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When an Irish Famine ship struck an iceberg in the Gulf of St.Lawrence

JOHN KERNAGHAN,

Contributor Irish America Magazine

Published Saturday, July 28, 2012, 9:32 AM

Updated Saturday, July 28, 2012, 9:32 AM

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In April 1849, Hannah, a ship carrying Irish immigrants, hit an iceberg in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

“Grandfather Mike was delighted at the marriage because Jane’s maternal great-great-grandfather Michael Coburn came from the same area in Forkhill, County Armagh as the Murphys. He said we were two old Irish families uniting. Michael Coburn had left Ireland in 1848, a year before the Hannah disaster, and Grandfather Mike, whose mother, Ellen Bennett, was also from Forkhill, told us about John Murphy coming over on a ship that hit an iceberg, the many lives lost, and his father who was saved from the water.”

Paddy, who grew up in the township of North Crosby, south of Ottawa, where many of the Hannah survivors settled to farm, went on to conduct his own research into the shipwreck, and his findings later became the basis of a book called A Famine Link: The Hannah, South Armagh to Ontario.

The authors, Kevin Murphy and Una Walsh, are members of the Mullaghbawn Community Centre in Forkhill, South Armagh. Clearly the story of the Hannah is a stirring tale that speaks to the times and to the Irish in Quebec. It is estimated up to 40 percent of the province’s citizens have Irish blood.

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IrelandNorth | Jul 30, 2012, 07:33 AM EDT

Reading ex-Irish Army officer Sean O Callaghan's (2000) book, "To Hell or Bardados: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ireland" (Brandon Press, 2006), reminded me of how the white slave trade and indentured serviture predated African slavery and our own famine exodus to the Americas. With Irish anti-Cromwellian prisoners-of-war deported (ie transplanted!) to the west-Indies en masse, as subsequently to Virginia. Disabuses one of Cromwell's peculiar brand of puritanism. Having internally exiled 3/4 (75%) of the then estimated native population of 1m to a 1/4 (25%) of its national territory, (ie Connacht/western Ireland), Cromwell's son Henry, as Lord Protector of Ireland, was forced to look further afield for surplus real estate for the remaining 1/4 (25%) Irish. A not uninteresting ratio to quantify English covetuousness of terra Hibernia, despite the 10th Judeo-Christian commandment. Hmmm! (With protectors like the Cromwell's, who needed attackers!) And many contemporary historical amnesiacs and neo-Cromwellians actually wonder why their was political violence in Ireland, then as now. A Hobson's Choice - Empire or Commonwealth, both of which were equally hells for Irish slaves or indentured servants. One finds oneself less favourable disposed the the English ruling class on reading this exceptionally well written book.

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angrypaddy | Jul 30, 2012, 05:22 AM EDT

Sounds like one of the Fairy Tales Of Ireland make a Walt Disney movie staring Johnny Depp

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jamthecat | Jul 29, 2012, 12:03 PM EDT

Fascinating story. Something for me to put on my reading list.

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