Patrick Morrissy and Mary Phelan:
Some of their Descendants and Relatives in Canada

Stephen Morrissey

Copyright © 2003, 2008
Stephen Morrissey

Last updated: 8 June 2008; major update in progress, March 2016
Webmaster: Jake Morrissey

Contact us: sm at stephenmorrissey dot ca

Click here to access a thoroughly revised and updated version of this resource, available in multiple formats (hosted at The Internet Archive).

I thank God for the gift of having seen with my own eyes the dawn of this day. It is a day which reminds us of all those hailing from the north, south, east, and west of Ireland who sought a home on the island of Montreal in the beautiful city of Mary, as well as all of those who boast of being their descendants—a day which recalls what they proved to be and what they accomplished—a day which brings memory of all that happened to them and all that concerned them during an interval of a century.

—Father Martin Callaghan, speech at the Windsor Hotel, Montreal, 26 June 1906

They are after Morrissy because he is a Grit, and they say meaner things, they say they are after him because he is an Irishman and a Roman Catholic' My father was born in good old fighting Tipperary and I am proud that I am a Catholic'shame on the man who would traduce a man for the faith that is in him.

—The Honourable John V. Morrissy, speech at the Legislative Assembly, New Brunswick, 11 April 1916

Hope you don't see some highwayman or malefactor swinging from the family trees, if you find some millions hanging also'much the better.

—Lily McCabe of Montreal, in a 1956 letter to Tally Morrissy of Miramichi, New Brunswick

I always told my grandfather (William Morrissey) that I wanted to research the Morrissey family tree and his reply was, 'don't do it, we come from a bunch of thieves and murderers'.

—Jo Ann Morrissey Steen, in a 2003 letter to Stephen Morrissey