To the editor;
“God save Ireland say the heroes - God save Ireland say we all...”
March 28, 2016, Easter Monday was a great day for Ireland and all those with Irish heritage. It was on that day in 1916 that the last uprising took place to drive out the foreign power that occupied the land for hundreds of years.
It was a time of great suffering and of genocide against the people of Ireland. At that time, the population was close to 10 million, and today it is around 3.5 million.
At the time of the famine in the 1870’s, millions died because all of the food in the country was shipped to absentee landlords who sold it and kept all the money.
Many were put on ships that either went to Tasmania, or a large number to Canada. The latter ships came up the St. Lawrence River and had to stop at Grosse Isle outside of Quebec City. It was here that they were quarantined.
Thousands are buried there. It is now an Irish historical site. The people of Quebec were very good to those suffering people.
I had the great privilege of going to Grosse Isle in 2012.
The treaty was later signed in 1922, where 26 counties out of 32 were given back to the Irish government. These counties are called Northern Ireland to this day.
I encourage you to look up both the Easter Uprising in 1916 and also Grosse Isle for a much deeper knowledge.
The Irish flag is made up of these colours: green for eternity; white for unity; and gold for Easter.
It is for this great time in our history that the Irish flag, the Canadian flag, and the Papal flag are all now flying high at 5420 Barriere Town Road.
Father Don
Barriere, B.C.