About the Book Excerpt from the introduction by Marianna O’Gallagher, Quebec, November 2000

Joseph Griffin’s poems, poetic essays, evoke an era, a space and a spirit that have almost disappeared. Quebec City in the period before and during the Second World War had a vibrant cohesive Irish community centered around Saint Patrick’s Church and Schools. Griffin’s Prologue to A Quebec City Boyhood speaks the poet’s vision, evidence we recognize.

... The Plains of Abraham and the Cove Fields, Quebec City’s wonderful greenbelt, became the playgrounds for the children of Saint Patrick’s.

... Joe Griffin has captured, in low key, but in authentic lines what we lived. The actual place names used, and the events are there for local colour, but the universal experience is there as well-growing up, feeling family relationships, learning personal needs, and realizing one’s capacities, eye openers all.

I hope that readers will bring their own nostalgia to the book. I know that several generations of Quebecers will revel in, laugh and cry, at what Joe Griffin remembers and what he has preserved for us in these few telling lines.

About the Author

Joseph Griffin was born in Alma, Quebec, in 1931 and grew up in Quebec City. He is now retired and living in Ottawa.

A Quebec City Boyhood is based on experiences the author had growing up. He vouches only for the general veracity of incident, time and place, not for the literal truth of all the details.