View source for Nicholas Flood Davin

{{Short description|Canadian politician (1840–1901)}}
{{More citations needed|date=February 2025}}
{{Use Canadian English|date=January 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific-prefix   = 
| name               = Nicholas Flood Davin
| honorific-suffix   = 
| image              = NicholasFloodDavinMP.jpg
| imagesize          = 
| birth_date         = {{Birth date|1840|01|13}}
| birth_place        = [[Kilfinane]], [[County Limerick]],  ([[History of Ireland (1801–1923)|Ireland (U.K.)]])
| death_date         = {{death date and age|1901|10|18|1840|01|13}}
| death_place        = [[Winnipeg]], [[Manitoba]], Canada
| death_cause        = [[Suicide by gunshot]]
| module             = {{Infobox officeholder | embed = yes
  | constituency_MP  = [[Assiniboia West]]
  | parliament       = Canadian
  | predecessor      = Electoral district created
  | successor        = [[Thomas Walter Scott]]
  | term_start       = 1887
  | term_end         = 1900
  | party            = [[Conservative Party of Canada (1867–1942)]]
  }}
| nationality        = 
| spouse             = 
| relations          = 
| children           = 
| residence          = 
| resting_place      = [[Beechwood Cemetery]]
| alma_mater         = [[Queen's College Cork]]
| occupation         = Writer, publisher, politician
| notable_works      = ''[[The Irishman in Canada]]'', ''Davin Report''
}}
'''Nicholas Flood Davin''', [[King's Counsel|KC]] (January 13, 1840 &ndash; October 18, 1901) was a lawyer, journalist and politician, born at [[Kilfinane]], Ireland (then part of the United Kingdom).<ref name=":0">{{cite DCB |url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/davin_nicholas_flood_13E.html |title=Davin, Nicholas Flood |first=John Herd |last=Thompson |volume=13}}</ref> The first MP for [[Assiniboia West]] (1887–1900), Davin was known as the voice of the [[Northwest Territories|North-West]].

Davin founded and edited the ''[[Regina Leader-Post|Regina Leader]]'', the first [[newspaper]] in [[Assiniboia]]. He tried to gain provincial status for the territory.

Davin is considered one of the architects of the [[Canadian Indian residential school system]]. In 1879 he wrote the ''Report on Industrial Schools for Indians and Half-Breeds'', otherwise known as ''[[#The Davin Report|The Davin Report]]'', in which he advised the federal government to institute residential schools for Indigenous children. In 2015, the [[Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada|Truth and Reconciliation Commission]] concluded that the assimilation amounted to [[cultural genocide]].<ref name="TRCExec">{{cite web |title=Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future: Summary of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada |url=http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/File/2015/Findings/Exec_Summary_2015_05_31_web_o.pdf |website=National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation |publisher=Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada |access-date=28 June 2016 |date=31 May 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160706170855/http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/File/2015/Findings/Exec_Summary_2015_05_31_web_o.pdf |archive-date=6 July 2016  }}</ref>

==Early life in Ireland and England==
He was the only son of Nicholas Davin, doctor, and Eliza Davin (née Lane). Davin's own telling of his early life is the subject to doubt.  It is thought he falsified his middle name, the year of his birth, his father’s occupation, and a claimed Catholic background.<ref name=":0" /> It is believed that his father died young and he was raised as a Protestant by his uncle, an [[apothecary]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Davin, Nicholas Flood {{!}} Dictionary of Irish Biography |url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/davin-nicholas-flood-a2429 |access-date=2023-02-16 |website=www.dib.ie |language=en}}</ref> He was briefly apprenticed to a [[Ironmongery|ironmonger]] before being admitted to [[Queen's College Cork]], where he attended for only a year before moving to London.<ref name=":1" />  He claimed to have studied at the [[University of London]] but there is no record to support this.<ref name=":0" />  Davin entered the [[Middle Temple]] in [[19th-century London|London]] to study law and was [[Call to the bar|called to the bar]] on January 27, 1868.<ref>{{cite web|title=DAVIN, NICHOLAS FLOOD|url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/davin_nicholas_flood_13E.html|author=John Herd Thompson|accessdate=July 24, 2022}}</ref>

Despite being trained in law, while in [[England]] he mostly work in journalism, as editor of the ''[[Monthly Journal]],'' [[Political journalists|parliamentary reporter]] for [[The Star (1888)|''The Star'']], and [[war correspondent]] for the ''[[The Standard (London)|Standard]]'' and the [[The Irish Times|''Irish Times'']] during the [[Franco-Prussian War]]. In 1872 he returned to Ireland to edit the ''[[Belfast Times]],'' but was dismissed after five months amid lawsuits and allegations of drunkenness.<ref name=":1" />

== Toronto years ==
He then move to in [[History of Toronto|Toronto]] in 1872, where he wrote for ''[[Toronto Globe|The Globe]]'' as the [[Literary criticism|literary critic]] until 1875 when he switched to [[Freelancer|freelance]] work, especially for the [[The Toronto Mail|''Mail'']].  He was again called to the bar of Ontario in 1876, but concentrated on his literary career and not the law.<ref name=":1" />

He made his reputation in politics by delivering a speech against [[Republicanism in Canada|republicanism]] and [[materialism]] and in defence of [[Natural order (philosophy)|order]] upheld by [[Monarchism in Canada|monarchy]]; this was later published in book form as ''British versus American civilization'' (1873).  He then help to found the Toronto branch of the youth section of the [[Liberal-Conservative Party]] in 1876.

He found government work in 1873 as secretary to the Royal Commission investigating the [[Pacific Scandal]] chaired by [[Charles Dewey Day]] and again in 1885 as secretary to the [[Royal Commission on Chinese Immigration]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Davin, Nicholas Flood National Historic Person |url=https://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/dfhd/page_nhs_eng.aspx?id=1491&i=77338 |access-date=2023-02-16 |website=www.pc.gc.ca |language=en}}</ref>

Davin's major early non-fiction work was ''The Irishman in Canada'' (1877) a history of the [[Irish diaspora]] (mainly, but not only, in Canada) which focused on [[Great man theory|famous personalities]] rather than social trends.  He asserted that in the New World the division between Catholics and Protestants was irrelevant and the communities would merge into a pan-denominational "Irish" identity.<ref name=":1" />

He also wrote poetry and an unpublished novel.

The highlight of his legal career was his 1880 defence of [[George Bennett (murderer)|George Bennett]], who murdered [[George Brown (Canadian politician)|George Brown]].

==Move to West==
[[Image:The first Leader building.jpg|left|thumb|The first Leader Building, Regina, Assiniboia]]
A chance visit to [[Northwest Territories|the West]] in 1882 determined his future. In 1883, he founded and edited the ''Regina Leader'', the first newspaper in Assiniboia, which carried his detailed reports of the 1885 [[trial of Louis Riel]]. A spellbinding speaker and [[Conservative Party of Canada (1867–1942)|Conservative]] [[House of Commons of Canada|MP]] for [[Assiniboia West]] from 1887 to 1900, Davin tried to gain provincial status for the territory, economic, and property advantages for the new settlers, even the [[franchise for women]], but he never achieved his ambition to be a [[Cabinet minister]]. A mercurial personality, he became depressed by the decline of his political and personal fortunes, and he shot himself during a visit to Winnipeg on October 18, 1901.
[[File:100 0806 Grave of Nicholas Flood Davin..jpg|alt=Imposing grave site of Nicholas Flood Davin.|thumb|Nicholas Flood Davin grave site at Beechwood National Cemetery, Ottawa, ON Canada.]]
He had an interesting, often-illustrious career and upon his death, he was so well-thought of that his colleagues in Ottawa had his body sent from Winnipeg to Ottawa to be buried in [[Beechwood National Cemetery]]. The [[epitaph]], carved in stone beneath a plinth upon which his bust in bronze is ensconced, reads: "This monument has been erected by his former parliamentary associates and other people as a lasting proof of the esteem and affection which they entertained (sic) on one whose character was strongly marked by sincerity and fearlessness, whose mind by vivacity and clearness of comprehension and whose classical scholarship and wide culture united to his brilliant oration and singular wit made him intent in debate and delightful in society."

== The Davin Report ==
Davin is considered one of the architects of the [[Canadian Indian residential school system]]. In 1879, he was sent by the Canadian government to investigate [[American Indian boarding schools|Indian Education in the US]]. In his report, Davin applauded US efforts to concentrate Indigenous peoples on [[Indian reservation|reservations]], [[Enclosure|divide the communal territory into individually owned parcels of land]], and prepare Indigenous children for citizenship through industrial education.

Davin believed industrial boarding schools were superior to day schools, where children returned to their homes after a day’s education and were still under the ‘influence of the wigwam’.<ref>[http://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.03651/21?r=0&s=3 (Davin, 1879: 1)]</ref> The industrial boarding school was in his view the best option for Indians ‘to be merged and lost’ within the nation.<ref>[http://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.03651/21?r=0&s=3 (Davin, 1879: 11)]</ref> But Davin also felt that the migratory nature of Indigenous groups in the northwest made the extensive establishment of industrial boarding schools expensive and inefficient; he argued Canada should use its already existing network of denominational missions for the residential schooling system. Soon after his report, several government-sponsored boarding schools opened.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Woolfrd|first1=Andrew|last2=Gacek|first2=James|date=October 2016|title=Genocidal carceral and Indian residential schools in Canada|journal=Punishment & Society|volume=18|issue=4|pages=400–419|doi=10.1177/1462474516641375|s2cid=147431910|issn=1462-4745}}</ref><ref name="Koester 1980 p. ">{{cite book | last=Koester | first=C. B. | title=Mr. Davin, M.P. : a biography of Nicholas Flood Davin | publisher=Western Producer Prairie Books | publication-place=Saskatoon, Sask | year=1980 | isbn=978-0-88833-056-7 | oclc=7402557 | page=}}</ref>

==Authorship==
Davin used, among others, the literary device of [[Intertextuality|inter-textuality]] to draw upon [[British literature|British canonical writers]] including [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson|Tennyson]], [[Lord Byron|Byron]], and [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]] to connect the associations{{Which|date=February 2023}} of empire with his 19th-century audience. In 1876, Davin wrote an adaptation of Shakespeare's ''Romeo and Juliet'' entitled ''The Fair Grit''; or ''The Advantages of Coalition.'' A ''Farce''.  The play is a farce on governmental coalitions and the corrupted role of media in Canadian politics &ndash; a power fully realized by Davin as a writer and founder of the ''Regina Leader'' newspaper located in Canada’s North-West.

Three years later, Davin produced the ''Report on Industrial Schools for Indians and Half-Breeds'', otherwise known as ''The Davin Report'' (1879), in which he advised [[3rd Canadian Ministry|John A. Macdonald’s federal government]] to institute residential schools for Indigenous youth; the recommendation led, in part, to the establishment of the Canadian Indian residential school system that decimated Canadian Aboriginal families.<ref name=Henderson>{{cite book|editor1-last=Henderson|editor1-first=Jennifer|editor2-last=Wakeham|editor2-first=Pauline|title=Reconciling Canada: Critical Perspectives on the Culture of Redress|date=2013|publisher=University of Toronto Press|location=Toronto|isbn=978-1-4426-1168-9|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nyIaxJFkdPIC&q=davin+report+half-breeds&pg=PA299|chapter-url-access=limited|access-date=May 5, 2017|chapter=Appendix A: Aboriginal Peoples and Residential Schools}}</ref><ref name="Davin">{{cite report|last1=Davin |first1=Nicholas Flood |authorlink=Nicholas Flood Davin |title=Report on industrial schools for Indians and half-breeds |url=https://archive.org/details/cihm_03651/ |publisher=[Ottawa? : s.n., 1879?] |access-date=July 11, 2016 |format=microform |year=1879 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160529190243/https://archive.org/details/cihm_03651 |archive-date=May 29, 2016 }}</ref>

In 1884, while visiting Ottawa, Davin wrote ''Eos – A Prairie Dream'' (1884), a collection of poems that, in his own words, "strike a true and high note in Canadian politics and literature"<ref>{{Cite book |last=Davin |first=Nicholas Flood |title=Eos – A Prairie Dream |year=1884 |pages=5}}</ref> while he represents, through his poetry, the destruction of Aboriginal culture.<ref>Moll, "The Davin Report: Shakespeare and Canada's Manifest Destiny," Canadian Adaptations of Shakespeare Project, par 2.</ref>

==Gunhilda Letters==
Nicholas Flood Davin complimented the 'Gunhilda letters' "for felicity of expression, cogency of reasoning, fierceness of invective, keenness of satire and piquancy of style" and "Nothing equal to them has appeared in the Canadian press for years."<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Morgan |editor-first=Henry James |editor-link=Henry James Morgan |title=Types of Canadian Women and of Women who are or have been Connected with Canada |location=Toronto |publisher=Williams Briggs |date=1903 |url=https://archive.org/details/typesofcanadianw01morguoft |page=[https://archive.org/details/typesofcanadianw01morguoft/page/75 75]}}</ref> In 1881, [[Ezekiel Stone Wiggins|Susan Anna Wiggins]] used the nom de plume 'Gunhilda' to write the ''Gunhilda Letters--Marriage with a Deceased Husband's Sister: Letters of a Lady to [John Travers Lewis], the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Ontario'', which consisted of letters of support for Mr. Girouard's bill regarding the legalization of marriage with a deceased wife's sister, long-time prohibited by British law at home and overseas. The Gunhilda Letters were dedicated to the members of the [[Senate of Canada]] and of the [[House of Commons of Canada]] who supported Mr. Girouard's Bill.<ref>[http://eco.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.34239#oocihm.34239/2?r=0&s=1&_suid=134393629222206095258868469289 Marriage with a deceased wife's sister : letters of a lady to the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Ontario.]</ref>

== Electoral record ==
{{1887 Canadian federal election/Assiniboia West}}
{{1891 Canadian federal election/Assiniboia West}}
{{1896 Canadian federal election/Assiniboia West}}
{{1900 Canadian federal election/Assiniboia West}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.canadianshakespeares.ca/spotlight/s_p_davin.cfm Canadian Shakespeares] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060826005857/http://www.canadianshakespeares.ca/spotlight/s_p_davin.cfm |date=2006-08-26 }}
* {{cite encyclopedia |title=Nicholas Flood Davin |encyclopedia=[[The Canadian Encyclopedia]] |publisher=[[Historica Canada]] |edition=online |first=Lee |last=Gibson |orig-year=January 22, 2008 |date=December 14, 2017 |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/nicholas-flood-davin}}
* {{Canadian Parliament links|ID=3651}}
{{Dictionary of Canadian Biography}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davin, Nicholas Flood}}
[[Category:1840 births]]
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[[Category:Perpetrators of Indigenous genocides in North America]]
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[[Category:Suicides by firearm in Manitoba]]
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