Mile End and Mount Royal seen from the Rosemont–Van Horne overpass, June 2020 / photo Justin Bur
In 1915, St. Michael’s church in Mile End could boast that it was the largest English-speaking Catholic parish in the city of Montreal. Over the next few decades, that population moved away to other parts of the city. St. Michael’s merged with a Polish mission in 1969 and today, people are often surprised to learn that the church was ever Irish.
Mile End Memories is going in search of Irish Mile End. With the support of the Belonging and Identity project of the Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network (QAHN) [1], we have launched a research project to discover the Irish legacy in the neighbourhood and to find out where the community moved after the Second World War.
In this talk, Justin Bur will speak of the real estate developer James Baxter, of the Shamrock athletic club and its lacrosse stadium, and of course of St. Michael’s parish – without forgetting the families of Irish origin that weren’t Catholic. He will attempt to explain the reasons for the disappearance of Mile End’s Irish community. And there will also be a love story on the Titanic, even if its connection to our subject is peripheral…
Date and time: Sunday 13 March 2022, 2 pm
Place: Mordecai-Richler Library in Mile End, 5434 Park Avenue
Languages: Talk in French, bilingual question period
Limited seats, reservation required
Note: the talk will be recorded and it will be possible to watch the video later. Video of the talk
Justin Bur is a member of the board of Mile End Memories, doctoral student in urban studies at UQAM and Montreal tour guide.
[1] The Belonging and Identity project is funded by the Secrétariat aux relations avec les Québécois d’expression anglaise of the government of Québec.
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Merci!