Who was Thomas D’Arcy McGee? Join historian David A. Wilson as he explores the journey of the poet, journalist, and politician, from Irish revolutionary to Father of Confederation.
How did one-time Irish revolutionary Thomas D’Arcy McGee transform himself into a Father of Confederation? What kind of future did this gifted journalist, inspiring orator, and charismatic politician imagine for Canada? University of Toronto historian David A. Wilson considers these questions on the 150th anniversary of McGee’s 1868 assassination. A leader of the failed Young Ireland Rising movement in 1848, McGee reversed his political beliefs after fleeing to the United States and, later, emigrating to Canada. As a respected Parliamentarian, he championed Canadian nationhood while fiercely opposing the Fenians — Irish republicans who wanted to free both Ireland and Canada from British rule by force. Join Wilson, author of an award-winning, two-volume biography of McGee, as he examines the political convictions and contradictions that defined Canada’s youngest Father of Confederation.
In English only.
Photo: Z. Balogh