Becoming Irish: How Irish Catholic Identity Was Performed and Changed in the St. Patrick’s Day Parades of Toronto and Montreal (1858 and 1866)

The author argues that by comparing the Toronto and Montreal St. Patrick’s Day parades of 1858 and 1866, it is possible to see how traditions were invented and changed in order to create distinct Irish Catholic identities. She notes that the comparison allows us to clearly see how the Toronto parade became more and more Irish nationalistic and secular, while Montreal’s Irish Catholic community used the tradition of parades to insert themselves more and more clearly in the city’s narrative by highlighting their Catholic and loyalist affiliations. The author explains that through a performance studies and ritual studies lens, the actions and symbols of the St. Patrick’s Day parades are analysed to demonstrate that Toronto’s parades became increasingly nationalistic in tone between 1858 and 1866 to culminate in an open debate on the existence of the parade by the influential members of the Irish Catholic community whereas Montreal’s parades used the performances of the day to insert themselves, passively in 1858 and actively in 1866, into Montreal’s and Canada’s society. She contends that looking at the discourses of the leaders in both cities as well as the newspaper coverage demonstrates the fluidity of an immigrant Irish Catholic identity which adapted to its social, geographical and historical contexts which was as dependent on dynamics within the community as it was with outside forces.

Master's Thesis

Concordia University

Montreal

2018

v-163p.

en