Canal Walk History

<< BACK
About Irishtown

During the first period of canal construction (and for some time afterwards) the area around the Pine Street extension (now Irishtown Rd.) and Prince Albert Rd. was known as “Irishtown” as the Irish Canal workers and their families occupied it.

Unfortunately we do not have any photos or paintings of their dwellings. However, we do have the remains of a number of homes in the Port Wallace area of the Canal that you can see in “Shubie Park”.

Fortunately, there are some newspaper articles that describe this community, as well as the after work activities which attracted people from Halifax and the surrounding communities. One of the key attractions was the liquor that could be obtained on Sundays. A newspaper article commenting on Irishtown and the massive granite stone locks described them as “wonders of the world’.