It’s been over 160 years since a typhus breakout killed 6,000 Irish immigrants in Montreal and now, the community is continuing the fight for a proper memorial.
On Sunday, members of the Montreal Irish community made the annual march down Centre St. in Pointe-Ste-Charles to the Black Rock, the large stone near the Victoria Bridge, near the parking lot under which the bodies of the outbreak’s victims are believed to be buried.
“Six thousand men, women and children died from typhus and were buried in that spot, forgotten,” said Montreal Irish Memorial Park Foundation director Fergus Keyes. “No names were mentioned.”
For years, Keyes and his colleagues have asked for a larger commemoration, giving the march a greater meaning.
“It’s also a walk of support for a beautiful green space to be built in the area of the Black Rock,” he said.
Those efforts may finally be paying off. In 2020, Hydro-Quebec is set to begin building a substation near the rock, but plan on sharing the area with the Irish community. A meeting is set for next month to discuss options.
“June is the first meeting where both the city and Hydro will start working on what the design will be,” said Keyes.
Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante confirmed that plans are underway for the memorial.
“We’re working with a firm to help us design the landscape for that park, so it’s going very well,” she said.
Also in attendance on Sunday was Dublin Mayor Micheal MacDonncha, who took part in the march for the first time.
“That sacred site needs to be protected, it needs to be enhanced and it needs to stand as a premiere memorial to those Irish who died,” he said.
Honoured to join with @Val_Plante and the Irish community in Montreal for the annual walk to the Black Rock to remember the 6,000 Irish who died and were buried here in 1847 following their journey from Ireland and the Great Hunger. @IrlEmbCanada pic.twitter.com/IXnN6kREEA
— Lord Mayor of Dublin (@LordMayorDublin) May 27, 2018