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"The Road to Bloody Sunday" - Mickey Mcguinness
The Fitzwilliam Clearances (1847-1856)-Irish Immigration to New Brunswick - Jim Rees

Mickey Mc Guinness is no stranger to the festival, having paid his first visit, as a contributor ,with the Inishowen Tour party in 1990. Two more visits followed.

Mc Guinness began his working life as an apprentice fitter, then worked as a toolmaker in a local engineering works, before spending 10 years with Dupont as an instrument mechanic. Towards the end of his period with Dupont, with the troubles affecting every aspect of daily life in Derry, he embarked on a personal search for explanations of the current conflict. Two years part-time study as a mature student at Magee University College guaranteed entry to The University of Ulster. Three years later, in 1980, he graduated from there with a history degree. In the following year he was awarded the Diploma in Continuing Education.

For the last twelve years he has been employed as Co-ordinator of the Community History and Heritage Project, a post which is funded by Derry City council. Here he has been responsible for initiating and assisting local history projects, among which was the successful campaign to have part of the historic Workhouse preserved. For some time he has encouraged the notion of extending the definition of community to include overseas communities whose origins are Irish. To this end he has facilitated the establishment of strong ties between Derry City's Museums Service and the Provincial archives of New Brunswick, where Denis Noel continues to prove an enthusiastic and energetic supporter. The Derry Museum is currently putting together a proposal to develop a major centre for emigration studies, a project on which the Provincial Archives has been invited to collaborate..

Mickey Mc Guinness and co-author/editor, B.B.C. Journalist Garbhan Downey, recently published the book Creggan, More than a History (December, 2000) to enthusiastic reviews. It includes pieces by the authors and contributions from invited observers in a production which seeks, through the eyes of residents and informed outsiders, to portray the experiences of Creggan, a public housing estate in the city of Derry. Although primarily a local history source it contains a wealth of material for the student who wishes to understand the background to the present conflict. It is presently in its second edition. As a participant in the Bloody Sunday march in his native Derry and a contributor to the Bloody Sunday Tribunal he is well placed to make his own observations on the background to the original tragic event and the progress of the tribunal.

"Surplus People" details the story of thousands of famine refugees from County Wicklow sent to Canada as part of the clearance of an Irish estate. Nearly 400 of these people were put ashore at the Port of St. Andrews, N.B.

Between 1847 and 1856, in an attempt to re-organize his 90,000 acre Coolattin Estate, Lord William Fitzwilliam ordered the removal from his property of almost a quarter of his tenant population or 6,000 of his 22,000 tenants. The vast majority of these 6,000 people were sent to Quebec for settlement in Ontario but 376 of them were shipped to St. Andrews, the men to work on a new railway line.

Sent out on the sailing vessel "Star", these wretched emigrants spent weeks at sea before being landed on a windswept quarantine island off St. Andrews where several died of disease and exposure. When finally landed, they discovered that no preparation had been made for their arrival and most were forced to endure privations that can best be described as inhuman.

The story of their arrival in St. Andrews -- most sick, starving and destitute -- is a focus of this extraordinary book which identifies specific families and follows their progress from their tiny holding in Ireland to their new lives in New Brunswick.

The horrific conditions on Grosse Ile, the quarantine station at Quebec, are described, depicting images which still have the power to shock. Typhus spread like wild fire, and up to fifty deaths a day occurred in the summer of Black '47. No one could have predicted the deluge of human misery which was about to descend on Grosse Ile.

The courage of the medical staff and voluntary helpers, and the determination of the refugees to survive and make their way to Upper Canada and beyond is testimony to human endurance at a time when the best and worst of human traits were daily displayed.

"Surplus People" is the end result of four years of research and writing by Mr. Rees, coupled with the contributions of archivists and historians in Ireland, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario.

During the course of his research Jim Rees compiled a database of the names, ages, family relationships, size of holding, townland of origin, and in some cases name of ship and dates of departure and arrival, of all 6,000 tenants. Details of how to access this information form an index in the book

Together this book is the most complete account of an action which led to a mass relocation from Ireland to Upper Canada and New Brunswick in the 1840s and 1850s.

Anyone interested in social history, genealogy or this country's often abysmal treatment of Irish famine refugees should read this remarkable book.

"Surplus People" is available for $20 from the Irish Canadian Cultural Association of New Brunswick at:

Irish Canadian Cultural Association of New Brunswick
Patricia O'Leary Coughlan
189 Carlisle Road
Douglas, NB
E3A 7M8

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