The Irish are coming!; Battle of Ridgeway commemorated with plaque, re-enactment JOHN LAW Local News - Monday, June 05, 2006 @ 02:00 Strangely enough, it took a bunch of armed, angry Irishmen to help Canada forge its identity. On June 1, 1866, the Fenian Brotherhood - the American wing of the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood - decided to strike back against the British which had killed its hierarchy and scattered its leaders. Canada would be the ideal target. About 600 Fenians crossed the Niagara River and tussled with the Queen's Own Rifles, the 13th Battalion and the York and Caledonia rifle companies in what is known as the Battle of Ridgeway. It was a fight the Fenians actually won, but fearing Canadian and British reinforcements, they soon retreated back to the U. S. where they were taken into custody. For Canada, the stinging defeat exposed how vulnerable the country was, and proved pivotal in the Confederation movement. The entire episode was commemorated Saturday with a plaque dedication at Old Fort Erie, complete with battle reenactment. "The first thing you wonder is, 'What were the Fenians thinking?'" said Fort Erie Wayne Redekop. The answer, at least back in 1866, was that Canada was ripe for the picking. After the Fenian scare, the country beefed up its defences and found its footing as a nation. "It exposed the vulnerability of our young country's defence," said Lincoln Alexander, chairman of the Ontario Heritage Trust, which created the plaque. "Are we united today? Yes." The plaque explains that the Battle of Ridgeway "shocked the country," but ended up benefiting Canada in the long run. "It was the last time a direct attempt to invade our country took place," said Niagara Falls MP Rob Nicholson. "Some good things came out of that incident." Despite Saturday's drizzle, hundreds of spectators came armed with cameras and camcorders to watch the re-enactment, which filled the air with musket smoke and crackling gunfire. Jim Hill of the Niagara Parks Commission provided commentary during the mock skirmish. The plaque unveiling marked the battle's 140th anniversary. Since 1953, nearly 1,200 of the blue and gold plaques have been unveiled across the province, commemorating Ontario's significant people, places and