D'Arcy McGee Quotes
We are loyal, because our equal civil, social, and religious rights are respected by this [the Canadian] Government in theory and in practice. Were it otherwise, we would be otherwise.
D'Arcy McGee, 1825-1868, Irish National and member of Canadian Parliament (Liberal), Explanation of Canadian Irish Loyalty to the British Crown as Compared to Ireland Itself, Presentations to Lord Kimberley and the Earl of Derby
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Thomas D'Arcy Etienne Grace Hughes McGee was an Irish-Canadian politician, Catholic spokesman, journalist, poet, and a Father of Canadian Confederation. The young McGee was a Catholic Irishman who opposed British rule of Ireland, and worked for a peasant revolution to overthrow British rule and secure Irish independence. He escaped arrest and fled to the United States in 1848, where he reversed his political beliefs. He became disgusted with American republicanism and democracy, and became intensely conservative in his politics and in his religious support for the Pope. He moved to Canada in 1857 and worked hard to convince the Irish Catholics to cooperate with the Protestant British (members of the church) in forming a Confederation that would make for a strong Canada in close alliance with Britain. His passion for Confederation garnered him the title: 'Canada's first nationalist'. He fought the Fenians in Canada, who were Irish Catholics that opposed the British and resembled his younger self politically. McGee succeeded in helping create the Canadian Confederation in 1867, but was thought to have been assassinated by Patrick J. Whelan in 1868.
