— 35 — CCHA Historical Studies, 52(1985), 35-49 Irish-French Relations in Lower Canada

Movements for political reform were a world-wide phenomenon in the 1820’s. On both sides of the Atlantic two British territories, Ireland and Lower Canada, fought the established political order in an effort to gain control of their own affairs. An ever-increasing number of Irish arrived in Quebec and Montreal during this period as a result of Britain’s policy of resettling her surplus population in her North American colonies. It did not take long for some of the Irish immigrants and the French Canadians to realize that a political affiliation could be mutually beneficial. The relationship was based primarily on both groups being Catholic and sharing a history of conquest by England. Catholics in Lower Canada had enjoyed relative religious freedom since 1763 as well as exemption from the penal restrictions that affected Irish Catholics, but both groups felt that their religion and nationality militated against them in the selection of government offices and appointment to positions of power. English domination of the Irish was centuries old. More than three-quarters of th