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Nicholas Flood Davin

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Davin

Nicholas Flood Davin (1840-1901). Courtesy Canadian Adaptations of Shakespeare Pjoject.

Nicholas Flood Davin
Member of the Canadian Parliament
for Assiniboia West
In office
1887–1900
Preceded by Electoral district created
Succeeded by Thomas Walter Scott
Personal details
Born January 13, 1840(1840-Template:MONTHNUMBER-13)
Kilfinane, Ireland
Died October 18, 1901(1901-Template:MONTHNUMBER-18) (aged 61)
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Nationality Canada Canada
Political party Liberal-Conservative

Nicholas Flood Davin (January 13, 1840 - October 18, 1901) was a Canadian poet, lawyer, journalist, and politician.

Life[]

Overview[]

The 1st Member of Parliament for Assiniboia West (1887-1900), Davin was known as the voice of the North-West. He founded and edited the Regina Leader, the earliest newspaper in Assiniboia. Davin was also a Canadian author and poet. He wrote The Irishman in Canada (1877), as well as a collection of poetry and an unpublished novel.

Life[]

Youth[]

Davin was born at Kilfinane, Ireland. He was a parliamentary and war correspondent in England before arriving in Toronto in 1872, where he wrote for the Globe and the Mail. Although a fully qualified lawyer, Davin practised little law. The highlight of his legal career was his 1880 defence of George Bennett, who murdered George Brown.

Move West[]

File:The first Leader building.jpg

The first Leader Building, Regina, Assiniboia

A chance visit to the West in 1882 determined his future. In 1883, he founded and edited the Regina Leader, the first newspaper in Assiniboia; the paper carried his detailed reports of the 1885 trial of Louis Riel. A spellbinding speaker, elected the Conservative Member of Parliament for Assiniboia West in 1887, Davin tried to gain provincial status for the territory, and economic and property advantages for the new settlers – even the franchise for women – but he never achieved his ambition to be a Cabinet minister.

After his election to Parliament, David confined his involvement with the Leader to writing editorials. He sold the paper in 1895. In the 1900 election he narrowly lost his seat in Parliament to the Liberal candidate, the Leader's new owner and editor.[1]

He shot himself during a visit to Winnipeg on October 18, 1901.

He is buried in Beechwood Cemetery, Ottawa.[2]

Kate Simpson Hayes[]

In 1886 Davin met Kate Simpson Hayes shortly after her arrival in Prince Albert. Davin and Hayes began a 9-year affair that would scandalize the town: Hayes was still legally married and had 2 small children. Davin hired Hayes to write for the Regina Leader, and put her name forward as a candidate for legislative librarian.[3]

Their romance culminated in the birth of 2 illegitimate children, a son and a daughter. The son, Henry Arthur, was born in 1889 in Vancouver and was immediately placed in the care of a housekeeper. The daughter, born in 1892, was placed at first with a nurse, then was sent to the St. Boniface Roman Catholic orphanage in Winnipeg. Later she was placed in a private home. Davin repeatedly begged Hayes to divorce her first husband and marry him, but she refused. Whatever her reasons, she gave their children away and turned down all of Davin’s proposals.[3]

In 1895 Davin married Eliza Jane Reid, a spinster from Ontario. Reginans were surprised that Davin had married Reid, but she had apparently consented to raise Davin’s 'nephew' and 'niece' – really the children he had with Hayes. The boy was located and soon came to live with Davin and his new wife, but the girl was nowhere to be found.[3]

Hayes met Davin in Winnipeg in 1901 at the post office. They quarrelled over the fate of their children. At the end of the conversation she shouted at him, “You go your way and I’ll go mine!” Those were the last words she ever spoke to her former lover: 2 days later he committed suicide.[3]

Writing[]

Davin used, among others, the literary device of intertextuality to draw upon British canonical writers including Tennyson, Byron, and Shakespeare to connect the associations of empire with his 19th-century audience. In 1876, Davin wrote Shakespeare The Fair Grit; or, The advantages of coalition: A farce, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The play is a farce on governmental coalitions and the corrupted role of media in Canadian politics.

In 1877 Davin published The Irishman in Canada, a history of the contribution of Irish in the new country, which the Dictionary of Canadian Biography says is "generally acknowledged to be his most important contribution to Canadian letters." In the book he made no distinctions between Irish Catholics and Protestants, arguing that religious distinctions were irrelevant in Canada.[1]

In 1879 Davin produced the Report on Industrial Schools for Indians and Half-Breeds, otherwise known as The Davin Report , in which he advised John A. Macdonald’s federal government to institute residential schools for Indigenous youth; a recommendation that decimated Canadian Aboriginal families. [4].

In 1884, while visiting Ottawa, Davin published Eos: An epic of the dawn; and other poems, a collection of poems that, in his own words, "strike a true and high note in Canadian politics and literature"..

Publications[]

Poetry[]

Plays[]

Non-fiction[]

Young_Canada_(Nicholas_Flood_Davin_Poem)

Young Canada (Nicholas Flood Davin Poem)


Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[5]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 John Herd Thompson, "Davin, Nicholas Flood," Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, Web, Sep. 14, 2011.
  2. ↑ Sr Nicholas Flood Davin, Find a Grave, June 12, 2005. Web, July 31, 2013.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Hayes, Kate Simpson (a.k.a Mary Markwell), Heritage & History, City of Regina. Web, Oct. 31, 2016.
  4. ↑ Moll, "The Davin Report: Shakespeare and Canada's Manifest Destiny," Canadian Adaptations of Shakespeare Project, par 2.
  5. ↑ Search results = au:Nicholas Flood Davin, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center. Web, July 31, 2013.

External links[]

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