The Irish in Canada: A Mildly Subversive History

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For much of the 19th century, the Irish were the single largest ethnic group in English-speaking Canada, outnumbering the English, Scots and Welsh combined. This lecture focuses on four aspects of their history: the Famine migration of 1846-51; the Fenian invasions of 1866 and 1870; D’Arcy McGee and Canadian Confederation; and the rise and fall of the Orange Order. In considering each aspect, it challenges traditional images of the Irish in Canada and highlights new research in the field.

David A. Wilson is a Professor in the Celtic Studies Program and History Department at the University of Toronto, and the General Editor of the Dictionary of Canadian Biography. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a winner of the University of Toronto’s Outstanding Teaching Award, he has published and edited numerous books, including a prize-winning two-volume biography of Thomas D’Arcy McGee. His latest book, Canadian Spy Story: Irish Revolutionaries and the Secret Police, was the recipient of the Champlain Society’s Chalmers Award and the C.P. Stacey Prize in Canadian Military History.