Tea at Trianon: The Irish in Ontario

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

The Irish in Ontario

It was a wonderful trip. I spent three beautiful days by a lake in Ontario, sunning on the beach, hiking in the woods, and having long talks about local and family history with my cousins. I gleaned a great deal of information and inspiration and even got some writing done.

Here is an article that one of my cousins sent me about the Irish settlers in Ontario, and how religious differences are still a source of contention in Canada. As it was once said of the old Irish by those who despised them:

"... Irish beggars are to be met everywhere, and they are as ignorant and vicious as they are poor. They are lazy, improvident and unthankful; they fill our poorhouses and our prisons, and are as brutish in their superstition as Hindoos." Share

1 comment:

Anonymous said...: Every immigrant group has had vicious negative comments made about them, yet they have been the strength of this country by means of their contributions in science, art, culinary expertise, mechanical innovations, the list is endless. My ancestors landed in Jamestown Virginia in the 1600's, but without the later influx of immigrants this country could never have achieved and become the world power it is today.; September 26, 2007 at 12:22:00 PM EDT