Na Gaeil san Áit Ró-Fhuar
1800-1845: Forbairt Lonnaíochta agus Oidhreachta
“Bhí eorna ‘na cruacha ann agus cruithneacht ‘na guaille
Bhí muileann an tsiúcra bán ann agus ní áirím an sú craobh.”
- Collected by Seaghan Ó Coinnigeáin (1)
Faigh amach scéal na n-inimirceach Éireannach i gCeanada sa 19ú haois. In ainneoin dúshláin, choinnigh siad a dteanga agus d’fhág siad tionchar buan ar an dtír.
I rith an 19ú haois , tháinig athrú ar chúrsaí teangan in Éirinn. Cé go raibh Gaeilge fós ag formhór na ndaoine, dob é an Béarla teanga na cumhachta, an dlí agus na tráchtála. Ni feidir imirce na hÉireann go Ceanada a thuiscint muna coimeádtar in intinn gur fhan an Ghaeilge mar phríomhtheanga do go leor daoine a d’fhág Éire i rith an ama seo.
Fás agus Lonnaíochtaí
Nuair a tháinig deireadh le Cogaí Napoléon in 1815, tháinig méadú ar dhaonra na hÉireann, ach tháinig meath ar choinníollacha do chainteoirí Gaeilge na hÉireann agus iad imeallaithe go mór faoi bheartais choilíneacha. Tháinig méadú ar eisimirce dá dheascaibh.(2) Cuireadh lonnaíochtaí faoisimh ar bun i gCeanada chun eisimircigh Éireannacha a atreorú ó dhul go Sasana.(3) Thosnaigh na hEireannaigh ag cur sios níos sia siar ar Chósta Thoir Cheanada, a bhí lonnaithe go dlúth cheana féin(4), chun glacadh le deiseanna lománaíochta, tógáint canálacha, agus talmhaíochta.
Nuair a bhí Canáil Rideau in Ontáirio (Ontario) à thogaint, bhí an Ghaeilge chomh coitianta sin go raibh aistritheoir ag teastáil chun aighnis a réiteach. I gCúige Manatóba na linne seo, ba as Co. Shligigh a dtáinig cuid des na lonnaitheoirí ba luaithe i gCoilíneacht Abhainn Dhearg.
Dúshláin agus Rannán
Bhí dúshláin iomadúla roimh inimircigh Éireannacha go Ceanada. Thug siad aghaidh ar chlaontacht ó lonnaitheoirí Briotanacha,(5) agus d’fhulaing oibrithe na hÉireann coinníollacha crua, pá gan íoc, agus foréigean ar láithreacha oibre mar Chanáil Rideau.(6) Bhí naimhdeas i dtreo Éireannaigh Chaitliceacha freisin ó oibrithe eile a chreid go raibh na hÉireannaigh á gcur as a gcuid deiseanna oibre.
Sa tréimhse atá i gceist, bunaíodh Lóistí Oráisteacha Protastúnach ar fud Cheanada. Dhein na lóistí sin ceiliúradh ar dhíothú an chultúir Ghaelaigh agus ar choilíniú na Breataine ar Éirinn. Chuir an dearcadh sinisteach go mór ar ghlacadh na nGael Caitliceach agus bhunaigh na hÉireannaigh cumainn Fhíníneacha agus Chaitliceacha chun a meon féin a chur chun cinn.
Teanga Trasna Sochaí
Faoi na 1840idí, bhí breis agus 450,000 Éireannach ina maireachtaint i gCeanada, agus bhí Gaeilge ag go leor acu. Is minic a dhein údaráis chalafoirt Cheanada sna 1840idí tagairt ar “the inability of entire shiploads of immigrants from Ireland to speak English.”(7) Ní hamháin ag feirmeoirí agus oibrithe a bhí teanga na Gaeilge. D’fhéadfaí teacht ar chainteoirí Gaeilge ag gach leibhéal den tsochaí. Bhí ról lárnach ag daoine mór le rá ar nós James Fitzgibbon, cainteoir dúchais, agus laoch Chogadh na bliana 1812 i stair Cheanada.(8) Agus Gael ab ea Proinsias Ó Coileáin a bhunaigh an tsaorphreas i gCeanada agus a mhol cearta na gCaitliceach agus na n-Éireannach. I gcathracha ar nós Torontó agus Halafacs, bhí an Ghaeilge á labhairt go forleathan agus bhí sí ina cuid bríomhar de chultúr na lonnaitheoirí Ceanadacha a bhí ag teacht chun cinn.
Le haghaidh lua, bain úsáid as: Ó Dubhghaill, Dónall. 2024. “1800-1845: Forbairt Lonnaíochta agus Oidhreachta.” Na Gaeil san Áit Ró-Fhuar. Gaeltacht an Oileáin Úir: www.gaeilge.ca
Is tuairimí an údair amháin iad aon tuairimí a nochtar, agus b’fhéidir nach léiríonn siad tuairimí Chumann na Gaeltachta.
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Image Citation: 1851. Emigrants Arrival At Cork - A Scene From The Quay. Illustrated London News: London. May 10.
Clearing in the New Ireland settlement of Grenville, Quebec. Adapted from: Alexander Henderson / Library and Archives Canada / PA-181769
Co. Dhún na nGall. “The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1046, Page 320” by Dúchas © National Folklore Collection, UCD is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. The only native raspberry in Canada is the smaller and darker black raspberry, not commercially cultivated until significantly later.
Between 1780 and 1845, an estimated 1,750,000 Irish emigrated from Ireland. After the end of the Napoleonic war, when travel became safer and Ireland's food was no longer being used to support the British army causing further population growth, two-thirds of emigrants departed for Canada.
Irish people from strongly Gaelic areas, like those from Muscraí in County Cork, moved to Peter Robinson’s settlements in the Ottawa Valley and Peterborough in the 1820s. “Many of the evicted smallholders and cottiers whom the government shipped to Canada in 1823-1825 were at least bilingual Irish-speakers, and in 1826 the unassisted emigration of the east Cork poet Pádraig Cúndún demonstrated that by then even the complete ignorance of English was no longer an insurmountable barrier to the lure of the New World.” Miller, Kerby A. 1985. Emigrants and Exiles. Toronto: Oxford University Press.
11,000 Irish (mostly Catholic) settle in Halifax between 1815 and 1839, 10,000 Irish (mostly Catholic) settle in PEI at this time, and another 65,000 Irish settle in New Brunswick from 1827-1835
British lawmakers at the time warned that Irish migration threatened “the degradation of our people by commixture with a foreign race; lower in intelligence, lower in habits of order and self-restraint, lower in ideas of comfort and moral independence, lower, in short, in all the qualities which constitute civilized men.” Westminster Review. Quoted in: Murray, Hugh. Historical Account of Discoveries and Travels in North America. Vol. 2. London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, & Green, 1829. Some contemporary authors asserted that the Irish were a relic stone age population, not yet been outcompeted by other races only because they were island-bound.
In 1843, Irish workers peacefully protesting their conditions on the Beauharnois Canal in Quebec were fired upon by British troops. In the Ottawa Valley and Bytown (now Ottawa), Irish lumbermen clashed violently with the majority French Canadian lumbermen, resulting in the Irish-French “Shiners’ War.”
Ó Néill, Diarmuid, ed. 2005. Rebuilding the Celtic Languages. Ceredigion: Y Lolfa. 289.
James Fitzgibbon was born in An Gleann, Co. Luimnigh, and famously was the officer who Laura Secord warned of an impending American surprise attack. An effective peacemaker, he soothed sectarian violence of the Orange Irish and Scottish in their attacks on the newly arrived Catholic “Ballygiblin” Irish immigrants at Ottawa’s Carleton Place in 1824. He restored the peace again in 1836 when Irish Catholic canal workers were accused of rioting and criminality by settlers at Cornwall.
All other cited references, numbers, or quotations as from: Ó Dubhghaill, Dónall (Doyle, Danny). 2019. Míle Míle i gCéin: The Irish Language in Canada. 2nd Ed. Boralis Press: Ottawa.
Comhartha Airgid Ceanada
“Pure Copper Preferable to Paper” ina bhfuil Éireannach le bata ina láimh agus seamróga ina dhorn, le duilleoga darach agus seamróga. Bhí an-tóir ar an mbonn seo, atá ar cheann de go leor comharthaí Luath-Cheanada le híomhánna Éireannacha, i gCeanada Íochtarach (Québec)
Dúidín
Gné lárnach de shaol tuaithe na nGael, the simple clay pipe (in both the shorter Dúidín and longer Beannacht Dé styles) ba é an phíb chré shimplí (i stíleanna níos giorra Dúidín agus Beannacht Dé) é gné riachtanach de thraidisiúin na bainise agus na sochraide. Fuarthas amach ó chósta na hAlban Nua an ceann seo. Le caoinchead ó ©Parks Canada / Iarsma 5M5T1-22.
Bata Draighin
Is sampla ornáideach é an maide seo, dar dáta 1833-1867 agus a bailíodh i Kemptville, Ontáirio, de bhata draighin Éireannach. Baineadh feidhm as maidí draighin nach raibh chomh ornáideach mar airm bheaga chun bataireachta, a bhí coitianta ag aontaí, ag póstaí, ag sochraidí agus ag mórchuid cruinnithe eile.
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