Highlanders preparing to march on Toronto
The Introduction begins: I was an eyewitness of the scene,” the stonemason Donald Macleod wrote. Strong parties of men “commenced setting fire to the dwellings till about three hundred houses were in flames, the people striving to remove the sick, the helpless, before the re should reach them. The cries of women and children—the roaring of cattle—the barking…
Read MoreFIVE STARS times seven for Dead Reckoning
Dead Reckoning has been available in softcover for nine months. How’s the book doing over on Amazon? For no good reason, I suddenly found myself wondering. Turns out we’re talking FIVE STARS OUT OF FIVE seven times over. Surely that’s cause for celebration . . . as in this pic from a few years back at…
Read MoreOpen Letter to Calgary writers & musicians
Hi, folks. I know I’ve been remiss. I have failed to keep properly in touch. And for that I apologize. The other day, someone from California went asking after me at the Calgary Herald. Folks there had no idea. All things considered — remember the strike? — I guess that is not surprising. But I…
Read MoreCeltic Life Meets Most Hated Man in Scotland
The July-August issue of Celtic Life International is turning up at newsstands around the world. It features an excerpt from my forthcoming book Flight of the Highlanders: The Making of Canada. Set it up this way: In his bestsellers How the Scots Invented Canada and Celtic Lightning, Ken McGoogan wrote about how, in the 18thand 19th centuries, Scotland (and Ireland) sent Canada…
Read MoreWhy Highlanders fled their ancestral lands
Left: HarperCollins; right: Library and Archives Canada, Acc. No. 1988-250-37 Numerous books have explored the Highland Clearances (the forced mass eviction of tenants from Scotland’s Highlands and western islands, mainly to turn land to sheep pasture), which began around 1760 and lasted a century. Many more have treated the arrival of these Highlanders in pre-Confederation Canada, both east…
Read MorePrimatologist to lead Madagascar expedition
Toronto-based primatologist-explorer Travis Steffens has been sorting gear for a five-person expedition in Madagascar. Steffens, the executive director of Planet Madagascar, a non-profit organization, will lead a 220-kilometre conservation-oriented trek around Ankarafantsika National Park starting June 28. He will fly into the island-country in about one week to make final preparations. Over fifteen days on the ground, the team will hike through rough…
Read MoreThe Irish show the way to Canadiana
Fourteen years ago, Canadian authors were producing 27 per cent of English-language books sold in Canada. Today we account for 13 per cent. That is not a misprint: Canadians who write books in English produce only 13 per cent of all books purchased in Canada. Don’t take my word for it. Check out this story…
Read MoreThe escape of the beauteous Alice Le Kyteler
In 1324, Alice Le Kyteler — original owner of this Kilkenny inn — was accused with various accomplices of witchcraft. Beauteous and clever, the daughter of a Norman banker, Alice had survived four husbands and amassed no small fortune. All this excited the jealousy of powerful contemporaries. Alice was tried, found guilty, and condemned to be…
Read MoreIt’s not all that far to Tipperary
It’s not that far to Tipperary — not if you start in Kilkenny. That’s what we did. The statue to the left commemorates John and Patrick Saul, two boys abandoned by their parents at the docks in Dublin. The butcher and his wife boarded a ship for Australia after first telling their sons, ages 15…
Read MoreThis ship carried thousands across the Atlantic
Here we have the Dunbrody Famine Ship in New Ross, County Wexford — one of the finest memorials of the Great Hunger in all Ireland. I’ve posted about visiting the EPIC emigration museum, the exhibition at St. Stephen’s Green, and the Jeannie Johnston. Since then the biggest surprise has been the Famine Exhibition in the…
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