Canadian Statesman Thomas D'Arcy McGee Remembered at Concordia University Event
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AUTHOR David A. Wilson signs copies of his book, Thomas D'Arcy McGee, Volume I: Passion, Reason, and Politics, 1825-1857 after his lecture at Concordia on April 23.
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MONTREAL - Thomas D'Arcy McGee was honoured on April 23 at an event hosted by the Centre for Canadian Irish Studies at Concordia University. The occasion highlighted the impact of this passionate journalist, political activist, poet, and public speaker on the history of Montreal and Canada.
The event combined a dazzling lecture to a standing-room only crowd delivered by scholar Dr. David Wilson and a celebration marking the restoration and installation of the Thomas D'Arcy McGee Lintel Stones.
A Father of Confederation, McGee was assassinated in Ottawa on April 7, 1868, less than a year after Confederation, and shortly before his 43rd birthday.
It was in 1857, at the request of the Montreal Irish community, that McGee had moved to Montreal. From 1864 until his death, he lived in a house on Ste-Catherine Street given to him by a number of constituents.
The house had two distinctive lintel stones decorated with beautifully carved shamrocks, and it was a popular Montreal landmark after McGee's assassination. The stones come from Montreal's CarriPre St-Marc and are made of characteristic Montreal limestone.
The building was destroyed by fire in November 1962, but the stones were recovered, and the Hill brothers, who had become owners of the building, donated them to Loyola College.
By the year 2000, the lintel stones were in poor condition, ravaged by time and the elements. One of the stones had deteriorated badly and was in imminent danger of losing the beautiful shamrock carvings, due to erosion.
The Montreal St. Patrick's Society and Brian Gallery, chair of the Canadian Irish Studies Foundation, both contributed generously to a restoration project which allowed the McGee lintel stones to be put on permanent display at Concordia University.
Professor David Wilson was at Concordia to speak about his new biography of McGee, just published by McGill-Queen's Press. Following Dr. Wilson's lecture, Nancy Marrelli, Concordia's Director of Archives, took the occasion to thank Gallery, Mary McDaid, president of the St. Patrick's Society of Montreal, and Barry Hill, whose family donated the lintels initially.
Kathy Assayag, vice president of Concordia's Advancement and Alumni Relations, also thanked Gallery and the St. Patrick's Society for their contribution and for their continuing support of Irish Studies at Concordia, stressing particularly Gallery's recent efforts in creating the prestigious new Johnson Chair in Canadian Irish Studies.
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