Donation of rare book on hockey
A rare book on Canadian hockey will come to Concordia Archives, thanks to the generosity of Brian Malone, a resident of Champlain, a suburb of Quebec City.
Published in 1899, Hockey: Canada’s Royal Winter Games was written by another native of Quebec City, Arthur Farrell, who won two Stanley Cups with the Montreal Shamrocks and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Malone inherited the book from his father, Dr. J.M.F. Malone, team doctor for the Trois-Rivières Reds in the 1940s and ’50s. He lent the book to Gazette sports columnist Red Fisher, and asked him to find it an appropriate home. Fisher has written several articles on the book’s significance in capturing bygone attitudes to the national game.
He also sent it for viewing to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who himself is writing a history of hockey in Canada. The prime minister asked Library and Archives Canada to make a digital copy.
In the meantime, Mr. Malone decided that the book should be given to the Canadian Irish Studies Foundation to be passed on to the Centre for Canadian Irish Studies at Concordia University. Before being handed over, the book is undergoing conservation treatment by Library and Archives Canada which will make it available digitally on its website.
President Claude Lajeunesse said the university is honoured to be custodian of this historical artifact. Only three copies are known to exist. The copy in the British Library was destroyed in a World War II air raid fire.
It will be housed at Concordia Archives, where it will become part of an extensive collection related to the university’s Sports Hall of Fame and other players for the Montreal Shamrocks. The Archives has state-of-the-art facilities to house and make available to researchers this irreplaceable original document.
Michael Kenneally, Director of the Centre for Canadian Irish Studies, pointed out that this book is a reminder of the role the Irish have played in Quebec society. One of the mandates of the Centre is to study the complex relationship between the Irish and French over many generations, a bond often reinforced by a common religion and the fact that both Ireland and Quebec were colonies of England.
Irish participation in hockey is deep-rooted, as evidenced by the Montreal Shamrocks, who won the Stanley Cup in 1899 and 1900 and for whom Arthur Farrell played. The Montreal Canadiens also has Irish-Canadian roots, right up to current general manager Bob Gainey.
It is expected that the restoration of Hockey: Canada’s Royal Winter Games will be completed by Library and Archives Canada in about a month, at which time it will be formally presented to the university.
BARBARA BLACK