D'Arcy McGee

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McGee in 1868

Thomas D'Arcy McGee, PC, (April 13, 1825 – April 7, 1868) was a Canadian journalist and Father of Confederation.

Widely known as D'Arcy McGee, he was born on April 13, 1825 in Carlingford, Ireland. In 1843 at age 17 he emigrated to the United States where he found work as assistant editor of Patrick Donahoe's Boston Pilot, a Catholic newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts. A few years later he returned to Ireland where he became politically active and edited the nationalist newspaper The Nation. His support for the Fenians, forerunners of Sinn Féin, and his involvement in the Irish Confederation and Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848, resulted in a warrant for his arrest. McGee escaped the country and returned to the United States.

In the US, he founded Irish-American publications in New York City and Boston, and generally supported the cause of Irish immigrants. In 1857 he went to Canada where he set up the publication of the New Era in Montreal, Quebec. Politically active, his anti-British sentiments showed up again in his advocacy of Canadian independence from Britain. In 1858, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada and worked for the creation of an independent Canada.

Moderating his radical Irish views, McGee denounced the Fenian Brotherhood in America that advocated a forcible takeover of Canada from Britain by the United States. A faction of American Fenians sent an invasion force into Canada in 1866 that was repelled and arrested by American authorities. Canadians, with Irish sympathizers in their midst, and spurred by numerous rumours of another, more massive invasion, lived in fear of the Fenians for several years.

McGee was elected to the 1st Canadian Parliament in 1867 as a Liberal-Conservative representing the riding of Montreal West. On April 7, 1868, D'Arcy McGee was assassinated in Ottawa, Ontario. He is one of only a few notable political assassinations in Canadian history and the only one at a federal level. He was interred in the Cimetière Notre-Dame-des-Neiges in Montreal, Quebec. The Government of Canada's Thomas D'Arcy McGee Building stands near the site of the assassination.

Patrick J. Whelan, a Fenian sympathizer, was accused, tried, convicted, and hanged for the crime. Decades later, his guilt was questioned and many believe that he was falsely accused in order to be a scapegoat for the murder. His case is dramatized in the Canadian play, Blood On The Moon. The Canadian folk music group Tamarack song "The Hangman's Eyes" was inspired by Whelan.

In May 2005 the gun that killed him was sold at auction for $105,000 CAD to the Canadian Museum of Civilization [1]. As of 2000 the bullet was in the possession of the Library and Archives Canada but with the sale of the gun the organization informed the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that it has gone missing sometime within the last 5 years.

A pub bearing his name ("D'Arcy McGee's") is situated at one corner of the building. Located within walking distance of Parliament Hill, it is a popular watering hole for many politicians. D'Arcy McGee also has a high school named after him (D'Arcy McGee High School), which was located in Hull, Quebec for many years, but later moved to Aylmer, Quebec (both cities are now part of an amalgamated municipality called Gatineau).