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In modernNewfoundland (Irish:Talamh an Éisc), many Newfoundlanders are ofIrish descent. According to the Statistics Canada2016 census, 20.7% of Newfoundlanders claim Irish ancestry (other major groups in the province include 37.5%English, 6.8%Scottish, and 5.2%French).[1] However, this figure greatly under-represents the true number of Newfoundlanders of Irish ancestry, as 53.9% claimed "Canadian" as their ethnic origin in the same census. The majority of these respondents were of Irish, English, and Scottish origins, but no longer self-identify with their ethnic ancestral origins due to having lived in Canada for many generations. Even so, the family names, the features and colouring, the predominance of Catholics in some areas (particularly on the southeast portion of theAvalon Peninsula), the prevalence of Irish music, and even the accents of the people in these areas, are so reminiscent of rural Ireland that Irish authorTim Pat Coogan has described Newfoundland as "the most Irish place in the world outside of Ireland."[2][3]
The large Irish Catholic element in Newfoundland in the 19th century played a major role in Newfoundland history, and developed a strong local culture of their own.[4] They were in repeated political conflict—sometimes violent—with the Protestant Scots-Irish "Orange" element.[5]
These migrations were seasonal or temporary. Most Irish migrants were young men working on contract forEnglish merchants and planters.[citation needed] The exodus fromUlster to the United States excepted, it was the most substantial movement ofIrish across theAtlantic in the 18th century.
In 1836, the government inSt. John's commissioned a census that exceeded in its detail anything recorded to that time. More than 400 settlements were listed. The Irish, and their offspring, composed half of the total population.[6]
Most Irish emigrants arrived between 1750 and 1830 from strongly Irish-speaking counties, chiefly in Munster. For the decennial period 1771-1781 the number of Irish speakers in a number of those counties can be estimated as follows: County Kilkenny 57%, County Tipperary 51%, County Waterford 86%, County Kerry 93% and County Cork 84%.[7] Newfoundland is one of the few places outside Ireland where the Irish language was spoken by much of the population as their primary language.[citation needed] It is also the only place outside Europe with its own distinctive name in the Irish language,Talamh an Éisc (Land of the Fish). TheMunster Irish dialect heavily influenced the distinctive varieties ofNewfoundland English.[citation needed]
The form of the Irish language known asNewfoundland Irish was associated with an inherited culture of stories, poetry, folklore, traditional feast days,hurling and faction fighting, and flourished for a time in a series of local enclaves. Irish-speaking interpreters were occasionally needed in the courts.[8] Native speakers are likely to have existed even after the First World War.[9]
To Newfoundland the Irish brought family names of southeast Ireland:Wade,McCarthy,O'Rourke,Walsh,Nash,[10] Houlihan, Connors, Hogan, Shea, Stamp, Maher, O'Reilly, Keough,Power,Murphy,Ryan,Griffin,Whelan,O'Brien,Kelly,Hanlon,Neville,Bambrick,Halley,Dillon,Byrne,Lake andFitzGerald. The many Newfoundlanders with the surnameCrockwell (Ó Creachmhaoil) derive from 19th Century immigrants fromCounty Galway, in the west of Ireland. Many of the island's more prominent landmarks having already been named by early French and English explorers, but Irish placenames includeBallyhack (Baile Hac),Cappahayden (Ceapach Éidín),Kilbride and St. Bride's (Cill Bhríde), Duntara,Port Kirwan andSkibbereen (Scibirín).
Despite the Irish elements in the culture of modern Newfoundland, little attention has been given to the (now moribund) local variety of the Irish language. An exception was the work of the local scholar Aloysius (Aly) O’Brien, who died in 2008.[9]
Tuition in Irish (of a kind not specific to Newfoundland) is available atMemorial University of Newfoundland, which every year appoints an Irish language instructor from abroad.[11]
Religious faith had great institutional importance. Several of the leading Irish merchants and propertied men were Protestants and brought the traditions of theOrange Order to their new home.[citation needed] But the majority of the Irish were Roman Catholics, and they brought with them a version of Catholicism which was strongly marked by belief in fairies, magic, omens, charms and protective rituals. This tended to reduce their dependence on the Church, which seemed to have no monopoly on the supernatural.[12]
With Irish being the language of the majority in the early period, it was often the language of church services.[13] The Catholic BishopJames Louis O'Donel, when requesting aFranciscan missionary for the parishes ofSt. Mary's andTrepassey, said that such a missionary would need to be fluent inIrish (like O'Donel himself).[14] It also played a part in the greatest early challenge to the Catholic Church, when the Reverend Laurence Coughlan, aMethodist preacher, managed to convert most of the Newfoundland North Shore in the 1760s largely because of his fluency in Irish.[14]
In 1800, a cell of theSociety of United Irishmen was uncovered in the St. John's Garrison and planned to rebel against the English authority in theUnited Irish Uprising, making Newfoundland one of the few places outside Ireland in which theIrish Rebellion of 1798 had political effects.[citation needed]
Even at the time of theNapoleonic Wars, political activism rooted in Irish agrarian movements manifested themselves in Newfoundland, in such forms such as the Caravats (Irish:Carabhataí), who wore French cravates (ties) and the Shanavests (Irish:Seanabheastaí, Seanabheisteanna "Old Vests").
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