A two-day symposium about the Irish famine will take place in Toronto on May 22 and 23 at the Archives of Ontario, with an evening event at St. Michael’s College and field trips. It will be open to the public, and it appears to be free.
People from the academic and heritage sectors in Canada, Ireland, and the United States, who are experts about the Great Irish Potato Famine, will participate.
The symposium, called The Famine Irish and Forced Migration: An Early Canadian Refugee Crisis, comprises morning and afternoon conference sessions on both days at the Archives of Ontario, including a documentary screening and the performance of a one-woman play. On the evening of the first day, the Great Famine Voices Roadshow open access oral history workshop will take place at St. Michael’s College. In the late afternoon/evening of the second day, there will be a series of field trips to two sites of Irish interest in Toronto, Ireland Park and Dr. George Grasett Park.
Registration
A registration desk will be present both days, but pre-registration is encouraged. Send inquiries to Professor William Jenkins, Department of Geography, York University, at wjenkins@yorku.ca. Tea, coffee and lunch will be served.
Program
Day 1: May 22, Archives of Ontario, Spragge Classroom
9:00 Registration
9:30 Welcoming remarks
9:45-11:15 Keynote 1: Mark McGowan (University of Toronto), Suffer the Children: Finding the Irish Famine Orphans in the British North American Colonies
11:30-12:45 Paper Session 1: Resettlement and Remembrance
- Laura Smith (Ireland Park Foundation), The Burial and Commemoration of Deceased Irish Famine migrants on the Burlington Heights, Hamilton, Canada West
- William Jenkins (York University), Exploring Hidden and Unhidden Irelands in Toronto in the 1850s and 1860s
Tour: Archives of Ontario lunchtime tour and exposition of Hawke Papers
2:15-4:00 Paper Session 2: Famine Experiences and Narratives
- Jason King (Irish Heritage Trust), Unpublished Irish Famine Journals in Ontario: A Preview of a Virtual Exhibit
- Robert Grace (Université Laval), The Famine Irish in Quebec City: After the Shock
- Max Smith (York University), Toronto’s Temporary Lunatic Asylum and Famine Immigrants, 1841-1850
5:00-9:00 Great Famine Voices Roadshow Oral History Workshop and Reception. Madden Hall, St. Michael’s College, University of Toronto. Host: Irish Heritage Trust and Irish National Famine Museum.
Day 2: May 23, Archives of Ontario, Spragge Classroom.
9:30-11:15 Paper Session 3: Creating Famine Memory
- Robert Kearns (Ireland Park Foundation), Ireland Park Foundation and the Unveiling of Dr. George Robert Grasett Park
- Dan Horner (Ryerson University), Irish Famine Migration and the Making of an Orderly Urban Landscape in Montreal
- Colin McMahon (York University), “‘A People without Ancestry’?: Great Famine Memory in Montreal and Boston at the turn of the 20th Century”
11:30-12:30. Documentary Screening: The Famine Irish and Canada’s First Responders, introduced by Kevin Moynihan
1:30-3:30. The Legacy of the Carricks Famine Irish Shipwreck
- Simon Jolivet (Public Historian, Montreal) The Irish who never reached Grosse-Île: the history of the 1847 Carricks shipwreck in Gaspésie, Québec.
- Play Rose Marie Stanley, Emigrants.
3:40-4:00. Closing discussion.
Field Trips to Ireland Park (Eireann Quay) and Dr. George Grasett Park (299 Adelaide Street West).
7:00-11:00. Reception at a downtown Toronto restaurant, TBA.
7:30-8:15. Keynote 2. Booker Prize-nominated author Michael Collins pre-dinner reading about his Irish Diaspora Run in the footsteps of the Famine Irish in Canada.
