Irish Canadians () are Canadian citizens who have full or partial Irish heritage including descendants who trace their ancestry to immigrants who originated in Ireland. 1.2 million Irish immigrants arrived from 1825 to 1970, and at least half of those in the period from 1831 to 1850. By 1867, they were the second largest ethnic group (after the French), and comprised 24% of Canada's population. The 1931 national census counted 1,230,000 Canadians of Irish descent, half of whom lived in Ontario. About one-third were Catholic in 1931 and two-thirds Protestant.David A. Wilson, Irish nationalism in Canada (2009) p. 165 online
The Irish immigrants were majority Protestant before the Irish famine years of the late 1840s, when far more Catholics than Protestants arrived. Even larger numbers of Catholics headed to the United States; others went to Great Britain and Australia.Elliott (1999) pp 764–5
Irish Canadians comprise a subgroup of European Canadians. According to the 2021 census, in terms of religion, 2,437,810 (55%) of Irish Canadians identified as Christian at the census compared to 1,905,155 identifying as secular or non-religious (43%). 1,228,640 (28%) identified as Roman Catholic and 1,190,000 (27%) identified as belonging to a Protestant denomination.
History
Early arrival The first recorded Irish presence in the area of present-day Canada dates from 1536, when Irish fishermen from Cork travelled to Newfoundland.
After the permanent settlement in Newfoundland by Irish in the late 18th and early 19th century, overwhelmingly from counties Waterford and Wexford, increased immigration of the Irish elsewhere in Canada began in the decades following the War of 1812 and formed a significant part of The Great Migration of Canada. Between 1825 and 1845, 60% of all immigrants to Canada were Irish; in 1831 alone, some 34,000 arrived in Montreal.
Between 1830 and 1850, 624,000 Irish arrived; in contextual terms, at the end of this period, the population of the provinces of Canada was 2.4 million. Besides Upper Canada (Ontario), Lower Canada (Quebec), the Maritime colonies of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, especially Saint John, were arrival points. Not all remained; many out-migrated to the United States or to Western Canada in the decades that followed. Few returned to Ireland.
During the Great Famine of Ireland (1845–52), Canada received the most destitute Irish Catholics, who left Ireland in grave circumstances. Land estate owners in Ireland would either evict landholder tenants to board on returning empty lumber ships, or in some cases pay their fares. Others left on ships from the overcrowded docks in Liverpool and Cork.Thomas P. Power, ed., The Irish in Atlantic Canada, 1780–1900 (Fredericton, NB: New Ireland Press, 1991)
Most of the Irish immigrants who came to Canada and the United States in the nineteenth century and before were Irish speakers, with many knowing no other language on arrival.O’Driscoll & Reynolds (1988), p. 711.
Settlement The great majority of Irish Catholics arrived in Grosse Isle, an island in Quebec in the St. Lawrence River, which housed the immigration reception station. Thousands died or arrived sick and were treated in the hospital (equipped for less than one hundred patients) in the summer of 1847; in fact, many ships that reached Grosse-Île had lost the bulk of their passengers and crew, and much more died in quarantine on or near the island. From Grosse-Île, most survivors were sent to Quebec City and Montreal, where the existing Irish community grew. The orphaned children were adopted into Quebec families and accordingly became Québécois, both linguistically and culturally. At the same time, ships with the starving also docked at Partridge Island, New Brunswick in similarly desperate circumstances.
A large number of the families that survived continued on to settle in Canada West (now Ontario) and provided a cheap labour pool and colonization of land in a rapidly expanding economy in the decades after their arrival.
In comparison with the Irish who went to the United States or Britain, many Irish arrivals in Canada settled in rural areas, in addition to the cities.Donald Harman Akenson, Irish in Ontario: A Study in Rural History (McGill-Queen's Press-MQUP, 1984)
The Catholic Irish and Protestant (Orange) Irish were often in conflict from the 1840s.Scott W. See, Riots in New Brunswick: Orange Nativism and Social Violence in the 1840s (Univ of Toronto Press, 1993) In Ontario, the Irish fought with the French for control of the Catholic Church, with the Irish successful. In that instance, the Irish sided with the Protestants to oppose the demand for French-language Catholic schools.
Thomas D'Arcy McGee, an Irish-Montreal journalist, became a Father of Confederation in 1867. An Irish Republican in his early years, he would moderate his view in later years and become a passionate advocate of Confederation. He was instrumental in enshrining educational rights for Catholics as a minority group in the Canadian Constitution. In 1868, he was assassinated in Ottawa. Historians are not sure who the murderer was, or what his motivations were. One theory is that a Fenian, Patrick James Whelan, was the assassin, attacking McGee for his recent anti-Raid statements. Others argue that Whelan was used as a scapegoat.
After Confederation, Irish Catholics faced more hostility, especially from Protestant Irish in Ontario, which was under the political sway of the already entrenched anti-Catholic Orange Order. The anthem "The Maple Leaf Forever", written and composed by Scottish immigrant and Orangeman Alexander Muir, reflects the pro-British Ulster loyalism outlook typical of the time with its disdainful view of Irish Republicanism. This only amplified with Fenian Raids of the time. As the Irish became more prosperous and newer groups arrived on Canada's shores, tensions subsided through the remainder the latter part of the 19th century.
In the years between 1815, when vast industrial changes began to disrupt the old life-styles in Europe, and Canadian Confederation in 1867, when immigration of that era passed its peak, more than 150,000 immigrants from Ireland flooded into Saint John, New Brunswick. Those who came in the earlier period were largely tradesmen, and many stayed in Saint John, becoming the backbone of its builders. But when the Great Famine raged between 1845 and 1852, huge waves of refugees arrived at these shores. It is estimated that between 1845 and 1847, some 30,000 arrived, more people than were living in the city at the time. In 1847, dubbed "Black 47", one of the worst years of the Famine, some 16,000 immigrants, most of them from Ireland, arrived at Partridge Island, the immigration and quarantine station at the mouth of Saint John Harbour. From 1840 to 1860 sectarian violence was rampant in Saint John resulting in some of the worst urban riots in Canadian history.
Demography
Population + Irish Canadian Population History1871–2016YearPopulation% of total population1871846,4141881957,4031901988,72119111,074,73819211,107,80319311,230,80819411,267,70219511,439,63519611,753,35119711,581,73019811,151,95519863,622,29019913,783,35519963,767,61020013,822,66020064,354,15520114,544,87020164,627,000
Religion Protestantism and Catholicism Tensions between the Irish Protestants and Irish Catholics were widespread in Canada in the 19th century, with many episodes of violence and anger, especially in Atlantic Canada and Ontario.Scott W. See, "'An Unprecedented Influx': Nativism and Irish Famine Immigration To Canada," American Review Of Canadian Studies 2000 30(4): 429–453Willeen G. Keogh, "Contested Terrains: Ethnic and Gendered Spaces in The Harbour Grace Affray," Canadian Historical Review 2009 90(1): 29–70
In New Brunswick, from 1840 to the 1860s sectarian violence was rampant in Saint John resulting in some of the worst urban riots in Canadian history. The city was shaped by Irish ghettos at York Point, and suppression of poor, Irish-speaking peoples rights lead to decades of turmoil. The division would continue to shape Saint John in years to come.
The Orange Order, with its two main tenets, anti-Catholicism and loyalty to Britain, flourished in Ontario. Largely coincident with Protestant Irish settlement, its role pervaded the political, social and community as well as religious lives of its followers. Spatially, Orange lodges were founded as Irish Protestant settlement spread north and west from its original focus on the Lake Ontario plain. Although the number of active members, and thus their influence, may have been overestimated, the Orange influence was considerable and comparable to the Catholic influence in Quebec.Cecil Houston and William J. Smyth, "The Orange Order and the Expansion of the Frontier in Ontario, 1830–1900," Journal of Historical Geography 1978 4(3): 251–264
In Montreal in 1853, the Orange Order organized speeches by the fiercely anti-Catholic and anti-Irish former priest Alessandro Gavazzi, resulting in a violent confrontation between the Irish and the Scots. St. Patrick's Day processions in Toronto were often disrupted by tensions, that boiled over to the extent that the parade was cancelled permanently by the mayor in 1878 and not re-instituted until 110 years later in 1988. The Jubilee Riots of 1875 jarred Toronto in a time when sectarian tensions ran at their highest. Irish Catholics in Toronto were an embattled minority among a Protestant population that included a large Irish Protestant contingent strongly committed to the Orange Order.Rosalyn Trigger, "Irish Politics on Parade: The Clergy, National Societies, and St. Patrick's Day Processions in Nineteenth-Century Montreal and Toronto," Histoire Sociale: Social History 2004 37(74): 159–199.
+ Irish Canadian demography by religionReligious group20212001 Christianity 2,437,810 3,080,785 Islam 5,055 2,380 Irreligion 1,905,155 711,190 Judaism 10,295 7,210 Buddhism 7,765 5,840 Hinduism 1,160 645 Indigenous spirituality 3,500 3,670 Sikhism 505 355 Other 41,860 10,585 Total Irish Canadian population 4,413,120 3,822,665
+ Irish Canadian demography by Christian sectsReligious group20212001 Catholic 1,228,640 1,401,455 Orthodox 9,270 6,990 Protestant 929,205 1,572,880 Other Christian 270,695 99,460 Total Irish Canadian Christian population 2,437,810 3,080,785
Geographical distribution
+ Irish Canadians by province and territory (2001–2016)Province/Territory2016201120062001 Ontario 2,095,465 2,069,110 1,988,940 1,761,280 British Columbia 675,130 643,470 618,120 562,895 Alberta 596,750 565,120 539,160 461,065 Quebec 446,210 428,570 406,085 291,545 Manitoba 156,145 155,455 151,915 143,950 Saskatchewan 155,725 156,655 145,475 139,205 Nova Scotia 195,865 201,655 195,365 178,585 New Brunswick 147,245 159,195 150,705 135,835 Newfoundland and Labrador 106,220 110,370 107,390 100,260 Prince Edward Island 38,505 41,715 39,170 37,170 Northwest Territories 5,060 4,845 4,860 4,470 Yukon 6,930 7,315 5,735 5,455 Nunavut 1,740 1,385 1,220 950 Canada 4,627,000 4,544,870 4,354,155 3,822,660
The graph excludes those who have only some Irish ancestry. Historian and journalist Louis-Guy Lemieux claims that about 40% of Quebecers have Irish ancestry on at least one side of their family tree.Louis-Guy Lemieux, Grandes familles du Québec (Les éditions du Septentrion, 2006) p. 9. Shunned by Protestant English-speakers, it was not uncommon for Catholic Irish to settle among and intermarry with the Catholic French-speakers. Considering that many other Canadians throughout Canada likewise have Irish roots, in addition to those who may simply identify as Canadian, the total number of Canadians with some Irish ancestry extrapolated would include a significant proportion of the Canadian population.
Quebec