{"id":3923,"date":"2019-09-25T14:13:06","date_gmt":"2019-09-25T19:13:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/optative.net\/blog\/?p=3923"},"modified":"2019-09-26T23:31:32","modified_gmt":"2019-09-27T04:31:32","slug":"public-consultation-submission-to-protect-montreals-most-haunted-street-corner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/optative.net\/blog\/public-consultation-submission-to-protect-montreals-most-haunted-street-corner\/","title":{"rendered":"Public Consultation Submission to Protect Montreal’s most Haunted Street Corner"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Submission\nfor Public Consultation regarding Pavillion F <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(<\/strong>Dossier no : 1196347005<\/strong>)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

September 25, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TO: OCPM and South-West\nBorough<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RE: Dossier no : 1196347005 (Public Consultation)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FROM: Donovan King,\nGriffin Tours<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dear OCPM and South-West\nBorough,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a Director and historian with\nthe Irish Monument Park Foundation<\/a>, my goal is to work\nwith stakeholders and the Irish Montreal community to preserve and enhance as\nmuch Irish Montreal heritage as possible, especially as related to the Irish\nFamine<\/a> of 1847. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our community feels like our Irish\nheritage is quickly vanishing from Montreal’s city-scape and we want to stop\nthis trend and do everything in our power to preserve as much as we can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are happy that Pavilion F of the ETS will include \u201ca street garden 6 m deep at the corner of William and Murray\u201d according to the Projet particulier de construction d\u2019un b\u00e2timent institutionnel au 1130-1134, rue William \u2013 Pavillon F de l\u2019\u00c9cole de technologie sup\u00e9rieure<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

As you may know, this corner has a lot of significance for Montreal’s Irish community because it is a traditional area for storytelling. Irish-Montreal storytellers, or seanchaithe<\/em>, have gathered on this corner for well over a century to tell Montreal’s most famous legends and ghost stories, among many other tales. Montreal\u2019s most popular legend, the ghost of Mary Gallagher, is set on this corner. As you may know, her ghost is said to return every 7 years to the corner, allegedly because she is still searching for her head. Montrealers had a great time on the corner on June 27 of this year, eagerly awaiting the ghost of Mary Gallagher to return on the 140th anniversary of her murder. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

She was murdered in 1879 in a\nlong-since demolished home on the south-east corner of William & Murray\nStreets, and her ghost is reported to return every 7 years. It’s is one of\nIrish Montreal’s most famous traditions and her next appearance is anticipated on\nJune 27, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given that there are almost no tourist attractions\nin Griffintown, it makes very good sense to preserve the haunted street corner\nas a commemorative and touristic park with a Montreal-Irish theme for future\ngenerations of locals and tourists to enjoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Griff has been redeveloped way too\nquickly and it is time to put the brakes on this approach before all the\nheritage is destroyed. The Griff needs tourist attractions that reflect the\narea’s remarkable history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Edinburgh, Scotland, a statue of a dog<\/a> is one of the most popular tourist attractions. People love it because it has a great story attached to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

We are proposing a similar statue of\nMary Gallagher’s headless ghost in the \u201cstreet garden\u201d as its centerpiece.\nTourists would come in droves to take their photos with it, especially with the\nexponential increase in Haunted Tourism<\/a> the city is currently witnessing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, tour companies Haunted\nMontreal, Griffin Tours and Irish Montreal Excursions frequently lead tourists\nto this site, and fear if the corner \u201cstreet garden\u201d is not well-designed, it\ncould affect the authenticity and logistics of the haunted and historic walks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have been asking the ETS to work\nwith the local Irish community and the City of Montreal to preserve a portion\nof the south-east corner of William & Murray Streets as park, which\nwould become an important and innovative Irish-Montreal tourist attraction. To\ndate, the ETS has said that it intends to work with the City of Montreal and\nnot the Montreal-Irish community directly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I appreciate that the ETS markets\nitself as a hub of innovation and entrepreneurship, and hope we can reach an\nunderstanding in regards to the innovation in the local heritage and tourism\neconomy I am proposing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As such, I am advising the\nOPCM to do everything within its power to ensure the \u201cstreet garden\u201d on the\nsouth-east corner of William and Murray Streets is designed in consultation with\nthe local Irish community in order to reflect our important history on the site\nand to ensure it is accessible for walking tours and storytelling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ideally, it would be called \u201cMary\nGallagher Park,\u201d to commemorate Montreal\u2019s most infamous legend and ghost story,\nand include historical panels and a work of public art, such as a statue of Mary\nGallagher\u2019s headless ghost searching for her head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We hope we can count on your support and hope you can help our Irish community accomplish our goals of heritage preservation and innovative tourism infrastructure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please help us in the creation of a\nfuture Mary Gallagher Park on a portion of the south-east corner of\nWilliam & Murray Streets! It is the right thing to do for future\ngenerations of Montrealers!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I look forward to hearing from you!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sincerely,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Donovan King, MFA, BEd, BFA, DEC,\nACS<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Irish Montreal Excursions<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Haunted Montreal<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

p.s. Here is some\nrecent media related to the “Mary Gallagher Park” project:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CBC Montreal. On the\n140th anniversary of Mary Gallagher’s murder, historian appeals to city to mark\nGriffintown sites<\/a>.  Elysha Enos. June 27, 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CBC Radio One –\nDaybreak with Ainslie MacLellan. Interview\nwith Donovan King of Haunted Montreal<\/a>. June 27, 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

YouTube. JD\nHobbes. The\nreturn of Mary Gallagher: a 2019 invitation<\/a>. June 26, 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Montreal\nGazette. Will\nMontreal\u2019s most infamous ghost appear Thursday night?<\/a> Bill\nBrownstein. June 26, 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Montreal\nTimes. Will Mary\nGallagher\u2019s headless ghost return on June 27?<\/a> John Symons. June 20, 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Haunted Montreal\nBlog #46. The\nGhost of Mary Gallagher Returns on June 27<\/a>! June 13, 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Submission for Public Consultation regarding Pavillion F (Dossier no : 1196347005) September 25, 2019 TO: OCPM and South-West Borough RE: Dossier no : 1196347005 (Public Consultation) FROM: Donovan King, Griffin Tours Dear OCPM and South-West Borough, As a Director and historian with the Irish Monument Park Foundation, my goal is to work with stakeholders and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/optative.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/optative.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/optative.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/optative.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/optative.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3923"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/optative.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3935,"href":"https:\/\/optative.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3923\/revisions\/3935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/optative.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/optative.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/optative.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}