Irish immigration during the famine

Social and political upheavals in the 1840s, brought on by the Great Famine, drove hundreds of thousands of immigrants to British North America. At that time cholera was claiming many victims. It had come from India, spread through England and especially Ireland, and was brought to Quebec every year by the many immigrants.

In 1847 a typhus epidemic was raging. As of 20 May, 30 vessels from Ireland had already carried to the quarantine station at Grosse Île 12,519 immigrants, of whom more than 1,200 had perished at sea or died on arrival. The hospital took in up to 2,500 patients at a time but was no longer adequate. Some of the volunteers, including 4 of the 26 doctors, died; the others were stricken with the fever. Yet thanks to the treatment used by the staff, the murderous epidemic was stemmed towards the end of October, although more than 5,000 bodies lay in the cemetery of Grosse Île. In Canada there were 17,300 victims.