A Story to be Told: The Irish Immigrant Experience in Canada

In Canada today there are thousands of Irish men and women who came between the years of 1940 and 1990 for a better life, a different life. Some knew they would never return to Ireland, some believed they would only stay a few years. Yet those who stayed comprise a dynamic and vital part of the Canadian mosaic. This book collects the stories of 129 emigrants in order to preserve them for future generations, to know and understand what the life of an immigrant was and is in Canada, what it meant for an Irish person to leave the island and travel across the Atlantic Ocean to start a new life. Many went to Canada with only a few dollars and the name of a "friend of a friend" as a contact. This book tells their stories . . . "Eleanor McGrath's book bids fair to make her the Studs Turkel of Canada. The massive scale of the interviews, chosen over a fifty year time span, ensures that the subject matter constitutes not merely a personal record of individual Irish emigrants, but a unique insight into half century of Canadian development." - Tim Pat Coogan About the Author A Story to be Told is the creative undertaking of Eleanor McGrath, an Investment Advisor with RBC Dominion Securities in Toronto, and photographer William C. Smith ("Smitty"). Eleanor and Smitty have worked extensively within the Irish Toronto community for years and share a passion for Irish culture and, most importantly, the people they meet in their professional lives.