The Trial of Thomas D’Arcy McGee Irish Rebel – Canadian Patriot Written by Anthony Russell In Canada Wexford’s Thomas D’Arcy (1825–1868) McGee is revered as a founding father, perhaps the founding father, of the country. In Ireland, he is either unknown or reviled as a traitor; a physical force republican turned colonial loyalist. On the 200th anniversary of his birth, McGee is called from the grave to answer, in the Court of History, the charge that he committed treason against Ireland and her people. Monaghan’s Sir Charles Gavan Duffy (1816-1903) a founder of the Nation and later Prime Minister of Victoria is McGee’s defence lawyer. Newry’s John Mitchel (1815-1875), an unrepentant physical force republican, American Confederate and racist is the prosecutor. He and Duffy, once friends, became lifelong enemies because of Mitchel’s support of violence and slavery. John A. Mc Donald (1815-1891), the first prime minister of the Canadian Confederation, whose reputation is tarnished by his treatment of the first nations, is called as a witness for the prosecution. McGee’s long suffering and loyal wife, Mary Teresa Caffrey, is called as a witness for the defence. All the ghosts are aware of what has happened in the world since they entered the grave and comment accordingly. The judge, Dionysus Cronos, was present at the trial of Socrates. The audience is the jury. Newpoint Players, directed by Donal O’Hanlon, present this humorous historical fantasy, this reflection on the legacy of Ireland’s most important, yet almost forgotten, emigrant.Thomas D'Arcy Mcgee widely known as D'Arcy McGee, was born on 13 April 1825 in Carlingford, Ireland, and raised as a Roman Catholic. From his mother, the daughter of a Dublin bookseller he learned the history of Ireland, which later influenced his writing and political activity. When he was eight years old, his family moved to Wexford, where his father, James McGee, was employed by the Irish coast guard (then under His Majesty's Coastguard and likely at the Wexford Town Station near Customs House Quay.In Wexford he attended a local hedge school, where the teacher, Michael Donnelly, fed his hunger for knowledge and where he learned of the long history of British rule and Irish opposition, including the more recent uprising of 1798. In 1842 at age 17, McGee left Ireland with his sister due to a poor relationship with their stepmother, Margaret Dea, who had married his father in 1840 after the death of his mother 22 August 1833. In 1842 he sailed from Wexford harbour aboard the brig Leo, bound for the United States.
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