Irish Canadian - Irish in Nova Scotia

Irish in Nova Scotia

About one Nova Scotian in four is of Irish descent, and there are good finding aids for genealogists and family historians.

Many Nova Scotians who claim Irish ancestry are of Presbyterian Ulster-Scottish descent. William Sommerville (1800–1878) was ordained in the Irish Reformed Presbyterian Church and in 1831 was sent as a missionary to New Brunswick. There, with missionary Alexander Clarke, he formed the Reformed Presbytery of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in 1832 before becoming minister of the West Cornwallis congregation in Grafton, Nova Scotia, in 1833. Although a strict Covenanter, Sommerville initially ministered to Presbyterians generally over a very extensive district. Presbyterian centres included Colchester County, Nova Scotia.

Catholic Irish settlement in Nova Scotia was traditionally restricted to the urban Halifax area. Halifax, founded in 1749, was estimated to be about 16% Irish Catholic in 1767 and about 9% by the end of the 18th century. Although the harsh laws enacted against them were generally not enforced, Irish Catholics had no legal rights in the early history of the city. Catholic membership in the legislature was nonexistent until near the end of the century. In 1829 Lawrence O'Connor Doyle, of Irish parentage, became the first of his faith to become a lawyer and helped to overcome opposition to the Irish.

In addition there are also rural Irish village settlements throughout most of Guysborough County, such as the Erinville (meaning Irishville) /Salmon River Lake/Ogden/Bantry (named after Bantry Bay, County Cork, Ireland but abandoned since the 19th century for better farmland in places like Erinville/Salmon River Lake) district where Irish last names are prevalent and the accent is strongly reminiscent of the Irish as well as the musical culture (maritime traditional music being some of the most Irish styles of music played in the world outside of Ireland), food, Religion (Roman Catholic), language heritage (being that some can still understand parts of the Irish language, the older generation being the most fluent thus the language weakening in this area), love of the drink and love for Ireland itself. In parts of Antigonish County there is also quite a few Irish villages such as Cloverville, Ireland and Lochaber as well as on Cape Breton Island, in places such as New Waterford, Rocky Bay, the Lower Rover inhabitants area, and Glace Bay, all still very rich in Irish culture.

Murdoch (1998) notes that the popular image of Cape Breton Island as a last bastion of Scottish Highland and specifically Gaelic culture distorts the complex history of the island since the 16th century. The original Micmac inhabitants, Acadian French, Lowland Scots, Irish, Loyalists from New England, and English have all contributed to a history which has included cultural, religious, and political conflict as well as cooperation and synthesis. The Highland Scots became the largest community in the early 19th century, and their heritage in music, folklore, and language has survived government indifference, but it is now threatened by a synthetic marketable 'tartan clan doll culture' aimed primarily at tourists.