves, those three.
Ah, what remains, now that the storm no longer teems?
What has my heart become, thus set adrift at sea?
Alas, that ship has sunk in an abyss of dreams!
On behalf of the Bloc Québécois, I want to say that we will vote in favour of this motion, and I thank all of the Irish Quebeckers of yesterday, today and tomorrow.