During her re-election campaign, Montreal incumbent mayor Valérie Plante pledged to create a new memorial site for the Irish Famine immigrants who died on the city’s waterfront in the 19th century.
after being quarantined with typhus.
A ten-foot high boulder that had been unearthed during the excavation for the bridge was erected and inscribed in memory of those immigrants who died.
For years, the city’s Irish community has tried to convince politicians and civic leaders to build a park around the Irish Commemorative Stone, known as the Black Rock, that was installed in 1859 in honour of 6,000 Irish immigrants who died of typhus in 1847 and are believed to be buried under the rock and surrounding area.
The Black Rock today is difficult to visit because it is in the middle of a busy street.
One of Mayor Plante’s campaign promises was to revamp the site around the Black Rock monument to make it accessible. The project would include spending $15 million to move Bridge St. away from the site, an idea the city’s Irish community has long fought for.
Hydro-Québec, which bought adjacent land for an electrical substation, will also be a partner in the project, having ceded part of its site for the proposed park.
An archeological survey to search for remnants of the so-called “fever sheds” as well as traces of human burials found only fragments from the era of mass arrivals, such as nails, dishes, and a toy spinning top. No skeletal remains were discovered.
Now that Mayor Plante has begun her second term, Montreal’s Irish community looks for real movement on the project, not just promises.
