Acadian and Irish Relationships

Event

Arsenault, Georges

2007-10-26

01:36:29

This is a lecture by Georges Arsenault titled “Acadian and Irish Relationships”, where he discusses his childhood, Irish influence, Acadians moving to Summerside and Charlottetown, the French language on PEI, religion, cross cultural exchanges through music and food, as well as other topics to do with Acadian-Irish relations. This lecture is presented partially through readings of diaries and historical documents.

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Held by Benevolent Irish Society

Introduction and overview; The speaker has an Irish mother (and an Acadian father). He recalls his mother's memories which gave him a positive view of the Irish.
However, the speaker’s experience of the English-speaking Irish trying to curtail the building of The Evangeline Regional High School left him with conflicting views of the Irish. Was he to like them or hate them?
The speaker grew up in Abrams Village, PEI with Irish neighbours, the McNally's. Until the 1980 instruction and exams were in English at school so it was typical for both the Acadian and Irish students of the speaker’s student days to speak, read and write English and for both groups to understand spoken French. Acadian-Irish interactions occurred the most in West Prince, specifically the Tignish area of Lot 1, Palmer Road area of Lot 2 and, to a lesser extent in Cascumpec Bay and Bloomfield areas of Lot 5, albeit the English speakers in these areas included Scots, English as well as Irish.
In Tignish the Irish and the Acadians mixed not only in the community but also in church since both groups were Catholic. In other areas such as in 7 Mile Bay, English speakers included many Protestants and so Irish and Acadians mixed mostly at church. This was the same situation for the Acadians who started moving to Summerside in the 1850's and to Charlottetown a bit later.
The speaker tells the legend of "The First Clash" between the Irish and the Acadians. This legend was published in the 1899 Centennial Issue of Gilbert Buote’s French newspaper, L’Impartial. The legend involves the first Irish man, an O’Rielly, to arrive in Tignish trying to claim some land around Nail Pond and ending up in a fight with an Acadian.
The speaker reads from an article written by Father Alfred Burke for the 1899 L'Impartial’s Centennial Issue. Burke described the Irish and the Acadians as having mutual regard for each other. The speaker suggests this would have been a “polished” version of the situation as human nature dictates otherwise when the two cultures first start to share a community.
The speaker explains that Father Alfred Burke, although Irish, was able to speak French and so often bridged the gap between the Irish and Acadians. Politics favoured the Irish because they spoke the language of the Government. As Acadians acquired more English and education, they also became involved in Island affairs.
The speaker describes Nicholas Conroy, an Irish politician among other things, who settled in Tignish in 1835. He became an intermediary between the Acadians and the land agents who would disadvantage the Acadians in the leases they signed.
The speaker discusses James Warburton, an Irish Anglican politician from Lot 11 who supported the Acadians. When he became the Colonial Secretary in 1850, he appointed the first two Acadian Justices of the Peace on PEI, Stanislaus Perry of Tignish and Sylvain Arsenault of Egmont Bay. Warburton later encouraged Perry to enter politics and who became a member of the Legislature in 1854 for the Egmont Bay area.
The speaker discusses “mixed” marriages between the Acadians and the Irish in Tignish. The first mixed marriages were in 1847 when two Acadian men married Irish women in Tignish. The 1881 Census showed a total of 16 mixed marriages in Lots 1 and 2 with 13 of the marriages involved Acadian men marrying Irish women. The speaker speculates that this was due to the men working out in the community and so having more opportunity to learn English. Additionally, a School Inspector Report of the 1830’s noted that in Acadian schools the boys, but not the girls, were taught some English.
According to the 1881 Census, the occupations of the Acadian men who married Irish women included one store clerk, one teacher, one sea captain, one light-keeper, four farmers, one fisherman, and two shoemakers. Of the Irish men who married Acadian women, two were fishermen, and one was a stageman. Is is uncertain in light of the social and economic structures on PEI at that time whether the men and women were “marrying up” or “marrying down”.
One of the 1847 mixed marriages was between Stanislaus Perry (Poirier) and Margaret Carroll. The speaker noted that of the 10 children of Stanislaus Perry’s three married an Acadian, four married an Irish, one married a Scot, one married a German, and one died unmarried. A grandson of Stanislaus Perry was Angus MacDonald, former Premier of Nova Scotia. The speaker also discusses the custom of Anglicising French names to be used in certain contexts. In the 1920’s and 1930’s Acadians were asked to choose to use only one form of their family name.
James Madec came from Ireland in the 1820’s with his wife, Anne MacDougall who may have died on the boat coming across. They had no children. James remarried an Acadian woman, Scholastique Arsenault. All descendants of James Madec came from his union with Scholastique.
The 1881 Census shows only 3 Acadian-Irish couples in Summerside and a few in Charlottetown. The Acadian entrepreneur Joe Gaudet (AKA Joe Bunn) married an Irish woman (Cahill?) and opened the first movie theatre in Summerside in 1911 with his brother Henry and friend Roy Sullivant (Silliphant). Bunn was also a member of the city council. Bunn's daughter, Frances Perry, was the first female mayor in Summerside and the first woman on the Summerside School Board. One of the first Acadians in Charlottetown was Angus DesRoches. He moved from Miscouche in 1873, and that same year he married Mary Anne Keel who was Irish.
The speaker begins a discussion on the conflict between French Canadian Catholics and the Anglophone Catholic Bishops. Most of the Catholic Bishops in Canada were Anglophone even though French Catholics were the majority. The Acadians in Tignish wanted a French bishop. With the arrival on PEI of Bishop Henry O’Leary in 1912 and his successor and brother, Lewis in 1920, the anti-french sentiment grew in PEI church’s hierarchy and remained so until the 1960’s.
The speaker notes the beginnings of the decline of the French language early in the 20th century in some parishes.
The speaker reads extracts from an article by Raymond Huel entitled "The Irish-French Conflict in Catholic Episcopal Nominations: Western Sees and the Struggle for Domination with the Church", from the Canadian Catholic Historical Association Review, 1975, v.42, p.51-69. This article illustrates the conflict between English and French Catholics in PEI and elsewhere in Canada. The speaker notes some consequences of this conflict for French Catholics in PEI.
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The speaker’s discussion on the Anglicization of French Catholics is interrupted by the tape break.
The speaker describes how in 1962 the ST Thomas Aquinas Society asked the Bishop that the sermon at Summerside’s St. Paul’s Parish be given in French. Despite the Bishop initially accusing them of being Communists, they eventually received permission for the sermon to be given in French after the 8 a.m. mass
The speaker's next topic is cross cultural exchanges between the Acadians and the Irish. Acadian fiddling style may perhaps have Irish influences. Step dancing in PEI could have come from the Irish or English tradition. There were parties where both parties met.
Using excerpts from his mother’s diary dated March 26, 1933 and April 2, 1933, the speaker explains how the French and Irish met at parties. He also notes that Acadian songs included characteristics of Irish songs which are not found in the music of France.
The speakers described the tradition of the Acadians to make meat pies for Christmas which their Irish neighbours adopted. Likewise, Irish stew was adopted by local Acadian families. The Acadian’s Halloween traditions adopted some Irish customs and Acadians participated in St. Patrick's Day plays. The Mid-lent Acadian tradition of Mi-Carême was also adopted by some Irish families.
The speaker concludes his presentation by noting that one does not have to choose one culture over another, giving the Jim Pendergast family as an example of people who celebrate both their Irish and Acadian roots.
Conclusion, comments, questions.
Note: a number of the questions are inaudible.

The speaker’s answers include that Mi-Carême is practised by other Maritime Acadians as well as in Quebec; Acadian teachers were recruited by the Western provinces to teach in their Francophone communities; both the Acadians and the Irish had the tradition of Shivaree or Charivari.

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