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The Celtic Connection
Canada is such a huge country that it is difficult to keep abreast of all that is important in matters pertaining to its Celtic connections in all corners of the country. There are Irish, Scottish, Welsh, and even Breton societies and associations functioning across the land, from Atlantic to Pacific, not to mention in northern regions where pioneer Celts settled, some to prosper, some merely to endure, but all of whom left a permanent legacy in some form or other.
Place names are but one example. Towns, villages, districts, bear names bestowed by early settlers in memory of their former homes in the countries from which the emigrated.
Statues and plaques bear witness to outstanding figures in Canadian history, many of them of Scots, Welsh, or Irish ancestry.
Newspapers, periodicals, and magazines, by their very names attest to their establishment by people of Celtic origin.
The present-day renaissance of music, dance, and song once confined within the borders of nations, proudly proclaims their roots in the Celtic nations.
But nowhere, nowhere, is the Celtic connection within Canada so lovingly cherished as in its cemeteries. The names incised on headstones and tombstones tell their own stories. Pausing, if only for a moment, to read those names brings home a consciousness that these were our forbears, our people, our ancestors, worthy of our respect, our remembrance, and our prayers.
The story of one such cemetery, its wanton destruction, and of the efforts to restore dignity to the remains of the Irish people and families buried in its graves is told in the September issue of The Celtic Connection, a Vancouver-based monthly newspaper. It is a graphic description of what happened in the village of Martindale, Québec, to its Pioneer Cemetery, and of the struggle to preserve the heritage of its association with the Irish people who settled in the parish, a lot of whom were survivors of the Great Famine in Ireland. Readers will find it at www.celtic-connection.com under its Gatineau link.
It is an amazing account. Mayhap it will inspire Celtic descendants in other regions of the country to preserve their cemeteries.
Meantime, anyone who knows anything about the missing diary of Father Blondin, mentioned in the story, should contact The Celtic Connection.
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