The Waning of the Green

McGowan traces the evolution of the Catholic community from an isolated religious and Irish ethnic subculture in the late nineteenth century into an integrated segment of English Canadian society by the early twentieth century. English-speaking Catholics moved into all neighbourhoods of the city and socialized with and married non-Catholics. They even embraced their own brand of imperialism: by 1914 thousands of them had enlisted to fight for God and the British Empire. McGowan’s detailed and lively portrait will be of great interest to students and scholars of religious history, Irish studies, ethnic history, and Canadian history.

Most historical accounts of the Irish Catholic community in Toronto describe it as a poor underclass of society, ghettoized by the largely British, Protestant population and characterized by the sectarian violence between Protestants and Catholics that earned Toronto the title “Belfast of Canada.” Challenging this long-standing view of the Irish Catholic experience, Mark McGowan provides a new picture of the community’s evolution and integration into Canadian society.

“The Waning of the Green presents a rich and nuanced portrait of how Toronto’s Irish Catholic population defined their collective identity and understood their place in the wider Canadian society. It ranks with Jay Dolan’s pioneering work, The Immigrant Church, as the best historical study on a Roman Catholic community in North America. It is an impressive work that, I suspect, will be devoured by historians of ethnicity and Christianity not only in Canada but also in the United States, Australia, and Ireland.” Brian P. Clarke, Emmanuel College, Toronto School of Theology