Migrating to Canada for the Irish emigrants was not something they did for leisure reasons, but more of a life or death decision put upon them. In the 19th century, England made Ireland a part of Great Britain rather than just a colony. Ireland became greatly over-populated, having a population of 8 million people. The agriculture and production of grain became extremely difficult due to the vast amount of people, and something needed to be changed. A new phenomenon spread across the country of switching from a grain based diet to potato, which took up way less room and was also highly nutritious. This worked wonders for the Irish until a huge disaster hit all: an airborne fungus that destroyed all the crops for several years. This left Ireland with the biggest ultimatum: to either stay there and most likely be faced with death, or to follow the quest for the new world in British North America. This phenomenon was embellished greatly by the British Empire so they could “free up land and lessen long-term financial obligation.” The British took full advantage of this famine, and continued to send the Irish off on vessels to Canada, making it our problem.
The sick Irish continued to get sick, and the horrible conditions of the emigrant ships did not help. There were hundreds of poor people of all ages dying. The poor conditions included: lack of light, no clean air where they breathed in the diseases, sick people everywhere along with the rough immigration journey with a lack of food and medicine. The ships smelled, were extremely cramped, and filthy. Everything given to them was “of the worst quality” and “no cleanliness was enforced.” “The emigrant [was] enfeebled in body, and degraded in mind.” Although Canadians continued to blame the Irish’s “neglect of cleanliness, ventilation, and a generally good state of social economy” as the reasoning for their rapidly spreading illnesses, this was not the solo reason for all of the deaths. One of the reasons were the poor hospital conditions. “Few who came within its poisonous atmosphere escaped.” As well, “the sheds were miserable, no cleanings were done, [and] the sick were not removed.” The horrible conditions, as well as the uncleanly habits all contributed to the overall un-wellness of the emigrants, and on top of this, the “Canadian public [were] not particularly sympathetic to the Irish plight.” After all, they did bring a deadly disease to our country with no extensive warning. The “locals came to fear and hate the disease-ridden Irish, shunning them, and forcing them out of range.” To Canadians, the Irishman were nothing more than “drunken, brawling, lazy, stupid, papist “Paddy[‘s].”” Canadians were against the oncoming of all these Irishman, but the Canadian Government had to take measures in accommodating these immigrants. By the end of August, “long ranges of sheds had been erected with berth places, capable of lodging 3500 people, at the east end of the island” as well as “the completion of five new hospitals in addition to the three alluded to, enabled [them] to remove all the sick from the marquees and bell tents.” The conditions that the Canadian government primarily had given the Irish had improved immensely. According to Dr. Douglas, there were less “complaints from passengers this year of the quality of the ship’s stores.” This did not mean that the Irish were well off, but just “better than most seasons.” Another minor issue they continued to have was not getting enough time to cook their thick cakes resulting in them being “sodden and indigestible.” A practical solution to this problem would be an increase in “cooking time allotted to the passengers,” and on top of that, if “a small portion of animal food was issued three times a week during the voyage.” This season, “the total number of passenger vessels inspected at the station this year has been 400, being about double the number of any previous year.” Although this was good, there were also double the amount of passengers, and “the sickness and mortality of the masters, mates, and seamen of emigrant vessels [had] been proportionally great.” People kept getting sick due to the overcrowding on the ships and the sick people already on the ship rapidly spread their illnesses amongst everyone around them. Due to the unsanitary conditions, it was referred to as “one vast reeking pest-house.” Another problem then aroused of removing the dead from the boats. Again the question arouses, what could have be done to fix this? It was suggested by Dr. Douglas to have “strict attention to cleanliness and ventilation, by having berth places and new wood work for the ‘tween decks, whitewashed with quick lime at least once a week during the voyage, and by obliging the bedding and clothes of passengers to be taken on deck whenever the weather will permit.” Also to prevent the filth if “the lower boards were carried down flush to the main deck [in the fitting up of the sleeping births].” The medical men all generally agreed with the preventative measures of “separation, ventilation, and cleanliness.” These things were “rendered impractical.” Many people had died and were dying due to this factor, but the people who did make it out alive had the help from the new hospital accommodations as well as orphanages that were made for abandoned children. This whole document really opened my eyes to the struggles the Irish were faced with at this time. It is hard to believe that something so inhumane could have taken place in Canada with emigration. Something that could cause so many deaths, yet have nothing to do with war; although there were some parallels. England was a power-hungry nation, and did what they had to do in being prosperous. They took advantage of Canada, and affected the country greatly. As said by the governor of British North America, “this city has already lost some of her best and most valued citizens by the malignant fever introduced by the emigrants last season. Universal alarm has pervaded the community, and considerable interruption to business and travelling has been caused by the general state of the great thoroughfares of the province, from the prevalence of disease.” Canada was willing to help out England, but it came to the extent where it was “unjust and intolerable that the neglect and misconduct of others are to be the means of impoverishing and infecting our young country.” They were selfish, greedy, uncaring and were the main cause for all these suffering Irishman. What struck me the most in this document was the amount of deaths that continued to take place. If it wasn’t the lack of food, it was over crowding-ness, or the uncleanliness, or the lack of hospitals, or the lack of descent sheds for when they came over. There were so many factors that contributed to the number of deaths. Canada did not have much for-warning, and did what they could to try and help the situation. I feel the author’s understood the horridness of the situation. They knew what needed to be done as to the preventative measures that needed to happen, and approached the situation in the best way they knew how.

Work Cited

Thorner, Thomas. "A Few Acres of Snow": Documents in Pre-Confederation Canadian History, Second Edition. Toronto, ON, CAN: Broadview Press, 2003. Accessed January 26, 2015. ProQuest ebrary

THE “NOT SO LUCKY” IRISH

KAYLEE DODDS
DOCUMENT ANALYSIS OF “MOST HORRIBLE AND HEARTLESS”: IRISH IMMIGRATION
HISTORY 111 CANADA BEFORE CONFEDERATION
1/27/2015

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[ 1 ]. Thorner, Thomas. "A Few Acres of Snow": Documents in Pre-Confederation Canadian History, Second Edition. Toronto, ON, CAN: Broadview Press, 2003. Accessed January 26, 2015. ProQuest ebrary, p. 316
[ 2 ]. Thorner, “A Few Acres of Snow” p.316
[ 3 ]. Thorner, “A Few Acres of Snow” p.319
[ 4 ]. Thorner, “A Few Acres of Snow” p.320
[ 5 ]. Thorner, “A Few Acres of Snow” p.318
[ 6 ]. Thorner, “A Few Acres of Snow” p. 326
[ 7 ]. Thorner, “A Few Acres of Snow” p.326
[ 8 ]. Thorner, “A Few Acres of Snow” p.326
[ 9 ]. Thorner, “A Few Acres of Snow” p.216
[ 10 ]. Thorner, “A Few Acres of Snow” p.316
[ 11 ]. Thorner, “A Few Acres of Snow” p.316
[ 12 ]. Thorner, “A Few Acres of Snow” p.328
[ 13 ]. Thorner, “A Few Acres of Snow” p.328
[ 14 ]. Thorner, “A Few Acres of Snow” p.328
[ 15 ]. Thorner, “A Few Acres of Snow” p.328
[ 16 ]. Thorner, “A Few Acres of Snow” p.328
[ 17 ]. Thorner, “A Few Acres of Snow” p.329
[ 18 ]. Thorner, “A Few Acres of Snow” p.329
[ 19 ]. Thorner, “A Few Acres of Snow” p.329
[ 20 ]. Thorner, “A Few Acres of Snow” p. 330
[ 21 ]. Thorner, “A Few Acres of Snow” p. 330
[ 22 ]. Thorner, “A Few Acres of Snow” p. 330
[ 23 ]. Thorner, “A Few Acres of Snow” p.331
[ 24 ]. Thorner, “A Few Acres of Snow” p.331
[ 25 ]. Thorner, “A Few Acres of Snow” p.334
[ 26 ]. Thorner, “A Few Acres of Snow” p.334