WELCOME TO THE DEATH OR CANADA BLOG
Posted in General on 05/01/2009 01:10 pm by ballinranWelcome to the General Posting area for our blog for Death or Canada. History Television in Canada aired the film as a two-hour special on the Eve of St. Patrick’s Day, Monday, March 16th from 8 to 10 p.m. We will keep you posted of any repeats. Check out www.history.ca for more information. Death or Canada has already aired in Ireland on RTE One in November and December, 2008 www.rte.ie and in the U.K. on The History Channel www.thehistorychannel.co.uk. We are in discussions with broadcasters in other countries to air the film including the United States so any comments you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
06/29/2009 at 11:23 am
Hello,
I ordered Death or Canada and it has not arrived. Is ther a name I can call you speak to someone about the status of the order?
06/01/2009 at 2:32 pm
DVD Order
Hi,
I ordered the DVD a number of weeks ago and have not received it as yet. Can you please let me know what the status of the shipment is? My attempt to email have been bounced or not been responded to.
Thanks
Rob
05/25/2009 at 2:35 pm
Hi Rollie!! Your dvd was mailed on May 13th, sorry for the delay but it took us longer than expected to put the dvd’s together as this was our first batch, so to speak.
05/23/2009 at 9:56 pm
I’d just like to know when I will get the DVDs I have paid for about 2 months ago.
I have emailed several times and they are either bounced or (I assume) ignored.
04/20/2009 at 9:41 am
I was a volunteer extra for this movie at Discovery harbour for two days. I am in france on exchange so I was away during the march 17th showing. Is there any way to see it? My family doesn’t have cable so any re airings of the show aren’t a big help. we were promised complementary DVD’s for our time. is that happening or not? anyways, really would like to see it! thank you!
leah
04/18/2009 at 9:30 pm
WOW! This movie looks absolutely mind blowing! I cant wait to watch it! Its amazing how it also lead to production! I read that on the website, And I am glad that it has become a film, very very interesting indeed!
THANKS for creating a good and valuable movie!
04/14/2009 at 11:49 am
PLEASE work to get the Death or Canada shown on American TV. Also would like to know if it ever available to purchase. Thanks for your efforts.
03/24/2009 at 5:29 pm
Death or Canada was an incredible documentary. Will it air in Canada again?
Thank you
Wendy Carroll
wendycarroll221@yahoo.ca
03/23/2009 at 11:09 am
From all the comments I have read on this docudrama, I believe “Death or Canada” would be of interest to many in the U.S. Please air this program in the U.S.
03/22/2009 at 8:35 pm
From the descriptions and the trailer, this seems to be a film not to be missed. I have enjoyed “Irish in America: Long Journey Home” for many years and have watched my tapes many times. “Death or Canada” sounds to be as educational and inspiring. I hope you make it available in the United States very soon. Perhaps PBS would be interested. I shall check your site frequently for an update.
03/22/2009 at 10:46 am
I would like to add my congratulations and appreciation to the producers and actors who are responsible for “Death or Canada”. As a 5th generation of a Willis family to settle in southwest Ontario it was an incredable feeling to watch this show about the hardships this family endured. My gr-gr grandfather left Carlow county and arrived in canada in the summer of 1844. I don’t know if I have any close connection to the John Willis that the show was based on but am thrilled at the prospect that I might be.
I have done considerable work on my famly history but was totally unaware of the impact this mass immigration had on Toronto and indeed all of North America. It is a must see doc.
03/21/2009 at 6:23 pm
Please send an email to this address above when the next showing of your documentary will be in Ontario. I was out of town for the Mar 16 broadcast. Have done a lot of reading about Grosse Ile and visited it and the Black Rock in Montreal. Would like to see the dramatization in your documentary.
Thank you.
03/21/2009 at 4:40 pm
Are there plans to show the movie in the US or is it possible to buy the DVD’s? I have read a lot about it, watched the utube presentation and hope to find out if my ancestors were involved in it. Thanks, Catherine
03/20/2009 at 10:12 pm
Please show Death or Canada in the US!
03/20/2009 at 1:00 pm
FROM THE CBC.CA COMMENT THREAD
“I was reading some of these comments, thinking I would find out how everyone else felt about the documentary that aired on the history channel on Tuesday. I see that most of the comments posted here are very political and not related to the subject.
I was totally fascinated by the program, couldn’t take my eyes away from the TV. I’m hoping it will be re-aired, hopefully on CBC.
Just wondering, does anyone know where I can get the DVD on this film? I would like to get one for myself and my 2 daughters.”
Shelly Willis
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/tv/story/2009/03/15/irish-docudrama.html
03/20/2009 at 12:19 pm
Great Doc
I saw this doc at a screening last week and it was absolutely phenomenal. Nice to see broadcasters tell such uniquely Canadian stories. And what an AMAZING story this really was. I highly recommend this to everyone.
Submitted by Hans Lucas at 11:54 PM Thursday, March 12 2009
http://www.thestar.com/Entertainment/article/601265
03/19/2009 at 9:58 pm
I learned about this program through a genealogy newslist, and was very disappointed that we could not get it in the United States. Please share with your southern neighbors. My husband’s ancestors came from Stratford, Ontario.
Thanks!
03/19/2009 at 1:13 pm
FROM DENISE
I hope you can direct me to where I might be able to see this in the U.S. I live in S.E. Florida and am of Irish descent, parts of my Irish family coming between 1832 and 1847. My great grandfather was born in Haverstraw, NY, traveled in 1863 with his family to Cleveland, and then finally to Chicago. He married an girl born in Ireland and our family continued to grow in Chicago.
I would truly appreciate being able to see this film either in Florida or via a U.S. history channel. Can you help me find this?
Thank you so much. And I’m sure this is a story well-done and deservedly told. Most don’t realize the devastation that the Irish truly endured in their struggles to survive unless they study it. They only know vague stories and hear of the current and most recent issues in Northern Ireland and don’t truly understand the Irish struggle for survival!
I found out about this film in my subscription to Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter, issued 3/18/2009. http://www.eogn.com/ Thanks, Dick!
Sincerely
Denise
(descended from Lynch, McKenna and Kennedy lines)
03/18/2009 at 7:48 pm
Craig Thompson, the producer asked me to write a blog about how I heard about the movie.
I heard about this movie on the IRISH/CANADIAN RootsWeb post list. It became quite the topic of discussion. Still going on. I was so deeply disappointed along w/other Americans on that list to find that we could not watch this.
I just can hardly wait to see this on a DVD. I am 78 years old and after many years of searching I finally found out only about 3 years ago that I was Irish.
Jeannie in OR
03/18/2009 at 7:16 pm
Looking forward to viewing on U S History Channel ” Great Irish History Potato Famine, Death or Candada”. Please help or how can I help?
I watched, The Iish In America”, on US History Channel. It was good, but not once was Canada mentioned. Strange, as at least hundreds of Irish came through the Port of Saint John, N.B. and then went to Boston and other places in the USA. (It was easier to get to Canada than to the US.) Some of my relatives included. My greatgrand father,John Guiry and family, arrived on the ship Pero Sept. 10 1847, Known as black 1847. He stayed in Saint John and so I am here. Hoping and waiting!!
Ronald G Geary
03/18/2009 at 3:08 pm
I thoroughly enjoyed your program on Death or Canada. My parents emigrated to Toronto from Dublin, Ireland in 1956 with five children (I am the eldest) so it had special meaning to me. I cannot imagine what it must have been like for all those people and I am sure that there were many more like the Willis Family who lost everyone on that journey.
We went to St. Paul School and I did not know that that is actually where a lot of the people were buried.
Thank you for a wonderful and informative program.
03/18/2009 at 12:10 pm
I saw the show last night and was very impressed!!!! It was terrific and what a story – I was born and raised in Toronto and had never heard of this chunk of history – absolutely fascinating, well done!!!
Judi Heron
03/18/2009 at 10:34 am
I am on a new yahoo we site called, Mid-Antrim genealogy web site and someone had posted a message in regards to this film.
I am very sad to hear it is ONLY being shown on Canadian televisions though. How can we as Americans see this fantastic documentary?
I looked through the “Death or Canada” website that was given on the Mid-Antrim web site and found this to be a most fantastic site.
Please let me know if us Americans will ever have the opertunity to see this. Please also let me know if this film will be made for purchase as I would love to get one for our public Library, here in Eagle River, Wisconsin, USA.
Kind regards,
Sharon Rogers
03/18/2009 at 5:34 am
My name is Roger Bruton. I had three Irish grandparents, I have an Irish passport, but I was born in England and now live in France.
Congratulations on your web site. It’s good to see this part of Irish history remembered. And it is beautifully set out and presented.
BUT. (There’s always a “but”, isn’t there!) There was a third choice.
Death or Canada or survival. My ancestors in Donegal stayed through what must have been an horrific time and survived. I can’t imagine how they managed.
My mother was born 70 years later in 1923, in a tiny wind swept cottage on the Atlantic coast of Donegal, in third world condidtions. One of her sisters died of Quincy (tonsilitis). Both her parents died before I was born.
Anyone who lived through all that deserves respect. Without people like that, who stayed, Ireland would not have survived at all.
03/17/2009 at 5:56 pm
Congratulations Craig, and to your entire team! I first saw “Death or Canada” at the Bloor Cinema on opening night (March 5/09), and watched it again last night (March 16/09) on History Television. Your efforts have brought a fascinating aspect of Toronto history to life in a truly compelling way. I will continue to recommend it to an expanding list of friends and relatives, and definitely tune in again when it the program is rebroadcast or available on DVD. I hope that’s soon.
Seeing “Death or Canada” the first time, I was touched emotionally … with sadness for the depths of desperation, loss, and tragedy for these Irish refugees; empathy and understanding for the awful fear and dilemma that faced the good citizens of Toronto; and admiration for the leadership, kindness, and courage of the few that brought solace and recovery.
Seeing it the second time ignited my curiosity!
When your narrator’s (BRIAN DENNEHY) parting comment last night reminded me that I am one of 50 million in North America who share Irish heritage, I could hear this time beyond the emotion, to wonder whether my ancestors might also have been part of these events. A quick search of the names of victims in Toronto from that summer of ’47 (on the Ireland Park website) in fact revealed one Mary Hagerty. I pulled out my grandmother’s faded notes from the back of my library, and have now set out to discover whether that long-forgotten Mary might have been cousin or kin to those of my own who came from Kilmeen Parish in County Cork, to settle east and west of Toronto in the mid-1800s.
You’ve definitely set the topic for conversation when four generations of my family gather this weekend; and a visit to the memorial at Ireland Park on Bathurst Quay will be one of our first outings to welcome spring back to Toronto. Thank you. I won’t soon forget Mary Willis and her family, or the terrible choice they had for death or Canada.
03/17/2009 at 4:01 pm
Hi everyone and thank you for your comments. We are pleased that this film has struck a chord. We are working to secure a broadcaster in the United States and your interest will help spread the word. In the meantime, please pass the word onto any other blogs, Irish community links or genealogy forums so they can link to our site.
03/17/2009 at 1:52 pm
Last night I watched DEATH OR CANADA and I would like to thank you for creating it. It was very emotional for me to watch this. It was basically the story of my own great great grandparents who left the west of Ireland in 1846, had a horrible voyage across the Atlantic and arrived in Grosse Ile, QC just in time to give birth to a baby who only lived one day. Their son is buried there and his name is etched on the memorial wall. The thing is, I never knew any of this until a few years ago when I started researching my father’s family. None of these stories were passed down through the generations and while I had heard of the famine I wasn’t familiar with the details of it. With everything I’ve learned over the past few years I had a vision in my mind about what it was like for them. My vision was exactly what I saw in your production. At this time last year I was packing my bags to go to Ireland because I wanted to go to the exact place in the west where they came from and breathe the air. This I did, and as far as I know, I may be the first family member to return there. I understand now that this is a time in history that needs to be remembered and our ancestors need to be honored. Thank you again for telling their story. When can we buy the DVD in Canada?
03/17/2009 at 9:01 am
Super show, very well done and timely for people to understamd the Irish migration was more of a genocide by the British Landlords in Ireland and the British Government. My great grandfather was on the Looshtauk, one of the worst coffin ships, landed in the Miramichi.
Bill
03/16/2009 at 11:06 pm
From Irene Pegues
I would very much like to obtain a cd on this documentary of Death or Canada. I am also in favor of this being shown on our history channel here in the States. After all, many of us are descendants of the Irish. Thank you, Irene Saunders Pegues.
03/16/2009 at 10:18 pm
Please broadcast this in the US.
03/16/2009 at 9:20 pm
I am going to write to the History Channel and ask them to carry it on their USA stations. I am from North Dakota and my grandparents go back to just north of Toronto [in Dufferin Co.] and back from there to Ematris Parish in County Monaghan in Ireland. I would love to see this highly acclaimed docu-drama.
Bruce Rova
Gulf Breeze, FL
03/16/2009 at 4:32 pm
I had the pleasure of seeing Death or Canada at the Bloor Cinema in Toronto. Great job!
Truly an incredible story that I am proud to know more about as a Canadian. Beautiful shots, amazing re-enactments, several elements incorporated, including some fascinating history of Toronto and Eastern Canada.
03/16/2009 at 10:44 am
I would love to be able see this program here in the states! Hopefully the History Channel will consider airing this sometime soon.
03/16/2009 at 8:59 am
Please, please let me know when this documentary is broadcast in the U.S. So many of our Irish ancestors came to Maine via Canada!
03/15/2009 at 11:36 pm
Please add the Death or Canada program to the U.S. history channel. I heard about this on a genealogy listserv devoted to Irish Canadians. Many of us in the states had ancestors who came from across the border and have interest in such programs.
03/15/2009 at 10:44 pm
I live in Sacramento Californis Do not have cabel but would love to see this pictures. I think my relatives were one of the 40,000 from Sligo Ireland
03/15/2009 at 10:36 pm
I live in the United States and am trying to trace my family back to Ireland. I saw the item about the movie Canada or Die on a geneolagy list I belong to called Irish-Canadian at RootsWeb.
I am anxious to see the movie.
Beverly Buck
Seeking Shaw, Gaynor, Daly, Breen, Collins
03/15/2009 at 10:28 pm
I do so hope that Death or Canada will air soon in the states as there are many of us who would love to see such a program.