Today in History – 12 November 1811
by Elizabeth CampbellMiles Macdonell and Mr. Hillier made two camps near York Factory over the winter of 1811/12, where the men who were to be the work crew for the Red River Settlement lived until moving south after break-up. Even from Macdonell’s journal, which is often somewhat brief and lacking detail in its daily record of events, it is clear that the winter was full of malcontent.
With the men was a Roman Catholic priest, Charles Bourke – Irish, like many of the men of the working party. He, too kept a journal, a journal that is far more outspoken about the tensions between the Irish and the Orkneymen, and the outright prejudice and abuse the former suffered. Several times violence erupted and, on occasion, serious injury occurred. While it seems that the Irish were doing the erupting, the entries in the ailing priest’s diary over the next three days show that they were well and truly goaded.
This ill feeling carried over into later years at the RRS, as these Irishmen formed most of the working party and were joined later by some Irish immigrants.
[A Bad Cough & sore breast] increases I observe a great deal of impertinence in McRea & a bad disposition in general towards the Irish
- Journal of the Rev. Charles Bourke
(reference: pages 17867 of the Selkirk Papers, M187, Manitoba Archives)
Tags: 1811 Work Party, illness & disease, Irish, Miles Macdonell, Miles Macdonell's Journal, Mr. Hillier, Mr. McRae, Orkneymen, Rev. Charles Bourke, Rev. Thomas Bourke's Journal, RRS Politics, York Factory
