Episode 2 continues into the late 1800s, charting Griffintown’s transformation into Canada’s industrial center through the development of the Grand Trunk Railway between 1860 and 1915. It also highlights key social histories of the era, including the 1868 assassination of Thomas D’Arcy McGee by Irish nationalist Patrick James Whelan—Canada’s first of two political assassinations—and Whelan’s execution, the country’s last public one. The episode also recounts the famous haunting of Mary Gallagher, a sex worker beheaded by Susan Kennedy on June 27, 1879, whose ghost is said to return every seven years on the anniversary of her death.

In this five-part series, Griffintown: A People’s History, historian Dr. Matthew Barlow recounts the fascinating social history of Griffintown, a former industrial neighbourhood just south of downtown Montreal, that has all but disappeared.