GeoMinute: The Irish Potato Famine and immigration to Canada

The Irish Potato Famine of 1845-1852 claimed more than a million Irish lives and prompted a mass exodus from the starving country. Emigrants crowded into unsafe, unsanitary “coffin ships;” those who survived the up to nine-week journey across the Atlantic to Canada first had to quarantine at Grosse Île in the St. Lawrence River. So many were sick, the island’s medical facilities were overwhelmed. Today, a memorial on the island honours the thousands who died escaping poverty and hunger. Learn more: https://canadiangeographic.ca/article...

Credits:

• Irish Emigration from Waterloo Docks, Liverpool. The Illustrated London News, July 6, 1850. Courtesy of the McGill University Library.
• Irish Famine - Miss Kennedy distributing clothing. The Illustrated London News, December 1849. Courtesy of the McGill University Library.
• Irish Emigrants wait for their passage to Canada and America in the 1840s. The llustrated London News, May 10, 1851. Courtesy of the McGill University Library.
• Departure of an emigrant ship from Liverpool for America. The Illustrated London News. July 6, 1850. Courtesy of the McLellan Library, McGill University.
• Catholic priest administers the last rites to a dying man in steerage quarters on an immigrant ship at Grosse Île. Courtesy of Parks Canada – Daniel Rainville, 1997.
• Coffins being buried in a mass grave in the western cemetery at Grosse Île. Courtesy of Parks Canada – Daniel Rainville, 1997.
• Irish Memorial at the Grosse Île and the Irish Memorial National Historic Site. Courtesy of Parks Canada – Pascal Duchesne.

This project was made possible in part by the Government of Canada.