St John’s, the Capital of Newfoundland, has two cathedrals named for St. John the Baptist. One is a Catholic Cathedral that serves the city’s mostly Irish population, the other is an Anglican Cathedral.
St. John’s has a large Irish population. “The Rooms” is a cultural center in St. John’s that houses five museums and the Provincial Archives. One of the temporary exhibits at The Rooms is about the Irish in Newfoundland. Most Irish came before the famine, speaking Gaelic. They were persecuted by the English rulers of the island. Unlike Nova Scotia, where Catholic worship was permitted, in Newfoundland colonial governors enforced the Irish Penal Laws which prohibited the celebration of mass, burned homes where mass was celebrated secretly, arrested people harboring priests and forbid Catholics from being officeholders.
Because of this, according to the exhibit, unlike the Irish Diaspora in other countries this community did not disburse and assimilate but rather grew inward and consolidated its culture. Most of the Irish in Newfoundland came from the same district, around Waterford. The exhibit, which was copyrighted so I could not photograph it, showed faces of families in Newfoundland and Waterford, separated by almost 300 years, who showed remarkable family resemblance.
The Irish Emancipation of the 1830’s crossed the Atlantic to Newfoundland and the Irish in Newfoundland could build houses of worship and, at the time it was built, St. John the Baptist was the largest church in Canada. At the church we spoke with some of the churchwomen who were preparing “a proper tea” and their accents were straight out of Ireland.
Just a little down the hill from the Catholic St. John the Baptist Cathedral, in what the city calls it’s “Ecclesiastical District” is the Neo Gothic Anglican St. John the Baptist Cathedral. The Churchwomen there gave us a tour of the church, which has an Ocean Health Labyrinth. Some churches have had Labyrinths since the 4th century to symbolize the meandering that can lead to a spiritual destination. While walking the Labyrinth you follow a regimen of meditation. The Labyrinth inspired a painting “Into the Sea of Infinity” by Dominique Hurley, It faces the Labyrinth.
Between the two churches sits a memorial park which has a monument to Canadian Peacekeepers and one to the Newfoundland regiment, a Celtic cross with a caribou in the center.
And for a radio head like me the Cabot Tower is a must. It was where the Marconi company received the first transatlantic radio signal, sent out from Cornwall in England. It was too early for the tower to be open, but I still needed to visit.
Newfoundland is the closest North American land (if you exclude Greenland) to Europe, which is why Marconi set up here. But the closest point is not the Cabot Tower but Cape Spear, marked by a lighthouse.
The sail in and sail out of St. Johns is worth getting up for. The captain opened the bow early in the morning so we could enjoy it. It was the first warm spring day and people were out enjoying the city. The forecast was for a sunny skies but forest fires in Labrador meant that a haze hung over the city.
We had lunch in an outdoor restaurant which shares a building with an ax throwing establishment. The petite waitress said ax throwing was fun. So I just throw these in.
