D'Arcy McGee

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

McGee in 1868

Thomas D'Arcy McGee, PC, (April 13, 1825 – April 7, 1868) was a Canadian journalist, Father of Confederation, and, to date, the only Canadian victim of political assassination at the federal level.

1 Profile
2 Canadian politics and assassination
3 Honours
4 External links

[edit] Profile

Widely known as D'Arcy McGee, he was born on April 13, 1825 in Carlingford, Ireland and raised as a Roman Catholic. 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 and his involvement in the Irish Confederation and Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848 resulted in a warrant for his arrest. McGee escaped the country via steamship dressed as a priest 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, he advocated a new nationality in Canada, to escape the sectarianism of Ireland. 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 nationalist 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 by Canadian forces and arrested by the 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.

[edit] Canadian politics and assassination

McGee funeral procession in 1868

McGee was elected to the 1st Canadian Parliament in 1867 as a Conservative representing the riding of Montreal West. On April 7, 1868, D'Arcy McGee was assassinated in Ottawa, Ontario. His was the first murder in the newly formed Dominion of Canada's short history,^[1] and is one of only two political assassinations in Canadian history^{[citation needed]}. (The other is the assassination of Québec politician Pierre Laporte during the October Crisis in October 1970). 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 McGee 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 five years.

[edit] Honours

A pub bearing his name ("D'Arcy McGee's") is situated at the corner of Sparks Street and Elgin Street in downtown Ottawa. Located within walking distance of Parliament Hill, it is a popular watering hole for many politicians. Also on Sparks Street, the Thomas D'Arcy McGee Building is a prominent government owned office building in Ottawa. An additional D'Arcy McGee's Irish Pub opened at Ottawa International Airport on April 1, 2008 in the newly expanded domestic portion of the passenger terminal.

D'Arcy McGee also has several schools named in his honour including: l'ecole secondaire D'Arcy McGee High School, sec III-V, Western Quebec School Board, Gatineau, Quebec; D'Arcy McGee Catholic School, Elementary, Toronto Catholic District School Board, Toronto, Ontario; and Thomas D'Arcy McGee Catholic School, Elementary, Ottawa-Carleton Catholic School Board, Ottawa, Ontario.

The Quebec provincial electoral district (riding) of D'Arcy-McGee is also named in his honour, as are two villages in central Saskatchewan. One of these villages is named D'Arcy, the other McGee, and they are located approximately 20 kilometres apart.