Site of Thomas D'Arcy McGee's Assassination
Sparks Street near O'Connor
Written by Bytown Museum
on
03/Dec/2009
In the early morning hours of the 7th of April 1868, the young Canadian nation was rocked by the assassination of one of the country’s most passionate and eloquent Fathers of Confederation. Thomas D’Arcy McGee, journalist, poet and politician, was found shot to death outside his boarding house on Sparks Street. The capital city was in a state of panic and disbelief while the police swept through the city desperately searching for those responsible for the murder.
Within 24 hours, a young Irish tailor by the name of Patrick James Whelan was arrested. He was accused of being a member of the Fenian Brotherhood, an extremist group of Irish nationalists. McGee, also an Irishman, had publicly denounced the Fenians.
Whelan was tried, convicted and hanged for the murder, all the while maintaining his innocence. More than 5,000 people attended his execution on the morning of the 11th of February 1869 at the Carleton County gaol.
