Canadian Journal of Irish Studies Canadian Association of Irish Studies Montreal's Ship Fever Monument: An Irish Famine Memorial in the Making Author(s): Colin McMahon Source: The Canadian Journal of Irish Studies, Vol. 33, No. 1, Ireland and Quebec / L'Irlande et le Québec (Spring, 2007), pp. 48-60 Published by: Canadian Journal of Irish Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25515660 . Accessed: 30/11/2014 10:58 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Canadian Journal of Irish Studies and Canadian Association of Irish Studies are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Canadian Journal of Irish Studies. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 132.206.27.25 on Sun, 30 Nov 2014 10:58:43 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Colin McMAHON Montreal's Fever Monument Ship An Irish Famine Memorial in the Making The Famine migration, which brought close to one hundred to in their most forms."8 Fearful of "the conversion of thousand Irishmigrants British North America 1847, has revolting in as the seminal event in the a .into a virtual citi2en persisted public memory history populous city.. Quarantine Station," of the Irish in Canada. Despite the efforts of many historians groups and the Board of Health demanded that all incoming who have downplayed the significance of 1847 in relation to immigrants be quarantined outside city limits on one of the the wave of that Protestants and Boucherville islands.9 the larger migration brought However, city's Joint Emigrant to in and Easton Catholics from Ireland the Canadas the thirty years prior Commissioners Montreal's Mayor, John Mills, to the of Irish-Catholic to that Famine,1 images starving refugees who would eventually fall victim typhus, decided forced to embark on the trans-Adantic the best to was to construct an long and perilous way manage the epidemic to encounter a at on near in voyage only typhus epidemic quarantine additional twenty-two sheds land the riverbank stations on Island or Grosse-Ile have been Pointe one Partridge deeply Saint-Charles, just kilometre southeast of the in Canadian historical consciousness. new to ingrained popular original sheds.10 But the facilities did little alleviate Famine commemorations in the first or contain the as Large-scale organised suffering contagion, thousands stricken with and last decades of the twentieth on Grosse-Ile disease were in It was century overcrowded unsanitary conditions.11 such to a wide audience and ensured not until helped project images October 1847 that the epidemic finally abated, by the island's iconic status as Canada's Famine which time as as six most representative many thousand people had died, - site. was not the or of were Grosse-Ile, however, only significant them Irish-Catholic immigrants who hastily buried - even the first Famine site to be commemorated in Canada. in mass in graves the vicinity of the fever sheds in Pointe In Pointe Saint-Charles, Montreal, where "the horrors of Saint-Charles.12 had Grosse-Ile their counterpart," groups of Irish Catholics For many Irish Catholics in Montreal in the century the Famine as as 1870.2 this the began commemorating early Yet, following tragic episode, Famine migration while Grosse?lie has been the of a considerable a historical moment subject represented defining worthy of amount of with the of a commemoration. The focal of scholarly attention,3 exception point Famine remembrance recent overview of Famine in Canada Mark in the became the a memory by city Ship Fever Monument, boulder McGowan,4 historians of the Irish in Canada have yet to installed and inscribed in 1859 to mark the site of the examine how of the Famine burial to public memory migration reputed grounds adjacent the fever sheds in was contested and constructed in the Pointe Montreal, principal Saint-Charles.13 Inaugurated by representatives of Canadian of disembarkation in 1847.5 the a port Anglo-Protestant elite and group of workers involved While Irish Famine moved in the construction of many migrants eventually the Victoria Bridge, the monument's on to the United left a on was to States, they lasting impression original intent preserve from desecration the final a none more so number of Canadian port cities, but than resting place of all immigrants who died during the typhus Montreal. the summer of 1847 the thousand of 1847. over time a During city's fifty epidemic Only and through process residents had to contend with the arrival of that was often and at one it seventy-five contentious, point litigious, did thousand Irish who were off at the waterfront come to be as a to dropped widely recognised memorial victims of steamers sent the St. Lawrence from the the Famine by up quarantine migration. Analyzing commemorative events station on Grosse-Ile. the was "inundated with at By June city organised the Ship Fever Monument in 1897, 1913, and thousands of the most debilitated and wretched beings, 1942, this paper traces how groups of Irish Catholics laid ever thrown shores in a to upon [its] mostiy sickly, and many claim the boulder as Montreal's Famine memorial. in a state."6 Those to on dying healthy enough continue More specifically, I will examine how collective acts their to destinations in the United States or Canada of remembrance at the memorial site served as a journey staging West waited at Montreal's wharves for while for the transportation, ground negotiation and construction of Irish of were taken to the site Catholic in immigrants exhibiting signs typhus identities Montreal in changing socio-political of two lazarettos and three sheds on the south bank of the contexts the from late nineteenth century into the mid Lachine Canal near where one twentieth While was a Wellington Street,7 journalist century. there generally shared sense observed "all the marks of wretchedness and in of Irish to misery purpose among Catholics honour the memory of Famine who succumbed to migrants typhus in 1847 and 48 McMAHON Montreal's Ship Fever Monument This content downloaded from 132.206.27.25 on Sun, 30 Nov 2014 10:58:43 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions to their at moments when To Preserve from Desecration the Remains of 6000 Immigrants Who safeguard gravesite, particularly or died of Ship Fever A.D. 1847-48 it was seen to be neglected by its Anglican caretakers violated incursive industrial in Pointe Saint by operations This Stone is erected by theWorkmen of Messrs. Peto, Brassey and the commemorative events at the Charles, organised Ship Betts Employed in the Construction of the Victoria Bridge A.D. a 1859 Fever Monument uncovered range of historical memories a of often and exposed variety competing political agendas. to the site and in their In the of the of Francis In their struggle preserve memorial presence Anglican Bishop Montreal, for rituals and rhetoric in Reverend Canon who had ministered to the search meaningful commemorative Fulford, Leach, in the fifteen years following the Famine jubilee, Irish Catholics small minority of Protestants the fever sheds twelve years were and and Reverend the current to the often confronted with the class ideological earlier, Ellegood, chaplain were Protestant construction the dedication differences that divided their community. They also workers, performed from the Fulford then addressed regularly reminded of the relatively disadvantaged economic atop pedestal. Bishop and that as a to the assembled crowd. in front of the monument political position they, group, continued Standing in near of erected a stone's throw from the entrance to the occupy in the city, reflected the absence Irish just - in constructed Victoria a of Catholic symbolic space Montreal's crowded memorial newly Bridge powerful symbol as the the Famine and industrial vowed landscape. However, centenary of neared, engineering ingenuity progress-Fulford an of Irish now that "the bodies of those here interred be increasing number Catholics, several lying preserved from irreverent that generations removed from Ireland and fully integrated into any usage." While recognising "the great were a of and destructive of 1847 denied a burial Canadian society, enjoying greater degree affluence pestilence" proper to and influence in Montreal. In this context, the embattled its victims, the Anglican Bishop brought the ceremony undertones and nationalist tenor that resonated in Famine to a close with the assurance that "the bodies of the faithful rest undisturbed until commemorations prior to the FirstWorld War gradually gave the day of resurrection."18 to a new to events of one the of Irish Catholics buried way approach recalling the 1847, Despite preponderance that to more on in the mass of the Roman Catholic tended focus celebrating Irish Catholics' graves, representatives to were not invited to the 1859 dedication considerable pioneering contributions Canada and their hierarchy ceremony historic in times of and thus denied the to consecrate the in resiliency adversity. opportunity ground of the Famine who which the bodies of their faithful. Their notable absence Though many migrants remained lay at the was of the in Montreal lived and worked in close proximity to the ceremony indicative growing animus that - burial site in the industrial milieu of Pointe Saint-Charles existed between Catholics and Protestants in Montreal, - and across the Lachine canal in Griffintown there was where religious bigotry was routinely preached from the no immediate effort made to create a memorial to their pulpit and propagated by the press.