Join us for an enlightening evening at Beechwood Cemetery as historian Mark McGowan presents his groundbreaking work, Finding Molly Johnson.
- Date: March 19, 2025 Time: 6:30 PM
- Location: Beechwood Cemetery, Ottawa
The Irish Great Famine triggered one of the nineteenth century's worst refugee crises, with over 1.5 million people leaving Ireland. Among them were nearly 1,700 orphaned children, arriving destitute in Canada and thrust into an unfamiliar land. While national narratives often romanticize their stories as ones of benevolent adoption and seamless adaptation, Mark McGowan uncovers a more complex and challenging truth.
In Finding Molly Johnson, McGowan explores how these children were taken in by the Catholic and Protestant churches in the absence of government support. Though cared for and placed in homes across cities like Saint John, Quebec, Bytown, and Toronto, many orphans were treated as sources of cheap labour rather than members of their new families.
Discover the resilience of these children as they navigated hardship, fled oppressive placements, and forged new paths in the Canadian frontier. McGowan’s work revisits this poignant chapter of Irish emigrant history and challenges the myths surrounding Canada’s role in the famine orphans’ lives.
Register today to hear Mark McGowan delve into the untold story of hardship, resilience, and agency during a transformative moment in Irish-Canadian history.
