Marianna O'Gallagher
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Marianna O'Gallagher, (March 24, 1929 – May 24, 2010) was a Canadian historian from
Quebec City Quebec City is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Census Metropolitan Area (including surrounding communities) had a populati ...
. A former member of the
Sisters of Charity of Halifax The Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul were founded on May 11, 1849, when the four founding Sisters of Charity arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, from New York City; this has been designated a National Historic Event. Heritage The Daughte ...
, she wrote extensively on the history of the Irish in Quebec City, was involved in the creation of
Grosse Isle Grosse Isle (, , "big island") is an island located in the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, Canada. It is one of the islands of the 21-island Isle-aux-Grues archipelago. It is part of the municipality of Saint-Antoine-de-l'Isle-aux-Grues, locate ...
National Historic Site and the revival of the Quebec City
Saint Patrick's Day Saint Patrick's Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick (), is a religious and cultural holiday held on 17 March, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick (), the foremost patron saint of Ireland. Saint Patrick's Day was made an official Chris ...
celebrations.


Biography

image:Croix-memoriale-grosse-ile.JPG, On the cross designed by her grandfather, O'Gallagher commented: "He drew the design on the wall of the kitchen at 13 Conroy St. in Quebec City. My father said as more and more money came in, the monument grew in size and stature on the wall."Conroy Street is now known as Louis-Alexandre Taschereau Street (); Marianna herself grew in a house on Chemin Saint-Louis, in Sainte-Foy, now occupied by a Manoir Sainte Foy, an Italian restaurant. O'Gallagher was born in Sainte-Foy, Quebec City, Sainte-Foy, Quebec, in 1929, one of six siblings born to Norma (née O'Neil) and Dermot O'Gallagher, both Irish-Canadians; her father was a Surveying, land surveyor and previous mayor of the city (now merged into
Quebec City Quebec City is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Census Metropolitan Area (including surrounding communities) had a populati ...
). Her paternal grandfather, Jeremiah Gallagher, designed the
Celtic cross upright 0.75 , A Celtic cross symbol The Celtic cross is a form of ringed cross, a Christian cross featuring a nimbus or ring, that emerged in the British Isles and Western Europe in the Early Middle Ages. It became widespread through its u ...
erected on
Grosse Isle Grosse Isle (, , "big island") is an island located in the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, Canada. It is one of the islands of the 21-island Isle-aux-Grues archipelago. It is part of the municipality of Saint-Antoine-de-l'Isle-aux-Grues, locate ...
in 1909 by the
Ancient Order of Hibernians The Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH; ) is an Irish Catholic fraternal organization. Members must be male, Catholic, and either born in Ireland or of Irish descent. Its largest membership is in the United States, where it was founded in New Yo ...
; the twelve-meter monument is the largest Celtic cross in North America. She entered the
Sisters of Charity of Halifax The Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul were founded on May 11, 1849, when the four founding Sisters of Charity arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, from New York City; this has been designated a National Historic Event. Heritage The Daughte ...
in 1952 and taught in
Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...
and
New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...
, before she settled back in Quebec City, where she taught for 25 years at St. Patrick's High School there. Over that time she earned a
Bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...
in History from Halifax's
Mount Saint Vincent University Mount Saint Vincent University, often referred to as the Mount, is a public, primarily undergraduate, university located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and was established in 1873. Mount Saint Vincent offers undergraduate Arts, Science, Edu ...
, later followed by a
Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...
from the
University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a Official bilingualism in Canada, bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ot ...
.Although the ''Globe and Mail'' states it to be a doctorate, all other sources agree that it was a Master's degree. Her thesis was about Quebec City's
St. Patrick's Church St. Patrick's Church, Saint Patrick's Church, St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church or Saint Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, and similar, may refer to: Australia * St Patrick's Church, Adelaide, a heritage-listed church in Adelaide, South Australia ...
, and her interest in Irish-Quebecer history would continue for her whole life. In 1973, O'Gallagher was allowed by the federal government (who had owned it since the establishment of the quarantine station) to visit Grosse Isle, which she found in a state of disrepair. This marked the beginning of her efforts to have the site federally recognized. She founded Irish Heritage Quebec the same year, an organization dedicated to the local promotion of Irish-Canadian history.It is not clear which event occurred first or whether one was a cause of the other. She remained president of Irish Heritage Quebec until 2009. The 1980s marked the beginning of O'Gallagher's community work. She founded bilingual
publisher Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...
Carraig Books in 1981. In 1983 she started a committee for the designation of Grosse Isle; these efforts came to fruition with the 1984 designation of the island as a historic site, a designation augmented in 1988 to that of
National Historic Site of Canada National Historic Sites of Canada () are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC), as being of national historic significance. Parks C ...
. Meanwhile, in 1985, she had left the
religious Religion is a range of social- cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural ...
community. She is credited with almost single-handed responsibility in the creation of the National Historic Site. In 1997, she spearheaded a series of events in Quebec City, the Irish Summer (). O'Gallagher spent the rest of her life writing books and articles on Irish-Canadian history, for which she became a major figure in the Canadian Irish studies community. The Canadian Association for Irish Studies had, days before her death, established an annual lecture named after her. She was the recipient of the Canadian Catholic Historical Association's G. E. Clerk Award in 1999, of the Order of Quebec in 1998, and the
Order of Canada The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...
in 2002. She was repeatedly included in ''
Irish America ''Irish America'' is a bi-monthly periodical that aims to cover topics relevant to the Irish in North America including a range of political, economic, social, and cultural themes. The magazine’s inaugural issue was published in October 1985. ...
s Global 100 lists, and was a member of the organizing committee for Quebec City's 2008 400th anniversary celebrations. O'Gallagher was hospitalized in April 2010, upon which it was discovered that she had advanced lung cancer, despite not being a smoker herself. She died, having never married, on May 24, 2010, aged 81. A few months earlier, she had been Grand Marshal to Quebec City's first
Saint Patrick's Day Saint Patrick's Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick (), is a religious and cultural holiday held on 17 March, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick (), the foremost patron saint of Ireland. Saint Patrick's Day was made an official Chris ...
s parade in 80 years, and she was at the time amongst the people featured in the exposition ''Being Irish O'Quebec'' at Montreal's
McCord Museum The McCord Stewart Museum, formerly known as the McCord Museum of Canadian History, is a public research and teaching museum. The Museum’s Archives, Documentary Art, Dress, Fashion and Textiles, Indigenous Cultures, Material Culture and Photogr ...
.


Partial bibliography

*O'Gallagher, Marianna. (1979) ''Saint-Patrice de Québec: La Construction d'une église et l'implantation d'une paroisse''. Translated by Guy Doré. "Cahiers d'Histoire", 32. Quebec City: Société Historique de Québec. 126 p. . **This is a French translation of O'Gallagher Master's thesis. An English version was published as '' Saint Patrick's, Quebec : the building of a church and of a parish, 1827 to 1833'' () by Carraig Books in 1981. *__________________. (1981) ''Saint Brigid's, Quebec: the Irish care for their people, 1856 to 1981''. Sainte-Foy: Carraig Books. 80 p. . *__________________. (1984) ''Grosse Ile: gateway to Canada 1832-1937''. Sainte-Foy: Carraig Books. 184 p. . **Published in French as ''La Grosse-Île: Porte d'entrée du Canada, 1832-1937'' in a translation by Michèle Bourbeau (). *__________________ & Rose Masson Dompierre. (1995) ''Eyewitness, Grosse Îsle 1847''. Sainte-Foy: Carraig Books. 432 p. . **Published in French as ''Les témoins parlent, Grosse Île 1847'' (). *__________________. (1998) ''The shamrock trail : tracing the Irish in Quebec city''. Sainte-Foy: Carraig Books. 35 p. . **French translation published in 1999 as ''Le Chemin du trèfle: La Présence irlandaise à Québec'' ().


References

Notes References


Further reading

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ogallagher, Marianna 1929 births 2010 deaths Quebec people of Irish descent People from Sainte-Foy, Quebec City Anglophone Quebec people Historians from Quebec Deaths from lung cancer in Canada Daughters and Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul Deaths from cancer in Quebec Former Roman Catholic religious sisters and nuns Knights of the National Order of Quebec Members of the Order of Canada Mount Saint Vincent University alumni University of Ottawa alumni Canadian women historians 20th-century Canadian nuns