In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Irish writers played a key role in transatlantic cultural conversations – among Canada, Britain, France, America, and Indigenous nations – that shaped Canadian nationalism. Nationalism in Ireland was likewise influenced by the literary works of Irish migrants and visitors to Canada.

Canada to Ireland explores the poetry and prose of twelve Irish writers and nationalists in Canada between 1788 and 1900, including Thomas Moore, Adam Kidd, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Thomas D’Arcy McGee, James McCarroll, Nicholas Flood Davin, and Isabella Valancy Crawford. Many of these writers were involved in Irish political causes, including those of the Patriots, the United Irish, Emancipation, Repeal, and Young Ireland, and their work explores the similar ways in which nationalists in Ireland and Indigenous and settler communities in Canada retained their cultural identities and sought autonomy from Britain. Initially writing for an audience in Ireland, they highlighted features of the landscape and culture that they regarded as distinctively Canadian and that were later invoked as powerful unifying symbols by Canadian nationalists. Michele Holmgren shows how these Irish writers and movements are essential to understanding the tenor of early Canadian literary nationalism and political debates concerning Confederation, imperial unity, and western expansion.

Canada to Ireland convincingly demonstrates that Canadian cultural nationalism left its mark on both countries. Contemporary decolonization movements in Canada and current cultural exchanges between Ireland and Indigenous peoples make this a timely and relevant study.

Michele Holmgren is associate professor of Canadian and Irish literature at Mount Royal University.

Michele Holmgren's profile page

• Runner-up, The Robert Rhodes Prize
• Runner-up, Gabrielle Roy Prize

“With exemplary scholarship, [Michele Holmgren] provides a highly informed analysis of the kinds of engaging materials that the likes of Thomas D’Arcy McGee recommended to Canadian writers as the fittest subjects for the inspiration of Canadian readers. After reading Holmgren’s extensive survey and study of our Irish-Canadian heritage, one would not be amiss in viewing Canada articulating its nascent national self in the titular terms of Norman Levine’s memoir: [Ireland] Made Me. This reviewer is convinced of Holmgren’s thesis by the evidence marshalled and by her painstaking argument.” Gerald Lynch, University of Toronto Quarterly

“A landmark study, in which Michele Holmgren offers authoritative and compelling insight into the extensive literary and political links between Canada and Ireland in the nineteenth century. This important book combines meticulous research with richly-contextualized close readings, opening up exciting new fields for critics and scholars, while its accessible and fluent style will appeal to all readers with an interest in Canadian and Irish history.” Sinéad Sturgeon, lecturer in Irish Writing, Queen's University Belfast