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Father Bernard
McGovern
By
Farrell J. McGovern of Canada
During
the Famine, Irish coming to Canada would be dropped off on an
island in the St Lawrence, Grosse Isle, a combination immigration
and quarantine site. Canada's Ellis Island as it were.
During the year of 1847, the place was dealing with numbers of
immigrants that far, far exceeded the capacity of the facilities
and available manpower. Conditions on the island went from bad
to worse quickly. And still they came. At times, 20 or more ships
were anchored in the St Lawrence waiting to unload their human
cargo...and as conditions grew worse on the ships, one person
was quoted as saying it would be kinder to bring up the guns form
Quebec City and end their suffering quickly rather than make them
wait to be dropped off. Some didn't wait and jumped ship. Few
of those survived.
Although conditions on the island were bad, and if it had not
been for the leadership of Father McGauran, it could have been
far, far worse. He succeeded in uniting Catholic and Protestant,
English and French, rich and poor, and with this combined effort,
did a great deal to ease the suffering of those arriving on the
island, those who passed beyond, and those left behind.
There
are 6,000 whose names we know who died, but they estimate at least
twice that number died, not counting those who died during the
wait on the ships, and on the trip over. This led to a tremendous
number of orphans, which caused Father McGauran to later found
St Brigit's Home, a refuge for the Irish elderly, orphans and
destitute, and it is still in existence today. During the year
of 1847, over 100,000 Irish passed through the hell-hole of Grosse
Isle, and it should be commented that Canada did allow all who
came to enter the country and settle at a time the United States
was closing their doors to the Irish.
The
courage of Father Bernard McGauran and those he rallied was an
inspiration to many who passed through that hell-hole, and in
1909, a Celtic Cross from Ireland was set up on Grosse Isle on
a cliff overlooking the river, with the following inscription
in Gaelic:
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Tugadh
Samhradh an Bhróin air. In 1847, theith inimireigh Éireannacha
ina mílte ón nGorta Mór agus shroich siad, marbh is ag fáil
báis, stáisiún coraintín Oileán na nGael i g Ceibeac. Is
mór an clú do Cheanada é gur ligeadh asteach iad agus thug
imimirceach Éireannach, an tAthair Bearnárd Mag Shambráin,
sólás is ábhar dóchais dóibh. Tugann an déantóir-seannán
Lindalee Ni Threasaigh, léi sinn tri uafás an mhatalaing
dhaonna is measa i gCeanada agus feicimid iarrachtaf cróga
an ghaiscigh gan aithne seo ag cruinniú buíne tarrthála
ilchultúrtha is ilteangaí.
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I
am looking for a translation of this..., but obviously, the Father
is mentioned in the inscription)
A wonderful site to start looking into this member of the McGoverns
is the website for the documentary "THE FORCE OF HOPE:The
Legacy of Father McGauran".
http://www.whitepinepictures.com/seeds/series1/episode-0121/
As well, a search of Grosse Isle or Bernard McGauran will show
up a great deal of information...but alas, not a translation of
the above Gaelic inscription.
From
Joe
McGovern, Rockville, MD
This message
is to follow up on Farrel McGovern's recent posting. Last
August, I made my "so far" only visit to Grosse Ile,
at the urging of my
brother Jerry, who lives in upstate NY.... far upstate. After
reading
Farrel's message I searched the house for materials on Grosse
Ile, sure
that I had a translation for the inscription he referred to. Alas,
while
we pack rats rarely lose anything, laying hands upon anything
when one
wants can be a problem. So I had to send my brother a message,
and as
usual he came thru.
He referred to the book GROSSE ILE: GATEWAY TO CANADA 1832-1937,
by Marianna O'Gallagher. This says that the same message is inscribed
on
three sides of the Celtic Cross -English, French, and Irish. The
three
are not however, exact translations. The English wording is:
" Sacred to the memory
of thousands of Irish immigrants,
who, to preserve
the faith, suffered hunger and exile in
1847-48, and
stricken with fever, ended here their powerful
pilgrimage."
"Erected by the Ancient
Order of Hibernians in America,
and dedicated on
the Feast of the Assumption, 1909."
"Thousands of the children
of the Gael were lost on this island
while fleeing from
foreign tyrannical laws and an artificial famine
in the years 1847-46.
God bless them.
This stone was erected to
their memory and in honor of them
by the Gaels of America.
GOD SAVE IRELAND."
The 4th side of the cross lists the names of Roman Catholic priests
who
ministered to the people there. It distinguishes those who served,
those
who served and took sick, and those who served, took sick, and
died.
Bernard Magauran is one who recovered from his fever.
On my visit to the island last summer, I met a young French Canadian
girl serving as a guide at the Irish Cemetery on the island. She
gave a
fine account of the history of the site, and then mentioned that
her
great grandfather was one of the Irish orphans taken in by a French
family. She didn't even know his name, that too had been lost,
but the
family did preserve the memory of his nationality.
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