Guardians of Memory: Bringing Dignity to 6,000 Typhus Victims

Type of resource
Author/collaborator
Title
Guardians of Memory: Bringing Dignity to 6,000 Typhus Victims
Abstract
The largest mass grave in Canada, and the largest Irish mass grave outside of Ireland, is in Montreal. In 1847, 75,000 Irish immigrants arrived in Montreal in their effort to escape the potato famine in their homeland. Malnourished and sick when they boarded the “coffin ships,” thousands died at sea or at the quarantine station at Grosse Île below Quebec City. When the quarantine station could hold no more that summer, the coffin ships continued up the Saint Lawrence River to Montreal. An estimated 6,000 Irish immigrants, who came down with the typhus, died in the “fever sheds” on the north bank of the Saint Lawrence at the area now known as Point St. Charles. The dead were buried in a mass grave. The author outlines the history of the movements to keep the memory of the typhus-fever victims, from the Black Rock Memorial constructed in 1859 by the Irish labourers who came across some of the remains while helping to build the Victoria Bridge, to the present-day Montreal Irish Monument group who are working with Hydro-Québec and the City of Montreal to build a memorial park at the cemetery site.
Publication
Quebec Heritage News
Date
Spring 2026
Volume
Vol. 20
Issue
no. 2
Pages
11-13
Language
en
Citation
Miller, Julie. “Guardians of Memory: Bringing Dignity to 6,000 Typhus Victims.” Quebec Heritage News, Spring 2026.
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