After two years of analysis, preliminary results were presented to the Irish community, who found them moving and "incredible," according to Victor Boyle, president of the Montreal Irish Monument Park Foundation. Fractures, bacterial infections, chronic diseases and signs of malnutrition provide a window into the lives of Irish migrants in the mid-1800s, said bio-archaeologist Marine Puech at the Ethnoscop lab in Boucherville, Que. © Rowan Kennedy/CBC Victor Boyle, president of the Montreal Irish Monument Park Foundation, said the lab results have made the remains feel more like people, not just bones. The rail workers made sure to stay engaged in a dialogue with the Irish community while performing their excavations, said the REM's deputy director of environment, Elizabeth Boivin. Montreal's Irish community has insisted for years that bodies were interred in the area, but the REM excavations led to the first exhumations, said Boivin.

Source: CBC News July 19, 2022 15:50 UTC