By 1871 the largest single ethnic group in Saint John was the Irish, and most of them had arrived as poverty-stricken refugees from the potato famine. The massive outpourings of Ireland's poor during the 1840s brought the disease, social disruption and misery of that unhappy land to the shores of British North America. Many Irish who set out during the famine died at sea, or shortly after their arrival. Twenty percent of the migrants in 1847 met this fate. Those who survived the journey constituted a threat to the welfare and public health of the city's population. Citizens of Saint John, like the inhabitants of other ports in British North America, were not happy to see the Irish arrive, but they did respond to the appalling tragedy that was occurring.
The mid-nineteenth century was a period in which civic officials, colonial administrators, local philanthropists and concerned citizens joined together for a variety of reasons to aid the poor and unfortunate. They erected almshouses, immigrant and seamen's hospitals, a workhouse and the Magdelan House for Women. The marine hospital, shown here, was built on Partridge Island, located in the outer part of the harbour, and was one of the most important of these endeavours. Erected in 1848 to treat infected immigrants, it was intended to avoid a situation such as existed in 1847 when thousands of Irish were quarantined for months on Partridge Island and kept in tents. Physicians and male nurses were desperately overworked and nearly 2,000 of the migrants died.
