Griffintown Book Report

In context, the book expounds on the significance of economic and socio-political milestones made in Montreal over the post-colonial period in relation to the existing diasporic Irish culture. In the same fashion, the book examines the role and value of identity associated with the working-class of the Montreal city and how the working-class strive to adapt to the declining cultural heritage as a result of immigration. Additionally, the book delves into the exemplification of how economic and socio-political transformations led to depopulation and physical destruction of landscape and societal aspirations in the collective striving to forging a new convergence of hopes and dreams. Notably, the book elucidates the impacts of cultural divergence in an Anglophone population with which conflict of interests plays significant role in the restructuring of social-economic strive in life.

Literary, the books illustrate the defensive aspects brought about by cultural and constitutional connections through linguistic sovereignty and individual desire to maintain a definitive balance between history and culture (Barlow, 2017). In context, Barlow demonstrates the resurgence and existence of an ethnic culture, or a faction of individuals and groups with a “civilized” cultural quarter as a result of clash of interests between the ruling elite and the working-class. This supplements Leduc and Roy’ (2008) image flick titled “Griffin-Town Retooled: Envisioning Session Brief in Montreal” which portrayed a textual and ideal glimpse of how public memory helps define the construction and design of urban centres. The flick explicates the order of choice and the perceptual approach that developers of new towns and cities employ in their pursuit of architecture and design. In shaping the cultural and political landscape of the city Barlow observes the intuitive but calculated moves by the leadership of the Saint Anne’s Parish aimed at forging a new and long-lasting relationship and coexistence.

That is, with the existence of local Catholic-Irish roots dating back to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, creating a new catholic-Irish identity called for intrinsic display of solidarity from all quarters. That is, the exemplification of the town as the focal point of multivariate identities by portraying the neighbourhood in class, gender, religion, ethnic and national identities give the book the intrinsic essentiality (Langford, 2018). Notably, in an effort to forge the “Montreal Identity” amid the Fenian Crisis experienced in 1860s, Barlow not only showcases literal mastery but also the ability to integrate historical exploration and cultural re-evaluation to build a complex nomenclature of understanding Canada from multivariate dimensions. In other words, the ability to demonstrate the transformative aspects of Griffintown from early settlements to industrialization, the pre-famine era to the abundance of cheap and quality housing, and the geographical postulation of the town to the waterfront, Barlow actualizes the conceptual chronology of the events that helped shape the town.

Collin, Dagenais, & Poitras (2003) supplement Barlow’s historical point of view by analysing Griffintown’s industrial base that exploded in Montreal in the mid of nineteenth century. In context, they observe the industrialization of the time as the centre-stage and the core focal point of identity where the middle and the working class associated with technology advancements, massive reduction of unemployment, and the subsequent reduction of high rates of rents and establishment of standard and modern housing. To conclude, Griffintown: Identity and Memory in an Irish Diaspora Neighbourhood brings out the emancipative aspects of a modern and imaginary town based on historical and biographical undertones. The creation, re-creation and re-enforcement of the physical situation of the town within the intersection of Ireland and Quebec gives the book a realistic and natural touch to the readers, while forging the anticipatory feeling of memory and dream of identity.

The book not only rekindles the town’s flame as the locus of replenishing Irish memories but also breaks down the long-lasting Irish connections to Montreal into various perspectives for the readers to visualize. The book serves historians and young academicians in understanding Canada and Montreal from artistic and physical perspectives. References Acheson, T. Directed by Jacques Leduc and Renée Roy. Montreal: Office national du film du Canada, 1982. Filmstrip, 52 min. Ames, Herbert Brown. The City Below the Hill: The Slums of Montreal, 1897. Symbols in the streets: parades in Victorian urban Canada.  Urban History Review/Revue d'histoire urbaine, 18(3), 237-243. Golden Jubilee Number of the Redemptorist Fathers at St. Ann’s. Montreal, 1934. By Matthew Barlow. Pp 249. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2017.  Irish Historical Studies, 42(161), 198-200. Opp, J.