Books by or about Lowertowners
Gwen Tuinman, Unrest, Random House Canada, 2024.
By Nancy Miller-Chenier
This historical fiction is focused on the unrest created by the Shiners, gangs of Irish immigrants that terrorized Bytown with extreme acts of violence between 1835 and 1845. Led by Peter Aylen, who later emerged as a successful lumberman, this period, known as the Shiners’ Wars, saw new Irish Canadians fighting established French Canadians and others for a place in the timber trade and political institutions.
Mariah, the central female figure in the novel, is a single woman from Ireland who moves from responsibility for her sister’s family to adventures and misadventures in the Canadian woods, to marriage and work as a respected blacksmith who can shoe the most cantankerous horses. Thomas, the son of Mariah and Seamus, her sister’s husband, is an ambitious young man who seeks a key role in the Peter Aylen and Shiner story.
Considerable research went into creating this portrayal of personal, social, economic, and political turmoil in and around Bytown in the 1830s and 1840s. The novel emphasizes the stark contrast between the living conditions and privileges experienced by residents of Uppertown and Lowertown. It features some of the commercial and trades people who served the locals as well as the seasonal timber workers, and details the daily life of workers in the winter lumber camps. The novel also highlights a time when Bytown citizens recognized the need for more cohesive municipal institutions and especially a strong local police body.
The author tells a story that occasionally will make you uneasy. Personal danger, racial prejudice, and extreme poverty are recurring themes that reinforce the sense that the characters are living in hazardous times. Many of them keep secrets as they struggle to find a place in a tumultuous and unjust world. This story about life in Bytown and beyond during the Shiner period is not a “restful” read but is a good one for anyone interested in our community’s past.
