The memorial project at the Irish Monument site in Montreal will receive a $600,000 contribution from the Quebec government.
Chantal Rouleau, the provincial minister responsible for Social Solidarity and Community Action, made the announcement Sunday as the St. Patrick’s Day parade moved through the streets of Montreal.
“I am deeply moved by this project, which pays tribute to the thousands of Irish immigrants who lost their lives here while fleeing the Great Famine,” Minister Rouleau said in a statement.
The Irish Monument, located at the foot of the Victoria Bridge, honours the memory of the thousands of immigrants from Ireland who lost their lives upon arrival due to a typhus epidemic. The proposed memorial park will be the site of Canada’s largest mass grave.
During the mid-19th century, workers building the Victoria Bridge across the St. Lawrence River discovered a mass grave in Windmill Point where victims of the typhus epidemic of 1847 had been quarantined in fever sheds. The workers, many of whom were of Irish descent, wanted to create a memorial to ensure the grave, which held the coffins of 6,000 Irish immigrants, would not be forgotten. They set up a large black rock.
Erected on December 1, 1859, the rock was the first Canadian monument to represent the famine.
