Death or Canada

Mark McGowan

This important book about the Irish famine of 1847 and its impact on the city of Toronto tells a story that is still relatively unknown to most of Toronto’s citizens. 

Historian Mark McGowan delves beneath the surface of statistics and brings to light the stories of men and women who had to face a desperate choice: almost certain death from starvation in Ireland, or a perilous sea voyage to a faraway place called Canada.

“While this volume focuses on just one year, in one city, its intent is to encourage further social study of the Irish experience in Canada, while putting faces and voices to the bare statistics that have come to distinguish ‘Black ’47’ from the other phases of Irish migration.” —Mark McGowan