Welcome to The Irish in Canada, the podcast exploring the lives and legacies of Irish immigrants and their Canadian descendants.
Join Jane McGaughey for a season of short, informative episodes about a kind of Canadian history you may never have heard before…
Season 3, Episode #7 - Controversial Woman, Part 3: Emily Murphy
April 18, 2024
Ah, Emily Murphy... where do we begin?! Maybe with the salient fact that this first female magistrate in the British Empire and driving force behind the Persons' Case of 1929 was also the grand-daughter of Ogle Gowan, the founder and Grand Master of the Orange Order in Canada. In terms of having an Irish pedigree, she definitely had one, though how many of her fans knew that her great-grandfather was the leader of Co. Wexford's notorious Black Mob after the 1798 Irish Rising? Emily Gowan Ferguson Murphy was a lightning rod for controversy during her lifetime, and she remains so to this day. But, why? How does her story fit within the larger conversation in the 2020s regarding who should be remembered in Canadian history?
Listen →Season 3, Episode #6 - Controversial Women, Part 2: Nellie McClung
April 11, 2024
Nellie McClung was a provocative woman, stirring up controversies and column inches in her own lifetime and in all the years since she died. Arguably Canada’s most famous first-wave feminist, her efforts guaranteed that Manitoba’s women won the provincial vote in 1916, a first in Canada. She was also one of The Famous Five, the group of activists who won the right for Canadian women to be considered as legal ‘persons’ under the law. On the other hand, Nellie is also the first woman we’ve featured on this podcast to have been literally burned in effigy—and many of her opinions from the 1910s and 1920s are roundly criticized today. Controversial? Chances are, Nellie ‘Shanty Irish’ McClung wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Listen →Season 3, Episode #5 - Controversial Women, Part 1: Katherine Hughes
April 4, 2024
Considering everything she did in her life – as a teacher, an author, a political activist, an archivist, private secretary to the premier of Alberta, and a journalist – we should be much more familiar with the name of Katherine Hughes. Most people, however, are unaware of everything she achieved and helped to create in the first decades of the twentieth century, in part because of some of the controversies surrounding her, the most notable of which was her strident and vocal support for Irish republicanism. In the first of three episodes about controversial Irish Canadian women, we’re going to discuss the life and times of Katherine Hughes, and why, until recently, she has remained fairly forgotten in the history of Irish Canada.
Listen →