Toronto, the Belfast of Canada explores the intolerant origins of today's cosmopolitan city.

In late nineteenth-century Toronto, municipal politics were so dominated by the Irish Protestants of the Orange Order that the city was known as the “Belfast of Canada.” For almost a century, virtually every mayor of Toronto was an Orangeman and the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne was a civic holiday. Toronto, the Belfast of Canada explores the intolerant origins of today’s cosmopolitan city. Using lodge membership lists, census data, and municipal records, William J. Smyth details the Orange Order’s role in creating Toronto’s municipal culture of militant Protestantism, loyalism, and monarchism. One of Canada’s foremost experts on the Orange Order, Smyth analyses the Orange Order’s influence between 1850 and 1950, the city’s frequent public displays of sectarian tensions, and its occasional bouts of rioting and mayhem.

Canadians have been involved in, intrigued by, and frustrated with Irish politics, from the Fenian Raids of the 1860s to the present day. Yet, until now, scholarly interest in Canada’s relationship with Ireland has focused largely on the years leading to the consolidation of the Irish Free State in the 1920s. Relying on extensive archival research, Canada and Ireland authoritatively assesses political relations between the two countries, from partition to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. It reveals how domestic controversies and international concerns have moulded Ottawa’s response to developments such as Ireland’s neutrality in the Second World War, its unsettled relationship with the Commonwealth, and the always contentious issue of Irish unification. In Canada and Ireland, Philip J. Currie painstakingly investigates the origins, trials, and successes of the sometimes turbulent connection between the two countries to shed new light on an important relationship.

"McLaughlin's research is highly original, demonstrating the extensive role played by Canadians in this fascinating episode of Ireland's history"--P. [4] of cover.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Irish writers played a key role in transatlantic cultural conversations – among Canada, Britain, France, America, and Indigenous nations – that shaped Canadian nationalism. Nationalism in Ireland was likewise influenced by the literary works of Irish migrants and visitors to Canada. Canada to Ireland explores the poetry and prose of twelve Irish writers and nationalists in Canada between 1788 and 1900, including Thomas Moore, Adam Kidd, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Thomas D’Arcy McGee, James McCarroll, Nicholas Flood Davin, and Isabella Valancy Crawford. Many of these writers were involved in Irish political causes, including those of the Patriots, the United Irish, Emancipation, Repeal, and Young Ireland, and their work explores the similar ways in which nationalists in Ireland and Indigenous and settler communities in Canada retained their cultural identities and sought autonomy from Britain. Initially writing for an audience in Ireland, they highlighted features of the landscape and culture that they regarded as distinctively Canadian and that were later invoked as powerful unifying symbols by Canadian nationalists. Michele Holmgren shows how these Irish writers and movements are essential to understanding the tenor of early Canadian literary nationalism and political debates concerning Confederation, imperial unity, and western expansion. Canada to Ireland convincingly demonstrates that Canadian cultural nationalism left its mark on both countries. Contemporary decolonization movements in Canada and current cultural exchanges between Ireland and Indigenous peoples make this a timely and relevant study.

This book uses original research and interviews to consider the views of contemporary members of the Orange Order in Canada, including their sense of political and societal purpose, awareness of the decline of influence, views on their present circumstances, and hopes for the future of Orangeism in Canada. In so doing, it details the organisational structure of Canadian society: the role of religion in public life, the changing context of multicultural Canada, and the politics of resistance of a political and social organisation in decline. This book offers a social scientific complement to existing historical work on the role of the Orange Order in Canadian society, and builds upon it through an analysis of contemporary Orangeism. It considers the Orange Order as a worldwide body and makes some comparisons and contrasts with its organisational status and membership in Ireland and elsewhere. As such, the book makes a distinctive contribution to our knowledge of a fraternal organisation and the role of religious belief and politics in contemporary society.

A sweeping history of Irish emigration, arguing that the Irish exodus helped make the modern world When people think of Irish emigration, they often think of the Great Famine of the 1840s, which caused many to flee Ireland for the United States. But the real history of the Irish diaspora is much longer, more complicated, and more global. In On Every Tide, Sean Connolly tells the epic story of Irish migration, showing how emigrants became a force in world politics and religion. Starting in the eighteenth century, the Irish fled limited opportunity at home and fanned out across America, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. These emigrants helped settle new frontiers, industrialize the West, and spread Catholicism globally. As the Irish built vibrant communities abroad, they leveraged their newfound power—sometimes becoming oppressors themselves. Deeply researched and vividly told, On Every Tide is essential reading for understanding how the people of Ireland shaped the world.