Green and Orange in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Toronto: The Guy Fawkes' Day Episode of 1864

Canadian Journal of Irish StudiesCanadian Association of Irish Studies

Green and Orange in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Toronto: The Guy Fawkes' Day Episode of 1864Author(s): Michael CottrellSource: The Canadian Journal of Irish Studies, Vol. 19, No. 1 (Jul., 1993), pp. 12-21Published by: Canadian Journal of Irish StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25512946 .

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Green and Orange in

Mid-Nineteenth-Century Toronto:

The Guy Fawkes' Day Episode of 1864

MICHAEL COTTRELL

The anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot was normally an occasion of good humoured festivity in nineteenth-century Toronto, but the bizarre events of

Guy Fawkes' Day 1864 threw the city into a "state of excitement such as it

seldom before saw" (Globe, 9 Nov. 1864). After dusk bands of men armed with

"guns, pistols, swords and weapons of other descriptions" gathered in Queen's Park and thence proceeded in paramilitary fashion to the east and west ends of

the city (Globe, 8 Nov. 1864). These "irresponsible and blood-thirsty bigots" terrorized the inhabitants by controlling the streets until 2:00 a.m. and then

completed their intimidation before dispersing by firing a volley of shots which

resounded across the city (Globe, 9 Nov. 1864). In open defiance of the

authorities, the demonstration obviously constituted a "flagrant violation of

the law" and called into question the ability of the police to protect the lives and

property of the citizenry (Globe, 8 Nov. 1864). But even more ominous was

the identification of these "midnight conspirators" as members of the Hibernian

Benevolent Society, a shadowy organization of Irish Catholic immigrants. For

the Hibernians were closely linked with the American Fenian Brotherhood, whose hostility to Great Britain was well-known (Globe, 8, 9 Nov. 1864). The

Hibernians' nocturnal demonstration thus raised serious concerns about the

maintenance of law and order and the security of the Upper Canadian metropolis and initiated a Fenian scare which was to last until after Confederation. It also raised the more terrifying spectre of a local fifth column abetting in a second St. Bartholomew's Day massacre among the petrified citizens of 'Toronto the

Good'.1

The implications of this episode, however, transcended the temporary

paranoia which it produced. A chapter in the interminable feud between

Orange and Green, it demonstrated the depth of ethnic and sectarian conflict

generated by the arrival of large numbers of Irish immigrants in Victorian

Toronto. To the host society it was a graphic reminder of the problems attendant on the reception and integration of these new immigrants, particularly the threat to public harmony posed by their determination to transplant and

perpetuate their Old World conflicts. For Irish Catholics, who were at the centre of the conflict, the episode revealed their growing frustration with an

environment which they believed ignored their presence and disregarded their

interests. But the Hibernians' demonstration also brought to the surface

internal tensions generated within the Irish community by the need to reconcile



Guy Fawkes' Day, 1864 13

external pressures for conformity with the desire to retain aspects of their

traditional culture in their new home. For the historian, therefore, the strange events of Guy Fawkes' Day 1864 provide a neat encapsulation ofthe process of immigrant adjustment and the evolution of ethnic relations in mid-nineteenth

century Toronto.2

Table 1 Population of Toronto, 1848-1881

Date Irish Catholic Total

1848 1,695 5,903 25,503

1851 11,305 7,940 30,775

1861 12,441 12,125 44,821

1871 10,336 11,881 56,092

1881 10,781 15,716 86,415

Source: Census of Canada, 1848-1881.

Table 2 Irish Catholic Occupational Profile, 1860

Unskilled 45.0%

Semi-skilled 13.5%

Skilled 12.1%

Clerical 2.8%

Business 16.7%

Professional 3.3%

Private means 6.6%

Source: B.Clarke, "Piety, Nationalism and Fraternity: The Rise of Irish Catholic Voluntary Associations in Toronto, 1850-1895" (Ph.D. dissertation. University of Chicago, 1986), 33.

After the huge Famine influx ofthe 1840s, the Upper Canadian metropolis bore a heavy Irish flavour. In 1851 over one-third ofthe population was Irish

born or of Irish origin; and a decade later Irish Catholics alone constituted 27

per cent ofthe urban population (see Table 1). Ubiquitous throughout the city, the Irish were also spread across the economic hierarchy. But a combination

of inadequate skills and capital and a slowly developing capitalist labour

market consigned a majority of these early immigrants, especially Catholics, to marginal occupations (see Table 2). The economic adjustment of Catholic

and Protestant Irish therefore differed only in degree, but their experience in

other respects was radically divergent. Toronto in the mid-nineteenth-century was a self-consciously British and Protestant community and Irish Protestant

immigrants not only adjusted easily to this milieu but quickly came to

dominate it. Their hyper-loyalism and uncompromising Protestantism dove tailed neatly with the existing Loyalist ethos and their social acceptance was

perhaps best demonstrated by the success of the Orange Order. Orangeism served as the primary cultural badge of these immigrants and because of the



14 The Canadian Journal of Irish Studies

synonymity between its value system and that of colonial society it quickly transcended its ethnic appeal. By the 1870s approximately one-third of all

English Canadians were active or former members, and its appeal was

particularly strong in Upper Canada/Ontario. Toronto soon came to be known as the "Belfast of Canada," and the local power ofthe Order was evident in its

domination of the Toronto Corporation and municipal police force. As early as 1844, six of ten aldermen were Lodge members; and between 1845 and 1900

no fewer than twenty of twenty-three mayors were Orangemen.3

This rapid acceptance and relatively easy adjustment was not shared by the

Catholic Irish, however. Their influx during the 1840s shattered the virtual

Protestant consensus which had previously existed, exacerbating Protestant

paranoia already fuelled by the English Papal Aggression crisis and the French

Canadian threat (Miller 292-294). Anti-Catholic nativism was reinforced by their supposed hostility to British institutions, their alleged criminality and the

destitution in which some arrived.4 As the largest and most visible foreign

group in the city, Irish Catholics therefore became the victims of intense

discrimination and the targets of a vitriolic No Popery crusade which made

diatribes from the contemporary press, such as the following from the Globe, a common occurrence:

A Scotch beggar is a rare sight - an English

one is not so rare; but Irish beggars are to

be met everywhere, and they are as ignorant and vicious as

they are poor. They are lazy, improvident and unthankful;

they fill our poor-houses and our prisons, and are as brutish in

their superstitions as Hindoos [sic]. (Globe, 11 Feb. 1858)

Unlike the Protestant Irish who quickly integrated into the colonial

Protestant consensus, Irish Catholics thus found themselves excluded on

religious, cultural and social grounds: and in response withdrew into an

essentially defensive form of ethnicity. This separatism first manifested itself in the network of social and religious institutions created by the Roman

Catholic Church, as the clergy sought to ease the adjustment of Irish immigrants and reinforce clerical control over their lives.5 Paralleling this was the

emergence of various secular voluntary organizations such as the Young Men's St. Patrick's Association, a largely middle class organization which

used Irish ethnicity both as a justification for lay leadership independent ofthe

clergy and as a means for mobilizing the political power of Irish immigrants (Cottrell 59-61). But more significant for the purposes of this paper was the

establishment ofthe Hibernian Benevolent Society in late 1858.

The Hibernians were formed in direct response to an escalation of hostility and violence against Irish Catholics in Toronto, the most notorious example

being the murder of Matthew Sheedy during an attack on the 1858 St. Patrick's




Day parade (Toner 27-35). The Hibernians responded to this by drawing on the Irish Ribbonite tradition of self-defence. Providing regular drill instruction to

all members, the Hibernians sought to make the streets of Toronto safe for

Catholics and their defensive mandate soon extended to patrolling Catholic

neighborhoods, guarding Catholic churches and Separate Schools and protecting Catholic public functions.

The Hibernians soon rose above their early Ribbonite, roots however, and

within a short time evolved into a full-fledged ethnic voluntary organization which provided material benefits, a convivial social life and a constructive

outlet for the energies of its largely working class membership (Sheppard 129

44). Even more ambitious was the attempt to inculcate a self-conscious

ideology among supporters, based on a combination of Catholicism and radical Irish nationalism to foster a distinctive identity among Irish immigrants which

would both rationalize their separation from the larger society and justify the

Hibernians' claim to the leadership of the Irish Catholic community. A logical extension of this campaign was the establishment of close links with the Fenian

Brotherhood, an American-based immigrant organization dedicated to the

violent overthrow of British rule in Ireland (D'Arcy). In 1860 a Fenian circle was established in Toronto, headed by the Hibernian president Michael

Murphy, and a core group of Hibernians were also active Fenian members.

Hibernian support for the Fenians was publicly expressed for the first time

during the 1863 St. Patrick's Day parade and was repeated even more forcibly the following year (Irish Canadian, 18 & 23 March 1863). But this declaration

brought to the surface long-simmering divisions within the Irish Catholic

community, and further exacerbated tensions with the Protestant majority, contributing directly to the Guy Fawkes' Day episode. Divisions within the Catholic community revolved essentially around the appropriate response to their new environment and the right to formulate this response. Both the Irish clerical and middle class lay leadership which emerged in Toronto, while

fostering particularism for religious and political purposes, ultimately sought an accommodation which would integrate Irish Catholics harmoniously into

the larger society. But this strategy was clearly not acquiesced in by the

Hibernians, in part because its social or material benefits had not yet trickled down to the plebeians for whom they spoke and in part because of the abandonment of cultural distinctiveness which it involved. Demanding a more

vigorous assertion of the Irish Catholic presence in Toronto and the retention of a strong sense of ethno-cultural as well as religious identity, the Hibernians seized on radical Irish nationalism as a symbolic cause, expressive of their own sense of local oppression and a protest against the barriers which excluded them from full participation in their new home. In this they were supported by the poor, the young and the militant among the Irish Catholic community (Irish

Canadian, 27 May 1863; 13 April, 23 June, 24 Aug., 22 Sept. 1864).




While the Roman Catholic clergy were unwilling to alienate the Hibernians

and in fact benefitted from their identification of Catholicism and Irish

nationalism, the Irish middle class was not so sanguine. The Hibernians'

militancy was a clear threat to the accommodation which they sought, since

expressions of support for radical Irish nationalism could easily be construed

as evidence of Irish disloyalty, further alienating them from the colonial

establishment. Unable to control the Hibernians, the Irish Catholic middle

class thus quickly disassociated themselves from what they described as an

unrepresentative minority. The often vitriolic dispute which subsequently

erupted between the Canadian Freeman, mouthpiece of Irish moderates and

the Irish Canadian, the Hibernian paper, was the clearest public evidence of

this conflict between moderates and extremists within the Irish Catholic

community.

By the middle of 1864, therefore, Hibernian radicalism was causing

growing concern to the authorities and alienating them also from elements

within their own group. But rather than moderating their stance, this predicament

pushed the Hibernians even further towards intransigence. Born out of a seige

mentality, the Hibernians had a vested interest in a continuation of this

situation to justify their extremism and indeed their existence; and fortunately for them the activities of the Orange Order played directly into their hands.

The Order had long been a thorn in the side of Catholics, its popularity and

influence seen as an indication of the fundamentally alien character of Upper Canadian society and their largely unchecked hostilities a frequent reminder

ofthe second class status under which Irish Catholics laboured (O'Flynn 206

15). The attack on a procession celebrating the feast of Corpus Christi by

pistol-wielding Orange rowdies in May of 1864 provided further evidence of

Orange brutality. Even more alarming was the refusal ofthe police who were

present to intervene or the failure of the authorities to prosecute those

responsible for the outrage. Clearly the Orangemen were determined to deny Catholics the right to practice their religion in public, and the behaviour ofthe

police suggested that in this they had the support ofthe host society (McGowan

4-5).

The Corpus Christi riot thus reinforced the seige mentality among Irish

Catholics in Toronto, confirming their perception of themselves as an embattled

minority in an environment unremittingly hostile to their religion and nationality. This climate obviously benefitted the Hibernians for they could now present themselves as the sole defenders of the Catholic community and offer their

radical nationalist ideology as a viable alternative to the colonial Protestant

chauvinism ofthe host society. In the following months the Hibernians sought to solidify their support by constantly focussing on the Orange menace and

emphasizing the relationship between events in Canada and in Ireland. The

riots in Belfast in August 1864 in which eleven Catholics were killed by

Orange mobs provided such a parallel, for the Hibernians insisted that the




Orangemen in Toronto were no different from their Irish counterparts and

exercised a similarly pernicious influence:

Things have come to a pretty pass not only in

Belfast but here in this good city of Toronto

where the Chief Magistrate is master of a

Black Lodge embodying all the envenomed hate,

poison and brutality displayed so recently in the streets of the

'Athens of Ireland'.6

(Irish Canadian, 31 Aug. 1864)

It was against this background of growing confrontation between Orange and Green that the events of Guy Fawkes' Day unfolded. But while the

Hibernians' demonstration may be seen as an expression of general alienation

among Irish Catholics directed against their most visible enemies, it also had much to do with the internal dynamics of the Irish Catholic community. Having focussed hostility on the Orange Order to justify both their existence and their

extremism and ward off criticism from Irish moderates, the Hibernians now

had to make good on their claim to defend the Catholic community. And Guy Fawkes' Day provided an ideal opportunity to vindicate themselves.

During the last weeks of October rumours began to circulate that the

Orangemen planned to mark the Gunpowder Plot by publicly burning effigies of Daniel O'Connell and Pope Pius IX, together with Guy Fawkes'. This was

a deliberate and unequivocal insult to Irish Catholics since it suggested that their most sacred icons could be humiliated with impunity and it was a

challenge which the Hibernians were not prepared to pass up. Coming after the attack on the Corpus Christi procession, the Hibernians insisted that the pride of the Catholic community was at stake, and declared their intention of not only preventing the planned celebration, by force if necessary, but of mounting a

counter-demonstration of their own. Fearsome violence would inevitably ensue from this confrontation and as the holiday approached tension within the

city reached a fever pitch. But a clash was prevented by the intervention of

Mayor Metcalfe and other Orange leaders who prevailed upon their supporters to cancel the proposed effigy burning and confine the normal festivities indoors. With the exception of a brief procession by a small group of

Orangemen, they were as good as their word (Clarke 375-77). Civic-minded Orange leaders were more successful than their Catholic

counterparts in curbing rank and file extremism, however, for the Hibernians

refused to reciprocate. Despite the failure of the Orangemen to carry out their

threat, the Hibernians insisted on going ahead with their demonstration,

despite vehement internal opposition. After consulting with lay leaders on the

possible repercussions for the public image of Irish Catholics, the Roman

Catholic clergy made strenuous efforts to persuade the Hibernians to forego




their demonstration. But it was all in vain, as the priest involved in the

negotiations confided to Bishop Lynch:

We called upon the leading Hibernians and used every

argument we could think of to dissuade them from making any demonstration on that night, but all our arguments were

lost on them; for go they would and go they did, armed to the

teeth with guns and pikes. (Archives)

The Hibernians' demonstration was indeed impressive. Over five hundred

assembled in Queen's Park, revealing the manpower at their command. Tight

discipline and military deportment indicated that the men were well-drilled

and that the event was carefully planned and executed. The array of weapons which they carried further suggested the considerable financial resources and

potential threat of the organization. While the Hibernians avoided a clash with

the Orangemen, the events of Guy Fawkes' Day obviously constituted a major triumph for their organization and, by extension, for the Irish Catholic

community in Toronto. In the 'Belfast of Canada', the bastion of chauvinistic

Protestantism and British colonialism, they had intimidated the powerful

Orange Order into abandoning their annual celebration and prevented the

planned public humiliation of Catholic sensibilities. And having forced the

Orangemen to surrender the streets, they proceeded to enforce their own right to the,same streets by force of arms in defiance of the authorities. One of the

most militant assertions of Irish Catholic presence ever mounted in Toronto, this display constituted both a protest against their discriminatory treatment

and marginalized position and a strident demand that their rights and interests be respected.

But the Hibernians' midnight demonstration was also a protest by poor, young and radical Irish Catholics against the accommodation pursued by their

lay and clerical betters. In this sense it was less successful. Thwarting the

Orangemen did vindicate the Hibernians' claim to serve as defenders of their

community, but it also had predictably negative consequences. As Father

Walsh informed Bishop Lynch "the cries of intended Popish Massacre were

raised and hence the most fearful public excitement prevailed ... it is likely to

do a great deal of harm" (Archives). With their lives and property apparently threatened by the Hibernians, anti-Catholic paranoia was intensified and all

Catholics fell under suspicion. The Hibernians now became an even greater

impediment to the acceptance sought by the Irish elite and shortly thereafter the

clergy too added their voice to the general condemnation of the organization. This process of marginalization was finally completed by the abortive Fenian raid of 1866.

In retrospect, therefore, Guy Fawkes' Day 1864 may have represented the apogee of Hibernian influence. Clearly, radical Irish nationalism could




find no place in Toronto or indeed in British North America and whatever their

merits as protectors against Orange aggression, the Hibernians could never

impose their stamp on Irish Catholic immigrant identity. In the face of the

pragmatic moderation propagated by the Irish elite the Hibernians were

doomed to obscurity and it is therefore not surprising that when these immigrants carved out a new identity for themselves in Toronto it was not as Irish Catholic

Canadians but as English-speaking Catholic Canadians.

NOTES

1 For background on this incident see C.P. Stacey, "A Fenian Interlude: The

Story of Michael Murphy." Canadian Historical Review, Vol. 15, 1934,

pp. 133-154: M. Senior, The Fenians and Canada (Toronto: Macmillan,

1978), pp. 88-90: B.P. Clarke, Piety, Fraternity and Nationalism: The Rise

of Irish Catholic Voluntary Associations in Toronto, 1850-1895. Ph.D.,

University of Chicago, 1986, Vol. 1, pp. 376-386. 2 For another perspective on Orange-Green conflict in this period see G.

Kealey, "The Orange Order in Toronto: Religious Riot and the Working Class," in R. O'Discoll and L. Reynolds (eds.) The Untold Story: The Irish

in Canada (Toronto: Celtic Arts of Canada, 1988), pp. 829-852. 3 C. Houston and W.J. Smyth. The Sash Canada Wore: A Historical

Geography of the Orange Order in Canada (Toronto: University of

Toronto Press, 1980). Idem, "Transferred Loyalties: Orangeism in the

United States and Ontario," American Review of Canadian Studies, Vol.

14(2), 1984, pp. 194-196. G. Kealey, "Orangemen and the Corporation: The Politics of Class Division During the Union of the Canada's" in V.L.

Russell (ed.), Forging a Consensus: Historical Essays on Toronto (Toronto:

University of Toronto Press, 1984), pp. 141-86. 4 See K. Duncan, "Irish Famine Immigrants and the Social Structures of

Canada West," Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, 1965,

pp. 19-40. G.J. Parr, "The Welcome and the Wake: Attitudes in Canada West towards the Irish Famine Migration," Ontario History, Vol. 66,

1974, pp. 101-113. 5 See M.W. Nicolson, The Catholic Church and the Irish in Victorian

Toronto. Ph.D., University of Guelph, 1981. B.P. Clarke, "Piety, Fraternity and Nationalism," Vol. 1.

6 See S.E. Baker, "Orange and Green: Belfast, 1832-1912," in H.J. Dyos and

M. Wolff (eds.), The Victorian city: Images and Realities. (London,

Routledge and Keegan Paul, 1973), pp. 797-798.




WORKS CITED

Archives of the Archdioces of Toronto. Archbishop Lynch Papers, Father

Walsh to Archbishop Lynch, November 8, 1864.

Baker, S.E. "Orange and Green: Belfast, 1832-1912," in H.J. Dyos and M.

Wolff (eds.), The Victorian city: Images and Realities. (London, Routledge and Keegan Paul, 1973), 797-798.

Canadian Freeman. 1864.

Clarke, B. P. Piety, Fraternity and Nationalism: The Rise of Irish Catholic

Voluntary Associations in Toronto, 1850-1895. Ph.D., University of

Chicago, 1986, Vol. 1, 376-386.

Cottrell, M. Irish Catholic Political Leadership in Toronto, 1855-1882: A

Study of Ethnic Politics. Ph.D., University of Saskatchewan, 1988,59-61.

D'Arcy, W. The Fenian Movement in the United States, 1858-1886,

(Washington, Catholic University of America Press, 1947). Duncan, K. "Irish Famine Immigrants and the Social Structures of Canada

West," Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, 1965, 19-40.

The Globe. 1858, 1864.

Houston, C. and W. J. Smyth. The Sash Canada Wore: A Historical Geography

of the Orange Order in Canada (Toronto, University of Toronto Press,

1980). _. "Transferred Loyalties: Orangeism in the United States and Ontario,"

American Review of Canadian Studies, Vol. 14(2), 1984, 194-196. Irish Canadian. 1863,1864.

Kealey, G. "Orangemen and the Corporation: The Politics of Class Division

During the Union of the Canada's" in V.L. Russell (ed.), Forging a

Consensus: Historical Essays on Toronto (Toronto, University of Toronto

Press, 1984), 141-86.

_. "The Orange Order in Toronto: Religious Riot and the Working Class," in R. O'Discoll and L. Reynolds (eds.) The Untold Story: The Irish in

Canada (Toronto, Celtic Arts of Canada, 1988), 829-852.

McGowan, M. G. "We Endure What We Cannot Cure': John Joseph Lynch and roman Catholic-Protestant Relations in Toronto, 1864-1875: Frustrated

Attempts at Peaceful Co-Existence." Canadian Society of Church History Papers, Vol. 15, 1984,4-5.

Miller, J. R. "Bigotry in the North Atlantic Triangle: Irish, British and American Influences on Canadian Anti-Catholicism, 1850-1900." Studies in Religion, Vol. 16(3), 1987, 292-294.

Nicolson, M. W. The Catholic Church and the Irish in Victorian Toronto.

Ph.D., University of Guelph, 1981. B.P. Clarke, "Piety, Fraternity and

Nationalism," Vol. 1.




O'Flynn, P. "Old Problems in a New Environment: The Reaction of Irish

Cathololic Editors to Orangeism in Canada." Bulletin of Canadian

Studies, Vol. 18(2), 1984, 206-15.

G.J. Parr. "The Welcome and the Wake: Attitudes in Canada West towards the

Irish Famine Migration," Ontario History, Vol. 66, 1974, 101-113.

Senior, M. The Fenians and Canada (Toronto, Macmillan, 1978), 88-90.

Sheppard, G. "God Save the Green: Fenianism and Fellowship in Victorian

Ontario." Histoire Sociale/Social History, Vol. 20, 129-144.

Stacey, C. P. "A Fenian Interlude: The Story of Michael Murphy." Canadian

Historical Review, Vol. 15, 1934, 133-154.

Toner, P. The Rise of Irish Nationalism in Canada. Ph.D., National University of Ireland, 1974,27-35.



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Green and Orange in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Toronto: The Guy Fawkes' Day Episode of 1864

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