ABSTRACT
The strong presence of Ireland's Great Famine and its Canadian diaspora has always had a prominent place in public memory cultures in Ontario and Quebec. By contrast, this catastrophe and its aftermath—the establishment of quarantine stations to care for diseased Irish emigrants who arrived on Canadian soil—have played a relatively minor role in past and present secondary education in both provinces. This chapter aims to clarify this phenomenon, not only through interviews with present-day teachers from the greater Toronto and Montreal area but also through an in-depth analysis of recurrent narrative templates in early and very recent history textbooks. It argues that the Famine Irish immigrant story resonates in particular for Quebec's English-speaking minority teachers and students who often feel excluded from the province's history curriculum.
