Grosse Ile and The Irish Memorial National Historic Site Canada is a nation created from a mixture of first people and immigrants. Grosse Ile and the Irish Memorial National Historic Site helps us to understand the hardships suffered by many who chose Canada as their home. Between 1832 and 1937, it served as the quarantine station for Quebec, a key port of entry for European immigrants to Canada. It played an especially important role during the late 1840s, when more than one-hundred thousand Irish immigrants flooded into Canada to escape tragic crop failure and disease in their homeland. Grosse Ile includes many poignant reminders of its past, including hotels for various classes of passengers, a hospital, isolation facilities, churches and, most telling, the cemetery where thousands of desperate but hopeful immigrants were laid to rest. Fifty-four hundred lie in the Irish cemetery alone. The Celtic Cross honours their memory. Another memorial recalls the sacrifice of doctors who died trying to help newcomers. Quarantine operations at Grosse Ile were improved after the tragedy of 1847. Most of the extent twenty structures currently on Grosse Ile slowed down as immigration waned and treatment of diseases improved. The station was close in 1937.   Address: Grosse Ile and the Irish Memorial National Historic   2 d'Auteuil Street,   P.O. Box 2474, Postal Terminal, Quebec, Quebec   G1K 7R3   Email: parcscanada-que@pch.gc.ca   Telephone: (418) 563-4009 or 1-800-463-6769   Fax: (418) 835-5443 or (418) 241-5530 Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site Note: There are records from the first half of the 18th century that document the presence of Irish servants at the Fortress Louisbourg National Historic Site. Of course this site pre-dates, by a hundred years, the period of Grosse Ile and the Irish tragedy but it does add another dimension to the story of the Irish in this country. From its establishment by the French in 1713 until the withdrawal of the last English troops in 1768, Louisbourg played an important role in the Anglo French struggle for hegemony in North America. For three decades after its founding Louisbourg enjoyed peace and prosperity, though the threat of war always hung over the fortified town. In 1745 an army of New Englanders, supported by an English naval squadron, captured Louisbourg after a 46-day siege. The town was returned to the French by treaty. Louisbourg was besieged again in 1758. The assault lasted seven weeks, putting a combined English army and naval force of 27,000 against 7,000 French defenders (soldiers and sailors). In the end the French stronghold and naval base fell again, opening the way for English conquest of the rest of New France. The cod fishery was the foundation on which the economy of Louisbourg and Ile Royale (Cape Breton) rested. Competition for fish stocks often led to international rivalries hence the location of Fortress Louisbourg to protect the French fishing fleet.   Address: Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site   Box 160   Louisbourg, Nova Scotia   B0A 1M0   Email: atlantic_parksinfo@pch.gc.ca   Telephone: (902) 733-2280   Fax: (902) 733-2362 Mallard Cottage National Historic Site Note: Mallard Cottage National Historic Site is in Quidi Vidi, Newfoundland. This site predates the period commemorated at Grosse Ile as it dates to the early years of the nineteenth century and therefore cannot be considered as a direct link to the story as presented, but it does focus on another aspect of Irish settlement in this country. Built sometime between 1820 and 1840, this cottage was the home of the Mallard family who settled in Quidi Vidi at the beginning of the 19th century. With its low-hipped roof and the two-room, central chimney plan, it is typical of houses built by the immigrants who came from southwest Ireland to Newfoundland in the first half of the 19th century. The five-bay-facade, with suggestions of classicism in its symmetry, is commonly found in Newfoundland vernacular houses of the period. The building still retains sections of its original beaded clapboard. This site is a privately-owned house although the owner currently runs a curio/antique shop in it.   Address: Mallard Cottage   2 Barrows Road,   Quidi Vidi, St. John's Nfld. A1A 1G8 Partridge Island National Historic Site The City of Saint John established as quarantine station on the island in 1830 in an effort to prevent smallpox spreading from a ship carrying Irish immigrants. Saint John was the principal port of arrival in New Brunswick during the Irish immigration of the 1840s. In 1844 immigration to New Brunswick was 2,605 people, but in 1847 the numbers had exploded to 16,251. The station's medical and quarantine facilities were to prove inadequate in containing contagious diseases. Consequently, epidemics often spread from the island station to the mainland populace, the most devastating being typus and cholera. The cholera epidemic of 1854 was the last major immigrant-carried contagion of the 19th century. This decline was largely due to the greater precautions taken at the embarkation ports in the British Isles, the replacement of the sailing vessels with steamships and the growing understanding of how contagion spread. One of the pioneers of this understanding was Dr. Frederick Montizambert who is commemorated at Grosse Isle. He also worked at Partridge Island as the Medical Superintendent. In the post-1854 period, the facilities at Partridge Island were much more extensive than were required. Immigration through Saint John was much smaller than through Grosse Ile. The Canadian government took over the station in 1867 and operated it until 1941, when it was finally replaced by facilities in Saint John.   Address: City of Saint John   P.O. Box 1971   Saint John, N.B.   E2L 4L1 St. Patrick's Basilica National Historic Site, Montreal St. Patrick's Basilica is an imposing stone structure located near the southwest corner of Boulevard Rene-Levesque and rue Saint-Alexandre in downtown Montreal. It was constructed 1843-1847 to serve the growing Irish Catholic population of the city. St. Patrick's has been responsible for the establishment of numerous charitable institutions for Anglophone Catholics and is regarded as the mother church of some 35 English-speaking Roman Catholic parishes in greater Montreal. St. Patrick's has been a conspicuous feature of the Montreal landscape both historically and architecturally since its construction. Not only is it historically important - it should be noted that the funeral of arguably its most famous parishioner, Thomas D'Arcy McGee, the Irish-Canadian journalist, politician and Father of Confederation, took place from the Basilica - but the structure is also regarded as an early example of a Gothic Revival Canadian church. This revival style was an echo of 13th century French Gothic architecture. In 1990, the HSMBC recommended that the structure be designated as a National Historic Site on the grounds of its architectural significance. Also now it is recognized as a symbol of its Irish-Canadian community.   Address: St. Patrick's Basilica   454-460 Boulevard Rene Levesque Ouest,   Montreal, Quebec   H2Z 1A7 Top of page.