In early Saint John, most years saw an equal number of Protestants and Catholics coming to the city. In the second half of the 1840s, increasing numbers of Catholic immigrants, fleeing the Famine in Ireland, arrived in distress. During ‘Black 47,’ more than 100 vessels brought Irish emigrants to New Brunswick. A record number died at sea enroute to Saint John, in quarantine on Partridge Island, in the alms house, or at an emigrant hospital/sheds on shore. Children who lost one or both parents were placed in a temporary emigrant orphan asylum,

We begin with a discussion of the failure of the potato crop, a staple food for much of Ireland’s population, and its impact on Ireland starting in 1845. A demographic disaster was produced through the combination of contagious diseases, such as typhoid, typhus and dysentery, evictions of tenant farmers by landlords, and mismanagement and neglect by the British government and local authorities. Despite charitable donations from around the world, the provision of some aid, and the actions of some sympathetic landlords, one third of Ireland’s population disappeared within a few short years. Half died, and the other half emigrated to places like the United States and Canada. Most of the those who perished, and those who managed to escape, were Roman Catholic. An Gorta Mór (the Great Famine) produced massive trauma, spurred Irish nationalism and contributed to the ongoing diaspora of the Irish people.

We then examine the immediate impact of the Famine emigration of 1847 on Saint John and area during a period of local economic weakness, outmigration, on-going ethnic and sectarian conflict and animosity against Irish Catholic immigrants. Positive and humanitarian responses to the crisis included medical treatment and the provision of charity; but there were also negative, nativist reactions. We end by discussing the impacts of ‘Black 47’ on Saint John and how it cemented Partridge Island as a place of suffering and tragic loss.