Patrick James Nolan (March 3, 1862 in

Limerick Limerick ( ; ) is a city in western Ireland, in County Limerick. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is in the Mid-West Region, Ireland, Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. W ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

– February 10, 1913 in

Calgary, Alberta Calgary () is a major city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a Metropolitan area, metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the List of ...

) was an early Canadian 'frontier' lawyer, whose fame as "the greatest wit in the west" has led to stories and legends in Canadian folklore about his

criminal law Criminal law is the body of law that relates to crime. It proscribes conduct perceived as threatening, harmful, or otherwise endangering to the property, health, safety, and Well-being, welfare of people inclusive of one's self. Most criminal l ...

practice in Calgary. Nolan moved to Calgary in 1889, and located his office above the ''

Calgary Herald The ''Calgary Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Publication began in 1883 as ''The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate, and General Advertiser''. It is owned by the Postmedia Network. History ''The C ...

'' printing house, which led to his friendship with journalist Norman Luxton. He was widely known as a hard-drinking lawyer with a sharp wit and a skill for defending the underprivileged class of society. Some of his clients included Caroline Fulham. He had an enduring friendship with the legendary journalist Bob Edwards, founder of the Eye-Opener. A well-known tale recounts how Nolan's physical resemblance to

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

Thomas Mayne Daly Thomas Mayne Daly, (August 16, 1852 – June 24, 1911) was a Canadian politician. Born in Stratford, Canada West (now Ontario), the son of Thomas Mayne Daly (1827–1885) and Helen McLaren (Ferguson) Daly, his father was a member of ...

often led to the two being confused for each other. Once, after Daly had jokingly angered a legal client of Nolan's by impersonating the lawyer, Nolan got his revenge by refusing to grant a

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

to a prospective homesteader, insisting that the Ministry of the Interior would require a

bribe Bribery is the corrupt solicitation, payment, or acceptance of a private favor (a bribe) in exchange for official action. The purpose of a bribe is to influence the actions of the recipient, a person in charge of an official duty, to act contrar ...

in order to look at his file - leading to Daly sending Nolan a note several days later about the "bad name" that the Ministry was getting due to his hijinx. In 1894, Nolan and his wife Mary Elizabeth Lee had a son, Henry Grattan Nolan, who would later go on to serve as Canada's judge on the 1945-1948

International Military Tribunal for the Far East The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), also known as the Tokyo Trial and the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, was a military trial convened on 29 April 1946 to Criminal procedure, try leaders of the Empire of Japan for their cri ...

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

and who was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada in 1956.

References

Further reading