In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Irish writers played a key
role in transatlantic cultural conversations - among Canada, Britain,
France, America, and Indigenous nations - that shaped Canadian
nationalism. Nationalism in Ireland was likewise influenced by the
literary works of Irish migrants and visitors to Canada. Canada to
Ireland explores the poetry and prose of twelve Irish writers and
nationalists in Canada between 1788 and 1900, including Thomas Moore,
Adam Kidd, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Thomas D'Arcy McGee, James McCarroll,
Nicholas Flood Davin, and Isabella Valancy Crawford. Many of these
writers were involved in Irish political causes, including those of the
Patriots, the United Irish, Emancipation, Repeal, and Young Ireland, and
their work explores the similar ways in which nationalists in Ireland
and Indigenous and settler communities in Canada retained their cultural
identities and sought autonomy from Britain. Initially writing for an
audience in Ireland, they highlighted features of the landscape and
culture that they regarded as distinctively Canadian and that were later
invoked as powerful unifying symbols by Canadian nationalists. Michele
Holmgren shows how these Irish writers and movements are essential to
understanding the tenor of early Canadian literary nationalism and
political debates concerning Confederation, imperial unity, and western
expansion. Canada to Ireland convincingly demonstrates that Canadian
cultural nationalism left its mark on both countries. Contemporary
decolonization movements in Canada and current cultural exchanges
between Ireland and Indigenous peoples make this a timely and relevant
study.
