Historic Black Rock land gets transferred to Montreal’s Irish community

A historic piece of land where Montreal’s Black Rock Monument is located – in memory of Irish refugees who lost their lives – has been transferred to the Montreal Irish Monument Park Foundation.

The Anglican Church has owned the parcel of land since 1870, and has now donated it the foundation.

“We are profoundly grateful to Bishop Irwin-Gibson and the Anglican Diocese for this generous gift,” said Fergus Keyes, President of The Montreal Irish Monument Park Foundation, in a press release.

“This donation represents a major step in the process to finally create the kind of facility at the Black Rock that recognizes the historical importance of the site not only for the Montreal Irish community, but for all of Montreal.”

The land ownership is the first step in the eventual completion of a memorial facility honouring those buried at the mass grave on which Black Rock sits.

In 1859, the Black Rock Monument, located on Bridge Street at the end of the Victoria Bridge in Pointe-Saint-Charles, was erected in memory of more than 6,000 Irish refugees who lost their lives, largely to typhus, during summer 1847, upon their arrival in Montreal.

The Montreal Irish Monument Park Foundation says the future memorial will highlight the ways the Montreal community and Canada came together in support of Irish refugees.

“The Anglican Church has important roots in Ireland and is very supportive of the objectives of The Montreal Irish Monument Park Foundation to properly commemorate the victims of the Great Hunger who rest at Black Rock. The record shows that many Anglicans brought food and medicine to the fever sheds and two lost their lives in 1847,” said Anglican Bishop of Montreal, Mary Irwin-Gibson, in the same press release.

“For these reasons, we are delighted to donate the strip of land on which the Black Rock sits to the Foundation,” she added.