Wanda's Irish/Celtic Page
Céad Mile Fáilte

A Thousand Welcomes!

St. Columban Mission in Quinnville, Quebec will be celebrating it's centennial in 1999. The main event will be a Mass celebrated by Archbishop Ebacher at 4pm on Aug 21, 1999. Dinner will be catered and served under a big top tent on the church grounds. Howard Hayze and his band will entertain us until 1am.

Other Events:

Our St. Patrick's Party will be held in March as usual.

Our 100 years is official Christmas Eve 1999. We'd like to have a special mass that night as well.

For more info on St. Columban -- please check the new St. Columban website at: St. Columban

I've been tracing my family roots to Ireland, and from what I can tell so far, Peter Murphy and Mary Connolly came over to Canada in 1841. They later (much later) married and this is where my tree begins for the Murphy side (my grandmother, Mary Murphy). They lived on the Fogarty Road in Gatineau and attended St. Columban's Mission in Quinnville, Quebec.

On the Connolly side, Thomas Connolly came from County Mayo and his bride, Mary Ellen Quinn, came from County Cork. They met on the ship to Canada and were married in Perkins, Quebec in 1880. I'm guessing they came to Canada around 1878-1879. They lived on the 6th concession in Gatineau, Quebec, and attended mass in Perkins.

On the Quinn side, John Patrick Quinn was born 1834 in Ireland. He married Ellen Maloney in 1858. Ellen was from Upper Canada. Patrick and Ellen had 10 children, Mary, John Patrick (Jack), Catherine, Patrick, Bridget, Ellen Christina, Agnes Ann, Thomas, Lucy, and Bertha Ducy.

They lived on a farm on the Perkins Road (now Lorrain Blvd) in Gatineau and were parishioners of the church in Perkins.

Jack is my great grandfather. He married Margaret Horan and they had nine children. George Alfred, David, Ducy, Gertrude, Bennett Patrick, Katherine, Michael Edward, William, Francis.
Bennett was my grandfather. My grandparents and parents built homes on the farmland and are still living there today. They're all parishioners of St. Columban Mission in Quinnville (Gatineau), Quebec.

I hope to have my genealogy page up soon so if you're interested and want to know more about the Quinn's, Connolly's, Murphy's and Burke's, you could visit it. The future site is here. Please check in from time to time to see how its progressing.

Some Irish history. Originally Ireland consisted of 4 provinces:
Connacht, Leinster, Munster, and Ulster
and 32 counties:
Antrim, Armagh, Carlow, Cavan, Clare, Cork, Donegal, Down, Dublin, Fermanagh, Galway, Kerry, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Leitrim, Limerick, Londonderry, Longford, Louth, Mayo, Meath, Monaghan, Offaly, Roscommon, Sligo, Tipperary, Tyrone, Waterford, Westmeath, Wexford, Wicklow.

Ireland is now divided into 2 states, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Make sure you visit the Irish Clan home page for the Doyle family worldwide) at www.doyle.com.au

If you're thinking about travling to Ireland, why not visit GoIreland?

"Luck has nothing to do with travelling, even if you're planning a trip to Ireland. GoIreland, the complete online reservation and information service for visitors intending to travel to the Emerald Isle, be it North or South, with descriptions and maps of every county in Ireland, how to get them and what to do when you get there. Visitors can organise travel plans with any of the 40,000 establishments within the site; book cars, hotels, guesthouses, hostels and tours with relative ease. Those planning a pilgrimage to find a long lost relative rather than a pint of Guinness can get genealogy information."

Could you be the next Rose of Tralee?

Click on the picture to find out.

Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Eireann (C.C.E.) is an Irish organization that dedicates itself to preserving Irish music, Irish dance and Irish language. This organization does an absolutely grand job. I belong to the Ottawa Branch. I was also a member of C.C.E.'s Choir - The Irish Singers of Ottawa. It was a lot of fun and I hope to join up again once school is finished!

Check out the Official Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Eireann Web Site

One of the best things about Canada is our Celtic music! Most of our celtic musicians come from the Atlantic Provinces and they are definitely worth checking out!

I like all of these but my favourite has to be Great Big Sea.
The Rankin Family, Rita MacNeil, Natalie MacMaster, Ashley MacIsaac, John McDermott, The Barra MacNeils.

The Chieftains are another great group to listen to.

If you're ever down by the Miramichi (Chatham, NB) on the third weekend of July, be sure to visit the Irish Festival. I went the summer of 96 and what a time I had!!*s* The music was unbelievable, so was the atmosphere. It was like St. Paddy's Day extended over 4 days!

One of my favourite authors is Maeve Binchy. Maeve was born in Dublin, Ireland and has won I believe two Jacobs Awards and the Best Script Award at the Prague Film Festival. Some of her books are "Circle of Friends", "Light a Penny Candle", "Firefly Summer", "Glass Lake" just to mention a few!

Nora Roberts wrote a trilogy (Born in Fire, Born in Ice and Born in Shame) about three sisters, the two Concannon sisters of western Ireland, and their half-sister, Shannon Bodine, who is living in the US and comes to Ireland to meet them. They are wonderful stories about sister-relationships and Nora brings Ireland to life for you!

A great site for info on the potato famine. A commemoration of the Great Famine (Ireland 1845)

Grosse Ile was finally declared a National Historic Site and recognized and respected for what the island symbolizes, the burial ground for thousands of Irish Emigrants. The Ancient Order of Hibernians erected a Celtic Cross Monument on Telegraph Hill, August 15, 1909. The inscription, on three sides - in Gaelic, English, and French, reads:

Sacred to the memory of thousands of Irish Emmigrants who, to preserve the faith, suffered hunger and exile, in 1847-48, and stricken with fever ended here their sorrowful pilgrimage.

Grosse Ile, Gateway to Canada, 1832-1937 by Marianna O'Gallagher, S.C.H. is a good book if you're looking for information on Grosse Ile or on the monument. (Carraig Books, P.O. Box 8733, Ste-Foy, Québec, G1V 4N6 - ISBN 0-9690805-3-0).