By Dan Laxer
The Suburban

Hydro-Quebec has finally agreed to commemorate the 6,000 Irish immigrants who died from typhus after coming to Montreal to escape famine in the mid-19th century. Irish community organizations have asked for this for years.

The Crown corporation is putting up a new facility, the Des Irlandais Substation, in the Sud-Ouest borough, on Bridge Street near the Victoria Bridge. The project involves transferring part of the land to the Montreal Irish Monument Park Foundation, to create a park to surround and protect the legendary Black Rock – where many of the dead are buried.

The substation will service about 80,000 homes, as well as the REM.

The idea goes back to 2017 when Hydro-Québec, the City of Montreal, and the Irish community formed a partnership to find a way to respect the land where many of the victims of what was then called “ship fever“ were buried. The project will mean rerouting Bridge Street to create more visibility for the stone.

“This site for gathering and remembrance will underline the Irish community’s invaluable contribution to the growth of the city of Montreal at the turn of the 19th century,” said Fergus Keyes, Director of the Montreal Irish Monument Park Foundation. n