NEW BRUNSWICK'S IRISH HERITAGE ROSE
Seven years before the beginning of the Great Hunger in Ireland, 17 years before New York’s first immigrant processing centre was opened at Castle Garden in Manhattan, 29 years before the formation of the Dominion of Canada and 54 years before the opening of the immigrant processing centre on Ellis Island, New York, a young Irish woman took her first steps into a new life in a new world.
One of thousands of Irish who left their home country in 1838 in search of a better life, leaving behind a life of frequent hunger caused by repeated crop failures and of treatment as 2nd or 3rd class citizens in their own homeland, this young woman carried with her more than just her dreams of a better future. While many new arrivals were packing their valuables, linens, silverware and other family treasures to take with them on the long voyage to the new world, she brought her own treasure – a root ball from a wild rose that grew near her Irish home.
Determined to bring a part of Ireland with her, she nursed the root during the arduous journey of several weeks across the Atlantic Ocean, finally disembarking on one of the many wharfs that lined the shores of Manhattan at that time. She had many miles yet to go before her journey was over.
Continuing on, she boarded a series of small boats to make the trip from New York, along the eastern coast of North America, until she found a new home for herself and her treasured piece of the home she left behind, her Irish rose. Settling in Albert County, New Brunswick, the exact location is a carefully guarded secret to protect the privacy of the owner and the safety of the mother plant.
For more than 185 years that original Irish rose has been growing at the site of the young woman’s new homestead. The property is still occupied by a member of her family – a great-great-great grand-nephew – who carefully tends and guards this family heirloom. He graciously provided a few roots from the mother plant to the Irish Canadian Cultural Association of New Brunswick (ICCANB), providing an opportunity for one offshoot to be planted in each of the five ICCANB Chapter regions of New Brunswick.
We have good reason to be proud and protective of our Irish rose as, at this point, no one other than the five ICCANB Chapters, and the original plant in Albert County, can claim this little piece of our ancestors’ homeland. We will continue to care for it as lovingly as if it were a family member—because it is.
Our New Brunswick Irish Heritage Rose produces small, fully-double, pale pink roses in abundance through June and July. Their lovely, sweet fragrance is typical of many old heritage roses as it surrounds us with memories of the roses of our childhood.
The Capital Area Chapter of the ICCANB is pleased to have partnered with the Fredericton Botanic Garden to ensure our Chapter’s rose continues to thrive and to provide an opportunity for its beauty and heavenly scent to be enjoyed for countless years to come by the many visitors to the garden.
