Get the Irish to Quebec?

[Hierophant]

If Quebec were to gain its independence or become part of the US after the ARW, is it possible to get the government (state or federal) of Quebec to actively encourage the Irish to settle in 'Canada'? I guess the challenge would be getting enough people out of Ireland to alleviate the famines that plague Ireland later.

I guess I'm assuming that independent or as part of the US, French Canadians might be concerned with being swamped with Protestants.

 

[Arrix85]

Don't think so. The problem is that the Irish were mostly english-speaking ( that would be a greater concern for the Quebecois). (even if they still spoke Gaelic, wouldn't change much the situation). If they want to preserve their "Frenchness", being part of USA is out of question ( it would be illegal to restrain interstate settlers).

 

[archaeogeek]

If Quebec were to gain its independence or become part of the US after the ARW, is it possible to get the government (state or federal) of Quebec to actively encourage the Irish to settle in 'Canada'? I guess the challenge would be getting enough people out of Ireland to alleviate the famines that plague Ireland later.

I guess I'm assuming that independent or as part of the US, French Canadians might be concerned with being swamped with Protestants.

The irish were largely catholic.
IOTL there was a rather large irish immigration to lower canada.
It also tended to adopt french more often than not, finding more affinity with the canadiens than the canadians; some of the better known french canadian authors were irish-descended.

There are only about half a million self-identified irish Quebecers (most are french speakers), but according to a few historians about 40% of the province's french population has at least one irish ancestor.

 

[Arrix85]

I didn't know that, there's alway something new to learn, right?

 

[archaeogeek]

I didn't know that, there's alway something new to learn, right?

There's a historian who actually tracked down historical patronymic changes: the nationalist PM during the 1995 referendum came from one of the quebecois-irish families: Bourque used to be Burke. A bunch of old-root french canadian last names are french transcriptions of gaelic or anglo-irish surnames that eventually get replaced.

Alternately national identity of french and english are not particularly clear at times; for example you have a largely-french speaking subclass of immigrants from Jersey who were known, because of their origin in a crown possession, as "english", and were generally seen as opportunists and rural masters.

That said, the majority did leave for the west.

 

[Hierophant]

Don't think so. The problem is that the Irish were mostly english-speaking ( that would be a greater concern for the Quebecois). (even if they still spoke Gaelic, wouldn't change much the situation). If they want to preserve their "Frenchness", being part of USA is out of question ( it would be illegal to restrain interstate settlers).

So if Quebec was part of the US after the ARW, the only way to discourage settlers they don't want would be to fill up the place with people they do want, or at least want more.