Solemn Processions and Terrifying Violence: Spectacle, Authority, and Citizenship during the Lachine Canal Strike of 1843

During the winter of 1843, over one thousand Irish migrant labourers hired to work on the expansion of the Lachine Canal near Montreal struck for higher wages. In the months that followed, they employed a range of public spectacles including nocturnal processions, charivaris, riots, and parades to intimidate their economic rivals and lobby for support from the broader community. These crowd events played a pivotal role in the way that elites were re-conceptualizing the city, citizenship, and their own authority at the dawn of a period that would see Montreal transformed by mass immigration and the entrenchment of a capitalist economy. They also offer some insight into what the city meant to the striking canal workers as an engine of exploitation as well as a site of refuge and resistance.Pendant l’hiver de 1843, plus de mille ouvriers migrants irlandais embauchés pour travailler à l’agrandissement du Canal de Lachine près de Montréal font la grève pour revendiquer des salaires plus élevés. Dans les mois qui suivent, ils emploient un éventail de manifestations publiques, y compris processions nocturnes, charivaris, émeutes et parades, afin d’intimider leurs rivaux économiques et faire pression pour le soutien de la collectivité en général. Ces rassemblements ont joué un rôle central dans la façon dont les élites ont re-conceptualisé la ville, la citoyenneté et leur propre autorité à l’aube d’une période qui verra Montréal transformé par l’immigration massive et l’enracinement d’une économie capitaliste. Ils offrent également un aperçu de ce que la ville représentait pour les ouvriers grévistes en tant que moteur d’exploitation et lieu de refuge et de résistance

“If the evil now growing around us be not staid”: Montreal and Liverpool Confront the Irish Famine Migration as a Transnational Crisis in Urban Governance

During the summer of 1847, hundreds of thousands of Irish migrants fleeing famine and social upheaval in their native land made their way to the bustling North Atlantic port cities of Montreal and Liverpool. Their migration was marked by outbreaks of epidemic disease that helped fuel public doubts about the project of liberal urban governance. The imperial, colonial and municipal authorities were forced to adopt innovative practices of authority in the midst of the ensuing crisis. This article explores the similarities between the response to these events in Montreal and Liverpool as well as the way that these responses were inextricably linked to local circumstances. In doing so, it examines the way that political practices were debated and implemented across the North Atlantic World in the middle of the nineteenth century.Durant l’été de 1847, des centaines de milliers de migrants irlandais fuyant la famine et la tourmente sociale de leur terre natale ont gagné les villes portuaires grouillantes de vie de l’Atlantique Nord qu’étaient Montréal et Liverpool. Leur migration s’est accompagnée de flambées épidémiques qui ont exacerbé le doute qu’entretenait la population quant au projet de gouvernance urbaine libérale. Les autorités impériales, coloniales et municipales furent contraintes d’adopter des pratiques novatrices d’exercice du pouvoir au plus fort de la crise qui s’ensuivit. Le présent article explore les similitudes entre les réactions que suscitèrent ces événements à Montréal et à Liverpool ainsi que les liens inextricables entre ces réactions et la conjoncture locale. Ce faisant, il examine la façon dont les pratiques politiques étaient débattues et mises en oeuvre dans le monde de l’Atlantique Nord au milieu du XIXℯ siècle

“Shame upon you as men!” Contesting Authority in the Aftermath of Montreal’s Gavazzi Riot

The June 1853 appearance of Alessandro Gavazzi in Montreal provoked a violent sectarian riot that left 10 dead and many more wounded. The city’s French-Canadian and Irish elites were outraged that the charismatic anti-Catholic lecturer had been invited to the city by local Protestants. British Protestant elites, meanwhile, perceived the riot as an attack on free speech and on their vision of an orderly city. The debates that occurred in the aftermath of the riot provide a glimpse into the contested nature of identity in mid-nineteenth-century Montreal. Clashing conceptions of public decorum, urban space, and masculine and feminine respectability played a pivotal role in these discussions. French-Canadian, British Protestant, and Irish Catholic elites in the city negotiated the aftermath of the riot in ways that justified their competing claims to power and authority in a period of intense cultural and demographic change. L’apparition en juin 1853 d’Alessandro Gavazzi à Montréal provoqua une violente émeute sectaire qui fit 10 morts et quantité de blessés. Les élites canadiennes-françaises et irlandaises de la ville furent scandalisées que les protestants locaux eurent invité le charismatique conférencier anticatholique à Montréal. Les élites anglo-saxonnes, entre-temps, virent dans l’émeute une attaque à la liberté de parole et à leur vision d’une ville ordonnée. Les débats qui éclatèrent dans la foulée de l’émeute offrent un aperçu du débat sur l’identité qui avait cours dans le Montréal du milieu du XIXe siècle. L’affrontement des notions de décorum public, d’espace urbain et de décence masculine et féminine fut au coeur de ces discussions. Les élites canadiennes-françaises, anglo-saxonnes protestantes et irlandocatholiques de la ville interprétèrent les répercussions de l’émeute de façon à justifier leurs revendications rivales à l’égard du pouvoir et de l’autorité durant une période d’intense changement culturel et démographique

A prospective, observational cohort study of patients presenting to an emergency department with acute shoulder trauma: the Manchester emergency shoulder (MESH) project

Background Fracture and dislocation of the shoulder are usually identifiable through the use of plain radiographs in an emergency department. However, other significant soft tissue injuries can be missed at initial presentation. This study used contrast enhanced magnetic resonance arthrography (MRA) to determine the pattern of underlying soft tissue injuries in patients with traumatic shoulder injury, loss of active range of motion, and normal plain radiography. Methods A prospective, observational cohort study. Twenty-six patients with acute shoulder trauma and no identifiable radiograph abnormality were screened for inclusion. Those unable to actively abduction their affected arm to 90° at initial presentation and at two week’s clinical review were consented for MRA. Results Twenty patients (Mean age 44 years, 4 females) proceeded to MRA. One patient had no abnormality, three patients showed minimal pathology. Four patients had an isolated bony/labral injury. Eight patients had injuries isolated to the rotator cuff. Four patients had a combination of bony and rotator cuff injury. Four patients were referred to a specialist shoulder surgeon following MRA and underwent surgery. Conclusions Significant soft tissue pathology was common in our cohort of patients with acute shoulder trauma, despite the reassurance of normal plain radiography. These patients were unable to actively abduct to 90° both at initial presentation and at two week’s post injury review. A more aggressive management and diagnostic strategy may identify those in need of early operative intervention and provide robust rehabilitation programmes

Stress and prevalence of hearing problems in the Swedish working population

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Current human and experimental studies are indicating an association between stress and hearing problems; however potential risk factors have not been established. Hearing problems are projected to become among the top ten disabilities according to the WHO in the near future. Therefore a better understanding of the relationships between stress and hearing is warranted. Here we describe the prevalence of two common hearing problems, i.e. hearing complaints and tinnitus, in relation to different work-and health-related stressors.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A total of 18,734 individuals were invited to participate in the study, out of which 9,756 (52%) enrolled.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The results demonstrate a clear and mostly linear relationship between higher prevalence of hearing problems (tinnitus or hearing loss or both) and different stressors, e.g. occupational, poorer self-rated health, long-term illness, poorer sleep quality, and higher burnout scores.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The present study unambiguously demonstrates associations between hearing problems and various stressors that have not been previously described for the auditory system. These findings will open new avenues for future investigations.</p