Davin, Nicholas Flood 1840-1901

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DAVIN, Nicholas Flood 1840-1901

PERSONAL: Born January 13, 1840, in Kilfinane, County Limerick, Ireland; died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound October 18, 1901, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada; son of Nicholas Flood and Eliza (Lane) Davin; married Eliza Jane Reid, July 25, 1895; children: (with Kate Simpson-Hays) two. Education: Attended Queen's College, Cork, 1864; trained as a lawyer in London.

CAREER: Called to the Bar, 1868; journalist for Irish Times, London Star, Pall Mall Gazette, and Toronto, Ontario, Globe & Mail; founder and editor, Regina Leader. Elected as conservative member to Parliament, 1887, 1896, 1901; poet and writer of nonfiction books.

WRITINGS:

British versus American Civilization: A Lecture, Adam, Stevenson (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1873.

The Earl of Beaconsfield, with Disraeli AnecdotesNever before Published, Belford (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1876.

The Fair Grit; or, The Advantages of Coalition: AFarce, Belford (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1876.

The Irishman in Canada, Maclear (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1877, facsimile edition, Irish University Press (Shannon, Ireland), 1969.

Great Speeches, Hunter, Rose (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1881.

Album Verses and Other Poems, MacLean, Roger (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada), 1882.

Eos: A Prairie Dream and Other Poems, Citizen (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada), 1884.

Eos: An Epic of the Dawn, and Other Poems, Leader (Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada), 1889.

(Editor) Homes for Millions: The Great CanadianNorth-West, Chamberlain (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada), 1891.

Contributor to periodicals, including Canadian Monthly and National Review and Week.

SIDELIGHTS: Nicholas Flood Davin wrote in a variety of genres—poems, speeches, journalism, and political and economic studies—but is perhaps best remembered as a voice of the early cultural and political life of Canada's Northwest Territories. He was often the object of controversy, which began virtually with his birth. A native of County Limerick, Ireland, Davin was born to Nicholas and Eliza Davin in 1840. But, according to a Dictionary of Literary Biography entry by Neil Besner, the boy, "christened Nicholas Francis, seems to have adopted the middle name Flood not to affirm his father's name, but his Protestant upbringing with the family of his uncle, James Flood Davin." As for the birth date, Besner quoted Davin biographer C. B. Koester, as saying that Davin claimed to be born in 1843 "to disguise 'the supposed disadvantages of a late start.'"

After apprenticing in the iron trade, Davin attended college in Ireland. Seeking to better his lot, he relocated to London, where in 1865 he trained as a lawyer. Around the same time, Davin began his journalistic career, writing for the Monthly Journal. Appointed to the press gallery of the House of Commons furthered Davin's career. As Besner pointed out, such figures as Charles Dickens and Samuel Coleridge also got their start in the same gallery. Called to the bar in 1868, Davin instead became a war correspondent for the Irish Times, reporting on the Franco-Prussian War. Other newspaper stints left the reporter frustrated by his papers's policies, and his unhappiness was compounded by a drinking problem. In 1872, Davin accepted a post as a Canadian correspondent to the Pall Mall Gazette.

The resulting move to Canada would be a turning point in Davin's life. He worked on two Toronto newspapers, the Globe and the Mail, and "he quickly established a reputation as a gifted speaker, became involved in political life, and published several books," as Besner wrote. Notable publications of that era include British versus American Civilization: A Lecture, "a spirited reply to an unabashed pro-American speech of Rev. O. H. Tiffany," according to Besner. Davin delved into satire with The Fair Grit; or, The Advantages of Coalition. But the most significant of his early works was The Irishman in Canada, "a history in which Davin shows the major contributions of the Irish, and through which Davin began to articulate what was to become his own lifelong commitment to Canada."

A staunch conservative, Davin made a Parliamentary election bid in 1878. Though he lost the vote, he caught the eye of Canada's Conservative Party, which nurtured his political ambitions. In 1882 Davin moved west to Regina, Saskatchewan, where he founded the conservative Regina Leader. Besner said that Regina and the Leader "were the bases for Davin's political, editorial, and literary activities; and he quickly became a well-known figure in the Territories, celebrated for his style, urbanity, and wit as much as for his enterprise." Davin eventually went on to be elected to Parliament three times.

Davin led an unorthodox life in Canada's western frontier; he fathered two children by a married woman, and married another woman, Eliza Jane Reid. He celebrated the Northwest Territories in poetry collections such as Eos: An Epic of the Dawn, and Other Poems, described by Besner as "sometimes stilted and overly ornate." But still, Besner added, "there are passages, particularly in the title poem, which clearly [show] Davin's descriptive gifts as the poet gazes down on the prairie."

Toward the end of the nineteenth century, Davin saw his political career in turmoil. Besner described the decline as "symptomatic of Davin's many contradictions: although he was a staunch supporter of the Northwest Territories, he was also deeply committed to Federal policy and to the Conservative party, and he was often pulled between the demands of the region and the national party." Defeated in a 1900 election bid, Davin was left to reflect on a career that was marked by "bitter rivalries and petty feuds." He traveled to Winnipeg in 1901, ostensibly to seek work in the Manitoba government, and in a hotel, on October 18, Davin died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.