Robert Whyte kept a record of the terrible conditions many Irish immigrants endured while crossing the Atlantic in so-called "coffin ships" during the 1840s. (As portrayed by Robert Haley in Canada: A People's History)

Year after year, the potato crop failed in Ireland. Unable to pay the rent, families were evicted from their homes by ruthless landlords. By the time the worst was over, one million people had died of disease and starvation. Survivors were forced to emigrate.

The Irish peasants came to North America in overcrowded and unsanitary ships known as "coffin ships." Cabin passenger Robert Whyte recorded the horrifying conditions in the steerage section of a ship."

"Passing the main hatch, I got a glimpse of one of the most awful sights I ever beheld. A poor female patient was lying in one of the upper berths - dying... She had been nearly three weeks ill and suffered exceedingly until the swelling set in, commencing in her feet and creeping up her body to her head. Her afflicted husband stood by her holding a "blessed candle" in his hand awaiting the departure of her spirit."

Ships flying the flag of disease were forced to dock at the quarantine station on Grosse le, an island located in the St. Lawrence, downriver from Quebec City. For many Irish immigrants it would be their only glimpse of the new land. In 1847, 50 people a day died of typhus at Grosse le.

Many children whose parents died were adopted into French-Canadian families but their Irish names have lived on: Doyle, Murphy, Ryan, Johnson.

The Irish famine gave rise to a movement called Young Ireland, who members swore to free their country from Britain by any means, even armed rebellion. One member of the movement was a young writer named Thomas D'Arcy McGee who would move to Montreal in 1857 and become one of the Fathers of Confederation.