For nine days in October, Cape Breton Island is home to a unique celebration of music and culture, with the finest of storytellers, musicians, and dancers from around the globe taking part in the festivities. John Kernaghan was there, awash in nostalgia.The estrangement ran for more than 45 years, but when a vagrant Irish heart landed on the shores of Cape Breton, love was … [Read more...] about The Celtic Heart
of North America
Canada
The Celtic Heart
The Point
A visit to the McCord Museum helps uncover the history of two of Montreal’s historic Irish neighborhoods. In this tale of two Irish neighborhoods, leafy and modest Point St. Charles is in some ways unchanged from its heyday as a gritty Celtic enclave while just across the Lachine Canal, Griffintown bristles with cranes erecting a phalanx of condos from the ashes of factories … [Read more...] about The Point
The Irish of the Miramichi
The region’s tough but triumphant Irish roots are celebrated every year at Canada’s Irish Festival. It’s no secret why folks along the mighty Miramichi River celebrate their Irish heritage so fiercely. When your roots and a good part of the history that followed are steeped in sorrow and loss, rejoicing in what is good about life and your culture is that much more … [Read more...] about The Irish of the Miramichi
Recognition for Irish Workers of the Rideau Canal
After a six-year campaign to secure official recognition for the Irish workers who lost their lives building Canada’s Rideau Canal, author and activist Kevin Dooley was happy to share the news that Canadian Minister for the Environment Peter Kent, whose department oversees Parks Canada, has confirmed that the workers’ legacy will be honored. One hundred and thirty-two miles in … [Read more...] about Recognition for Irish Workers of the Rideau Canal
The Day the Irish Invaded Canada
In the sleepy town of Ridgeway, Ontario – just a stone’s throw from Crystal Beach, the “Southern Shore of Canada” and former home to the Niagara region’s most beloved amusement park – there stands a stone memorial cairn, an unobtrusive roadside monument most travelers overlook as they pass north toward Niagara Falls or east toward Buffalo. Barricaded behind a black wrought … [Read more...] about The Day the Irish Invaded Canada