[The following article is courtesy of The Eganville Leader’s 13 Annual Irish Edition.]
Mary and I arrived in Ottawa in September 2020. As far as we were concerned, Ottawa might be the capital city of modern, liberal Canada but its foundations were steeped in the traditions of colonial times. The Canadian coat of arms bears the royal standard of its British monarch, along with the Union Jack. The Governor General of the then Queen of Canada resided in nearby Rideau Hall. Parliament Hill was created when Canada became the first dominion of the British Empire in 1867 and remained a steadfast ally through two world wars. My British counterpart was not an ambassador but a high commissioner, as befits a country with a shared head of state and membership of the British Commonwealth. True, Irish workers helped build the Rideau Canal, and many died as a result, but the chief engineer was the British Army’s Colonel By who gave his name to the settlement, Bytown, until it was changed to Ottawa in 1855.
The first inkling of local Irish heritage came from a neighbour, Joseph Cull. His people hailed from Douglas, up the Ottawa Valley. In 2021, Joseph beseeched us to come to celebrate St Patrick’s Day there, even though we were in the midst of a pandemic lockdown. Terry and Evelyn McHale, who had served the Irish community at the Douglas Tavern for decades, were now retiring. So we hit the road and though we observed pandemic protocols, we enjoyed a wonderful visit, complete with pints of Guinness, in honour of the McHales’ service to the community. It was a joyous but poignant end to a fine Irish establishment.
The following year, Joseph invited us back for a larger-scale SPD celebration. As we drove through the snowbound farms under a leaden sky, we did not know what to expect at the Cull farm. Cardboard leprechauns appeared on the telephone poles. At the barn in the silence of the country, the doors opened to almost three hundred Irish celebrating St Patrick’s Day. The cacophony of music and chat swept over us. The barn was festooned with green glittering welcome signs and orange balloons. We plunged in to meet the Irish of the Ottawa Valley, led by Joseph’s brother Preston whose farm and barn it was. They were all sure of their roots, knew the towns in Ireland from where their people had come, and many were regular visitors to Ireland. I said to one old farmer ‘you have an Irish accent’ and he said ‘yes, outside of Douglas everyone thinks I’m a Newfie!’ As I told the crowd, you cannot throw a stone in Canada without hitting something Irish!
Ever since I have been exploring Canada’s Irish heritage. There is so much Irish influence in Ottawa that I wrote an Opinion Piece in the Ottawa Citizen entitled ‘Move over Colonel By, the Irish also helped found Ottawa.’ That influence spreads from Smiths Falls and Almonte to Renfrew, Low and Venosta in the Gatineau Valley, and throughout the Pontiac. Sparks and O’Connor, the Hamiltons of Hawkesbury, Andrew Leamy of the eponymous Lake, founding father D’Arcy McGee, the three Irish Governor Generals of Monck, Lisgar, and Dufferin, the inventor Tom Ahearn who brought electricity to Ottawa, JR Booth the great lumber baron, three of the Famous Five woman suffragettes, and even Canada’s greatest soldier Arthur Currie were either born in Ireland or had Irish parents or grandparents. Eganville was named in honor of John Egan who arrived penniless from Ireland and rose to be a great lumber baron and politician.
My search widened to include the Irish-born who helped shaped Canada, from the explorers of the prairies like William F. Butler and John Palliser to the father of Canadian natural history John Macoun, and the businessman Timothy Eaton who pioneered department stores and mail order catalogues. The Mounties were based on the Royal Irish Mounted Constabulary and Canada’s flag was designed by Paddy Reid.
Mary and I are approaching our last St Patrick’s Day. I am delighted to say that our Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister) and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheal Martin TD, is visiting Canada for the celebrations, travelling from Vancouver to Montreal and Toronto. So we will not get to Douglas this March. We will miss the craic in Preston’s barn. But we plan to visit Douglas one more time before we go because that was where our Canadian journey really began.
And if you look closely at the Canadian coat of arms, you will notice shamrocks at its base, a fitting tribute to Canada’s Irish foundations.
Eamonn McKee
Ambassador of Ireland to Canada
Ottawa
1 March 2024
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