Montreal's Irish and their early grip on the port

   A group of Irish Montrealers has long had a disproportionately large influence at the port of Montreal, which has been manifested in the West End gang's famous ability to sneak drugs into the port.
   So how did they get this grip on the port?
   Not sure, but they were very aggressive for 125 years at least.

   Here's some evidence indicating that the Irish were already taking charge of things down there in 1890, in the form of a letter by management in response to a wildcat strike by coal shovellers who wanted daytime workers to be paid the same .35 cents an hour that the night workers were paid.
   The strike made ships unable to refuel and it cost them each about $250 per day.
   "The French laborers would never have struck had it not been for the Irish agitators and laborers," wrote management.
   The master workers of the French branch then told the French laborers that they could go back to work, beacuse the strike was not authorized... but "they are afraid of being attacked on their way home."