Historians believe the existing Black Rock – now in the middle of traffic lanes – is the first-ever memorial to those affected by the potato famine and the biggest Irish gravesite outside Ireland.
While Montreal is generally viewed as a mixture of British and French influences, look closely enough and you’ll see the Irish have left their mark – including the 6,000 who lay buried in unmarked graves in the city’s Sud-ouest neighbourhood.
“You can’t even get to the rock unless you take your life in your hands and run across the highway,” said Fergus Keyes, head of the Montreal Irish Park Foundation.Now, after years of being largely ignored by politicians, the dream is on the cusp of being realized thanks to an unlikely partnership with the province’s biggest hydroelectricity provider.
“They’ve taken an ownership of this effort, and it’s quite interesting that they’re so protective,” he said.At a recent meeting, when someone suggested the possibility of moving the stone – a solution strongly opposed by the Irish community – a Hydro-Quebec representative stood up and said, “We’re not moving our rock,” Keyes recalled.
As he led two dozen people on an Irish famine walking tour, he emphasized how the story of the 1847 tragedy is intertwined with that of Montreal’s other communities.
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