Toronto and Emerald Isle

city: Catholics from the Emerald Isle were the city original immigrant underclass, and faced frank, bitter discrimination for decades, according to Toronto Star. Sectarian tension once ran so high that Toronto came to be known as the Belfast of Canada. And then there were the Irish. Yet by the time of the First World War, the Irish had largely blended in to the city mainstream. Interviews with historians, contemporary newspaper accounts, and the academic literature on the period paint a dire portrait of Victorian Toronto intolerance and inequality. In a Toronto where marginalization of ethnic minorities remains a live issue, the integration of its Irish population in the 19th century may provide lessons, and some hope, for healing the city divides. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.