Flight from Famine: The Coming of the Irish to Canada

by Donald Mackay

This is the moving story of the mass migration that brought a million Irish men and women to Canada in the first half of the nineteenth century. After leaving conditions so bad that one witness described how “they wandered into towns and died in the streets,” many arrived penniless, hoping to “make good” in the new world. In one tragic year, 5,000 died at sea and another 5,400 got no farther than a grave on Grosse Île. But, despite the countless daily hardships facing settlers in a harsh new land, by the time of Confederation the Irish were the second-largest ethnic group after the French.

Genres: History

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Decaf1 · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author presented a lot of facts in a very disorganized fashion that made for very slow reading. That said, while reading I learned why the Irish hated the English so much. The book reinforced the negative impact of social stratification, colonialism and a free-market economy on a population. The author shares recurring horrifying images of the impact of the extremes between the rich and poor, where poverty stricken Irish mothers, fathers and children were allowed to live in dirt hovels and then slowly and painfully starve to death without care or compassion.

The whole concepts of colonialism and free market economy are so vile as the entire population is not on an even playing field to start. Rather than deal with extreme poverty that was exacerbated by the Potato famine in a productive and humane fashion, the British chose to espouse capitalism and export their poverty problem including Cholera and Typhus to Canada. For the souls that survived the journey being inhumanely packed into 2 foot by 2 foot spaces on ships that bred disease and death, the journey to Canada was a good thing for the majority of those immigrants even though the costs of assisting the new poverty stricken immigrants presented a new financial burden in the areas where the immigrants were settled.

Sad to say, that in the present day, there are many proponents of the free-market economy that have not learned from the lessons of the past.

[Gwen Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shocking, horrific, eye opening. I have known about the Irish famine most of my life. I didn't know there was more than one famine - several in the 1700s and 1800s. I knew about the coffin ships during the 1847 to 1848 period of the "shovelling out the paupers" (Chapter 11) but I didn't appreciate the appalling conditions on the ships that increased the number of deaths during the voyage. I had heard that during these years of famine that grain, meat and produce were being exported from Ireland while the poor Irish died in ditches and at the road side. I knew that the British didn't do much to relieve conditions and feed the starving, but I could hardly conceive that is was British policy to let the "market" sort itself out -- "Trevelyan [Charles Edward Trevelyan, executive of the Treasury under Lord John Russell] still believed that the law of supply and demand, left to operate without interference, would gradually correct Ireland's trouble." (p. 230) This is the belief in "free market" at work, along with a distinct prejudice against an ethnic group. Sound familiar - anyone? Let's stop repeating history.

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another book to add to my Great Famine library. Although primarily concerned with the Irish who immigrated to Canada it nevertheless touches on many aspects of the Famine in general to include cause, immigrant transport, and life in Ireland during the famine. I found the immigrant information most useful as it includes several waves of immigration into late 18th century. But also, as the title states, a lot of very interesting information is included about life for the Irish and their neighbors in places of settlement.