Welcome to the Kingston Irish Folk Club Official Website!
This Site is currently being developed (April 2007) so please bear with
us.
Message from the PresidentThe aim of the Kingston Irish Folk Club is to promote
all forms of Irish Culture. Kingston has a long standing connection with
Ireland.
Irish Labourers on the Rideau Canal
In between 1826 and 1832
thousands of Irish labourers were employed to construct the Rideau Canal.
The Rideau Canal runs between Ottawa and Kingston. Much of the work was
done by pick and shovel through virgin forest. An estimated 1000 Irish
labourers and their co-workers died building the canal. Many of these labourers
were newly arrived immigrants who were totally unprepared for the harsh
Canadian winters. Many died from accidents while working in horrific working
conditions and many, weakened by hunger and long working hours, succumbed
to malaria.
Many of these
Irish labourers were quickly buried in unmarked graves along the canal,
especially between Kingston and Newboro.
Kingston Irish Folk Club erected the first monument
in May of 2000 in memory of the labourers who died building the canal.
A Celtic
Cross was erected in Doug Fluhrer Park at the Kingston end of the Canal
in November of 2002. Ottawa responded to Kingston Irish Folk Club's challenge
and erected a Celtic Cross in Ottawa in 2004. Much work still needs to
be done to acknowledge and mark the presently unmarked graves of Irish
Labourers and their coworkers along the length of the Rideau Canal.
Irish Famine Victims
In 1847 an estimated 50,000 newly arrived
Irish immigrants fleeing, an gorta mor, arrived on Kingston's shores. An estimated
1500 Irish famine victims were buried in Kingston. This number includes approximately
300 Kingstonians who died helping the Irish. Most deaths were attributed to
Typhus. Most of the Irish immigrants are buried on the grounds of Kingston
General Hospital. Most of the Kingstonian's were buried at McBurney (Skeleton)
Park which was Kingston's upper cemetery from 1813 to 1865.
Kingston Irish Famine
Commemoration Association erected a Celtic Cross in 1998 in memory of Kingston's
1500 Irish famine victims.
These major events involving large numbers of Irish
immigrants have had a far reaching effect on Kingston even to this day. Kingston
Irish Folk Club is actively promoting all forms of Irish culture through research
and publishing booklets on Kingston's rich Irish history, has formed a school
of Irish dance, hosts regular Celtic cultural festivals which include workshops
on Irish Language, Tin Whistle, Bodhran, Celtic Harp and Uilleann Pipes. We
also hold regular Irish sing-along get-togethers.
While Kingston Irish Folk
Club has accomplished a great deal since it's formation in 1989 and has filled
many of the gaps, a great deal still needs to be done. At present we are in
the process of forming an Irish Marching Band, re-establishing an Uilleann
Pipes group, publishing a variety of local Irish history books.
If you are interested in any of the programs the Kingston Irish Folk Club has to offer please contact us (see contact page).
Thank you and welcome to our official Website.
Tony O’Loughlin
President and Founder of Kingston Irish Folk Club
President and Founder Kingston Irish Famine Commemoration Association