THE GREAT HUNGER

There are three distinct memorials at two locations: a Celtic cross in a small park at the south end of West Street, close to the intersection of West and Ontario streets; and an Angel of Mercy monument and an Ontario plaque “The Typhus Epidemic 1847” both inside St. Mary’s Cemetery on Division Street, at the northwest corner of the cemetery, near Kirkpatrick Street and Kingscourt Avenue.

Several thousand Irish, sick with typhus, were crammed into hastily erected fever sheds on waterfront land at Emily St. (near Murney Tower in Macdonald Park) and at the Kingston General Hospital. They had survived a perilous journey across the Atlantic in the holds of coffin ships, survived the horrors of Grosse Isle and then endured the slow trip on overcrowded barges on the St. Lawrence, only to die painfully in a Kingston fever shed. Hundreds of Kingstonians from various religious denominations became sick and died of typhus, stricken while helping the Irish immigrants in their hour of need. This was in stark contrast to the behavior of some influential government officials who were indifferent to the extreme sufferings of the Irish immigrants in Kingston.

The engraved legend on the Celtic cross on West Street reads: “On this shore more than 1500 Irish, fleeing THE GREAT HUNGER along with compassionate citizens of many faiths, who cared for them, died of typhus in the fever sheds of Kingston 1847-48.” It was erected by the Kingston Irish Famine Commemoration Association in 1998. Much was done through the energy of Tony O’Loughlin, who came to Kingston in 1989 and felt that the huge Irish history in the heart of Loyalist Canada was being ignored.

In order to accommodate hospital expansion, in 1966 the Kingston General moved the Angel of Mercy monument and some of the remains of the Irish “famine” victims to a corner of St. Mary’s Cemetery. On Friday 27 April 1990, Kingston’s Whig Standard reported discovery of the forgotten mass grave: “Excavation workers found the remains of two more bodies yesterday. Workers had discovered a skull and other human bones while excavating on Wednesday . . . . There was a marsh area and that’s where a large number of typhus victims were buried. The immigrants were quite poor and in many cases, entire families were wiped out by the disease As a result, bodies were buried in common graves since no one was left to pay for the funeral, according to Susan Bazely, Staff Archaeologist with the Cataraqui Archaeological Research Foundation. The Foundation was called in during the police investigation into the discovery. Nearly 50,000 Irish people fleeing An Gorta Mor (The Great Hunger) arrived at Kingston’s wharves”.

Later an Ontario Government plaque was erected to “The Typhus Epidemic 1847”. It reads: “Though typhus had been epidemic periodically in Canada since the 1650’s, the worst outbreak occurred in the summer of 1847. In that year some 90,000 emigrants embarked for Canada, most of them refugees from the potato famine then ravaging Ireland. Nearly 16,000 died of typhus, either at sea or after their arrival in Canada. Those stricken while passing through Kingston found shelter in makeshift ‘immigrant sheds’ erected near the waterfront. Despite the efforts of local religious and charitable organizations, notably the sisters of the Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph and the ladies of the Female Benevolent Society, some 1400 immigrants died. Buried near the present general hospital, their remains were re-interred here in 1966”.

Photo Credit: Sheila Cornett