Ottawa, with its deep ties to British colonial history and its large Irish-Canadian community, is the perfect city in which to discover a new book that sets out to do something important: put names and stories to the Irish influence on Canada's history.
Fifty Irish Lives in Canada, co-authored by Dr. Eamonn McKee and Dr. Mark G. McGowan, is a carefully crafted tribute to the generations of Irish men and women who crossed the Atlantic and helped shape the country we live in today. And Dr. McKee brings a particularly fitting credential to the work: he served as Ireland's Ambassador to Canada from 2020 to 2024, spending four years travelling widely through the country he's now helped document.
Why This Book, Why Now
Ireland and Canada share a bond that runs deeper than St. Patrick's Day festivities and the obvious surnames that pepper Canadian history. The Irish came to Canada in enormous numbers throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, fleeing famine and poverty and bringing with them the labour, faith, culture, and political organizing that would shape everything from the Catholic Church's role in Quebec to the construction of the railways.
Ottawa itself bears clear marks of its Irish founders. The Rideau Canal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that bisects the city and doubles as the world's longest naturally refrigerated skating rink, was built in significant part by Irish immigrant labourers in the 1820s and 1830s. Many of them never left.
Fifty Stories, One Nation
Rather than a survey history, Fifty Irish Lives takes a biographical approach, telling the story through specific individuals whose lives illuminate broader patterns. This is smart historiography: it's much easier to care about a nation's past when you're reading about a specific person's choices, sacrifices, and contributions.
McKee's four years as Ambassador gave him unusual access and perspective. He travelled to communities across Canada where the Irish footprint is felt, from Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula to the Ottawa Valley, listening to how Canadians of Irish descent understand their own inheritance.
Ottawa's Irish Connection
Ottawa's Irish community has been part of the city's fabric since before Confederation. The city's Catholic parishes, its labour history, and even the political culture of the Parliamentary district have all been shaped in part by the Irish diaspora.
Readers in Ottawa will likely recognize echoes of their own family stories, the grandmother who came from County Cork, the great-uncle who worked the mills, in the fifty lives McKee and McGowan have chosen to profile. This is a book that rewards careful reading and might just send you back to your own family records.
Available at independent bookshops across Ottawa and online.
Source: Ottawa Life Magazine
