Patrick James Whelan (c. 1840 – 11 February 1869) was an Irish-born tailor and suspected Fenian supporter who was executed after the assassination of Irish-Canadian journalist and politician Thomas D'Arcy McGee in Canada in 1868.

Questions about his guilt continue to be voiced, as his trial was "marred" by political interference, dubious legal procedures, allegations of bribing witnesses and easily discredited testimony.

There he joined the Volunteer Cavalry to defend the Province against the Fenian raids; however, some of his actions led to a military review on suspicions his sympathies lay instead with Irish republicanism.

[1] He is believed to have moved between Buffalo, New York and Hamilton, Ontario and finally Montreal, Quebec for a year before marrying Bridget Boyle in 1867.

One of the visitors, commonly believed to be Whelan, told McGee that he had come to warn the family that renegades were plotting to burn down the house at 4 am the following morning.

At that moment, a muzzle flash erupted, and as a .32 calibre bullet tore through McGee's neck and through his jaw, knocking his dentures out, the politician fell back into the street.

[4] By the next nightfall, more than 40 Canadians, predominantly Irish immigrants suspected of Fenian allegiance, had been arrested; most prominent of these was Patrick Buckley, who served as the stable hand to Prime Minister John A. Macdonald, and who gave police the name of Whelan.

[4] Whelan, who had just left the house of Richard Quinn where he had mentioned that his boss Mr. Eagleson had been arrested for the murder,[1] was found in a tavern belonging to Michael Starr at 9:30 pm.

[2][4] The Prime Minister, a personal friend of McGee's, had received permission to sit beside judge William Buell Richards while hearing evidence.

Ironically, Whelan was defended by Protestant Orangeman John Hillyard Cameron, while the prosecutor was Irish-Catholic James O'Reilly.

He was entranced by the flies walking on the ceiling of the courthouse, and laughed audibly when a constable lost his footing and slipped while trying to bring him out of the defendant's box.

[1] This was also confirmed by bookkeeper William Goulden in his testimony, who added that Whelan had offered to sell his pistol just six weeks before McGee was killed.

But I am innocent, I never took that man's blood.There was much laughter in the courtroom when Cameron began questioning a witness demanding to know why "John Downey" had just answered that he had never known Whelan, nor lived in Montreal as it was widely known was true.