Martindale Pioneer Cemetery, Quebec
Honouring Our Ancestors Who Contributed to the History of the Irish in Canada
Elaine Gannon (Catholine Butler) Presentation
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2024
FIRST OF ALL, I would like to welcome all of you here today.
Special thanks to Father Paul Mbva and Deacon Ed Ethier for their presence. Father Paul kindly changed the mass time today to accommodate this celebration. Thank you very much.
We are also honoured to have Elisabeth O’Higgins the Chargé D'affaires with the Embassy of Ireland to Canada. As many of you may know, the Government of Ireland sponsored this beautiful walkway through grant funding with the Irish Government Emigrant Support Programme.
I am very impressed with the work of Les Jardins du Souvenir who installed this walkway which will enable visitors to visit this quiet and peaceful place. Director General Daniel Dezainde and some of his workers are also here are here to mark this occasion with us today.
I would also like to thank Martin Lamontagne who donated the bench behind the monument which will allow people to come and sit and commune with their ancestors.
There are three people who are not with us anymore but I’m sure they are with us in spirit and that is Martin Brown, Eddie McLaughlin, and Bernice McSheffrey who were all from Venosta. They people stood with me at a time when I really needed and valued their support.
Martin Brown in particular was a very far-seeing man, and he told me that in years to come the boys and girls who had to leave their farms to find work and may have married and moved away – their children would come back to Martindale to search for more information about their ancestors – and now the history is here for them!
The souls buried here may have thought that they came to this country with very little in the way of worldly possessions but some of the greatest gifts they carried with them included their faith and their culture – their music, their song, and their dance.
I cannot imagine what it must have been like for our ancestors arriving in Quebec to experience their first harsh winter here – with 30 below zero weather and blowing wind and ice. They surely could never have imagined let alone be prepared for that.
Before this cemetery was desecrated, there were little white crosses with shamrocks and Celtic designs where the babies were buried – some at birth, others just a few days or weeks old. Many young women who also died in childbirth are also buried here. There were no doctors, no priests, no churches, no schools at that time.
Those people knew they would never return to Ireland in their lifetime – I can’t imagine their heartbreak. It was a make-or-break situation here and their faith sustained them. We are here today because of their sacrifices.
There are a few people that I would like to thank – My daughter Maura has done an incredible job in designing and establishing the Martindale Pioneer Cemetery website. She has also helped in so many other ways.
Her husband Jose De Freitas presented me with a beautiful painting of Martindale Pioneer Cemetery and St. Martin’s Church, and this now hangs on my wall and I look at it every day. I’m also so pleased to have her stepson Miguel here with us today.
Also, I would like to mention my family who have supported me and sustained me through all these years. At my age, it is always a bonus to come back to Martindale.
Finally, thank you to Liette Hickey, our liaison here at Martindale throughout these past few years. Her support has been outstanding.
In closing, I would like to remind you that our ancestors came from Co. Mayo and if you have an opportunity take a moment to listen to the tune ‘The Boys from the County Mayo’, this song means a lot to me.
U.S. President Joe Biden who is also a proud Mayo man says when speaking about democracy – it’s ours if we can keep it – it’s the same as our faith.
Up Mayo! And Up the Gatineau!
Welcome Address by Maura De Freitas
Hello, my name is Maura De Freitas and some of you might know me by my maiden name of McCay.
I would like to say first of all…welcome dear friends, particularly those of you who are here to honour your ancestors who lie beneath this soil.
It’s been a long journey to get here — and I’m not talking about the distance we travelled from Vancouver to be with you today.
I’ve heard my mother talking about Martindale Pioneer Cemetery since I was a small child — in those early days we just called it the Old Graveyard.
It began back in the early 1960s when she was pregnant with her fourth child. I was very young then and unaware of any difficulties or drama in the background.
I just recall being in the Old Graveyard with her as she was off making notes and muttering quietly to herself. This site had been forgotten then, it was covered in brambles, some of the old headstones had tumbled over and the names had faded in the mists of time.
Many were engraved with shamrocks and images of Ireland, the homeland they left behind and I was intrigued by the story they told. As children, we often heard about the Great Famine that brought our ancestors here and their perilous voyages across the sea to find a new home here in Canada.
At the time we visited the Old Graveyard, my mother knew that she was in trouble. Her pregnancy and her own life were in the balance. The child she was carrying was unviable and she had no medical options available. As a last recourse, she was here talking to her ancestors and making a pledge.
Her three small children needed their mother, so she was asking for help. She promised that if she could survive this pregnancy, she would dedicate herself to restoring their final resting place and preserving their memory.
In the end, my mother survived her pregnancy, but her child did not. His name was Conn Stephen, and he lies buried up the hill here in the new cemetery among his people. His brother Liam also rests beside him.
What followed is a matter of record on this website but I was here to witness the destruction of this cemetery. I stood beside my mother as she cried helplessly watching the headstones being pushed into a large pit and covered over.
She was silenced about those events for many years afterwards but, in our family, it was never forgotten. My mother held the names of those who were buried in this soil in a closely guarded purse. These names were written out in longhand under duress, and it was her record of their existence.
It wasn’t until she met an old farmer by the name of Martin Brown that there was any hope of putting things right. This field had become a cow pasture, and the history was becoming lost, but Martin hadn’t forgotten either. They began working together to finally restore the dignity of their ancestors.
It was because of the work of a small group of people, including Eddie McLaughlin and Bernice McSheffrey that this remarkable triple cenotaph stands here today engraved with the names of those who settled here. The history of their voyage is depicted on the Celtic cross standing guard beside it.
Designed by Belfast artist Eithne O’Kane, this tells the story of crossing the ocean on coffin ships where many perished and the mothers and fathers who struggled to protect their children.
I think the words written by my mother’s friend, Robert McLelland who was a visiting professor of Celtic Studies at Ottawa University, appropriately honours their memory: ‘May the light of heaven shine on the souls of the Gaels who left Ireland in the years of the Great Famine. They will be remembered as long as love and music last.’
For my mother to finally see this project to completion with the assistance of the Government of Ireland is the culmination of a lifelong journey. Her friends Martin Brown, Eddie McLaughlin, and Bernyce McSheffrey are no longer among us but surely they must be smiling down from above to see the work they accomplished together.
In closing, I would like to thank Liette Hickey for her resolute help and support over the years, to Michele Logue Wakeling for her assistance in finalizing our grant application with the Irish Emigrant Support Programme, and to les Jardins du Souvenir for their excellent workmanship in completing this magnificent walkway.
Visitors from far and wide now come to visit this site in search of their personal history and this pathway will help give everyone access — particularly those with mobility issues.
I also want to thank Martin Lamontagne who is a very special person to our family. He so generously donated the bench which sits behind the monument and provides a place to sit and reflect on those who have come before us.
A special mention goes out to my childhood friend Eleanor Brennan and her husband Roger Simard who so kindly offered to assist with our sound system today. I would also like to acknowledge my cherished stepson Miguel De Freitas who accompanied my mother and myself as we travelled here from our new home in Vancouver on the west coast of Canada.
It is a great honour to welcome here today Elisabeth O’Higgins who is the Acting Ambassador of Ireland to Canada and I would like to invite Elisabeth now to say a few words.
