By Nancy Willis
Prince Edward Island’s Irish population could have no tougher fighter on its behalf than George O’Connor, who recently called on Charlottetown Rotary Club members to get behind the creation of a full-time Irish Cultural and Genealogy Centre in Charlottetown.
O’Connor represented the Benevolent Irish Society at Rotary’s regular weekly meeting, where he urged members to use their influence in funding circles that will help the 184-year-old Irish charitable organization and the people it represents take their rightful place in Island history.
The BIS has assisted all religious denominations and political bents since its inception 125 years ago.
Back then, fundraising was a huge part of its mandate and in 1877 a report by chairman James Reddin shows it raised $217 at a single benefit concert.
“That would have been two years’ salary for the average labourer, and demonstrates that a lot of good work has been done from that time and right through to this day,” said O’Connor.
Today, fundraising is still an important part of the BIS mandate, along with growing emphasis on cultural heritage and supporting traditional music.
The BIS runs a seven-lecture series each fall, talking about the Irish, Celtic and Gaelic people.
It is offering an eight-session course on the introduction to Irish literature this year, plus a general Irish history course and a series on the Irish short story.
The BIS holds an Irish ceilidh with music and stepdancing each Wednesday night, as well as traditional music drop-in sessions Monday evenings.
A recent harp workshop saw 30 Island harpers turn out.
The society is currently working on a memorial project to commemorate those immigrants who died aboard the Lady Constable, a ship that ferried Irish citizens to Canada between 1845 and 1899.
Many of these are buried in the cemetery on Longworth Avenue in Charlottetown.
Now, O’Connor and his members are turning their attention to the creation of a full-time cultural centre.
“We looked around and didn’t see a lot of Irish history in our Island schools,” he said.
“A lot of Scottish history but no Irish, yet our Irish ancestors made up the majority of the population, and we should have the history of their settlement in P.E.I. We want the BIS hall to develop into a full-time Irish/Celtic cultural and genealogy centre, but you don’t run such a centre on nickels and dimes.”
He pointed to other cultural organizations, saying he doesn’t know of any that function without some government funding.
“The natives and Acadians have their centres, why not the Irish? The aboriginal centres got $124,000 last year, the BIS got $10,000, and this year the BIS has been cut back to $400. We make up 20 to 25 per cent of the taxpaying public, yet so far we have not been treated fairly or equably.”
