The Canadian Historical Association (CHA) announced yesterday in Regina that a book about the recent history of an Irish neighbourhood in Montreal was among the winners of one of its annual CHA Prizes.
The Clio Prize for Quebec for the meritorious publication of a regional history was awarded to Matthew Barlow for his book, Griffintown: Identity and Memory in an Irish Diaspora Neighbourhood.
Published by UBC Press in January, Griffintown is described as a biography of the inner-city Irish Catholic, working-class neighbourhood.
By the 1970s, Griffintown was derelict and all but abandoned, however, beginning in the late 1990s, the neighbourhood underwent a symbolic rebirth. The spirit of the ethnic quarter was nurtured, not by the leaders of Irish Montreal, but by the former working-class men and women who grew up there.
The author examines how current and former residents have responded over time to the claims of city officials and developers.
While other books have focused on the Griffintown during the 19th century, this is the first book that looks at what happened to the neighbourhood and the people who lived there during the 20th and 21st centuries.
Chapters in the book cover the neighbourhood in the early years of the 20th century, through the First World War, the last stand of Irish-Catholic Griffintown, from 1929 to 1945, the death of the neighbourhood, from 1945 to 1975, and the commemorative project, from 1991 to 2010.
UBC Press has made available online an excerpt from the book.
