The Irish in Canada Podcast

29/10/2024

Feel like something spooky this Hallowe'en? 🎃 Check out our episode on "The Ghost of Griffintown" 👻 🩸🪓

Our final episode this season recounts the tale of Mary Gallagher, Montreal’s ‘Ghost of Griffintown,’ and the gory murder that has had her ghost searching for her lost head for the nearly 150 years…

02/05/2024

Who doesn't love a good ghost story? 👻 One of the most popular ghoulish tales in Montreal over the past 150 years has been the story of Mary Gallagher, a murdered Irish-Canadian pr******te better known as "The Ghost of Griffintown," who returns every seven years to her old Irish neighbourhood 🍀 in search of her lost head. 🫣😵

But do we really know Mary's story, or that of her alleged murderess, Susan Kennedy Myers — or have we just assumed things about them because of *how* their story was told in the newspapers of 1879?

And, as you can see from this image from the Kingston Penitentiary records, the mystery still has several loose ends. What happened to Susan Kennedy after she was sent to Kingston Pen? The official record is blank...

Want to know more? Listen to one of our most popular episodes from Season 1: "The Ghost of Griffintown"
https://theirishincanadapodcast.ca/episode-9-the-ghost-of-griffintown/

01/05/2024

Jane is researching in the nation's capital today with a view over the Ottawa River, so this episode feels like an obvious choice from our archives: "The Shiners."

What, you didn't know that Ottawa used to be more dangerous than the Wild West? That, for years, it lived in fear of a gang of violent, murderous, Irish Catholic lumberjacks 🍀🌲🪓, who loved nothing better than attacking French Canadian rivals (Joseph Montferrand, FTW! 😍), burning down competing logging camps 🔥, drinking at all hours 🥃, brawling in the streets, tormenting the locals, terrorising children at night, stripping women naked in public, maiming horses, and—if you believe the newspaper reports—trying to roast people on spits?!? Back in the 1830s, what happened in Bytown, stayed in Bytown! 👀

Join us, as we look back at the mostly-forgotten Irish menace along the Canadian frontier: The Shiners.

In another country, the dark legends about The Shiners might never have been forgotten. But in Canada? How many people today are aware that one of the most dangerous cities in North America used to…

30/04/2024

Today, we're calling back to our 'rabbit hole' episode, focusing on a topic that can become an obsession for those who love a good, historical, cold-case kind of mystery: The Franklin Expedition. More to the point, this is an episode all about Captain Francis Crozier, the doomed captain of The Terror from Co. Down, who led the surviving men off into the frozen Canadian tundra, never to be seen again... 🥶

But what *did* happen to the crews of the Erebus and Terror? And how many Irish links are there to the story? 🍀

Find out more with Episode #1 from Season 2: Captain Crozier
https://theirishincanadapodcast.ca/season-2-episode-1-captain-crozier/

29/04/2024

To celebrate the ending of the series last week, we thought we'd take a look back at some of our -- and YOUR -- favourite episodes. First up, the story of perhaps the most famous Irish woman in Canadian history. But, of course, she's famous for being infamous ⚖️⛓, which was something of a running theme for women remembered as part of the Irish diaspora... and women remembered in official histories, period! 📖

Join us for the addictive mystery of the real Grace Marks! 🪓🍀🍁

In late July 1843, the colony of Upper Canada was stunned with the news of a bloody double-murder. Thomas Kinnear had been shot and Nancy Montgomery – his housekeeper and pregnant mistress – had be…

25/04/2024

The last episode of 🍀🍁 The Irish in Canada Podcast 🍀🍁 dropped earlier today. Special shout-outs to Patrick, Marion, Matina, Oswaldo, and all the students from The Irish in Canada classes at the School of Irish Studies at Concordia for their help and inspiration. Merci beaucoup! 🥹💚

24/04/2024

A small shout-out to the Mary Boyd story -- our most popular episode over the past three seasons -- as we say goodbye...

22/04/2024

This week, we're standing back and trying to get a sense of what we've covered over the last three seasons, and what some of the takeaways might be.

Join us this Thursday for the final episode of The Irish in Canada: "Parting Shots". 🍀🍁

18/04/2024

Our Emily Murphy podcast is now available. Murphy created waves in the 1910s and 1920s through her advocacy for women's legal rights, from the Dower Act to the Persons' Case. She also advocated for anti-immigration policies, the criminalization of narcotics, and eugenics. During recent protests in the past ten years, her statues were among those targeted. So, how should she be remembered? Is she still 'historically significant'?

Listen here: https://theirishincanadapodcast.ca/season-3-episode-7-controversial-woman-part-3-emily-murphy/

17/04/2024

Is there an implicit belief in the air around us that women in history should somehow be 'good' or 'nice' in order to be remembered as having been 'significant'? Because, Emily Murphy wouldn't necessarily fit that bill all of time. Should she have to? 🤔 A brief clip from tomorrow's episode... 🍀🍁

16/04/2024

What do you think of these statues??? Anything set your teeth on edge?

More to the point, why is it that a woman apparently couldn't do *anything* in the 1910s or 1920s without a fashionable hat or an effing cup of tea?!?!?

Tune in this Thursday to our Emily Murphy episode to hear about everything she was able to accomplish in Canada -- the good, the bad, and the controversial -- with or without a cup of Darjeeling in her hand. ☕

15/04/2024

Our 🍀 Irish Canadian Controversial Women series 🍁 concludes this Thursday with an episode on Emily Murphy, the Canadian first-wave feminist and driving force behind the Person's Case, who provoked livid reactions in the early 20th century and is still doing so in the 21st!

Does it help if we point out from the get-go that she was the grand-daughter of Ogle Gowan??? And here he is, haunting our recording booth, just like he has done every season...

Find out MUCH more about Emily Murphy and her controversial legacy later this week!

12/04/2024

Yesterday's Nellie McClung episode is already pulling in great numbers, but did you hear Part 1 of our series on 'Controversial Women' all about Katherine Hughes? If not, don't miss it!
😁🍀🍁

Considering everything she did in her life – as a teacher, an author, a political activist, an archivist, private secretary to the premier of Alberta, and a journalist – we should be much more fami…

11/04/2024

Our Nellie McClung episode has arrived! Click the link to hear all about this "Shanty Irish" (her words!) trailblazer who left her mark on Canadian politics, culture, and society in the first half of the twentieth century. 🍁 🍀

https://theirishincanadapodcast.ca/episode-6-controversial-women-part-2-nellie-mcclung/

10/04/2024

Nellie McClung was an early 20thC 'maternal feminist.' To combat her position on women's suffrage in the 1910s, some of her male detractors criticised her own mothering skills. However, as it turned out, that kind of strategy had its own pitfalls.

Listen to tomorrow's episode to find out what happened when a certain gentleman from Manitoba went after Nellie McClung as a bad mother and, too late, realised who was sitting nearby! 🫢🫣😱

Image Credit: Nellie McClung and her son, LAC/MIKAN 3622977

09/04/2024

A tale of two plaques... Which one do you think is more effective in telling Nellie McClung's story???

08/04/2024

This week, we're looking at one of the most famous women in Canadian 🍁 history -- but did you know Nellie McClung was the daughter of a man from Co. Tipperary? 🍀 18 year-old John Mooney arrived in Upper Canada in 1830 to work as a lumberjack 🌲🪓 on the Ottawa River. 43 years later, Helen Letitia, his youngest child, was born.

Image Credit: LAC/MIKAN 3622978

04/04/2024

Our new episode all about Katherine Hughes has arrived! Here's a little teaser...

03/04/2024

Katherine Hughes was appointed Alberta's first provincial archivist in May, 1908. She was also a teacher, a founder of the Canadian Women's Press Club and the Catholic Women's League of Edmonton, a journalist, private secretary to the premier of Alberta, a playwright, and an author. Her biography of Father Lacombe was published in 1911 to critical acclaim. And this was all before she ever even went to Ireland!

Hear even more about her when tomorrow's episode drops!

02/04/2024

This week, Prince Edward Island finally gets some representation on the podcast as we look at the extraordinary life of Katherine Hughes, the trailblazing woman who became, among other things, one of Canada's first and most effective Irish republican activists.

(Image Credit: LAC/MIKAN 4106511)

28/03/2024

We're not sure what's more impressive here:
a) that this might be the most Canadian battle *EVER* because it involves charging across the ice of the St Lawrence River to attack New York State
b) that they did it in kilts
c) that they probably weren't wearing anything under those kilts, and it was VERY COLD
or
d) that Philip Dulmage was there. Because, of course he was. This Irish family was involved in all sorts!

Join us for today's newly released episode, "The Dulmages: Tracing an Irish Family," and hear all about The Battle of Ogdensburg, the American Revolutionary War, evictions, legal battles, a young widow besmirched in public, and a one-man Orange riot. This family got up to a lot after leaving Co. Limerick! 🍀

https://theirishincanadapodcast.ca/season-3-episode-4-the-dulmages-tracing-an-irish-family/

27/03/2024

Evictions are a painful and traumatic topic in Irish history, but they didn't happen only in Ireland. The Dulmages, formerly of Co. Limerick, were forcibly evicted by their American neighbours from their land in Camden Valley, New York during the height of the American Revolution.

While John was away, Sophia Heck Dulmage and her young children were thrown off their farm by a Yankee mob. What would that have been like?

They lost everything that night, and were forced to walk over 200 miles upstate to the Eastern Townships and, eventually, a reunion with John in Montreal. The Dulmages had come to Ireland nearly a hundred years before as refugees, and now they had arrived in Canada in the same state.

Find out the entire story when our new episode drops tomorrow!

26/03/2024

Sometimes historical documents are too cold and remote to capture the emotion of the personal story they're really telling. This claim to the British government reads as a dry list of losses the Dulmage family suffered during the Revolutionary War. It can't capture the fear that they felt as the Yankees closed in and their world fell apart.

Hear the full story on Thursday of this fascinating Irish family, from their roots in Co. Limerick ☘️, through their time in colonial America ⭐️, and then on to Quebec ⚜️ and, eventually, Upper Canada 🍁.

25/03/2024

We're doing something a bit different this week, focusing on a family that is, at best, "famous-adjacent" rather than changing the historical record themselves. They were there for some of the most important moments and events that shaped Canada between the 1750s and the 1850s, but how do we find their stories?

Join us this Thursday as we weave our way through some of the history of the Dulmage family from Co. Limerick.

22/03/2024

Do you know who was the real star of yesterday's episode? That's right, Lady Dorchester, née Lady Maria Howard. She's the one who burnt all of Carleton's personal papers, following his death-bed request.

Despite the 29-year age-gap between them, they apparently had a loving, very fruitful marriage (11 children!), and were devoted to each other, even if they were a bit known for being cranky with anyone else. They were married in 1772, and he brought her back to Quebec on the eve of the passing of the Quebec Act.

Hear all about Maria, Guy, and their crazy engagement story in this week's episode: "Sir Guy Carleton and The Quebec Act".

https://theirishincanadapodcast.ca/season-3-episode-3-sir-guy-carleton-and-the-quebec-act/