The Burns Building is a historic six-story building located in downtown Calgary , Alberta . It sits at 237 8 Avenue SE on the end of Stephen Avenue overlooking Olympic Plaza and City Hall.
111-615: The building was commissioned by meat baron Pat Burns as the corporate headquarters and flagship market for his empire, Burns Foods. Burns bought the property around 1909 but excavation did not begin until the fall of 1911. Construction commenced in April 1912. 1913 was a big year for building in Calgary. The Palliser Hotel , Lancaster Block, Canada Life Building and the Hudson's Bay store were built. The Herald Building (demolished in 1972 and now
222-603: A Royal Commission , chaired by the Earl of Devon ( Devon Commission ), to enquire into the laws regarding the occupation of land. Irish politician Daniel O'Connell described this commission as "perfectly one-sided", being composed of landlords with no tenant representation. In February 1845, Devon reported: It would be impossible adequately to describe the privations which they [the Irish labourer and his family] habitually and silently endure ... in many districts their only food
333-444: A laissez-faire economic doctrine, but also because some in power believed in divine providence or that the Irish lacked moral character , with aid only resuming to some degree later. Large amounts of food were exported from Ireland during the famine and the refusal of London to bar such exports, as had been done on previous occasions, was an immediate and continuing source of controversy, contributing to anti-British sentiment and
444-518: A comparatively small space. By 1800, the potato had become a staple food for one in three Irish people, especially in winter. It eventually became a staple year-round for farmers. A disproportionate share of the potatoes grown in Ireland were the Irish Lumper , creating a lack of genetic variability among potato plants, which increased vulnerability to disease. Potatoes were essential to
555-582: A complete "Legion" (Mounted Rifles Regiment) of Canadian Legion of Frontiersmen, for the Canadian Government's war effort. In 1914, Pope Benedict XV created him a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory the Great , the first Canadian to receive such an honour. He was also a Knight of St. John of Jerusalem , and an honorary colonel in Calgary's 31st Regiment. In honour of his 75th birthday,
666-479: A cow bought on credit and sold for $ 4. He began freighting goods from Winnipeg and driving his neighbours' cattle to the Winnipeg market. By 1885, he was buying and selling his own cattle. As a contractor from railway construction, that Burns transitioned from being a small-time broker to a successful entrepreneur. In 1887, William Mackenzie and his partners Donald Mann , James Ross, and Herbert Holt secured
777-958: A disease that had attacked the potato crops in America for two years. In 1843 and 1844, blight largely destroyed the potato crops in the Eastern United States. Ships from Baltimore , Philadelphia , or New York City could have carried diseased potatoes from these areas to European ports. American plant pathologist William C. Paddock posited that the blight was transported via potatoes being carried to feed passengers on clipper ships sailing from America to Ireland. Once introduced in Ireland and Europe, blight spread rapidly. By mid-August 1845, it had reached much of northern and central Europe; Belgium, The Netherlands, northern France, and southern England had all already been affected. On 16 August 1845, The Gardeners' Chronicle and Horticultural Gazette reported "a blight of unusual character" on
888-402: A disincentive to local relief efforts. Due to poor weather conditions, the first shipment did not arrive in Ireland until the beginning of February 1846. The initial shipments were of unground dried kernels, but the few Irish mills in operation were not equipped for milling maize and a long and complicated milling process had to be adopted before the meal could be distributed. In addition, before
999-464: A gala at Heritage Park, Burns was named the province's greatest citizen. The Herald commented that "His story is the story of Alberta. His struggles, his dreams, his success and philanthropy define the very core of our western character." Burns was a major force behind the growth of ranching in Alberta. He purchased large herds of purebred Hereford stock, which he used to help fellow ranchers improve
1110-534: A holding by a tenant became the property of the landlord when the lease expired or was terminated, the incentive to make improvements was limited. Most tenants had no security of tenure on the land; as tenants "at will", they could be turned out whenever the landlord chose. The only exception to this arrangement was in Ulster where, under a practice known as "tenant right" , a tenant was compensated for any improvement they made to their holding. According to Woodham-Smith,
1221-480: A hostile place in which to live. Some landlords visited their property only once or twice in a lifetime, if ever. The rents from Ireland were generally spent elsewhere; an estimated £6,000,000 was remitted out of Ireland in 1842. In 1843, the British Government recognized that the land management system in Ireland was the foundational cause of disaffection in the country. The Prime Minister established
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#17327799743661332-531: A huge cake (said at the time to be the world’s largest birthday cake) led the Stampede parade and was cut and distributed that evening to the city's underprivileged citizens. Also, he celebrated his birthday by giving a 5 lb roast to every family in which the head of the house was unemployed and a ticket for a meal at any restaurant in the city to the unmarried unemployed. It was during the Depression days, and
1443-487: A large scale and acquired large tracts of land. His company, P. Burns & Co. (later Burns Foods) became western Canada's largest meatpacking company. At the grand opening of his second abattoir in 1899 (the first had burned down), the Calgary Herald described the event as "the passing of yet another milestone on the road to Calgary's full measure of prosperity." In 1901 he married Eileen Ellis of Penticton in
1554-523: A mixture of "indoor" and "outdoor" direct relief; the former administered in workhouses through the Irish Poor Laws , the latter through soup kitchens . The costs of the Poor Law fell primarily on the local landlords, some of whom in turn attempted to reduce their liability by evicting their tenants or providing some relief through the conversionist practice of Souperism . On 1 March 1847,
1665-542: A mobile slaughtering facility, which could move easily as the railhead was extended. The success of the contract in Maine led to whole succession of other contracts with Mackenzie and Mann. Burns moved to Calgary in 1890 and established his first substantial slaughterhouse. In 1898, he built a packing house in Calgary followed by others in Vancouver , Edmonton , Prince Albert , and Regina . He then turned to ranching on
1776-424: A neighbour. He had intended to save enough money to travel out west, but when it came time for him to collect his pay, he discovered that his employer did not have enough cash to cover the $ 100 he was owed for his labour and so was instead given two oxen as payment. They had a resale value of $ 70, but he saw an alternative. He made $ 140 by slaughtering the animals and reselling their meat and byproducts. That experience
1887-420: A parallel in the world. It allowed proprietors to suck the very life-blood of that wretched race". The "Gregory clause" of the Poor Law, named after William H. Gregory , MP, prohibited anyone who held at least 1 ⁄ 4 acre (0.1 ha) from receiving relief. In practice, this meant that the many farmers who had to sell all their produce to pay rent and taxes, would have to deliver up all their land to
1998-540: A railway construction contract to drive a line from Quebec through Maine to the Eastern Seaboard . Mackenzie had grown up in Kirkfield and remembered Burns from their briefly-shared school days and time spent working in their fields. Aware of Burns's experience in the livestock business, Mackenzie gave him the opportunity to provision the labourers who were to construct the line. Burns learned to establish
2109-452: A small ceremony in London, England. Back in Calgary, Burns was building a house for himself and his new bride. Burns Manor , on the corner of 4th Street and 13th Avenue SW, designed by Pat's friend, the famed architect Francis Rattenbury , was a grand, 18-room sandstone mansion, visited by the likes of Prime Ministers and Royalty. Construction took two years, and the couple meanwhile lived at
2220-710: A swimming pool, and a one-story addition. Richard J. Burns lived at the site until 1970. In 1973, the Alberta Provincial Government purchased the Bow Valley Ranche from the Burns Foundation as part of the development of Fish Creek Provincial Park. By the Great War , Burns had become one of Canada's most successful businessmen and had butcher shops and abattoirs all across Western Canada. He had over 100 retail meat shops in
2331-648: A third of his estate to the Burns Memorial Fund. As such, in 1939 a court order was issued setting up trusteeship and administration of The Burns Memorial Bequest Fund for three groups of beneficiaries: Today, the Burns Memorial Fund is made up of a private charitable foundation (the Children’s Fund) and two non-profit trusts (the Police Fund and the Fire Fund). The funds operate collectively as
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#17327799743662442-400: A working wage. They had to work for their landlords in return for a small patch of land to farm. This forced Ireland's peasantry to practice continuous monoculture , as the potato was the only crop that could meet nutritional needs. The potato was introduced in Ireland as a garden crop of the gentry . By the late 17th century, it had become widespread as a supplementary food; their main diet
2553-589: Is always denoted with a capital letter to express its specific historic meaning. The period of the potato blight in Ireland from 1845 to 1851 was full of political confrontation. A more radical Young Ireland group seceded from the Repeal movement in July 1846, and attempted an armed rebellion in 1848 . It was unsuccessful. In 1847, William Smith O'Brien , leader of the Young Ireland party, became one of
2664-582: Is called 'cholera' in potatoes in Ireland, especially in the north". On 13 September, The Gardeners' Chronicle announced: "We stop the Press with very great regret to announce that the potato Murrain has unequivocally declared itself in Ireland." Nevertheless, the British government remained optimistic over the next few weeks, as it received conflicting reports. Only when the crop was harvested in October did
2775-431: Is the potato, their only beverage water ... their cabins are seldom a protection against the weather ... a bed or a blanket is a rare luxury ... and nearly in all their pig and a manure heap constitute their only property. The Commissioners concluded they could not "forbear expressing our strong sense of the patient endurance which the labouring classes have exhibited under sufferings greater, we believe, than
2886-548: The Calgary Herald organized the search for Our Greatest Albertan. In what is considered the largest citizen journalism project in the province, readers originally nominated 125 people for consideration. A Top 10 list was culminated from months of thought, debate, and votes from the public. Along with Burns, the list included former Premier Peter Lougheed , former Mayor and Lieutenant-Governor Grant MacEwan and Famous Five member Nellie McClung . On October 16, 2008, at
2997-524: The Skeena was used for the express purpose of delivering Burns's beef to the railway construction camps in British Columbia . As part of his western expansion, Burns purchased several thousand acres of land south of Vancouver with the intent of using it for grazing cattle. The property included a significant amount of wetland that was not ideal terrain for cattle grazing and so failed. The land
3108-453: The 1st Earl of Clare observed of landlords that "confiscation is their common title". According to the historian Cecil Woodham-Smith , landlords regarded the land as a source of income, from which as much as possible was to be extracted. With the peasantry "brooding over their discontent in sullen indignation" (in the words of the Earl of Clare), the landlords largely viewed the countryside as
3219-585: The Great Famine , and as part of the naturalization process, the family name was shortened to Byrne and then later to Burns. The family moved from the Oshawa area northward in the spring of 1864 to the small community of Kirkfield, Ontario , where Burns spent a majority of his childhood. Patrick had very little formal schooling but learned a great deal about hard work and thriftiness from his parents. He spent his last summer in Kirkfield chopping wood for
3330-659: The Great Hunger ( Irish : an Gorta Mór [ənˠ ˈɡɔɾˠt̪ˠə ˈmˠoːɾˠ] ), the Famine and the Irish Potato Famine , was a period of mass starvation and disease in Ireland lasting from 1845 to 1852 that constituted a historical social crisis and had a major impact on Irish society and history as a whole. The most severely affected areas were in the western and southern parts of Ireland — where
3441-588: The Irish language was dominant — hence the period was contemporaneously known in Irish as an Drochshaol , which literally translates to "the bad life" and loosely translates to "the hard times". The worst year of the famine was 1847, which became known as "Black '47". The population of Ireland on the eve of the famine was about 8.5 million, by 1901 it was just 4.4 million. During the Great Hunger, roughly 1 million people died and more than 1 million more fled
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3552-608: The Isle of Wight . A week later, on 23 August, it reported that "A fearful malady has broken out among the potato crop ... In Belgium the fields are said to be completely desolated. There is hardly a sound sample in Covent Garden market ... As for cure for this distemper, there is none." These reports were extensively covered in Irish newspapers. On 11 September, the Freeman's Journal reported on "the appearance of what
3663-547: The Lord Mayor , went to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord Heytesbury to discuss the issue. They offered suggestions such as opening the ports to foreign corn, stopping distillation from grain, prohibiting the export of foodstuffs, and providing employment through public works. Lord Heytesbury urged them not to be alarmed, that they "were premature", that scientists were enquiring into all those matters, and that
3774-471: The Senate of Canada by his close friend, R. B. Bennett , to represent the senatorial division of Northern Alberta. In making the announcement, Prime Minister Bennett had this to say about him: “Holding your wealth as a trust, you have given generously to every good cause and your life has been an inspiration to the younger generation.” He sat as an independent until he resigned for health reasons in 1936. He
3885-583: The US border without ever leaving his land. In 1931, he was appointed to the Canadian Senate as a representative for Alberta. On October 16, 2008, the Calgary Herald named Burns as Alberta's Greatest Citizen. Patrick O'Byrne was born in Oshawa , Ontario, on July 6, 1856, the fourth of eleven children of Michael and Bridget O'Byrne. His parents had immigrated from County Mayo , Ireland in 1848 due to
3996-506: The second reading of the government's Irish Coercion Bill was defeated by 73 votes in the House of Commons by a combination of Whigs , Radicals , Irish Repealers, and protectionist Conservatives. Peel was forced to resign as prime minister on 29 June, and the Whig leader, Lord John Russell , became prime minister. The measures undertaken by Peel's successor, Russell, proved inadequate as
4107-520: The 1840s. Blight infection caused 100,000 deaths outside Ireland and influenced much of the unrest that culminated in European Revolutions of 1848 . Longer-term reasons for the massive impact of this particular famine included the system of absentee landlordism and single-crop dependence. Initial limited but constructive government actions to alleviate famine distress were ended by a new Whig administration in London, which pursued
4218-496: The 40 years that followed the union, successive British governments grappled with the problems of governing a country which had, as Benjamin Disraeli stated in 1844, "a starving population, an absentee aristocracy, an alien established Protestant church , and in addition, the weakest executive in the world". One historian calculated that, between 1801 and 1845, there had been 114 commissions and 61 special committees inquiring into
4329-835: The Alberta Hotel, on Stephen Avenue . The Burnses had one son, Patrick Michael Burns, born in Calgary in 1906. In 1912, he was one of the Big Four , who started the Calgary Stampede . With A. E. Cross , A. J. McLean , and George Lane , they arranged $ 100,000 worth of financing and billed the event as "The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth." Burns then personally owned six ranches with 38,000 head of cattle, 1,500 horses and 20,000 sheep. His company, Burns Foods, had abattoirs in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Prince Albert, and Regina with an overall daily capacity of 1,070 cattle, 6,000 pigs, and 3,000 sheep. Burns's facilities were of
4440-570: The Bank of England announced plans to raise a loan of £14 million to relieve the Irish crisis, and also for unfunded tax cuts. This led to the Panic of 1847 , in which gold was withdrawn from circulation, so reducing the amount of bank notes that the Bank could legally circulate. By 17 April 1847 the bullion reserve of the Bank of England had diminished from £15 million in January to some £9 million, and it
4551-520: The Burns Building. At the time of the recommendation it was thought possible to fit the necessary concert halls and theatres in and around the two old buildings. A more detailed study by the architects for the performing arts group [Stevenson Raines] and their theatre consultants has indicated that while this can be done, a better result can be achieved if the land under the Burns Building were to be available for performing arts purposes." Ultimately
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4662-572: The Burns Memorial Fund. Burns died February 24, 1937—less than six months after the death of his son. After his death, Burns's estate was assessed at $ 3.8 million ($ 78 million in 2023)—having fallen significantly due to the Great Depression. In 1996, Maple Leaf Foods purchased a majority of Burns Foods for an undisclosed amount. Some Maple Leaf products retain the Burns name but many have been rebranded. As part of its 125th anniversary,
4773-589: The Inspectors of Constabulary and Stipendiary Magistrates were charged with making constant reports from their districts, and there was no "immediate pressure on the market". On 8 December 1845, Daniel O'Connell, head of the Repeal Association , proposed several remedies to the pending disaster. One of the first things he suggested was the introduction of Tenant-Right as practised in Ulster, giving
4884-552: The Pale (i.e., before the union with Great Britain in 1801) had adopted in periods of distress. Contemporaneously, as found in letters from the period and in particular later oral memory, the name for the event is in Irish : An Drochshaol , though with the earlier spelling standard of the era , which was Gaelic script , it is found written as in Droċ-Ṡaoġal. In the modern era, this name, while loosely translated as "the hard-time",
4995-524: The Patrick Burns Building…reads like a corporate Who's Who." Calgary Power, Alberta Investment and Insurance Brokers, Rocky Mountain Cement and a variety of dentists, doctors, lawyers, realtors, insurance agents and accountants were among the first tenants. The building was built in the style of Edwardian Classical. The exterior features Lions' heads and other ornamental mouldings sculptured in
5106-452: The West. Under George Lane, it had achieved an international repute as a centre of breeding excellence for cattle and purebred Percheron horses. Burns acquired the property from Lane's estate after his close friend died in 1925. Some of the other ranches in his possession were Willow Creek, Glengarry (44), Bradfield, Two Dot, Rio Alto, Linehum, Flying E, and C.K. In 1931, he was appointed to
5217-466: The amount of rent they could obtain. Tenants could be evicted for reasons such as non-payment of rents (which were high), or a landlord's decision to raise sheep instead of grain crops . Cottiers paid their rent by working for the landlord while the spalpeens (itinerant labourers) paid for short-term leases through temporary day work. A majority of Catholics, who constituted 80% of the Irish population, lived in conditions of poverty and insecurity. At
5328-496: The arrival of Phytophthora infestans , commonly known as "blight", only two main potato plant diseases had been discovered. One was called "dry rot" or "taint", and the other was a virus known popularly as "curl". Phytophthora infestans is an oomycete (a variety of parasitic, non-photosynthetic organisms closely related to brown algae , and not a fungus). In 1851, the Census of Ireland Commissioners recorded 24 failures of
5439-491: The blood lines of their own cattle. A pioneer of cold-weather ranching, Burns put up 250,000 tons of hay for winter feed and convinced other ranchers to utilize winter feeding methods themselves. He renovated the corrals and feeding pens on his ranches and introduced modern feed-lot techniques to finish cattle for market. The following is a list of ranches owned wholly or in part by Patrick Burns or his companies: Great Famine (Ireland) The Great Famine , also known as
5550-514: The campaign for independence. Additionally, the famine indirectly resulted in tens of thousands of households being evicted , exacerbated by a provision forbidding access to workhouse aid while in possession of more than one-quarter acre of land. The famine was a defining moment in the history of Ireland, which was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1801 to 1922 . The famine and its effects permanently changed
5661-544: The commission stated that "the superior prosperity and tranquillity of Ulster, compared with the rest of Ireland, were due to tenant right". Landlords in Ireland often used their powers without compunction , and tenants lived in dread of them. Woodham-Smith writes that, in these circumstances, "industry and enterprise were extinguished and a peasantry created which was one of the most destitute in Europe". Immense population growth , from about 2 million in 1700 to 8 million by
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#17327799743665772-500: The company was renamed Burns & Co. Ltd. In the sale, Burns retained control over his true passion, his vast cattle ranches. At the height of his empire, his assets included nearly 700,000 acres (2,800 km ) of ranch land, roughly the size of Luxembourg . One of his most prized possessions was the Bar U Ranch , south of Calgary, which was among the largest in the country and one of the first and most enduring large corporate ranches of
5883-704: The complicated history of the period. The potato blight returned to Europe in 1879 but, by this time, the Land War (one of the largest agrarian movements to take place in 19th-century Europe) had begun in Ireland. The movement, organized by the Land League , continued the political campaign for the Three Fs which was issued in 1850 by the Tenant Right League during the Great Famine. When
5994-655: The conditions that led to the famine. However, it was asserted that, since the Acts of Union 1800 , the British Parliament was partly to blame. This point was raised in The Illustrated London News on 13 February 1847: "There was no law it would not pass at their request, and no abuse it would not defend for them." On 24 March, The Times reported that Britain had permitted in Ireland "a mass of poverty, disaffection, and degradation without
6105-477: The cornmeal could be consumed, it had to be "very much" cooked again, or eating it could result in severe bowel complaints. Due to its yellow colour, and initial unpopularity, it became known as "Peel's brimstone". In October 1845, Peel moved to repeal the Corn Laws — tariffs on grain which kept the price of bread high—but the issue split his party and he had insufficient support from his own colleagues to push
6216-477: The country , causing the country's population to fall by 20–25% (in some towns, populations fell as much as 67%) between 1841 and 1871. Between 1845 and 1855, at least 2.1 million people left Ireland, primarily on packet ships but also on steamboats and barques —one of the greatest exoduses from a single island in history. The proximate cause of the famine was the infection of potato crops by blight ( Phytophthora infestans ) throughout Europe during
6327-438: The crisis deepened. The new Whig administration, influenced by the doctrine of laissez-faire , believed that the market would provide the food needed. They refused to interfere with the movement of food to England, and then halted the previous government's food and relief works, leaving many hundreds of thousands of people without access to work, money, or food. Russell's ministry introduced a new programme of public works that by
6438-627: The demolition of the Burns building became a possibility when it was proposed that the property it sat on was needed for the construction of the Calgary Centre for the Performing Arts . In a June 1980 report the situation was clearly outlined. "Our [the city's] urban planning consultants (Hanen and Moriyama) have recommended that two heritage buildings in this block be preserved, namely the Calgary Public Building and
6549-545: The demolition proposal was defeated by one City Council vote. The Burns Building, like the Public Building was saved and incorporated into the design of Performing Arts Centre. In 1987 it was officially designated a Provincial Heritage Resource. Patrick Burns (businessman) Patrick Burns (July 6, 1856 – February 24, 1937) was a Canadian rancher , meat packer , businessperson , senator , and philanthropist. A self-made man of wealth, he built one of
6660-489: The end of December 1846 employed some half a million but proved impossible to administer. Charles Trevelyan , who was in charge of the administration of government relief, limited the Government's food aid programme, claiming that food would be readily imported into Ireland once people had more money to spend after wages were being paid on new public-works projects. In a private correspondence, Trevelyan explained how
6771-436: The expansion of the cottier system ; they supported an extremely cheap workforce, but at the cost of lower living standards. For the labourer, "a potato wage" shaped the expanding agrarian economy. The potato was also used extensively as a fodder crop for livestock immediately prior to the famine. Approximately 33% of production, amounting to 5,000,000 short tons (4,500,000 t ), was typically used in this way. Prior to
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#17327799743666882-464: The famine could bring benefit to the English; As he wrote to Edward Twisleton : "We must not complain of what we really want to obtain. If small farmers go, and their landlords are reduced to sell portions of their estates to persons who will invest capital we shall at last arrive at something like a satisfactory settlement of the country". In January 1847, the government abandoned its policy of noninterference, realising that it had failed, and turned to
6993-431: The first deaths from starvation were recorded. Seed potatoes were scarce in 1847. Few had been sown, so, despite average yields, hunger continued. 1848 yields were only two-thirds of normal. Since over three million Irish people were totally dependent on potatoes for food, hunger and famine were widespread. The Corporation of Dublin sent a memorial to the Queen, "praying her" to call Parliament together early (Parliament
7104-417: The first half of 1917. After the war, Belgium was looking to secure a meat supply from a North American company. With no American distributors able to meet the call, Burns stepped in to help the devastated nation. From the early 1900s to 1914, he was the principal meat supplier for the workers during the construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway . One of the Foley, Welch and Stewart , sternwheelers ,
7215-448: The first widely circulated tracts on the famine, The Last Conquest of Ireland (Perhaps) , published in 1861. It proposed that British actions during the famine and their treatment of the Irish were a deliberate effort at genocide. It contained a sentence that has since become famous: "The Almighty, indeed, sent the potato blight, but the English created the Famine." Mitchel was charged with sedition because of his writings, but this charge
7326-443: The founding members of the Irish Confederation to campaign for a Repeal of the Act of Union, and called for the export of grain to be stopped and the ports closed. The following year, he helped organise the short-lived Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848 in County Tipperary . When Ireland experienced food shortages in 1782–1783, ports were closed to exporting food, with the intention of keeping locally grown food in Ireland to feed
7437-472: The gifts were much needed; 2000 Calgary families received the roasts and 4000 single unemployed dined out at his expense. Patrick Burns took special interest to environment conservation. Recognizing the value of the trees in Fish Creek Valley, he directed his foreman to erect fences around the groves of aspen and poplar as protection from the cattle. They also planted 2000 poplars along the MacLeod Trail, adjacent to Bow Valley Ranche. In his will, Burns endowed
7548-420: The hands of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and Chief Secretary for Ireland , who were appointed by the British government. Ireland sent 105 members of parliament to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom , and Irish representative peers elected 28 of their own number to sit for life in the House of Lords . Between 1832 and 1859, 70% of Irish representatives were landowners or the sons of landowners. In
7659-447: The historic 18 West Hastings Street as his regional head office and one of several retail outlets in the city. The building is a six-storey brick Edwardian commercial building on West Hastings Street, Vancouver. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Hastings Street corridor was the centre for Vancouver's trade and manufacturing. In 1910, Dominic had the Vancouver Block built on Granville Street , Vancouver. Dominic moved into
7770-588: The hospitality of the ranch to distinguished people visiting the Calgary area. Hull was responsible for building the natural brick two storey Bow Valley Ranche House which was said to be the finest country home in the territories. When Burns bought the property, the house was a two-hour ride away from Calgary, and he used it as a weekend retreat. Today, the house is occupied by the Bow Valley Ranche Restaurant in Fish Creek Provincial Park . After his death, his nephew and business successor Michael John Burns came to live in Bow Valley Ranche House. Under his supervision,
7881-660: The hungry. Irish food prices promptly dropped. Some merchants lobbied against the export ban, but the government in the 1780s overrode their protests. Historian F. S. L. Lyons characterised the initial response of the British government to the early, less severe phase of the famine as "prompt and relatively successful". Confronted by widespread crop failure in November 1845, the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, purchased £100,000 worth of maize and cornmeal secretly from America with Baring Brothers initially acting as his agents. The government hoped that they would not "stifle private enterprise" and that their actions would not act as
7992-522: The island's demographic, political, and cultural landscape, producing an estimated 2 million refugees and spurring a century-long population decline . For both the native Irish and those in the resulting diaspora, the famine entered folk memory . The strained relations between many Irish people and the then ruling British government worsened further because of the famine, heightening ethnic and sectarian tensions and boosting nationalism and republicanism both in Ireland and among Irish emigrants around
8103-710: The land for the Lacombe Nursing Home at Midnapore , which he kept provisioned at his expense. Burns placed a high value on education. He contributed to the creation of Western Canada College, now Western Canada High School , in Calgary, provided the funding for the erection of St. Joseph's College at the University of Alberta , and financed construction on a new school building, new residence, and donated land for expansion at Vancouver College in Vancouver. On August 11, 1914, he offered £10,000 to equip
8214-464: The landlord a fair rent for his land, but giving the tenant compensation for any money he might have laid out on the land in permanent improvements. O'Connell noted actions taken by the Belgian legislature during the same season, as they had also been hit by blight: shutting their ports against the export of provisions and opening them to imports. He suggested that, if Ireland had a domestic Parliament,
8325-542: The landlord to qualify for public outdoor relief. Of this Law, Mitchel wrote that "it is the able-bodied idler only who is to be fed—if he attempted to till but one rood of ground, he dies". This simple method of ejectment was called "passing paupers through the workhouse"—a man went in, a pauper came out. These factors combined to drive thousands of people off the land: 90,000 in 1849, and 104,000 in 1850. The Incumbered Estates (Ireland) Act 1849 ( 12 & 13 Vict. c. 77) allowed landlord estates to be auctioned off upon
8436-591: The list of recoverable products, which included leather, fats for soap, bone for bone meal and manufactured articles, fertilizers, glycerine, hair for brushes, and even an array of pharmaceuticals. Burns joked that the only product not recovered were the pigs' squeals, which could have been sold to politicians. Burns played a crucial role in World War I by supplying meat to troops overseas. For example, he shipped over 2,000 tons of pork shipped to troops in France during
8547-609: The measure through. He resigned the premiership in December, but the opposition was unable to form a government and he was re-appointed. In March, Peel set up a programme of public works in Ireland, but the famine situation worsened during 1846, and the repeal of the Corn Laws in that year did little to help the starving Irish; the measure split the Conservative Party, leading to the fall of Peel's ministry. On 25 June,
8658-513: The penthouse upon completion of the building in 1912 and lived there until his death in 1933. The building is recognized by its large clock tower and has incredible historic value with its prominent location, the highest point of land in Downtown Vancouver, and being an early example of Edwardian commercial buildings that typified the building boom at the turn of the 20th century. The Blakeburn coalmine, near Princeton and Coalmont ,
8769-404: The people of any other country in Europe have to sustain". The Commission stated that bad relations between landlord and tenant were principally responsible for this suffering. Landlords were described in evidence before the commission as "land sharks", "bloodsuckers", and "the most oppressive species of tyrant that ever lent assistance to the destruction of a country". As any improvement made on
8880-406: The political climate, in which the Irish famine occurred. The "middleman system" for managing landed property was introduced in the 18th century. Rent collection was left in the hands of the landlords' agents, or middlemen. This assured the landlord of a regular income and relieved them of direct responsibility while leaving tenants open to exploitation by the middlemen. The ability of middlemen
8991-509: The ports would be thrown open and the abundant crops raised in Ireland would be kept for the people of Ireland, as the Dublin parliament had done during the food shortages of the 1780s. O'Connell maintained that only an Irish parliament would provide both food and employment for the people. He said that repeal of the Act of Union was a necessity and Ireland's only hope. Mitchel later wrote one of
9102-535: The potato blight returned to Ireland in the 1879 famine , the League boycotted "notorious landlords" and its members physically blocked the evictions of farmers; the consequent reduction in homelessness and house demolition resulted in a drastic reduction in the number of deaths. Ireland was brought into the United Kingdom in January 1801 following the passage of the Acts of Union . Executive power lay in
9213-606: The potato crop going back to 1728, of varying severity. General crop failures, through disease or frost, were recorded in 1739, 1740, 1770, 1800, and 1807. In 1821 and 1822, the potato crop failed in Munster and Connaught . In 1830 and 1831, counties Mayo , Donegal , and Galway suffered likewise. In 1832, 1833, 1834, and 1836, dry rot and curl caused serious losses, and in 1835 the potato failed in Ulster. Widespread failures throughout Ireland occurred in 1836, 1837, 1839, 1841, and 1844. According to Woodham-Smith, "the unreliability of
9324-690: The potato was an accepted fact in Ireland". Experts are still unsure of how and when blight arrived in Europe; it almost certainly was not present prior to 1842, and probably arrived in 1844. The origin of the pathogen has been traced to the Toluca Valley in Mexico, whence it spread within North America and then to Europe. The 1845–1846 blight was caused by the HERB-1 strain of the blight. In 1844, Irish newspapers carried reports concerning
9435-599: The province of Alberta, and the revenue helped to offset the loss from suspending the provincial sales tax in August 1937. Burns was known as a man of few words but great generosity. One employee estimated that for a period Burns was donating over $ 50,000 per year ($ 863 thousand in 2023). When a huge rock slide devastated the community of Frank, Alberta in 1903, Burns was among the first to send aid. Five years later, when fire swept through Fernie, British Columbia , leaving 6,000 people homeless, he sent carloads of food. He
9546-516: The provinces of British Columbia and Alberta. He also established 65 creameries and cheese factories, 11 wholesale provision houses and 18 wholesale fruit houses. He extended his empire overseas and set up agencies in London, Liverpool and Yokohama . In 1928, Burns Foods generated sales of about $ 40 million ($ 691 million in 2023). In 1928, he sold his interests in Burns Foods for $ 15 million ($ 259 million in 2023) to Dominion Securities and
9657-401: The ranching operation continued to prosper and he also preserved the established tradition of true western hospitality remembered by many Calgarians. In failing health, Michael John Burns moved to Calgary in 1950, and his son Richard J. Burns came to live at the ranch with his wife and three sons. Under his management, many more improvements were made, including the construction of a tennis court,
9768-581: The scale of destruction become apparent. Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel wrote to Sir James Graham in mid-October that he found the reports "very alarming", but allayed his fears by claiming that there was "always a tendency to exaggeration in Irish news". Crop loss in 1845 has been estimated at anywhere from one-third to one-half of cultivated acreage. The Mansion House Committee in Dublin , to which hundreds of letters were directed from all over Ireland, claimed on 19 November 1845 to have ascertained beyond
9879-413: The shadow of a doubt that "considerably more than one-third of the entire of the potato crop ... has been already destroyed". In 1846, three-quarters of the harvest was lost to blight. By December, a third of a million destitute people were employed in public works. According to Cormac Ó Gráda , the first attack of potato blight caused considerable hardship in rural Ireland from the autumn of 1846, when
9990-626: The site of the Len Werry Building) was also under construction. In 1923 Pat Burns exchanged the building for the Glengarry Ranch. The ground level provided retail space for Burns' retail meat market. The 130-foot (40 m) long market hall featured twelve 25-foot (7.6 m) high Doric marble columns. Burns leased out the remaining 35,000 square feet (3,300 m) of office space to a wide variety of tenants. Historian Hugh Dempsey wrote, "the list of businesses which occupied
10101-399: The south by 146th Avenue, and on the west by MacLeod Trail , a large property by any standards but only a small segment of his ranching empire. The farm was an ideal location with respect to the Burns family meat packing plant. Many large cattle drives were brought to the site where the animals were bedded, fed, watered and rested before being herded to the stockyards. Burns frequently offered
10212-419: The state of Ireland, and that "without exception their findings prophesied disaster; Ireland was on the verge of starvation, her population rapidly increasing, three-quarters of her labourers unemployed, housing conditions appalling and the standard of living unbelievably low". Lectures printed in 1847 by John Hughes , Bishop of New York , are a contemporary exploration into the antecedent causes, particularly
10323-441: The surface of the terracotta. Inside white and green Italian marble was used to finish the main stairways and corridors. The building included modern conveniences like steam heating and ventilation. In addition to electricity, each office was equipped with natural gas lighting. Between 1981 and 1984 the building underwent extensive renovations designed by architects A.J. Diamond and Partners with Carruthers and McCullum. Around 1980
10434-405: The time of the Great Famine, led to increased division of holdings and a consequent reduction in their average size. By 1845, 24% of all Irish tenant farms were of 0.4–2 hectares (1–5 acres) in size, while 40% were of 2–6 hectares (5–15 acres). Holdings were so small that no crop other than potatoes would suffice to feed a family. Shortly before the famine, the British government reported that poverty
10545-660: The top of the social hierarchy was the Ascendancy class , composed of English and Anglo-Irish families who owned most of the land and held more or less unchecked power over their tenants. Some of their estates were vast; for example, the Earl of Lucan owned more than 60,000 acres (240 km ). Many of these landowners lived in England and functioned as absentee landlords . The rent revenue—collected from impoverished tenants who were paid minimal wages to raise crops and livestock for export —was mostly sent to England. In 1800,
10656-470: The utmost sanitation and technically advanced to a level previously unseen in Western Canada. Facilities were eventually opened in Winnipeg, Seattle, Australia, and Great Britain. Burns was able to revolutionize the slaughterhouse industry by emphasizing efficiency in the use of byproducts. Traditionally, much of the animals had been lost to waste, but with his advanced abattoirs, Burns could expand
10767-704: The way to Winnipeg. He and John, impressed by reports of good lands to the west, decided to take advantage of the Canadian Dominion Lands Act of 1872. The brothers set out on foot to locate their homesteads and walked 160 miles (260 km) until they found land to their liking just east of Minnedosa, Manitoba . Burns continued to homestead in Manitoba until after the Louis Riel rebellion but gradually became involved in buying cattle and selling meat. He began his meat packing career with
10878-490: The world's largest integrated meat-packing empires, P. Burns & Co., becoming one of the wealthiest Canadians of his time. He is honoured as one of the Big Four western cattle kings who started the Calgary Stampede in Alberta in 1912. He made his fortune in the meat industry , but ranching was his true passion. Burns's 700,000 acres (2,800 km ) of cattle ranches covered so vast an area of Southern Alberta that he boasted about being able to travel from Cochrane to
10989-419: The world. English documentary maker John Percival said that the famine "became part of the long story of betrayal and exploitation which led to the growing movement in Ireland for independence." Scholar Kirby Miller makes the same point. Debate exists regarding nomenclature for the event, whether to use the term "Famine", "Potato Famine" or "Great Hunger", the last of which some believe most accurately captures
11100-492: Was a staunch supporter of many children’s charities, making sure that the local orphanage was always well-stocked with free high-quality meat. He was an active Catholic but also supported other religious groups. When he was called upon to pay for the painting of a small Catholic church near Calgary, he requested for the Anglican church next door to be painted as well, at his expense, so that it did not look shabby by comparison. He
11211-568: Was announced that the cost of famine relief would be transferred to local taxes in Ireland. The financial crisis temporarily improved, but the intended relief for Ireland did not materialise. In June 1847, the Poor Relief (Ireland) Act 1847 ( 10 & 11 Vict. c. 31) was passed which embodied the principle, popular in Britain, that Irish property must support Irish poverty. The landed proprietors in Ireland were held in Britain to have created
11322-586: Was another of Burns's ventures. The Bow Valley Farm became the functional headquarters of his cattle empire. Burns purchased the Ranche in 1902 from William Roper Hull . Burns also acquired adjacent sections of land, as they became available. Eventually, the Burns Ranch at Bow Valley included some 20,000 acres (81 km ) bounded on the north by what is now Stampede Park, on the east by the Bow River , on
11433-485: Was at this time prorogued ), and to recommend the requisition of some public money for public works, especially railways in Ireland. The Town Council of Belfast met and made similar suggestions, but neither body asked for charity, according to John Mitchel , one of the leading Repealers. In early November 1845, a deputation from the citizens of Dublin, including the Duke of Leinster , Lord Cloncurry , Daniel O'Connell and
11544-402: Was dropped. He was convicted by a packed jury under the newly enacted Treason Felony Act and sentenced to 14 years transportation to Bermuda . According to Charles Gavan Duffy , The Nation insisted that the proper remedy, retaining in the country the food raised by her people until the people were fed, was one which the rest of Europe had adopted, and one which even the parliaments of
11655-659: Was extremely generous to the Diocese of Calgary and donated large sums to St. Mary's Parish. He donated three 750 lb bells to St. Mary's Cathedral in 1904 that were cast by the Fonderie Paccard in Annecy , France . The bells were the only parts from the old building used in the construction of the existing cathedral. He paid for the construction of Albert Lacombe 's " Hermitage " in Pincher Creek , and donated
11766-447: Was measured by the rent income they could contrive to extract from tenants. Middlemen leased large tracts of land from the landlords on long leases with fixed rents and sublet to tenants, keeping any money raised in excess to the rent paid to the landlord. This system, coupled with minimal oversight of the middlemen, incentivised harsh exploitation of tenants. Middlemen would split a holding into smaller and smaller parcels so as to increase
11877-407: Was one that he would remember when he was as an entrepreneur. With his brothers John and Dominic in 1878 he head out west at the age of 22. They started out by steamer, but when they reached Rat Portage , he feared that if he paid for transportation the rest of the way, he might lack funds on his arrival. Undaunted, he bought some bread and cheese, and with his gun for protection, walked the rest of
11988-447: Was predeceased by both his wife, Eileen, and their son, Patrick Michael. He died in Calgary on February 24, 1937, with his nephew John and other family at his side. He is buried alongside his son in St. Mary's Cemetery in Calgary. Upon his death, he left his estate to his nieces and nephews and many charities. The succession duty on his estate, at almost $ 1 million, was a welcome windfall for
12099-527: Was renamed the Burns Bog and maintained its original state until around the 1940s, when peat harvesting began and parts of the bog were dug up. In 1907, Dominic Burns, a brother, oversaw the construction of Burns Foods' first slaughterhouse in Vancouver . When it was torn down in 1969 the man in charge of the demolition said it was the toughest building to destroy he had ever seen with brick walls that were 36 centimetres (14 in) thick. Burns constructed
12210-462: Was so widespread that one-third of all Irish small holdings could not support the tenant families after rent was paid; the families survived only by earnings as seasonal migrant labour in England and Scotland. Following the famine, reforms were implemented making it illegal to further divide land holdings. The 1841 census showed a population of just over eight million. Two-thirds of people depended on agriculture for their survival but rarely received
12321-492: Was still based on butter, milk, and grain products. The Irish economy grew between 1760 and 1815 due to infrastructure expansion and the Napoleonic Wars (1805–1815), which had increased the demand for food in Britain. Tillage increased to such an extent that there was only a small amount of land available to small farmers to feed themselves. The potato was adopted as a primary food source because of its quick growth in
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