By examining three secondary sources and one primary source regarding Irish immigration during the mid 1800s I was able to come to the conclusion that Irish immigrants did in fact benefit from immigrating to Canada during the potato famine. Within this assignments there are many aspects that can be analyzed to contribute to many critical thinking ideas that arose during this semester in terms of thinking historically. The beginnings of the Irish immigrant experience did present challenges but the end result for the majority of Irish Canadians was prosperity. During the potato famine the majority of the immigrants were Catholic and therefore faced some struggles once arrived in Canada due to the majority of settled Irish immigrants being of Protestant faith. Irish people began working jobs at the bottom end of certain jobs but over time worked their way up the professional ladder. There were even families that owned large contracting companies that enabled them to be very wealthy. In Montreal, by analyzing the heads of households and the square footage of house size during the mid 1840s showed that Irish immigrants actually owned bigger houses than the rest of Canadian population in this region. These conclusions came from a recent in depth evaluation of documents in Montreal and Ontario that were otherwise ignored. Just because the only knowledge to date had perhaps shown otherwise we have to be careful not to accept a certain interpretation of being completely true, and in this case, Irish immigrants were subject to generalization. The history concerning immigration during this time period shifted to be seen in more of a positive light that in fact brought opulence to their lives.
