Growing Up Acadian in Irish Tignish
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- SpeakerWith much humour, the speaker introduces his lecture on his life in the 1940’s and 1950’s as an Acadian boy living in Tignish. His parents had a short wartime relationship with his English father giving the speaker the family name of Porter.
- SpeakerIn March 1944, the speaker arrived in Tignish to live with his mother’s parents. The speaker’s Acadian family has lived in Tignish since 1720 as they hid in the woods escaping deportation. The speaker’s mother’s family has lived for 13 generations in Nova Scotia with few contacts with the Irish. In August 1958, the speaker moved to Montreal to live with his mother where he was educated by the Irish Christian Brothers.
- SpeakerThe Tignish community was founded in 1799 with the Acadians being the first settlers. The speaker disagrees with Samuel Holland who described Lot 1 as “it isn’t worth anything”.
- SpeakerThe speaker considers himself a citizen of the world. When he travels in Europe he is often mistaken for a non-Irish ethnicity. He relates a story to illustrate this. He moved back to PEI in 1982.
- SpeakerThe speaker taught at Mount Allison University before Catherine Hennessey convinced him to move back to PEI in 1982 to work with the heritage foundation. The speaker tells a story about when he was working with Hennessey and the heritage foundation that highlights his Irish, Acadian and Catholic background.
- SpeakerThe speaker explains why he was unhappy with his job in heritage, so he resigned in 1989 and became self-employed. As an aside, the speaker tells about the use of bird eye’s maple.
- SpeakerThe speaker was born on November 23, 1943, in the Summerside Hospital. For the first few months of his life, the speaker lived with his godparents in Clinton. In March of 1944, he went to live with his maternal grandparents in Tignish who spoke Acadian French. Because they were never deported and never came into contact with the French of Quebec, the Acadian French is the French of the 1600’s.
- SpeakerThe speaker talks about his grandmother,a Poirier from Palmer Road, a well off family. His grandfather had an Irish background. The speaker’s grandfather’s mother was Charlotte Harper who married Isidore Gaudet.
- SpeakerCharlotte Harper learned to speak French and sing French songs. Harper spoke French with an Irish accent. The speaker explains how when learning is oral, then the accent of the singer is also acquired as happened with a song his mother learned.
- SpeakerThe speaker’s grandfather married the speaker’s grandmother three weeks after knowing her and they had 14 babies nine of whom died of TB.
- SpeakerThe speaker explains the use of holy water during his childhood.
- SpeakerThe speaker spoke French until age 8 and learned English at his mother’s insistence.
- SpeakerThe speaker explains why and how he was “tortured” by other students. The speaker’s mother insisted that the speaker did not use the French-accented English of Tignish. The speaker notes that the “th” sound of English is difficult for both Irish and French speakers. The speaker recalls the ads circulating in Ireland and Great Britain in 1811 and more recently photographed by Cyril Byrne of SMU.
- SpeakerThe first parish history in PEI was published in 1899 when Tignish was 100 years old. There is a story told both in French and in English about a fight between an Acadian, Bernard and an Irishman, Reilly. Reilly smashed a shovel onto Bernard’s head but Bernard did not falter. Bernard and his ancestors got the name “shovel splitter”
- SpeakerDespite the resentment toward each other, the “damn” Irish and “dirty” French intermarried.
- SpeakerThe speaker talks about fetishes and nicknames. The speaker explains how his “French” name of Reggie Frances Charlie Joe Isidore would allow others to know who he is.
- SpeakerThe speaker entered the world of the Irish before he learned English because his neighbour was Jack Christopher. The Conroys were the only middle-class professional Irish that settled in Tignish and included a doctor, a politician, and Tignish’s librarian from the 1930’ to the 1960’s, Margaret.
- SpeakerSide A ends, Side B begins
- SpeakerIt was the librarian who told the speaker that he lived where he did because a group of people burnt the house where the 9 babies died of TB. The speaker continues with the story of his grandmother having a baby without any assistance due to a blizzard. During the baby’s birth, his grandmother’s “last year" baby died.
- SpeakerAfter his grandparent’s house was burnt down and the land was sold, they were given a small piece of land by a neighbour. The speaker explains how a shack was moved from the shore to their small piece of land and used as their “new” house.
- SpeakerThe speaker’s mother insisted he listens to the news on CFCY every night to learn English. So he spoke with a semi-French and semi-English accent. The school he attended was built by Sir Charles Dalton, Lieutenant Governor of PEI, Knight Commander of St Gregory and co-founder of the fox industry. His grandmother made a joke about Sir Charles’ St Gregory uniform.
- SpeakerThe Dalton School was for grades 1 to 3 and was in French. The speaker tells a story of an incident when he was in grade 4 after the class watched a film about the deportation of Acadians.
- SpeakerThe speaker made his first money serving as an altar boy. He loved science and used his money to buy chemicals from nuns. After the Dalton school, the speaker attended the convent school run by the CND nuns. The speaker claims his “torture” at school was by the “damn” Irish.
- SpeakerThe speaker tells the story of Leonard Doyle who travelled to school in the summer using a cart pulled by his dog and in the winter using a sled pulled by his dog. The speaker also tells other stories of misfortune that befell him at school.
- SpeakerThe speaker describes the importance and the program of Tignish’s St. Patrick’s Concert.
- SpeakerThe speaker describes a particular play from a St Patrick’s Concert.
- SpeakerThe speaker notes how the St Patrick’s Concert brought out the best of Tignish’s French and Irish community, a Tignish that was seen as Irish to an Acadian boy.
- SpeakerEnd of lectures, closing comments