1

Table of Contents

Introduction......................................................................................................2

I – Socio-economic background in Ireland at the end of the 17th and beginning

of the 18th Century, and the beginning of emigration

i – Ireland - 17th and 18th centuries.......................................................................................4

ii – Waterford and Emigration...............................................................................................8

iii- The role of Waterford merchants in the emigration process..........................................14

II– Newfoundland and Immigration

i- The Cod Rush...................................................................................................................16

ii- The Partition of Newfoundland.......................................................................................19

iii – Immigrant groups after Partition...................................................................................22

III- The Construction of an Irish identity in Newfoundland

i- Identity and Immigration..................................................................................................25

ii- Religion and the French Connection...............................................................................28

iii- Discrimination of Irish Immigrants................................................................................31

Conclusion........................................................................................................................34

Bibliography.....................................................................................................................36

2

Introduction

The Irish community can nowadays be seen as spread out across the world, as Mary

Robinson noted in the famous speech she gave on 3rd December 1990 - after she was

elected president of Ireland - “there are over seventy million people living on this globe

who claim Irish descent”1. How and why this phenomenon occurred are still questions that

should be asked. Most North American people would answer that their ancestors escaped

from the Great Famine by emigrating. Irish descendants in Great Britain would answer that

the economic situation in Ireland pushed their people to go across the Irish sea to find a

job. Other people would simply answer that religious persecution has been the key for

opening the door leading outside the country. The reasons for emigrating are numerous,

still discussed nowadays, and so are the contexts of emigration. Even though the Great

Famine did push a great number of Irish people out of their country, it was not the only

reason to go to North America. Work was not the only reason for Irish people to emigrate

to the other side of the Irish Sea and both Catholics and Protestants emigrated far from

their home land. In this work, only immigration to North America will be dealt with, and

especially on the island of Newfoundland in Canada.

For centuries, Irish people have been travelling, the oldest example would probably

be the legend of St Brendan travelling on a leather boat across the Atlantic ocean to land in

Newfoundland, it has been proven by Timothy Severin,in The Brendan voyage: across the

Atlantic in a leather boat that the expedition could have succeeded2. If we look at more

modern times, people are still leaving Ireland, either to look for a job, or just for the

experience of travelling. As David Fitzpatrick noted, "growing up in Ireland meant

preparing oneself to leave it"3, this has been observed in other contexts of insularity that

will not be studied here, but as one can imagine, every human being growing up with a

never ending ocean in front of him or her will let himself or herself dream of a better, or at

least different life somewhere else. A context of insularity could also increase the feeling of

solidarity, and for Irish people, make it easier to gather together on an unknown territory.

Irish people were never known for being great sea people, but they did defy the

ocean and rough weather to take a chance of living in a different place. The migrations to

Newfoundland started on a seasonal basis, to turn into "the most Irish place outside of

1 Mary Robinson, Speech at Dublin Castle, 3rd Dec. 1990.2 Tim Severin, http://www.timseverin.net/biography.html (23 May 2012)3 David Fitzpatrick cited in Donald Harman Akenson, The Irish Diaspora, P.D. Meany Company Inc.,

Toronto, 1993, 5.

3

Ireland itself "4 after three centuries. This evolution from seasonal to permanent settlement

will be discussed here with the consequences of such an evolution.

In most work done on the Irish diaspora, it is mentioned that the connection

between Ireland and Newfoundland is very important, nevertheless, no major work has

been done on this subject, and the origins of the importance of Irishness in Newfoundland

is clouded. For John Mannion, "The exodus from Ulster to America excepted, it was the

most substantial movement of Irish across the Atlantic in the eighteenth century"5, and

indeed, through the process of research, the most evidence found on the topic concerns the

end of the seventeenth century and the eighteenth century. This period will therefore be

focused on in this dissertation. Though it has to be noted that the seasonal migrations to

Newfoundland started well before the seventeenth century, the lack of primary sources

prior to this period explains the choice made for this period of research.

The migrations to Newfoundland have been motivated by a great demand for labor

with the expansion of cod fisheries. This labor concerned fishing and the curing processes

of cod, but also the whole market organised around this industry, as was the case for

Southeastern Irish merchants. Irish people going to Newfoundland were not all from the

same social classes, as will be pointed out.

In order to understand why “ever since the early eighteenth century, migrants from

South East Leinster and East Munster traveled to and from the Newfoundland fisheries”6,

it is first of all important to understand what the living conditions in Ireland were, and

what could motivate people to look for a job abroad, concentrating on the Waterford area

which played a great role in Ireland – Newfoundland links. Then the focus will be

orientated on Newfoundland, to try to understand how and why this island was very

attractive for laborers and merchants, and what were the consequences of this

attractiveness. In the last part, the building of an Irish identity will be discussed, including

their close relationship to French people and the role religion played in this process of

identity building.

4 Tim Pat Coogan, Wherever Green is Worn, the Story of the Irish Diaspora, Hutchinson, London, 2001, 415

5 John Mannion, “The Irish in Newfoundland”. http://www.heritage.nf.ca/society/irish_newfoundland.html, 2000, (24 May 2012)

6 Kerby A. Miller, Kerby A. Miller, Emigrants and Exiles: Ireland and Irish Exodus to North America, Oxford University Press, New York, 1988, 34.

4

I – Socio-economic background in Ireland at the end of the 17 th and

beginning of the 18 th Century, and the beginning of emigration

In order to understand the conditions in which people live in Ireland and their wish

to emigrate, it is needed to look back at what happened in the country during this period.

When the general background will be set, the region of Waterford will be looked at from

closer. To end this first part, the role of Waterford merchants in the the emigration process

will be pointed out.

i – Ireland - 17 th and 18 th centuries

James II became King of England in 1685, and as he was Catholic, he was

welcomed by Irish people, who were up to then trying to keep their rights and stand up in

front of the imposition of protestantism . But as the English could not admit to having a

Catholic king ruling over Ireland and therefore lose all the efforts made against

catholicism, they plotted to have William of Orange to come from Holland and replace

James II's Catholicism with Protestantism. In 1688 William landed in Devon, and there

started to plan with an army to invade Ireland to stop Catholicism for good. This is how

with a very big army, William of Orange faced the army led by James II at the Battle of the

Boyne in 1690, the Catholics were defeated, and James II fled to France.

On the 3rd October, 1691 the Treaty of Limerick was signed, it promised religious

freedom to Catholics and therefore was meant to stop the war (called the Williamite war),

but in return the « Jacobite soldiers were offered a free passage to France, where they

could continue the war in what became the Irish Brigade »7 this was then called The Flight

of the Wild Geese and marked the History of emigration in Ireland. The treaty of Limerick

was not respected and forced the elite from the religiously repressed group to become

exiles. Soon after the Treaty of Limerick and throughout the 1690s, a series of Penal Laws

were aimed at the Catholic people, to undermine their rights. It even came to the point in

1697 with the Bishop's Banishment Act, that all members of the regular clergy up to the

top of the church's hierarchy (including bishops and vicars-general) had « to leave the

kingdom by 1 May 1698 »8 . The rest of the clergy could stay, but by 1704 they had to be

7 S. J. Connolly, Oxford Companion to Irish History, Oxford University Press, 2011, 2898 T.P Power, and Kevin Whelan, Endurance en Emergence : Catholics in Ireland in the Eighteenth century,

Irish Academy Press Ltd, 1990 – Cited in the Oxford Companion to Irish History, 462

5

registered with the authorities.

The Irish economy suffered from a series of laws imposed by the English

government. The Cattle Acts, from 1663 and 1671, « the first imposing a prohibitive duty

on cattle or sheep imported from Ireland during the main fattening season, the second a

complete ban on imports of Irish livestock, beef, pork and bacon »9. The ban has been

withdrawn in 1679 but then renewed in 1681. « The English Parliament prohibited the

export of woollen goods from Ireland »10 with the Wool Act of 1699, this was initiated and

promoted by the merchants of Bristol for whom Irish exports became a potential threat to

their own business in England. Wool, together with linen and cattle were represented by a

high percentage of the whole export business. It was seen as a threat from England,

regarding their markets and English merchants had to protect their own commercial

interests. To emphasize this way of trying to limit Irish exports, The Navigation laws were

passed and enforced successively aiming to develop the English business and limit the

expansion of the Irish trading. « The Navigation Act of 1663 admitted the direct shipment

of provisions, horses and servants from Ireland to the colonies »11, which permitted

English ships to get supplies in Ireland on their way to the North American colonies,

without having to pay any taxes in the Irish ports. Irish people could then benefit from

these visiting boats to embark to the colonies. « The acts did not prevent the growth of a

significant volume of trade in both directions between Ireland and the colonies »12 so even

though England was trying to impose its supremacy over the exchange of goods, Irish

merchants did manage to work it out for their own benefit. This works together with the

Cattle Acts, as trade with Great Britain became limited, Ireland developed its trading

network with the European continent and with the North American colonies. However this

situation is only true regarding coastal towns, as inside the country the communication

network was less developed.

This wealthy economic situation was soon to be changed with the start of the

European war in 1702, and the start of an economic recession the very same year.

Although the economic recession started, « the naval demand for provisions grew heavily

during […] the wars of the 18th century »13 but, unfortunately, as the demand rose, the

prices increased as well, which became a financial issue for the poorer families throughout

9 S. J. Connolly, Oxford Companion to Irish History, op. cit.8310 L.M Cullen, An Economic History of Ireland since 1660, London: B.T. Ltd,1972,3411 Ibid. 3712 Ibid. 3813 Ibid. 56

6

the country. Then, « the 1720s proved to be a decade of economic crisis »14.

Seizing the opportunity of achieving their power, in 1720 the « Sixth of George I

was passed, confirming the right of the English Parliament to bind Ireland by

legislation »15, the English government made sure these laws could restrict Ireland's trading

opportunities with the rest of the European market.

Following these events, « the poor harvest of 1728 [brought] famine in its wake »16,

meaning the crops were failing, resulting in a decreasing demand for labourers and as L.M

Cullen pointed out « seventeenth – century commentators had already noted how much

idle time poor families had on their hands, and had rightly seen this underemployment one

of the courses of extensive rural poverty »17. Kevin O'Neill also mentionned « the lack of

work for the agricultural laborers »18 This famine of 1728 – 1729 would be followed by

another one in 1740 – 1741. And as this was happening, both the English and French

navies were expanding very rapidly, leaving doors wide opened for the development of

colonies in North America. As the trade between England and Canada grew with the

development of the fishing industry on the Great Banks of Newfoundland, the demand for

seasonal workers grew very rapidly, which - as we will see later - was a good opportunity

for jobless labourers in Ireland. This can be seen as one of the obvious reasons why people

would broaden their search for work outside Ireland.

But as part of the Penal Laws, another reason has to be highlighted as a motive for

emigration. In 1704, The Act to Prevent Further Growth of Popery « prohibited Catholics

from buying land, inheriting land from Protestants, or taking leases for a period of longer

than 31 years »19. Ireland being mostly rural and therefore agricultural at this time, it is

probable that this act made it more and more difficult for a Catholic to buy, inherit or keep

the land after his maximum period of rent. In the best case, the older son would inherit his

father's farm and land, but then the other sons could not buy anything for themselves, and

as we will see later on, would have to leave the farm and find their own way of making a

living. Kerby A. Miller has spoken about this situation by saying « in a prosperous

Wexford population pressures forced thousands of cottiers and farmers' sons to make

annual voyages to the Newfoundland fisheries. »20

14 L.M Cullen, An Economic History of Ireland since 1660, op. cit. 4815 Ibid. 3516 Ibid. 5017 Ibid. 6418 Kevin O'Neill, Family and Farm in Pre-Famine Ireland, University of Wisconsin Press, 2003; 12119 L.M Cullen, An Economic History of Ireland since 1660, op. cit. 46220 Kerby A. Miller, Emigrants and Exiles: Ireland and Irish Exodus to North America, op. cit. 142

7

From the very start of the 18th century, economic conditions in Ireland were

decreasing for most industries throughout the country, some people tried to fight against

this, as Jonathan Swift did this for example when he wrote The Drapier's Letter (1724 -

1725), accusing the English government of imposing their laws on the Irish people.

From then on, country people started to move towards the ports, which were in the

main cities, « the first six towns in Ireland in 1652 in this order: Dublin, Galway,

Waterford, Limerick, Cork and Derry »21. The amount of people leaving the countryside to

move to the ports is approximate as no record has actually been kept giving this kind of

data, and there is very little evidence of who left Ireland from these ports and where they

went to. And even if we do understand better now why people at the end of the 17th and

during the 18th centuries wished to leave their home lands, the purposes of emigration and

the destination dealt with here are different from the major cases of emigration, as

Akenson wrote, « those who emigrated, however poor they may appear to our modern

eyes, were, by definition, in command of surplus economic resources – enough in any case

to allow them to reach a seaport and to pay passage away from Ireland »22.

« Irish shipping and seamen were treated as English, and could engage in the

English coasting trade and in the direct trade between England and the colonies »23, for

this very reason, official records proving the arrival of Irish ships in Canada prior to the

Great Famine are nearly nonexistent, as they were all registered as English.

English ships had started to sail across the Atlantic Ocean during the 16 th century,

and coming to the 18th century, they had acquired a good knowledge of the routes and the

experience of travelling. As John Mannion noted: « from around 1575 West Country

fishermen had begun to fish for cod each summer off Newfoundland », and « by the end of

the following century they had built up a pattern of collecting supplies for the fishing

season, mainly in Waterford »24. We already know from MacLysaght that Waterford was

then the third biggest port of Ireland in the second half of the 17 th century, but « in the

early eighteen century, Waterford had 6000 inhabitants »25. We can now wonder How did

such a small town attract so many people from both inside and outside Ireland. In the next

part of this dissertation, the port of Waterford will be studied in order to assess its role in

Irish emigration.

21 Edward MacLysaght, Irish Life in the 17th century, Barnes and Nobles, 1970, 194-19522 D. H. Akenson, The Irish Diaspora, P.D. Meany Company, Inc., Publishers Toronto, 1993. 3723 L.M Cullen, An Economic History of Ireland since 1660, op. cit. 3724 Mannion, John,« Waterford Merchants and the Newfoundland Trade 1700 – 1850». Decies, Waterford,

May 1976. (1976)25 L.M Cullen, An Economic History of Ireland since 1660, op. cit. 193

8

ii – Waterford and Emigration

To begin with, a seventeenth century map of the city of Waterford can be seen,

helping to understand how easy it was for merchants to come into the port and load their

boats with supplies, or unload them for commercial purposes. The city is located in a

meander of the river Suir, which is deep and wide enough at this location to allow boats to

come and go as they wish. The city of Waterford was first colonized by the Vikings, it

made a perfect place to find shelter during storms.

26

Talking about Waterford when talking about emigration to Canada, and more

precisely to Newfoundland during the 18th century, is not insignificant. In a lecture given to

the Old Waterford Society in 1976, John Mannion said that « nearly 85% of Irish

migration to Newfoundland came from a 30 mile radius of Waterford along the valleys of

the Suir, Nore and Barrow »27. This can be explained mostly by Waterford's geographical

location, it was on the way from England to the North Atlantic colonies, and even if ship

records from Waterford were not kept prior to 181628, John Mannion wrote in an article

published in Newfoundland Studies that « English shipowners and ship masters began to

recruit Irish servants using the trading networks already established through the salt

26 Phillips, Thomas. «The Citty [sic] of Waterford, 1685». http://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000277858/Home. (22nd May 2012)

27 Mannion, John,« Waterford Merchants and the Newfoundland Trade 1700 – 1850». op cit.28 Waterford City Council. Http://www.waterfordcity.ie/departments/archives/pages/harbour.htm (22nd May

2012)

9

provisions trade »29. It is still too ambitious to say exactly how many people in Waterford

benefited from this trading system, due to the inaccurate statistics kept in the eighteenth

century. Many writers have made statements on this trade, such as George Casey, in an

essay on Irish culture in Newfoundland, he wrote «each spring on their way to the

Newfoundland fishery, the English West Country ships called at South – East Ireland ports,

notably Waterford and Cork. Here they loaded provisions and cheaply hired young,

unmarried Irishmen known as 'youngsters', who were returned home in the autumn»30

However, original testimonies do exist like that of Donough MacConmara31 who

«made [his] way to Waterford town»32. He mentions a poor standard of living in Ireland,

and dreams about a “kinder shore to try [his] fortune in pastures new.”33 But after looking

forward to his journey, the voyage across the sea turns out to be a nightmare, and he writes

about people's fear of never being able to return home, and his own feeling of regretting

his act. In the Preface, W.B. Yeats says that MacConmara «knew nothing of his own age,

[…] but could not reflect upon what he saw», but he does admit that The Adventures of a

Luckless Fellow is “of historical importance”34. Yeats was more interested in the relevance

of the literary aspect we will not focus on this literary aspect of MacConmara's poem, but

rather on the importance of the experience of this young man from the province of Munster

in his travel experience from Waterford to the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. George

Casey states that “these travels must have been undertaken at some time between 1745 and

1755”35 . And we can see the importance of what John Mannion said about the area of

origin of Irish migrants to Newfoundland, indeed, MacConmara is from Georgestown,

which is about 15 miles from Waterford City.

Though, MacConmara did not stay abroad for a very long time, he did return home,

and as did most of his fellow travellers. This phenomenon is called “reverse migration”36

meaning that these people who left Ireland eventually returned home, but D.H. Akenson

who is one of the most eminent historians of the Irish diaspora notes that “the available

29 Mannion, John. «Irish Migration and Settlement in Newfoundland : The Formative Phase, 1697 – 1732». Newfoundland Studies 17, 2. (2001) 261.

30 George Casey, Irish Culture in Newfoundland in Talamh an Eisc: Canadian and Irish Essays, Edited by Cyril J. Byrne and Margaret Harry, Nimbus Publishing Limited. 1986. 207

31 As he was only speaking Gaelic and Latin, his name has been translated numerous times, and the spelling might change from one source to the other, but this spelling is from the reprinted book available in librairies now.

32 Donough MacConmara, The Adventures of a Luckless Fellow, Butler and Tanner LTD. 6433 Ibid. 6234 Ibid. 1235 George Casey, Irish Culture in Newfoundland. op cit. 20336 D. H. Akenson, The Irish Diaspora. op. cit. 13

10

studies of this matter are very limited, but they suggest that the Irish were less apt to return

home than were persons of most European groups”37. MacConmara was having difficulty

paying for the passage back to Ireland because the little money earned was used for other

purposes than savings. The reasons will be dealt with in the last part of this dissertation,

but it seemed hard for some Irish workers in Newfoundland to save the money they earned,

and if they wanted to return home yearly after the fishing season, they had to sign a

contract which obliged them to follow the seasonal working pattern. The case was different

for people who paid their passage to Newfoundland without having signed a contract

beforehand.

Although the case of MacConmara is interesting, John Mannion mentions another

type of migrant who emigrated to Newfoundland, for him, “most migrants were between

18 and 25 years old. Some were the surplus sons of small but viable farmers unwilling to

subdivide their holdings, others were laborers on large and middle sized farms”38. From

there, we can see this emigration as a “labor diaspora” rather than a “victim diaspora”39,

meaning that people moved for a better standard of life to get away from the bad economic

situation, they were not dying from starvation, as for example during the Great Famine.

And this point is the most important to characterize this particular type of migration,

indeed, there has not been one major event pushing people to emigrate, but several

reasons. George Casey gives us a non exhaustive list of plausible reasons for moving out

of Ireland, « Donnchadh Ruadh migrated to seek freedom, self-fulfillment, and adventure,

for others there could have been a variety of reasons: because they wished to escape home

problems, parental control, or personal disgrace; because they were vagabonds, criminals,

or paupers; because mechanization and industrialization had reduced employment

opportunities or, because they were dispossessed tenants. »40

While the British were expanding their naval power, Ireland did not have much of

an impact on the seas. Irish people were certainly not famous for being great fishermen or

sailors more generally, and as it was still considered politically as part of Great Britain,

nothing such as a naval army has been set up. The only paintings showing activities with

boats are either traditional fishing or big merchant's ships coming to visit the biggest ports

of the island. And traditional fishing in Ireland was far from the fishing conditions on the

37 D. H. Akenson, The Irish Diaspora. op. cit.1338 Mannion, John. “The Irish in Newfoundland”. 2000

http://www.heritage.nf.ca/society/irish_newfoundland.html (22nd May 2012)39 Robin Cohen, Global Diasporas, 1997, cited in Mary J Hickman, “ 'Locating' the Irish Diaspora”. Irish

Journal of Sociology Vol. 11.2, (2002). 940 George Casey, Irish Culture in Newfoundland. op. cit. 211

11

Grand Banks of Newfoundland, this is why Irishmen coming to Newfoundland were called

“green men” not to refer “to their nationalities but to their inexperience in fishing”41.

On the next page a list from 1765 of ships sailing from Waterford to Newfoundland

can be seen, only three were from Waterford, and only one was from Newfoundland, the

rest were either from ports in Great Britain, or from the Anglo-Norman islands. The city of

Waterford was able to develop its commercial abilities to allow ships from many different

places to come for trading purposes. With such an activity in the port, one can understand

how easy it became for potential seasonal workers to embark on a visiting ship to go to

Newfoundland. This list is one of the rare documents dating back to this period, and

therefore very important to try to set up a pattern of this migration to Newfoundland,

during this period salt, pork, and fish were the goods known to be traded, but there is no

information on the number of passengers travelling either as potential workers hired for the

Newfoundland fisheries or as single passengers. Most of the records were kept by English

merchants from the South West and West of England, and therefore did not specifically

mention who was embarked from which port on the way. As in Newfoundland, employers

did not mind the origin of workers as long as the job was done.

Though, Kerby A. Miller cited Arthur Young who said in his Young's Tour in

Ireland that he “was astounded at the number of people who go as passengers in the

Newfoundland ships […] from three to five thousands annually”42 most of whom returned

home every winter when the fishing season was over. And we are also told that “a small

minority of Irish Catholic emigrants paid their own passage across the Atlantic”43. Most of

the Irish emigrants were then embarking under contracts for the only purpose of fishing,

but if people also paid their passage to Newfoundland, they were more than likely attracted

by a more permanent job than the seasonal work to be found in the Newfoundland fisheries

sector. Arthur Young also mentions that “men will get from eighteen to twenty-five pounds

for the season, from March to November”44

41 Cyril Byrne, “The Waterford Colony in Newfoundland 1700-1850”, Chapter 14, Waterford History and Society

42 Kerby A. Miller, Emigrants and Exiles: Ireland and Irish Exodus to North America. op. cit. 14043 Ibid. 14144 Author Unknown. “The Newfoundland Trade”. Waterford News, 31 Jan. 1902.

12

Listing of Ships sailing from Waterford to Newfoundland in May 1765

NAME PORT OF REGISTER MASTER

Elizabeth Jersey Phil NicholleSeaflower Jersey William HowardThree Friends Jersey Noah GautierMary Jersey Theo. DeputonArthur and Betty Dartmouth John WhitneyGrampus Dartmouth George NickelsWeston Bristol Richard ScottSurprise Dartmouth William ChanellTartar Newfoundland Matthew WallaceSpeedy Topsham Joseph BakerBrothers Waterford Laurence HearnLitchfield Topsham John TreatElizabeth Dartmouth Francis LineIndustrious Bee Poole Henry TratherVenus Dartmouth John ParrBrittannia Dartmouth Arthur EamesWilliam and Mary Dartmouth Andrew GriffinFanny Bristol Robert QuickEndeavour Poole Benjamin GreenPrussian King Dartmouth William HarveyLion Dartmouth Simon CarderTom Codd Tinmouth John FourakerPriscilla Poole James SampsonAdventure Topsham Daniel FellettDolphin Bristol Conway HeighingtonBilly Poole Philip SteakWilliam Cork Nicolas PowerSuckey Poole Francis PennyMermaid Poole Joseph PrimerServiceable Liverpool Hugh RobertsJuno Poole Moses CheaterSuckey Poole Joseph MillerJohanna Bristol Jeri. CoghlanAmy Poole Oliver FramptonProvidence Poole William MooresMolly Poole James BartlettJohn Poole John WhalesMary Bristol Robert PowerChance Poole Richard WoodSunflower Poole James Joshua (-illegible-)Seaflower Poole Jacob BartlettJohn and Jenny Topsham Samuel SageLovely Peggy Waterford Edward WeekesActive Poole James LeagerLamb Poole Benjamin LinthornMary and Ann Dartmouth Richard HutchingsUnity Plymouth Robert BayleyRecovery Waterford William FrancisSally Poole Edward de HearneTwo Friends Ross Thomas Kiely (or Kelly)

Faulkners Dublin Journal, 1/6/1765 on microfilm at N.L.I. (M/F 1763-66)

13

Waterford kept a good relationship with Newfoundland throughout the years,

people born from Irish (from the Waterford area) parents living in Newfoundland came

back to Waterford to get baptized in St Patrick's church in Waterford. Unfortunately very

little if any information is accessible in church records unless one is doing a genealogy

research out of personal interest. Waterford is the only city to perpetuate a durable

relationship with Newfoundland, even though Irish emigrants also came from the rest of

the province of Munster and also from the eastern coast ports.

As an example of the good relations that existed between Waterford and

Newfoundland, this plaque is visible on the wall of a house facing the river Suir and more

precisely at the entrance of the port of Waterford city. It gives us more precise dates

regarding the Grand Banks fishing industry. It is also a form of commemoration, to mark

the dinstinctiveness of this migration, because even though this migration was meant to be

seasonal, a great number of Waterford people stayed permanently in Newfoundland.

We know that people sailed mainly from Waterford to Newfoundland, mostly on a

seasonal basis, but this seasonal migration eventually turned into permanent settlement,

and this phenomenon did not only happen because of the attraction of the Newfoundland

fisheries industry. The work done by Irish merchants to develop the exchanges between the

two islands is not irrelevant. To consider a place as a “colony”, different types of

settlements can be observed, one of them is trade. Next, how Irish merchants played an

important role in attracting people to go and settle in Newfoundland will be looked at.

14

iii- The role of Waterford merchants in the emigration process

Even though we know a lot of people went to work to Newfoundland as workers

for the fisheries, and that Irish people were mostly hired by English masters to add to the

workforces, it is important to note that Irish people who went to Newfoundland did not

only come from the bottom of the social ladder. Merchants from the biggest ports in

Ireland did benefit from the trade between the British Isles and the British colonies in

North America, and their role in the establishment of an Irish community in Newfoundland

has been a major one. Robin Cohen in Global Diasporas establishes a five-part typology45,

among which the labor diaspora and the trade diaspora are two distinct patterns. In the case

of emigration to Newfoundland, these two patterns are very closely linked as will be seen

later.

With a more sociological point of view, it is important to lay the emphasis on the

different social classes Irish people came from. It is relevant for the transplantation of a

society into a completely new area to have different social classes and develop one's own

culture fully. In this case the Irish community in Newfoundland grew as a heterogeneous

group, but the different groups inside the community completed each other to reach the

level of a well integrated society.

John Mannion, the author of several articles on the importance of the trade between

Ireland and Newfoundland. On his research on Richard Welsh and his family from

Placentia, Newfoundland, he wrote that “after 1800 the company was responsible for the

settlement of scores of Irish immigrants throughout its territory in Placentia Bay.”46

The merchants' role was important in turning this seasonal migration into

permanent settlement in Newfoundland, in making this permanent settlement last. Both

Catholic and Protestant merchants were involved in this trade, even though Catholics were

in a larger number, Protestants also settled in Newfoundland, giving another dimension to

the religious conflicts and unrests back home, religion remained a sensitive subject for the

cohabitation. Catholic merchants mostly came from the area of Waterford while Protestant

merchants were mostly came from the area of New Ross in the neighbouring county of

Wexford.47

45 Robin Cohen, Global Diasporas, 1997, cited in Mary J Hickman, “ 'Locating' the Irish Diaspora”. Irish Journal of Sociology Vol. 11.2, (2002). 9

46 Mannion, John, “Irish Merchants abroad: The Newfoundland Experience, 1750-1850”. Newfoundland Studies 2, 2, (1986). 128

47 Ibid. 127 and 131

15

In the Waterford News in October 1934, an advertisement from Ramsey's

Waterford Chronicle from February 10th, 1786 reads:

To be let for a term of years from May 10th,

three compleat dwelling houses conveniently

situated for business in St John's,

Newfoundland; also three stores contiguous

thereto and to the water for shipping. Apply

Elliot Elmes, in St John's aforesaid.48

The Elmes family was know around the area for being a big Protestant merchant

family. By putting an advertisement in the local newspaper this shows their interest in

keeping the business in Irish hands because only Irish people could access this newspaper

unless it was sent over to relatives in Newfoundland.

The Catholic Irish merchants did benefit from an undeniable help in

Newfoundland, from the French who were also taking part in the cod fishing and industry.

As we will see next, the Irish and the French has a religious link that did not please the

English, and while they were both at war, the Irish took advantage of the situation to get

allies and organise themselves on that side of the Atlantic Ocean.

After having set the general background in Ireland during the seventeenth and

eighteenth centuries, and looked closer at the region of Waterford and its exchanges with

the colony of Newfoundland, this latter has to be highlighted. Indeed, the island of

Newfoundland was a welcoming place from a great number of immigrants as it will be

dealt with in the next part.

48 Author Unknow. “Newfoundland and waterford”. The Waterford News, 5 Oct. 1934. 10

16

II– Newfoundland and Immigration

Newfoundland was a place where cod was abundant and it attracted hundreds of

Europeans ships through the years. But as people started to fight to get as much land as

they could, Newfoundland had to be split, and these 'borders' were to change throughout

the years. Though, the immigrant populations in Newfoundland did settle on the island.

i- The Cod Rush

The Vikings were the first people who sailed to Newfoundland, nevertheless, they

never settled there for a long time, as they “were greeted by inhabitants they found so

violent and hostile that they deemed settlement impossible”49, these inhabitants were the

Beothuk tribe.

Paul O'Neill traced the history of St John's, Newfoundland's most important city

and revealed interesting facts on the multi-cultural aspects involved in the construction of

the city. Europeans were probably present in the harbor of St John's from about 1500, the

oldest map is Portuguese and dates back to 1519, but John Cabot was the first person to

officially discover the Island in 1497.50 Paul O'Neill also points out that “the construction

of a house for permanent residence cannot be proven before 1605”51. The Beothuk tried to

stop John Cabot from exploring their island, but when larger numbers of Portuguese,

French and English people came to Newfoundland, they were first driven inland and little

by little they were killed and the tribe came to be exterminated52. With no natives to block

the new settlements, Europeans expanded their hold over the island's coasts very quickly.

The British dominion was established in 1502 when Hugh Elliot and Thomas

Ashehurst, both merchants from Bristol, “obtained from Henry VIII letters patent for the

establishment of a colony in Newfoundland”.53 This was then the start for one of the bigger

trading systems established across the Atlantic Ocean. The English king understood very

well the importance of exploiting cod, as it was a very easy fish to catch and seemed to be

abundant in this part of the Atlantic Ocean. As it was easy to catch cod, fishermen could be

49 Mark Kurlansky, A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World, London, Vintage, 1999, 2150 Paul O'Neill, The Oldest City: The Story of St John's, Newfoundland, Boulder Publications, 2003, 451 Ibid. 252 Mark Kurlansky, A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World. op. cit. 2153 Paul O'Neill, The Oldest City: The Story of St John's, Newfoundland. op. cit.. 3

17

fed and European markets supplied with fish, generating a huge profit. The English already

had well established links with European markets, and cod was in high demand. The

reason for this popularity is to be found in Catholicism, in fact the Basques had been

exploiting this market for a long time, as Catholics were not allowed to eat meat on “lean

days” (Lean days included all Fridays, the forty days of Lent, and various other days of

note on the religious calendar)54 and could only eat cold foods, they were then forced to

find an alternative to meat on every Friday, during the forty days of lent, and on another

number of days on the religious calendar, which meant that nearly half the year turned into

“salt cod days”55. On the one hand, the English were trying to forbid the Catholic cult in

Ireland, and on the other hand, they got involved in the trade of cod and become richer on

every “lean day” of the Catholic calendar while cod was also being sold on the British

markets as the traditional fish and chips .

On this Italian engraving we can see an early depiction of the Newfoundland cod

fishery56. This engraving is very popular as it is probably one of the earliest ones made to

show the organization of the cod fisheries.

54 Mark Kurlansky, A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World. op. cit. 2455 Ibid. 2456 Riggs, Bert. “Image of a Fishery Past”. 27 Jan. 2000. http://www.mun.ca/gazette/1999-

2000/Jan.27/archtreasures.html (23 May 2012)

18

Much proof has been found on the origins of fishermen in Newfoundland, like this

Italian engraving, the Portuguese maps, the French and English predominant place in the

trading system with Europe regarding the commerce of the cod fish, as well as the Irish

poems from Donough MacConmara. The situation was to become very different with the

Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, Newfoundland would become officially English though the

French were still allowed on a limited part of the land, only to continue to fish and process

it in the cod fisheries.

As Irish people embarked on English ships, or on Irish merchants ships registered

as English, it is hard to tell exactly what was the number of people in terms of population

in Newfoundland, but there is proof of large numbers of Irish settlers in Newfoundland as

“by 1675 they had made a permanent settlement (appropriately called “Ireland's Eye”) in

Trinity Bay”57. Though, the settlers in Newfoundland are generally referred to as either

French or English, Irish immigrants were known to be part of these Newfoundland settlers,

but never referred to in official sources. It would take Irish people longer to be recognized

as different from the English, and put their mark on the fisheries industries.

Cod fishing brought people from many countries, and over centuries to

Newfoundland, but as was mentioned before, the French and the English shared the land, it

would be useful to look at how was Newfoundland divided, and where the Irish stood

between these two other nationalities. In the next section we will look closer at the

territories owned by the English and by the French, which will lead us then to look at the

place Irish people held in the conflicts between France and Great Britain.

57 George Casey, Irish Culture in Newfoundland. op. cit. 207

19

ii- The Partition of Newfoundland

To be an attractive and lucrative place, Newfoundland had to experience hard times

from its settlers' greed and was for a long time a subject of envy. As early as May 1689,

William of Orange declared war on Louis XIV King of France using the encroachment on

Newfoundland fisheries as a motif. Newfoundland together with Acadia were the two

regions where contact was made between the English and French and therefore where

conflicts settled up.58

Up to 1713, Newfoundland was shared between two big powers, the French and the

British. The other European groups kept fishing around the Newfoundland coasts, but did

not fight for the land. On the Avalon peninsula of Newfoundland, the English were based

in St John's and the French had their settlers in Placentia (or Plaisance in French). “After

nine years of attacks by the sea, which turned out to be unsuccessful for both opponents,

Le Moyne d'Iberville suggested a partisan warfare through the woods”59. The French on

the one hand besieged St John's and wanted to keep Plaisance, and on the other hand, the

English did not succeed in keeping total control on St John's and did not succeed either in

conquering Plaisance.60

But Article 13 of the Treaty of Utrecht put an end to these wars and stated that

Newfoundland would from then on become a British colony, and the French would only be

allowed to keep what was called later “the French Shore”61. The French Shore was a

coastal area stretching from Point Riche to Cape Bonavista in the Northern part of

Newfoundland from 1713 to 178362, this area was to be changed after 1783, but it is not

relevant for the purpose of this work to go further on the subject. Nevertheless, it has to be

mentioned that the French stopped going temporarily to Newfoundland during the Seven

Years' War (1756-1763) and returned after signing the Treaty of Paris in 1763, allowing

them to return to the French Shore and they were also granted the islands of St Pierre et

Miquelon63, off the southern coast of Newfoundland. The treaty of Paris aimed to give an

equal right to the English and French to establish colonies in Canada.

58 Firmin Roz, Histoire du Canada, Paul Hartmann, Paris. 1935. 8459 Ibid. 9060 Ibid. 9161 Hiller, J.K. “Treaty of Utrecht, 1713”. Nov. 2009. http://www.heritage.nf.ca/exploration/utrecht.html (22

May 2012)62 Hiller, J.K. “The French Treaty Shore”.2001. http://www.heritage.nf.ca/exploration/french_shore.html (25

May 2012)63 Ibid.

20

Map of the island of Newfoundland, 1768.

“This 18th-century English map of Newfoundland shows the limits of the French Shore, as

specified in the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) and Treaty of Versailles (1783). The designated

limits encompassed Cape Bonavista, Cape John, Point Riche, and Cape Ray, and St.

Pierre - shown here as St. Peter's Island”64

The French were for the great majority from Brittany, Normandy and the Basque

country, of course other ports of departure like Bordeaux or La Rochelle were registered,

but in smaller and less relevant numbers. All of them became very hostile to the English

regarding the situation back in France and the limitations imposed on them in North

America by English laws. Hostility was to be reinforced when the French Revolution

started in 1789, it was then contrasting with their English neighbours' way of thinking in a

larger sense, as in rejecting the place of a King as the head of the state, and give more

power to the people. But 1789 was only a starting point, the Napoleonic Wars which were

64 Neary, Peter and O'Flaherty, Patrick “Part of the Main: An Illustrated History of Newfoundland and Labrador” (St. John's, Newfoundland: Breakwater Books, ©1983) 41. http://www.heritage.nf.ca/exploration/1768_map.html (22 May 2012)

21

to follow throughout the end of the eighteenth century and continuing then in the early

decades of the nineteenth century, led to a series of wars either between or involving

France and Great Britain. As Newfoundland was shared between both countries, the

discordance from Europe was mirrored and as will be discussed later, had a non negligible

impact on the different colonies in Newfoundland.

The island, or more precisely the coasts of Newfoundland were then shared

between the Protestant English and the Catholic French. One can obviously wonder here

where the Irish servants who first came to serve English masters in their lucrative business

were situated. As Ireland was still ruled by the English throughout the eighteenth century

as mentioned in the first part of this work, the pattern was reproduced on the other side of

the ocean, and the Irish in Newfoundland were still ruled by the English under colonial

dominion. As they mostly communicated in their own language, Irish people even had

their own name for Newfoundland, Talamh an eisc, (meaning 'the land of the fish') which

was first referred to in MacConmara's poems65 . Very rarely, not to say never, Irish people

gave a name to a foreign – as in outside Ireland - place in their own language.

From a census of the population in Newfoundland in 1754, there were 1,816

English and 2,683 Irish.66 This shows that even Irish people were first forgotten about and

too often considered as English by a lack of rigorous registers in terms of data, soon they

came to outnumber the English and had an impact on the building of society in

Newfoundland. Irish people being present in larger numbers than English people it caused

several problems and the consequences were to mark history.

In the next part of this dissertation, the Irish influence will be focused on in order to

understand what was the role of the Irish settlers in the Anglo-French wars and their

motives for staying in Canada. Then the impact of the Treaty of Utrecht partitioning the

island of Newfoundland will be discussed regarding the fact that the French were confined

to restricted areas, and how it helped the construction of the Irish identity in Newfoundland

among the English settlers.

65 Donough MacConmara, The Adventures of a Luckless Fellow, Op Cit. 20366 Presbytarian Register, Waterford, May 31, 1761 to June 27, 1775. Maurice Lenihan, Reminiscences of a

journalist, in the Limerick Reporter, 3 Sept. 1867.

22

iii – Immigrant groups after Partition

As explained before, the French Shore was, up to 1783, situated in the North of

Newfoundland, and also counted the islands of St Pierre and Miquelon on the southern

coast. St Pierre and Miquelon came back into French hands in 176367, and were used as a

base by fishermen coming from France. After the Treaty of Utrecht, “France gave up all

claims to Newfoundland but retained fishing rights along the coast from Cape Bonavista

north to Point Riche”68, this area was only to allow them to fish and cure the cod during the

fishing season, unlike the islands of St Pierre and Miquelon, where French fishermen could

live and stay longer than the fishing season if they wished. Here is a map locating the

islands of St Pierre and Miquelon off the southern coast of Newfoundland.

http://www.insee.fr/fr/themes/document.asp?ref_id=ip1178&page=graph

But as the French shore was on the North coast of Newfoundland and the

archipelago of St Pierre and Miquelon was off the South coast, French people living in the

archipelago had more contacts with the English colonies on the Avalon Peninsula (the

southern part of Newfoundland). The French Shore came to disappear or at least to lose its

French settlements, from the pressure exercised by the English to take possession of the

territory. The French were then left with the only ownership of the islands of St Pierre et

Miquelon. Of course, from the proximity of the islands, the fishing grounds were always a

subject of disagreement between the French and the English, and later with the Canadians.

The English became then officially the only colonisers on the island of Newfoundland.

67 Janzen, Olaf. “French Presence in Newfoundland”. 1998. http://www.heritage.nf.ca/exploration/f_presence.html (28 May 2012)

68 Baker, Melvin. “History of Newfoundland and Labrador”. March 2003. http://www.gov.nl.ca/publicat/royalcomm/research/bakerchronology.pdf (30 May 2012)

Source: www.insee.fr

23

After pushing the French out of Newfoundland, the island of Newfoundland

became a complete English colony, or at least a territory owned by the English crown.

Newfoundland is known to be the first and therefore the oldest English colony without

“counting Wales, Ireland and the Channel Islands” 69 but was officially recognised as an

“official British colony by Imperial legislation” in 182470.

English colonisers were not all rich merchants who made their fortune with the

business done around cod fisheries, “In 1791, Justice John Reeves explained that resident

boatkeepers had emerged from a class of individuals who little or no property beforehand.

They were rather common fishermen who, having had some success, aspired to become

planters and were then set up by merchants who hoped to make a profit from supplying

them and marketing their produce.”71 Though, the main reason why they wanted to settle

in Newfoundland was still cod, which helped these new planters to climb the social ladder

and become richer and more influential in the newly built society.

Still under the Palliser Act of 177572, which restrained the settlements in

Newfoundland to seasonal settlements for the purpose of cod fishing and processing, the

English were to gradually settle permanently in Newfoundland, as Carolyn Lambert has

noted, “the pace of permanent settlement on the island quickened largely because of the

wartime conditions of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic period. British vessels

risked attack by French naval vessels and privateers. Merchants, traders and fishers soon

realized that it was safer and more convenient to remain on the island year round.”73 So

even if the French had to officially leave Newfoundland to the English, they still

represented a threat for the English seasonal settlers in Newfoundland. “During the period

of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars in Europe from 1793 to 1815,

Newfoundland’s population increased from 11,382 persons in 1797 to a total of 40,568 in

1815.”74 In these statistics, it is not mentioned what was the percentage, or at least the

representation of Irish people, who were known to have been considered as part of the

English colonisers. In 1784 England granted religious freedom to Roman Catholics75 and

69 http://www.britishempire.co.uk/maproom/newfoundland.htm 70 Baker, Melvin. “History of Newfoundland and Labrador”. March 2003.

http://www.gov.nl.ca/publicat/royalcomm/research/bakerchronology.pdf (30 May 2012)71 Handcock, Gordon. “Settlement”. 2000. http://www.heritage.nf.ca/society/settlement.html (29 May 2012)72 Palliser, Hugh. Reproduction of the Palliser Act of 1775

http://www.heritage.nf.ca/lawfoundation/articles/doc4_1775palliser.html 73 Lambert, Carolyn. “Establishment of Colonial Satus”. 2008.

http://www.heritage.nf.ca/law/colonial_status.html (30 May 2012)74 Baker, Melvin. “History of Newfoundland and Labrador”. March 2003.

http://www.gov.nl.ca/publicat/royalcomm/research/bakerchronology.pdf (30 May 2012)75 Ibid.

24

the very same year, the Catholic Church of Newfoundland was founded76. As was noted

earlier, Irish people embarked on English ships to Newfoundland. The foundation of a

Catholic Church involved that a sufficient number of Catholics must have settled in

Newfoundland by the end of the eighteenth century.

Information on the subject is always very general, but in trying to collect as much

evidence as possible, the Irish were also part of the immigrant population who stayed in

Newfoundland after the rest of the Europeans and mostly the French were driven out.

Kerby A. Miller noted that “in the eighteenth century there was a sizeable migration of

Catholics to Newfoundland, primarily from Waterford, Wexford and other southeastern

counties”77, unfortunately without giving any ratio of the Irish immigrants compared to the

English immigrants. To emphasize this lack of numbers, “the authorities in Newfoundland

[...] had difficulty ascertaining the precise number of Irish in Newfoundland. Governor

Edwards reported in 1779 that there are some thousands of Irish people who inhabit the

different outharbours”78.

The Irish presence in Newfoundland was shadowed by the more official English

presence in terms of censuses and statistics in a larger sense and the construction of Irish

identity was a long and hard but successful process in Newfoundland. From an Irish point

of view, Newfoundland was known as Talamh an Eisc, or “trans-Atlantic Ireland [...] in

the eighteenth century”79 therefore, the proof of Irish settlements in Newfoundland will be

found either in local Irish or Newfoundland histories, and in some correspondences

between the English authorities on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, as will be dealt with in

the last part of this dissertation where the construction of Irish identity in Newfoundland

will be developed.

So even if Newfoundland was split in different ways at different times, following

one treaty or another, it ended under English dominion. The French and the English both

left a print in Newfoundland's culture, but so did the Irish, even if they did not have an

official presence at the start.

76 Mulcahy, Mary. “The Catholic Church in Newfoundland: The Pre-Emancipation Years”. Historical Studies, 52 (1985).

77 Kerby A. Miller, Emigrants and Exiles: Ireland and Irish Exodus to North America. op. cit. 14078 Cyril Byrne, “The Waterford Colony in Newfoundland 1700-1850”, Chapter 14, Waterford History and

Society. 79 George Casey, Irish Culture in Newfoundland. op. cit. 204

25

III- The Construction of an Irish identity in Newfoundland

To develop this topic, the exact meaning of the word 'identity' in relation to

immigration needs to be discussed . Then a more specific focus will be placed on which

factors helped Irish people to impose themselves in Newfoundland and the process of the

construction of their identity in their host country.

i- Identity and Immigration

Defining identity can be a difficult task. The dictionary gives this definition: “the

qualities and attitudes that a person or a group of people have, that make them different

from other people”80, which clarifies certain aspects of identity according to the points

made in this dissertation so far. The points to take into consideration when talking about

Irish identity in Newfoundland are therefore their language, as most of these Irish

immigrants could only speak Irish, their religion, as it was different from the other

religions in the United Kingdom, their nationality, and their culture in a larger view.

The theme of what an Irish identity consists of is a recurring subject in Irish

literature, like in James Joyce's or Jonathan Swift's work for example, and also in Donough

MacConmara cited in this work. To know someone's identity is to know this person's

name, and where this person comes from. Some names are evocative on the geographical

origins of someone, but in a context of migrations and immigration a name can lose its

original meaning. In the literary context, there seem to be a perpetual search for identity, as

this identity evolves throughout the different stages of life, a person's identity is in

perpetual flux, especially if this person or group's identity is linked to a migratory

movement. To answer the question “What is the relationship between Irish identities we

find inside Ireland and the Irish identities we meet outside Ireland?” Patrick O'Sullivan has

stated that “they are clearly not the same”81, an identity is therefore not an established

concept, it keeps changing, moving and evolving. It even reaches a point when “ethnic

identity is a matter of personal choice, a matter of picking out the most attractive of the

grandparents82”, meaning that an individual is building his or her own identity on a

80 “Identity”. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. Pearson Education. 200381 Patrick O'Sullivan, The Irish in the New Communities, Leicester University Press, London; Washington

1997. 1082 Ibid. 10

26

personal choice.

Talking about the Irish emigration in London, Lynn Lees noted that “most migrants

held resolutely to their ethnic identity […] and the Irish reworked their cultural heritage to

fit the demands of life”83, this situation also happened in Newfoundland, Irish people kept

their ethnic identity to differentiate themselves from English people, and a strong Irish

identity can still be felt in Newfoundland today, but of course different from Irish identity

in Ireland or in other parts of the world. Irish immigrants everywhere attached a great

importance to their identity, it is an important factor in the building of a society. The

question of identity in the homeland is not the same as in the context of immigration, the

case of “people who had 'become more Irish' (i.e. who made a point of emphasizing their

ethnic identity) on migration”84 is not rare, and this situation can more largely happen to

any group of migrants. One's ethnic identity in a new country or community outside one's

home country is important to establish a social link. Indeed, it may be easier for an

immigrant to gather with other immigrants from the same background to adapt and get

accustomed to a new way of living, “diasporic communities generally experience

alienation and isolation in their new homelands”85. This is how immigrants create

associations or societies to develop solidarity among the community, as the Benevolent

Irish Society for instance. The Benevolent Irish Society was created in 1806 in St John's,

Newfoundland, “by a group of Irishmen to relieve the wants and distresses of their

fellows”86 as throughout the eighteenth century, the Irish population grew in numbers, the

community needed something to bring them together, it is important to note that this

society was mixed, meaning it regrouped Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants.

When talking about an Irish identity, the question of myth has to be approached.

“The Irish have accepted the myth of themselves as prone to drink, and it is precisely that

– a myth”87, but throughout the centuries, this myth held by others of every Irish person

being heavy drinkers was very often associated with a certain amount of discriminations as

will be dealt with in the last subpart. The myth can also be a collective myth, as Kevin

83 Lynn Lees cited by Roger Swift, The Irish in Britain in Patrick O'Sullivan, The Irish in the New Communities, op. cit. 73

84 Liam Greenslade, White skin, white masks: psychological distress among the Irish in Britain,in Patrick O'Sullivan, The Irish in the New Communities, op. cit. 217

85 Kenny, Kevin. “Diaspora and Comparison: The Global Irish as a Case Study”. Journal of American History June 2003. 142

86 James Louis O Donel, Gentlemen-Bishops and faction fighters: The Letters of Bishop O Donel, Lambert, Scallan, and other Irish Missionaries. op. cit. 145

87 Liam Greenslade, White skin, white masks: psychological distress among the Irish in Britain,in Patrick O'Sullivan, The Irish in the New Communities, op. cit. 219

27

Kenny noted, “diasporas manifest some collective myth about the homeland”88. This

collective myth corresponds to an idealisation of the homeland, it is the reason or the

multiple reasons that the migrant expresses the wish of going back home, or to imagine a

better place to be when feeling homesick.

Someone's identity is by using a simple definition what would make this person

different from another at a certain point at a certain time in a certain context it can remain

the same but more likely to evolve with time. In the case of Irish people leaving their

homeland on English boats for Newfoundland, they had first to face the language barrier

between themselves and the English. This linguistic situation caused troubles in the

practice of religion, as will be dealt with in the next subpart with the appointment of Father

O Donel in Newfoundland, but language plays an important role in the community.

Language is the first mean of communication used between people and therefore helps the

building of a society, and of the identity within this society.

As mentioned before, the concept of identity relies on different aspects of a person,

and identity in the context of immigration can be be different than the identity felt or

expressed in the home land. Identity within the diaspora can be cultivated with collective

myths, and the immigrant can use his or her identity in order to be part of a group and

develop his or her social skills. The next part will look closer at these aspects of identity,

how did Irish people impose their identity in Newfoundland, and how they did they suffer

from discrimination towards this identity. The one particular aspect which will be dealt

with is religion. Indeed, the building of an Irish identity in Newfoundland went through a

long process during which religion played a major role. Catholicism linked French and

Irish people, giving the latter a strong base for the building of their identity. As the French

were at war with the English concerning the sharing of the land in Newfoundland, the Irish

had a good opportunity for rebellion by joining the French, especially since they shared the

same religion. In the next part, this religious relation between the French and the Irish in

Newfoundland will be discussed.

88 Kenny, Kevin. “Diaspora and Comparison: The Global Irish as a Case Study”. Journal of American History June 2003. op. cit. 142

28

ii- Religion and the French Connection

As mentioned in the first part of this dissertation, Irish people back in Ireland

suffered from a number of laws, such as the Penal Laws, aimed at lessening the power of

Catholicism. These laws were also effective in Newfoundland under English authorities,

until the Catholic Relief Acts, beginning in 1778, dismantled the effects of the Penal Laws.

The Catholic Church in Newfoundland was then legally founded in 1784, and this

very same year, “the Catholics in Saint John's declared that seven-eights of the town's

inhabitants hailed from Ireland.”89 Saint John's was the biggest city in Newfoundland by

the end of the eighteenth century, but this situation does not explicitly say that seven-eights

of the population in St John's was Catholic, and it is known that some of the Irish

merchants were Protestant.

Even though “it is apparent that priests did visit Newfoundland on an irregular

basis and that some of them were a scandal, or at least a source of embarrassment to the

Catholic merchants living in Newfoundland”90, in 1784, James Louis O Donel was

appointed as the first Roman Catholic bishop in Newfoundland. Beforehand, “priests had

only been able to operate on the island disguised as fishermen, they were forbidden to

celebrate mass, and instead moved amongst their people saying the rosary”91. To

emphasize this ban on celebrating mass freely, Governor Hugh Palliser made a report on

the situation in Newfoundland and remarked that “a free exercise of religion is permitted

to all persons except to Roman Catholicks [sic], whose number exceeds the Protestants: it

is said they have priests secreted among them, to the great disturbance of the peace and

good government of the country in the winter season”92. It is understandable from the

merchants' point of view that they had to keep good relationships with the English, and

follow English legislation to maintain their flourishing business with the English cod

fisheries.

With the relaxation of the Penal Laws, it became primordial to appoint someone at

the head of these unofficial priests and try to build a trustworthy relationship with the

authorities in Newfoundland. The search for this person was based on several criteria, and

89 Kerby A. Miller, Emigrants and Exiles: Ireland and Irish Exodus to North America. op. cit. 14090 James Louis O Donel, Gentlemen-Bishops and faction fighters: The Letters of Bishop O Donel, Lambert,

Scallan, and other Irish Missionaries, Jesperson Press, St John's, 1984. 991 Tim Pat Coogan, Wherever Green Is Worn, The Story of The Irish Diaspora, Hutchinson, 2001. 42292 James Louis O Donel, Gentlemen-Bishops and faction fighters: The Letters of Bishop O Donel, Lambert,

Scallan, and other Irish Missionaries. op. cit. 9

29

Bishop O Donel came out as the perfect candidate for the position.

In a letter from Bishop Egan to Vicar Apostolic Talbot in London, the

recommendations for appointing Bishop O Donel in Newfoundland were mainly based on

his language abilities, as Bishop Egan pointed out, “both the English, and the Irish

language (and this latter I beg leave to observe to your Lordship is indispensably

necessary to render a Missionary useful in Newfoundland, as most of those upon whom his

labours are to be employ'd speak nothing else)”93. The arrival of Bishop O Donel to

Newfoundland helped the Catholic community to organise itself, and become more

influential on the island, but at the start, “Bishop O Donel [had difficulties] asserting his

authority over a couple of clergymen in Newfoundland [and this was] directly related to

the operation of the Penal Laws in Ireland”94. Nevertheless, on the 20th, October, 1784,

Governor Campbell issued a Proclamation of Liberty of Conscience95, giving the liberty to

practice religion.

The Irish Catholic settlers had a big point in common with the French: their

religion, as France was also a fervent Roman Catholic country. As far back as when the

Wild Geese left Ireland to find a better political and religious climate in France, relations

between Ireland and France had always been good and as Jame Louis O Donel pointed out,

“the Irish in Newfoundland had strong Jacobite and consequently pro-French sentiments,

so any legal expedient such as the Penal Laws would be used to attempt to force them out

of Newfoundland to prevent their joining with any invading French force”96. Therefore,

links were forged between the two groups in Newfoundland in order to keep parts of

Newfoundland out of English hands. George Casey points out that “ the original Irish

settlers were hired by the French to act as 'guardians ' of the fishing property during their

winter absence ”97 which corresponds to the period when the French were not allowed to

overwinter in Newfoundland under the successive treaties mentioned earlier. What was

then called the French Shore was being looked after by Irish fishermen during the winter,

giving them an opportunity to increase their financial revenue, and to settle freely in

Newfoundland without having to deal with English laws on the English controlled parts of

Newfoundland. This compromise developed a good relationship between the two Catholic

groups of settlers in Newfoundland. While the French had to leave when the fishing season

93 James Louis O Donel, Gentlemen-Bishops and faction fighters: The Letters of Bishop O Donel, Lambert, Scallan, and other Irish Missionaries, Op Cit. 42-43

94 Ibid.795 Ibid. 1096 Ibid. 797 George Casey, Irish Culture in Newfoundland. Op Cit. 215

30

was over, they did not want their belongings to be left unattended. On the Irish side, it was

a means of getting out of English government's reach for the winter while they could not

get a job fishing for cod, and during which time jobs were hard to come by, but the main

factor was that permanent settlement was still banned under English laws.

As explained before, the French territories were not restrained to the French Shore,

the islands of St Pierre and Miquelon were under full French possession then, which

allowed contacts with the French Shore to be kept, even during the winter. Unfortunately,

no research has been done yet on the links between the Irish guardians of the French Shore

and the archipelago of St Pierre and Miquelon, but evidence can be found today on the

presence in St Pierre of Irish people, like this picture of a grave taken in the graveyard on

the most populated island of St Pierre.

Other less evocative graves can be seen, this one is the only one which mentions a

place of birth, and therefore becomes more relevant than the others. From the dates (1787-

1859) it is obvious that by the end of the eighteenth century, the links between the French

and the Irish were strong enough to be able to share a life together. The question of

communication has remained unanswered, because even though these two Catholic groups

shared the same strong belief in God, the tools used to communicate are questionable, as

most Irish spoke mostly Irish, and French would speak only their native language

(meaning Basque, Breton or French).

31

iii- Discrimination of Irish Immigrants

Even if the Catholic religion in Newfoundland eventually became tolerated, it was

not always the case, Irish people suffered from discrimination on different grounds, their

religion being one of the subjects of discord. The growing number of Irish immigrants in

Newfoundland was seen as a threat for the English authorities, as Cyril Byrne pointed out,

“reports from the English authorities throughout this period invariably complain about the

numbers and conduct of Irish Catholics in Newfoundland; they winter over and 'seldom

return for Ireland'. They outnumbered English Protestants in the winter and vastly

outnumbered them in the summer season”98. The English authorities could not control the

immigration of Irish people even though they tried to forbid permanent settlements.

“In 1742 Governor Smith reported that almost all the inhabitants of Ferryland

were 'Irish papists'”99, Ferryland is situated on the eastern coast of the Avalon Peninsula

facing the Atlantic Ocean, and is therefore a favorable location for cod fishing. The

example of Ferryland is suggestive, it is a perfect location from where fishermen can leave

to go fishing, and also very practical to come back to in order to dry and process the fish.

Towns like Ferryland were under English dominion, it annoyed people like Governor

Smith to see that English towns became “papists” as he said. Irish people's religion here

appears to be a problem for the English authorities, and other evidence of this hostility

towards Catholicism are not hard to find, “at the end of the fishing season in 1755,

Governor Richard Dorrill (1719-1765) ordered prosecutions against a number of

Catholics […] including attendance at mass and allowing use of premises for purpose of

saying mass”100. And at the same time, to make sure his orders would be followed,

Governor Dorrill “ordered that all masters of ships bringing passengers to Newfoundland

must return them home after the fishing season unless special permission was granted”101

in order to be certain that all the Irish migrants who came for the fishing season would

return home on the same boat as they came. Catholicism was one motive for

discrimination and seemed to be the major factor leading after to other types of

98 Cyril Byrne, “The Waterford Colony in Newfoundland 1700-1850”, Chapter 14, Waterford History and Society

99 Mannion, John, “A Transatlantic merchant fishery: Richard Welsh of New Ross and the Sweetmans of Newbarn in Newfoundland, 1734 – 1862”, Whelan Wexford pp 373-421.

100James Louis O Donel, Gentlemen-Bishops and faction fighters: The Letters of Bishop O Donel, Lambert, Scallan, and other Irish Missionaries, Op Cit. 8

101Willeen G. Keough, The Slender Thread: Irish Women on the Southern Avalon, 1750 – 1860, Columbia University Press, 2009. 23

32

discrimination. After having to deal with discrimination back home, the same kind of

discrimination based on religion, the discriminatory pattern was reproduced in

Newfoundland. Irish migrants' ability to work was even questioned by English Officials, as

in 1756, an English Officer wrote: “An Irishman can't catch as much fish as a West

Country or Newfoundland man”102, but even though Irishmen were not considered to be

good workers, English masters kept hiring them, “Irish servants – men and women –

continued to be hired for service of the fishery and domestic work”103.

Irish women as well as Irish men suffered from discrimination, “an image of the

Irish woman servant [was fashioned] as promiscuous and conniving […] they would

become a charge on the more respectable inhabitants of the island”104 as most of them

arrived in Newfoundland not married and became pregnant outside of wedlock105.

The stereotyping of the Irish citizen was not really one of high esteem, their way of

living was often referred to pejoratively, as Kerby Miller noted:

Even in Newfoundland, Irish servants suffered

discrimination and economic exploitation. In

the early eighteenth century, English officials

frequently remarked that Irish laborers in

Newfoundland often had great difficulty in

collecting their wages; many were paid in

liquor, and remained in an almost perpetual

state of drunkenness and debt peonage.106

Alcohol was too often linked to the Irish standard of life in Newfoundland, a well

as their “feckless”107 attitude. In Kerby Miller's quote here, one can wonder how Irish

laborers had difficulties collecting their wages.

As was mentioned before, the proportion of Irish people grew bigger than the

proportion of English people, in 1749, “governor George Rodney warned the Colonial

102George Casey, Irish Culture in Newfoundland. Op Cit. 206103Willeen G. Keough, The Slender Thread: Irish Women on the Southern Avalon, 1750 – 1860. Op Cit. 32104Ibid. 30-31105Ibid. 30106Kerby A. Miller, Emigrants and Exiles: Ireland and Irish Exodus to North America. Op Cit. 145107Willeen G. Keough, The Slender Thread: Irish Women on the Southern Avalon, 1750 – 1860. Op Cit. 31

33

Office that the Irish Roman Catholics in Newfoundland were not to be trusted”108. The

growing number of Irish migrants was threatening the supremacy of the English settlers.

English officials did fear the increased power of the Irish, indeed, “they frequently ran

away from their masters and were notorious for drunken and disorderly conduct […] and

they were often hostile to English authorities overseas […] colonial officials in

Newfoundland […] feared that Irish “papists” were plotting insurrection.”109. As was

noted before, the French shared the same religion as the Irish, Catholicism was a common

feature against the English, and while the French were trying to invade Newfoundland and

extend their territory, it was well known that “Irish Catholics did assist several French

invasions”110, it was also known that “they murdered and robbed, but they kept the faith”111,

this faith that proved to distinguish them from others, and therefore represent a major part

of their identity. And even if on the one hand they were considered to be criminals, on the

other hand they never lost their faith in Catholicism, “this dichotomy was in part

responsible for the Catholic Church's break-out from Dorrill-type strictures, and the

establishment of its power in Newfoundland in the first place.” The Irish identity built on

stereotypes and discrimination in Newfoundland developed to become stronger and more

influential in the following centuries.

It was long and arduous work for the Irish in Newfoundland to accustom

themselves to a life under English dominion, but they fought and kept praying for their

situation to evolve, and this situation started to change with the foundation of the Catholic

Church in Newfoundland at the end of the eighteenth century. Irish people settled in

Newfoundland and developed colonies along the coast, where descendants can still be met

today.

108 Raymond J. Lahey, James Louis O'Donel in Newfoundland, 1787 – 1807: The establishment of the Roman Catholic Church, ed. Shannon Ryan and G.M. Story cited in Willeen G. Keough, The Slender Thread: Irish Women on the Southern Avalon, 1750 – 1860.Op Cit. 23

109 Kerby A. Miller, Emigrants and Exiles: Ireland and Irish Exodus to North America. Op Cit. 146-147110 Ibid. 147111 Tim Pat Coogan, Wherever Green is Worn, the Story of the Irish Diaspora, op. cit. 421

34

Conclusion

Through this dissertation the origins of Irish presence in Newfoundland have been

discussed, looking at the evolution from seasonal work migrations to permanent

settlement. This long process started before the eighteenth century and continued after, but

the Irish immigrants in Newfoundland mainly settled during this century with the reasons

discussed in this dissertation. But this immigration process did not stop after the eighteenth

century and even if cod fishing was banned after this 'cod rush' other reasons brought new

Irish immigrants to Newfoundland, the attraction of a growing community becoming more

influential is one of these reasons. As this community grew throughout the process of

establishing a permanent settlement it became more significant, “there is little evidence of

any substantial Irish involvement in local affairs until the late seventeenth century”112 - as

the English government was still hostile to the presence of the Irish community - but this

situation evolved with the involvement of important Irish merchants in Newfoundland

local affairs and when the Catholic religion became tolerated.

Irish immigrants in Newfoundland came from different social backgrounds and

from different religious groups though they did manage to build an Irish identity on the

island that can still be felt today in the twenty first century. The last population census in

Canada was carried out in 2011 and therefore the data have not all been published yet, but

the previous census in 2006 gives data on the ethnic origins of the population. In this

census, the province of Newfoundland and Labrador count 500,610 inhabitants, and

107,390 of them claimed Irish origins, which comes in fifth places after British Isles

origins, other North American origins, Canadian and English origins.113 These statistics

prove that an Irish identity was still claimed by 21,45% of the total population in

Newfoundland in 2006. Nothing is sure about the fact that these people who claim an Irish

ethnic origin today are the direct descendants of the eighteenth century immigrants, and an

important factor such as the “intra – diaspora”114 has to be taken into account, it means

that Irish migrants did not all stay in the place where they arrived first. The case of St

Pierre et Miquelon was mentioned, where Irish immigrants settled after coming from

Newfoundland, and the immigrants from the Great Famine were more than likely subject

to move from one place to another in Canada. Therefore, Newfoundland Irish people

112 George Casey, Irish Culture in Newfoundland. op. cit. 207113 http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/demo26b-eng.htm ( 12th June 2012)114 D. H. Akenson, The Irish Diaspora. op. cit. 14

35

cannot all be considered as descendants from eighteenth century seasonal workers. More

research is necessary to understand who the ancestors of these claiming Irish ancestry

today in Newfoundland were. Though, it was noted that an Irish presence is strongly felt in

Newfoundland, in terms of music, hospitality and the Newfoundland accent is very close

to the southeastern Irish accent115.

In this dissertation, the Protestant Irish case has not been studied, nevertheless the

Irish Protestant immigrants should not be forgotten. It is important to note “that sectarian

hostilities brought from the Old World frequently had a continuation in the New World”116

and therefore more research should be carried out on the evolution of the Irish community

- in a larger sense – from settlement to the foundation of the Benevolent Irish Society at the

start of the nineteenth century and its impact on the evolution of relations between Catholic

and Protestant Irish in Newfoundland. Irish identity does not solely rely on religion, and

the importance of the Benevolent Irish Society proves that both the Protestant and Catholic

communities had good relations when it came to develop their Irishness117.

115 Tim Pat Coogan, Wherever Green is Worn, the Story of the Irish Diaspora. op. cit.417116 D. H. Akenson, The Irish Diaspora. op. cit. 9117 Benevolent Irish Society, “Benevolent Irish Society 1806 – 2010”. 2009.

http://bisnl.ca/main/content/benevolent-irish-society-1806-2010

36

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