Remembering Canada: the place of Canada in the memorializing of the Great Irish Famine

Over 250,000 Irish migrants ventured to British North America during the years of the Great Irish Famine. Recently, Canadians have commemorated their role in assisting Famine refugees in several eastern Canadian cities and at quarantine stations in New Brunswick and Quebec. When the commemorations and monuments were being constructed, revisionist historians in Canada questioned, with some success, the centrality of the Famine to the entire process of Irish migration to Canada. Some historians have claimed that such commemorations will continue the "problem" of viewing all of the Irish migration to Canada through the lens of the Famine. While acknowledging the domestic historical conundrum about remembering the Famine in Canada, this article, however, proposes a different perspective: how is the Canadian role in the Irish Famine migration documented by Irish historians and memorialized in the Famine commemorations in Ireland itself? Through an examination of monuments to the Famine, Irish folk and theme parks, local and national museums, and formal public commemorations, the article will explore how the Irish depictions of the Famine diaspora to Canada, when evident at all, compare to Irish discussions of migration to the UK, the USA, and Australia.