Montreal's John Ostell

T HEPASSINGOF M ARIANNA O’G ALLAGHER $5 Quebec VOL 5, NO. 9 MAY-JUNE 2010 HeritageNews Gross Outrage across the Border How words nearly brought two countries to war Heart of the Farm Tales and images of rural heritage Man in a Hurry John Ostell: Architect, surveyor, planner QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS Quebec CONTENTS eritageNews H DITOR E Editor’s Desk 3 ROD MACLEOD Raising a silent glass Rod MacLeod PRODUCTION DAN PINESE Timelines 4 PUBLISHER The Holy Name Hall, Douglastown Luc Chaput THE QUEBEC ANGLOPHONE St Columban Cemetery Memorial dedicated Sandra Stock HERITAGE NETWORK 400-257 QUEEN STREET Reviews SHERBROOKE (LENNOXVILLE) Fencing us in 7 QUEBEC The Heart of the Farm Heather Paterson J1M 1K7 Agitprop in NDG 10 PHONE The Trotsky Rod MacLeod 1-877-964-0409 (819) 564-9595 A Gross Outrage 12 FAX (819) 564-6872 How words nearly brought two countries to war Donald J Davison CORRESPONDENCE A Man in a hurry 18 [email protected] Montreal’s John Ostell Susan McGuire WEBSITE High Ground: The early history of Mount Royal 22 WWW.QAHN.ORG Part II: Mountain real estate Rod MacLeod Milestones 26 The late Marianna O’Gallagher, CM Dennis Dawson PRESIDENT KEVIN O’DONNELL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Events Listings 27 DWANE WILKIN HERITAGE PORTAL COORDINATOR MATTHEW FARFAN OFFICE MANAGER KATHY TEASDALE Quebec Heritage Magazine is produced six times yearly by the Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network (QAHN) with the support of The Department of Canadian Heritage and Quebec’s Ministere de la Culture et Cover image: “Girls at a fence,” Eastern Townships, c.1900 (McCord Museum: des Communications. QAHN is a Notman Photographic Archives) non-profit and non-partisan umbrella organization whose mission is to help advance knowledge of the history and culture of English-speaking society in Quebec. Canada Post Publication Mail Agreement Number 405610004. ISSN 17707-2670 2 MAY-JUNE 2010 EDITOR’S DESK Raising a solitary glass by Rod MacLeod am writing this on the fiftieth anniversary of the brownie points. That evening, Mrs B, who she as- most important event in my life – or, arguably, the sumed never went down to the kitchen, called her up to second most important – that took place before I her third-floor sitting room and demanded to know was born. Given the circumstances, I can’t do why my mother had had the audacity to dispose of her anything to celebrate it except write about it. “things.” Fighting the urge to run screaming from the IThe scene is Cambridge, MA, a small apartment room and the job, my mother quickly apologized and owned by a friend my mother met while doing her promised to rectify the situation immediately – which Masters of Social Work at Boston University. Apart she did, pulling all the stuff out of the garbage and from my mother and Shirley, there was an elderly lady placing it back in the fridge. The next day, Mrs B was from one of Boston’s top Brahmin families for whom all smiles; my mother had passed the test, it seemed, my mother had worked as a companion and house- and the two of them proceeded to become good keeper of sorts during that same period, about seven friends. years earlier. This was the story: Whatever money my So, that day in Shirley’s apartment we have Mrs mother had saved for her year of study was gone by B, my mother, Shirley herself, my father, and a good Christmas, so she was obliged to look for a job, prefer- friend of my father’s whom he’d met at Macdonald ably one that included a place to stay. She answered an College just before the war. Quentin had been keen on ad from a couple of rich brothers who needed someone theatre and had introduced my father to the Brae to live with and take care of their elderly mother in her Manor Theatre in Knowlton, where the two of them rambling Beacon Hill mansion – kind of a Driving worked (for room and board) building sets during the Miss Daisy arrangement that felt more like Sitting with summer of 1940 before starting basic training; my fa- Miss Haversham. On her first day of work, my mother ther even landed a small role in Hay Fever and got to explored the vast basement kitchen and discovered a kiss Martha Allan on the neck. Five years later, fridge full of green junk that hadn’t been touched for Quentin ran into my father in London at war’s end months – which she promptly cleaned out, hoping for where he was recovering from his years as a POW, and Photo courtesy of Rod MacLeod 3 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS the two stayed friends back in Montreal. Quentin went into film making, married an American and settled in the Boston area where he was producing short docu- mentaries at the time of the event in Shirley’s flat. An Invitation The other participant was a Baptist minister. Al- though my mother’s heavy-handed small-town Nova or this year’s meeting of the Scotia Baptist upbringing (she’d done the full immer- Canadian Historical Association, sion thing at seventeen in order to join the church) had held at Concordia University and left her disenchanted with Christianity, she had been focusing on Oral History and drawn to the sermons of Howard Thurman while at Digital Storytelling, I organized a work- Boston University because of their social conscience shopF on the writing of Quebec’s English- and obvious lack of hypocrisy. Thurman was the first speaking community. The panel turned out Black Dean of Theology at BU, and his words and to be something of a QAHN affair, featur- writings had inspired much of the early Civil Rights ing me, president Kevin O’Donnell, and movement – and my mother. My father, equally disen- former vice-president Patrick Donovan – chanted with the tea-and-cookies Christianity he’d and was chaired by Brian Young, who sat grown up with, was quite happy to ask Thurman to on the original steering committee for preside over the ceremony in Shirley’s apartment. The what became QAHN back in 1999-2000. Dean was willing – unfortunately, my parents discov- Attendance was good, although somewhat ered at the eleventh hour that Thurman did not have a less than anticipated owing to a curious license to perform a marriage in Cambridge, and were and ironic coincidence. obliged to turn to someone he recommended who The session was scheduled for 2pm proved almost as suitable. on June 2. So was the funeral of Marian- It was a rainy late April day that suddenly turned na O’Gallagher at St Patrick’s Church in blistering hot. My mother had bought a neat wool suit Quebec City. The Concordia session be- for the occasion but saw that she would melt in it, and gan by everyone recognizing that Marian- so dashed into Filene’s basement – one of her favourite na’s passing marked the closing to a sig- spots in the world – and picked something off the rack, nificant chapter in the writing of the histo- thereby fulfilling a prophesy voiced long before by fel- ry of Anglophone Quebec, Marianna hav- low students that she would buy her wedding gown in ing made such a huge contribution to it Filene’s Basement. My father wore the kind of suit he through her own work, not only what she would have worn to work, plus a boutonniere. published but also the achievement of the It was short and sweet. Shirley and Quentin did Grosse Ile monument’s restoration. Not their symbolic bit, Thurman’s replacement said his only do we understand the Irish communi- piece, and Mrs B beamed her approval. The only ty better thanks to Marianna, but (as glimpse either of their extended families had of the Young observed) we have a monument event was the single photograph taken of the two of that highlights this vital chapter in Irish them cutting the cake looking very happy. They’d both history rather than a less focused marker sworn they wouldn’t get married, but then changed to immigration, important though Grosse their minds – with the slap-dash elopement to Cam- Ile also was in that regard. There then fol- bridge the only concession to convention they allowed lowed a round table tribute with partici- themselves. pants offering their own reminiscences of They would have almost 39 years together, most Marianna. Virtually everyone had some of it pretty happy. They were never passionate in my comment on a way she had touched their sight, but always affectionate. I know there were lives. things that each of them regretted over the years, or Later in this issue you will read a would have changed – but never any doubts about the touching tribute to Marianna O’Gallagher wisdom of having whisked themselves off to Cam- by Senator Dennis Dawson. At the same bridge that weekend. Nor, I feel sure, about what time, I invite you all to send me your eventually came of it. own personal recollections of Marianna You aren’t here to hug, or to raise a glass to, or to for a special feature on the Grande hold a big party for like we did for your parents and Dame of Irish Quebec history in a sub- many of your friends. I suppose it wouldn’t have sequent edition. been your style, anyway. What can I say – except that I’m awfully glad I happened to notice the calendar just now and silently do the math. Happy fiftieth. 4 MAY-JUNE 2010 TIMELINES The Holy Name Hall and the survival of the Irish community of Douglastown, Gaspé by Luc Chaput any know that Irish migrants throughout brations, and all other major community events took history adopted new lands around the place in that hall.

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