Valérie Plante’s party promises to invest $ 15 million, if re-elected in November, to move Bridge Street, in the Sud-Ouest borough, in order to facilitate the creation of a park on the site of the Irish Memorial, commonly known as “Black Rock”.
The stakes are high for many members of the Irish community, who for years demanded the development of a commemorative site worthy of the name near the immense black rock which pays homage to the 6,000 Irish who died of the typhus in Montreal after fleeing famine in their country of origin in the mid-19e century. Many Montrealers also lost their lives at the time while trying to help them.
“Many of them died because they caught typhus”, explains to To have to Montreal Irish Monument Park Foundation Director Fergus Keys on these Good Samaritans. Mr. Keys thus underlines the importance of paying tribute to this “great humanitarian effort”.
“We want to honor the people who came to help the Irish,” he insists.
The “Black Rock”, a monument erected in 1859 where thousands of Irish people were buried at the time, however, currently sits on a thin strip of land enclosed between four lanes of Bridge Street. Projet Montréal promises to invest $ 15 million to move this street in order to expand the available space near this commemorative monument. A park could then take shape on land that Hydro-Québec, which is building an electrical substation in this sector, intends to cede to the Irish community to allow this project to be carried out near its future installations there.
“It’s a very nice project and it’s something we have been working on for a long time with the Irish community”, argues in an interview the advisor of Projet Montréal in this sector of the South-West, which notably includes Pointe-Saint- Charles, Craig Sauvé. The latter also affirms that the “move” of Bridge Street, undoubtedly to the north, is “essential” to the realization of this project.
Once the City’s work is completed, the Montreal Irish Monument Park Foundation will take over to complete the site’s development into a park, said a communiqué from Projet Montréal issued on Saturday. “We want to show that everyone worked together. Something is going to happen and we think it will be a big memorial, something that all Montrealers can enjoy, ”says Fergus Keys.
Timeline
The party hopes to be able to begin this major work planned on Bridge Street no later than 2025, that is to say by the end of the next term. This project would last two years, foresees the political formation. “It will become a destination for tourists of Irish origin,” sees Mr. Sauvé.
While still mayor of Montreal, in 2017, Denis Coderre was already promising to create such a commemorative space for the Irish community. A few years later and at the end of the creation of a tripartite committee bringing together Ville, members of this community and Hydro-Quebec, Craig Sauvé assures us that this project is now on the way to being realized.
“There are also budgetary challenges, but we confirm our commitment to do so,” he says about the planned relocation of Bridge Street in this area.