MEMORIAL TO THE VICTIMS OF THE IRISH FAMINE

New Zealand Tablet, 4 November 1909, Page 1731

MEMORIAL TO THE VICTIMS OF THE IRISH FAMINE

One of the many great tragedies, which .mark the hisiiory, of Ireland' was- commemorated in an appropriate manner on the Feast of, the Assumpti6nV ! August 15, when a noble Celtic cross, erected on Grosse "*lsle, in the St. -Lawrence River, Canada, by the "Ancient-- Order -of Hibernians of America, was solemnly unveiled-*,and dedicated.", ...The cross, pointing to the sky. from the, summit of. Telegraph Hill, marks the graves .of thousands who. died unknown' in a condition of horror and suffering rbnly paralleled by the tragedy "of Calcutta. - - '•• Men, women, and children left homes where people were dying of famine and pestilence, only to perish in pestilential .passenger ships, or, in hopelessly inadequate cots, fetid hospitals, or bare "sun-bakea" rocks of a quarantine station in. a strange country. The misery might have- been mitigated, the mortality prevented." It. is hard .to believe now that such things could, haye^ happened within, the memory of people still living. ;e; c A voyage which can I ''now be accomplished in a week, ,then often"took two 'or Hhree months. The" dead bodies were dragged/ put of 'the filth from among the living with boat-hooks 1 , andr were, cast .intothe sea without form or ceremony of any kind. That of the voyage, but what joi, the landing? f , Canada was illprepared, and did not heed the warnings of what was coming. It was before the days, of ocean cables. When ship load after ship load of sick and dying human beings' put in an appearance in the St^ Lawrence, • all too late Canada realised what was happening. The,- attempts were then more directed, to keeping the fever from the ships contaminating the country than. to alleviate £he sufferings of those landed at Grosse Isle from the 'floating pest hbleß. Nurses, doctors, and olergy did- heroic work in many cases, but they were hopelessly unprovided with even the commonest necessaries. Hence -the sufferings on land were not less than those at sea. Thai, even the "effort to sepa-

rate the sick from the well was a failure is shown from the fact that thousands died on the way up to Montreal, and the monument at Point St.' Charles commemorates the tact that thousands died in the city. \The dedication exercises at the cross, took place in the presence of about six "thousand persons from the United States and Canada, including many eminent churchmen and distinguished laymen. Among those present were the Apostolic Delegate to Canada, the Archbishop of .Quebec, the Lieutenant Governor of Canada, Hon. Charles Murphy (Secretary of State), and Chief Justice Fitzpatrick. . " . " The Hon. Charles Murphy addressed the gathering at some length, and after dealing with events which led up to the famine and pestilence of '47 and '48, said that the impossibly; high rentals demanded by the landlords reduced the people to starvation, and famine swept the land, taking . many lives in its path. Under these circumstances the people were glad -to sail to a, new country, and more than 100,000 crowded on board these mere hulks of ships to > escape from their own land. The result was the fever and ; pestilence. Already broken- and weakened by want, they could not withstand . the rigors of the long journey, the poor food and unclean vessels, and the disease broke out. Hundreds died at sea. Hundreds of others reached land, only to find it a grave. Thousands were stricken down in quarantine at Grosse Isle and went to fill the trenches without name to mark their resting places or record «of their death. Later, when the quarantine was broken in winter, the dying immigrants were scattered ' along the entire river and through many provinces, carrying pestilence and death with them. Every city has felt the heavy hand of that time. Drawing a lesson from this brief summary of the historical events of the fever years, Mr. Murphy continued: 'It was not the desire to leave their country which drove out the Irish. It was loyalty to their faith and the faith of their fathers. When the oppression of the landlords had become such that relief measures were undertaken by England, soup kitchens were finally established. But this help was given only on the renouncement of the old faith, and God be praised that not one in ten thousand stooped to this. They came to America, met their terrible fate, but found kindness and charity and admiration of their loyalty to the cross, among the French. ' Perhaps the French were inclined to be friendly through memories of the battlefields of Fontenoy and other places where the Irish had fought bravely under the banner of the Fleur de Lys. Perhaps they remembered old bonds which have dated back through the ages. At and rate, they came to the aid of the stricken ones with a charity as deep as the sea, and an abounding faith and trust in God and His mercy and a love for the people who had suffered in His faith. So a new bond and an enduring bond was developed between the French and the Irish of Canada. As Monsignor Begin said: "You are children of one faith and one Father." . ' The clergy of the time were devoted, brave men, and with never a thought of self or the terrible dangers of their work, administered to the sick and dying, smoothing their way on the threshold of eternity. Their names are graven more deeply than on tablets of stone or bronze. They are marked... forever deep in the hearts of a great race, and a race which never forgets. But for those who come after, and as. material evidence of our regard for these great men, I propose that there should be a monument erected to the clergy of that time, both Catholic and" Protestant, for there were Protestant clergymen who labored side by side with the priests for the one great cause. ' Primarily this monument will commemorate Irish faith and loyalty. Next it is an enduring tribute to the charity of the French. -But beyond even these two. great purposes of the past it stretches a hand into the future. As the Statue' of Liberty is designed at New York as evidence to the ' incoming stranger that he has reached a land of freedom and brotherly love, where nations live together in harmony, so the newcomer, seeing this cross and hearing its story, will Jbe given his first great object lesson of true citizenship in this Dominion of Canada.' Sir Charles Fitzpatrick, Chief Justice, also spoke briefly at the monument, starting a ripple of laughter with the statement that he was paid to keep still and not to speak, but checking it instantly with the depth of feeling in his remarks, a Comparing the isle to the Golgotha .of old, he drew a touching picture of the sufferings and privations of the Irish in the defence of their religion. The whole terrible tragedy was a manifestation of faith and loyalty, said he, which has helped and through the ages will help men to die as men should/ or live as men should. Continuing, he thanked the Papal Delegate and the Lieuten ant-Governor for their presence, and closed with the remark : ' Ireland has not been desecrated and persecuted for nothing. It is her pride and her glory but to point to ' the cross.' -*=

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