Skip to main content Skip to search Skip to search

History Historical Geography

Irish Settlements in Eastern Canada

A study of cultural transfer and adaptation

by (author) John Mannion

Publisher
University of Toronto Press
Initial publish date
Dec 1974
Category
Historical Geography, Ireland, Emigration & Immigration, Rural, Agriculture & Food, Social History
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781487576257
    Publish Date
    Dec 1974
    List Price
    $35.95

Classroom Resources

Where to buy it

Description

Among the vast migration of European peasants to North America during the nineteenth century, the largest group came from southern Ireland, Celtic, Catholic, rural, pre-industrial, many of them nevertheless settled in cities, but an appreciable number, particularly in eastern Canada, took up land and farmed. This study examines three areas of Irish settlement -- the Avalon peninsula, Miramichi, and Peterborough -- in terms of how their traditional farming methods, building styles, implements, settlement morphology, and other aspects of their culture were transferred, maintained, altered, or adapted in the new setting. The author has studied archives and records in both Ireland and Canada and rounded out these findings by interviews with some of the older settlers. The work is unique in that most studies in North American by historians, sociologists, and others have focused on the adjustment and assimilation of ethnic groups to their new environment rather than including also a study of their earlier cultural patterns and their transfer and survival in the New World.

About the author

Dr. John J. Mannion was a Professor of Geography (retired) at Memorial University of Newfoundland and is one of Canada’s leading cultural geographers, and an expert on Newfoundland settlement history.

John Mannion's profile page

Editorial Reviews

'Scholars will find Mannion's approach stimulating, particularly his use of oral evidence … yet the book has much to offer the layman with a lively interest in "reading" the relict cultural landscape of 19th century Canada.'

Canadian Geographical Journal