Deborah Powell
Published online March 25, 2026, at www.pontiacjournal.com.
SHAWVILLE – A full house at the Pontiac Archives on March 18 had a compelling look at the roots of the region’s Irish community, as Dr. Thomas O’Neill traced the forces that brought generations of settlers to the Pontiac.
He explained how Protestants from the lowlands of Scotland and northern England moved to what is now Northern Ireland in the early 1600s. Family names such as McDowell, Elliot, Armstrong, Dagg and Hobbes trace back to this group, known as the Scots-Irish, many of whom came to the Pontiac in the early 1800s. Economic opportunity drove their migration, as Europe faced a prolonged depression following the Napoleonic Wars. By 1871, 75% of settlers in the Pontiac were of Presbyterian Scots-Irish origin.
A later wave of immigration brought many Irish Catholics to Canada in the mid-1800s. Driven by desperation, families fled after the potato blight destroyed their primary food source, compounded by forced evictions of tenant farmers. Surnames such as Sullivan, Kelly, McGuire and O’Brien are associated with Gaelic Irish Catholics who arrived in the Pontiac during this period.
In 2021, nearly 23% of the Pontiac population identified as having Irish origins — far above the provincial average.
Photo: Dr. Thomas O’Neill gave a presentation titled “Our Irish Ancestors” to a full house at the Pontiac Archives March 18. (DP)
