An account of the Big Black Sone at the Victoria Bridge,....and the reason it's there,..........an Important Historical Note ,to many Montrealers:
.......here's a quick excerpt from the story.......
In Montreal the gravesite remained unmarked for 12 years, until the workers who built the Victoria Bridge between 1851 and 1859 pulled a huge black boulder out of the river like a bad tooth and placed it on top of the common grave as a memorial. The "Irish Stone" is now stuck between a two-lane expressway that leads onto the bridge--a stone that the Canadian National Railway tried twice to remove as a traffic impediment, once in 1903 and again in 1965. Each time, the Irish community of Montreal raised hell and the stone remains where it was first placed, down in the Verdun-Pointe St-Charles district of Montreal where I grew up.
If you like to read the rest of the story,.....then check out either through teh 'Links Section' here to your right ,where the all the other features of this site are,........pictures,....memoriams,.....message boards,...etc etc ......
or here just click here: http://www.montrealmirror.com/ARCHIVES/1997/081497/cover.html
You may find it of interest,...........maybe not,........I believe it was originally titled "Kill me I'm Irish".............................
3 comments:
Check out this book written about the Irish famine. 'The Black Potatoes'.
The Horrific Blight, a review of the book.
What would you do if there was no food to eat, no clean clothes to wear or no shoes to wear in winter? The answers to these questions are found in Black Potatoes, which is set in Ireland in 1845 at the onset of the Potato famine. At the time of the potato famine, there were three classes of people in Ireland, the Irish farm laborers, the Irish farmers, and the English landlords. The farm laborers were the poorest, the farmers were middle class, and the landlords were the wealthy and powerful. The farm laborers and farmers rented land from the landlords and planted potatoes. When the potato famine hit, the Irish had a hard time paying their rents because of their failed crops. The Irish people had a long and enduring time during the potato famine to keep their families fed and well. The British Government came to the aid of the Irish, but many
times it was too late. The book is very Anti-British and rightfully so according to the evidence of British attitudes toward the Irish that reveal the ethnic and religious prejudices that divided the Irish and the English. The writing style of the author is very realistic and Irish everyday life is very detailed that it leaves a horrific feeling of sadness for those who lived and died during the potato famine and the years after. The pictures in the book are actual sketches obtained from various sources such as the Illustrated London News and British and Irish libraries.
Here's the authour of that book, that Bill mentioned in the previous post: Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845-1850 (Hardcover)
by Susan Campbell Bartoletti "THE WEATHER IN IRELAND has always been fickle, but the weather during the summer of 1845 was worse than the oldest people could remember..." (more)
I will try to Remembver in the NewYear to read this book Bill,...but I have way to many going right now,......I have written it down,...normally I check the library & put a book I think may be interesting,on hold,......but this one will have to wait......... for now....... Thanks for the info ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
The illustrations are the best part of the book I think. Families living in ditches along side the roads. The population of Ireland was 8,000,000 in 1845 and 4,000,000 in 1850. They either died or emigrated.
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