Irishtown-Summerside
Town

Phone : (709) 783-2146
Your Host(s) : Municipality

Irishtown-Summerside, NL (Nearby: Corner Brook, Hughes Brook, Massey Drive, Meadows, Gillams)

  • Detail

183 Main St.
Irishtown-Summerside, A2H 4A1


Newfoundland Tourism Region : Western


Irishtown-Summerside:

On the north shore of the Humber Arm, Irishtown, was as you can imagine, was named to honor settlers in the area and to reflect the background of the settlers.

According to local lore, an Irishwoman, who went by the name of Margaret Piercey, was asked by someone (who knows who) what the name of the community was, in which we presume, she was living.

Her reply "Irishtown" appeared to be agreeable to the community and the name was accepted by the local residents.

While it is known that French fishermen as early as the early 1700s, and English fishermen by the 1760 participated in the fishery in this region, actual settlement did not occur until the early 1800s.

As was the case in other settlements in the area, according to ENL sources, Irishtown "was settled as people were attracted by the area's salmon, herring, fur, timber and lobster, which were traded for supplies to entrepreneurs, usually from Nova Scotia, but also from New Brunswick and the United States".

The 1891 Census first recorded settlement at Irishtown with seven families comprising a population of 43. Summerside, on the other hand has had a number of different names including Garrick Bend, Pleasant Cove and Pitipas.

The Pitipas, an Acadian family who arrived in the 1830s, were believed to have lived in Summerside (PEI) at some point and for that reason the name was chosen (Welsh & Payne, 2016).

According to Wikipedia contributors "this contiguous settlement was formerly two separate villages, one of which was known originally as Petipas (or Petipa's) Cove.

Two smaller settlements (Davis (or Davis's) Cove and Christopher's Cove) were formerly both separately reported in the census". In 1991 Summerside merged with nearby Irishtown.

Due to its close proximity to Corner Brook, Irishtown- Summerside is now basically a bedroom community for the larger town.

Latest census of 2016 results show the population of Irishtown-Summerside to be 1,418 (a slight decrease of 0.7% from 2011) when there were 1,428 residents.

Used with permission from "Uncovering the Origin of 1001 Unique Place Names in Newfoundland and Labrador" 2021 Jennifer Leigh Hill

Address of this page: http://nl.ruralroutes.com/IrishtownSummerside



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