{{Short description|Canadian lawyer (1862–1913)}} {{other uses|Patrick Nolan (disambiguation)}} {{Infobox person | name = Paddy Nolan | image = Paddy Nolan na-1371-1.jpg | alt = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software --> | caption = Paddy Nolan in 1910 | birth_name = Patrick James Nolan | birth_date = {{Birth date|1862|03|03}} | birth_place = Limerick, Ireland | death_date = {{Death date and age|1913|02|10|1862|03|03}} | death_place = Calgary, Alberta | other_names = | occupation = Lawyer | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = }} '''Patrick James Nolan''' (March 3, 1862 in Limerick, Ireland – February 10, 1913 in Calgary, Alberta)<ref>{{Cite DCB |last=Knafla |first=Louis A. |title=Nolan, Patrick James |volume=14 |url=https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/nolan_patrick_james_14E.html}}</ref> was an early Canadian 'frontier' lawyer, whose fame as "the greatest wit in the west"<ref>{{cite journal|jstor=536845|title=Review of Johnny Chinook|first=Mabel|last=Major|date=1 January 1947|journal=The Journal of American Folklore|volume=60|issue=235|pages=98–99|doi=10.2307/536845}}</ref> has led to stories and legends in Canadian folklore about his criminal law practice in Calgary.
Nolan moved to Calgary in 1889, and located his office above the ''Calgary Herald'' printing house, which led to his friendship with journalist Norman Luxton.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.telusplanet.net/public/albear1/luxton2updated.html |title=Mr. Norman Luxton |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080311113232/http://www.telusplanet.net/public/albear1/luxton2updated.html |archive-date=March 11, 2008}}</ref>
He was widely known as a hard-drinking<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ferguson |first1=Will |title=Bull’s Eye Remembering Bob Edwards, the crusader behind The Eye Opener |journal=Alberta Views |date=May 1, 2004 |url=https://albertaviews.ca/bulls-eye/}}</ref> lawyer with a sharp wit and a skill for defending the underprivileged class of society.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Wiebe |first1=Christopher |title=Print Culture |url=http://www.vueweekly.com/articles/default.aspx?i=3145 |website=Vue Weekly |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928011759/http://www.vueweekly.com/articles/default.aspx?i=3145 |archive-date=September 28, 2007}}</ref> Some of his clients included Caroline Fulham.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20021228224645/http://calgarypubliclibrary.com/calgary/hshh/res31.htm Home Sweet Heritage Home - Fulham, Caroline]</ref> He had an enduring friendship with the legendary journalist Bob Edwards, founder of the Eye-Opener.<ref>{{cite book |last1=MacEwan |first1=Grant |author1-link=Grant MacEwan |title=He Left Them Laughing when he said Good-bye: The Life and Times of Frontier Lawyer Paddy Nolan |date=1987 |publisher=Western Producer Prairie Books |location=Saskatoon |isbn=978-0-88833-241-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/heleftthemlaughi0000mace |url-access=registration}}</ref>
A well-known tale recounts how Nolan's physical resemblance to Minister of the Interior Thomas Mayne Daly 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 to a prospective homesteader, insisting that the Ministry of the Interior would require a bribe 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.<ref>{{cite book |last1=St. George Stubbs |first1=Roy |title=Lawyers and Laymen of Western Canada |date=1939 |publisher=Ryerson Press |pages=171–172 |location=Toronto}}</ref>
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 in Tokyo and who was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada in 1956.
==References== {{Reflist}}
== Further reading == * {{Cite DCB |last=Knafla |first=Louis A. |title=Nolan, Patrick James |volume=14 |url=https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/nolan_patrick_james_14E.html}} * {{cite book |last1=MacEwan |first1=Grant |author1-link=Grant MacEwan |title=He Left Them Laughing when he said Good-bye: The Life and Times of Frontier Lawyer Paddy Nolan |date=1987 |publisher=Western Producer Prairie Books |location=Saskatoon |isbn=978-0-88833-241-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/heleftthemlaughi0000mace |url-access=registration}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Nolan, Paddy}} Category:1862 births Category:1913 deaths Category:Lawyers in Alberta Category:Irish expatriates in Canada