LETTER FROM QUEBEC:A FRENCH-SPEAKING hurling fanatic with an Offaly accent is not quite the profile you'd expect of an employee with Parks Canada, the state agency charged with guarding that vast country's national parks, historic sites and marine conservation areas, writes Michael Parsons.
Pierre-Loup Boudreault, a resident of Canada's francophone Quebec province, doesn't have "a single drop" of Irish blood in him, but is mad about us all the same. He can't quite explain why, but he long ago fell in love with Ireland.
In 2006 he took leave of absence from his job as a park guide and volunteered to work on an architectural dig in the
Co Tipperary village of Twomileborris, where excavation works on the route of the N8 Dublin to Cork motorway had uncovered the remains of an Iron-Age settlement on a farm.
Boudreault rented a house in Tullamore and commuted to the dig every day with a fellow volunteer. Speaking in Canada recently, he recalled with a shiver: "I never felt so cold as I did when I was working in Tipperary; it was horrible." And that's saying something from a man who's used to being outdoors in temperatures which can drop as low as -30 degrees.
But he enjoyed his six months in Ireland and his only negative experience was being verbally assaulted by a xenophobic drinker in a Dún Laoghaire pub who apparently assumed that his beard was a symbol of Islam. He shrugs off the incident.
Along with good memories, he returned to Canada with a "made in Kilkenny" hurley. He uses it as a template to hand-make hurleys in Canada "from elm wood, because ash is hard to find". It's a good thing he has a hobby, because he lives for six months a year on an otherwise uninhabited island in the St Lawrence River, about 30 miles from the city of Quebec. Grosse Île, where he's stationed as a guide, is also a national park and open to visitors from May to October.
The island was used as a quarantine station between 1832 and 1937 to prevent the spread of diseases such as typhus and cholera from immigrants arriving into Canada. During that period, some four million people from 60 countries - including Ireland - entered Canada through the port of Quebec. The treatment they received from the immigration authorities was as caring and humane as then possible.
But in 1847 the system was overwhelmed by the catastrophe in Ireland. In that one year alone, Quebec received 100,000 immigrants - four times more than the previous year - and most were Irish, fleeing the Great Famine. An estimated 5,000 died at sea, 5,424 died on Grosse Île itself, and countless others perished later on the Canadian mainland.
Quebec has not forgotten them. The largest Celtic cross in North America was erected on the island by the Ancient Order of Hibernians in 1909 to honour their memory and, in 1997, on the 150th anniversary of the Great Famine, a stunning and utterly poignant new memorial featuring glass panels listing the names of the dead was built overlooking the graveyard. It was unveiled by President Mary McAleese during a visit the following year.
Irish visitors to Quebec in this the city's 400th anniversary year - or any other year - can visit Grosse Île by ferry excursion. Mr Boudreault, the site manager Jo-Anick Proulx and the other staff are doing a wonderful job of preserving and caring for this little piece of sacred Irish ground.
They're not the only Quebecers keeping the memory of Ireland alive. Marianna O'Gallagher, whose third-generation paternal Irish roots derive from Macroom, is a former Sister of Charity and the grande-dame of Canadian- Irish society.
She is the founder and president of Irish Heritage Quebec, which seeks to "preserve and promote" the city's Irish heritage, and has published numerous books and articles on the subject. Madame O'Gallagher was awarded the Order of Canada for her work in 2002.
She explains that many Irish children who were orphaned by the tragedy at Grosse Île were adopted by French-speaking families and assimilated, which is still "remembered in Quebec - by the Irish with gratitude and by the French with justifiable pride".
On Quebec's Rue McMahon, tour guide John O'Connor, who has "yet to visit Ireland" but is "from Sixmilebridge, Co Clare" on his "father's side, way back", points out a Celtic cross. Hewn from blue limestone and erected in 2000, it is a gift from James Callery and the National Famine Museum in Strokestown Park, Co Roscommon. The inscription reads: "To the people of Quebec from the people of Ireland: In remembrance of their selfless compassion in times of need."
Oddly, for a place associated with so much sadness, Grosse Île is serene and uplifting. It is a corner of Canada that will be forever Ireland. The people of Quebec deserve our gratitude.
Bon 400ième anniversaire Québec!