Monument a remembrance of Irish who arrived on waterfront

The busy quarantine centre on the shoreline of Hamilton Harbour is long gone, its buildings removed, and the site swallowed by 20th-century shoreline expansion.

But 175 years ago, Falkner’s Wharf, at the foot of Catharine and John streets, was a crucial point of entry for destitute Irish migrants fleeing the Great Famine. Alongside the docking facilities stood a hospital and isolation sheds. Hundreds died there and were buried in local cemeteries.

Marcus Smith’s map from 1851 shows an “emigrant’s hospital” and quarantine sheds on the north-end waterfront of Hamilton that were used during the late 1840s wave of Irish immigration that took place during the potato famine. Hamilton Public Library

Irish immigration historian Laura Smith says more than 16,000 Irish passed through the facili