Thomas Francis Meagher (1823- 1867), Irish patriot, was born in Waterford city on August 3, 1823.  When he was eleven years of age he was sent by his father to be educated at the Jesuit-run Clongowes Wood College, Co. Kildare, where he was a brilliant student.  He was then sent to Stonyhurst College, in Lancashire, England, under that same order.  At school he was an outstanding student of English literature, and invariably carried away the prize for his compositions in poetry and in prose.  He also played the clarinet in the school orchestra.  After Clongowes, Meagher was sent to to complete his education at Stonyhurst, the foremost Catholic college in England. Arthur Griffith has written that in Clongowes " ... he was bred in ignorance of his own country and all that related to it and in Stonyhurst his preceptors, with some success, laboured to overcome what was termed his 'horrible Irish brogue,' and sent him back to his own country with an Anglo-Irish accent which grated on the ears of his countrymen when he addressed them from the tribune, until the eloquence and native fire of the orator swept the gift of the English school from their jarred consciousness."  

    When he returned to Waterford in 1843, from Stonyhurst, he had some vague idea of making a career for himself in the Austrian army but he discovered his country and her history and he became a zealous Repealer like his father, Thomas Meagher, who was mayor of the city in that year - the first Catholic mayor of Waterford since the time of Cromwell.  

    Meagher went to Dublin in 1844 with the intention of becoming a lawyer and he, like most of the people, was fired with patriotism after reading Thomas Davis' paper the Nation.  He became a contributor to the paper and a great friend of the other writers.  O'Connell was sweeping the country with the cry of "Repeal" and Meagher and his friends became one of the workers for repeal.  Meagher became the centre around which the young patriots of Waterford and the country rallied and his fame for eloquence and oratory made his name far and wide.  O'Connell, on first hearing the young Meagher, exclaimed, "Bravo, Young Ireland." Meagher's first appearance in public life was described by Mr.T.D. Sullivan, M. P. :                        

Early in 1846, when the Repeal Association was still powerful, ere yet the country had ceased to throb to the magic of O'Connell's voice, a well featured, graceful young gentleman rose on the crowded platform, in Conciliation Hall, towards whom the faces of the assembly turned in curiosity.  Few of them had heard of his name; not one of them - if the chairman, William Smith O'Brien, be excepted - had the faintest idea of the talents he possessed.  He addressed the meeting on an ordinary topic, and at first, a seeming affectation of manner, a semi-Saxon drawl, and a total lack of suitable gesture, produced an unfavorable impression.  He was boyish, conceited, and too fine a gentleman, the audience thought; but, warming with his subject, and casting off the restraints that hampered his utterances at first, he poured forth a stream of genuine eloquence, vivified by the happiest allusions, and enriched by imagery and quotations as beautiful as they were appropriate, he conquered all prejudices and received the enthusiastic applause of his audience.  O'Brien complimented him warmingly, and thus the orator of Young Ireland made his debut on the political platform.

    Becoming disillusioned with O'Connell's policy of peaceful agitation, Meagher used his fiery eloquence to rouse the people to hope for the restoration of their national rights by force of arms.  In 1846, when he was only twenty-three years of age, he made the famous  "Sword" speech in the Conciliation Hall, Dublin.  The speech earned for him the soubriquet “Meagher of the Sword,” and led to the secession of the Young Irelanders from the Repeal Association, and to the foundation of the Irish Confederation, headed by John Mitchel, Smith O'Brien and Gavan Duffy.   In 1848 he was one of the three delegates appointed to present an address of congratulations to the French Republican Government, and, in a speech delivered before his departure, he counseled his countrymen to send a deputation to the Queen, asking her to convene the Irish Parliament in the Irish capital.

    "A deputation should proceed to London and demand an interview with the queen. Should it be refused, let the Irish pack up their court dresses - as Benjamin Franklin did when repulsed from the court of George the Third - and when next they demand admission to the throne room, it shall be through the accredited ambassador of the Irish Republic.  If the claim be rejected, if the throne stand as a barrier between the Irish people and the supreme right - then loyalty will be a crime and obedience to the executive will be treason to the country... If the Government of Ireland insist on being a government of dragoons and bombardiers, of detectives and light infantry, then, up with the barricades and invoke the God of Battles! ... It will then be our duty to fight and desperately to fight."

    It was in Paris that Meagher conceived the idea of an Irish Tricolour of Green, White and Orange, modelled on the French tricolour.  When Meagher returned to Ireland in April 1848 and at a meeting of the Irish Confederation held at the Music-Hall, Dublin "... the flag which was presented to Mr.Meagher at Paris was displayed from the large vase above the chair." (Waterford Mail)

      On 21 March some 20,000 people attended a meeting at the North Wall, Dublin.  It was expected that the Viceroy, Lord Clarendon would proclaim the meeting and that this measure would provoke the people to armed resistance.  Clarendon, however, did not rise to the bait - instead he prosecuted Duffy, Meagher and Mitchel for sedition.  Duffy and Meagher were found not guilty (due to the failure to adequately pack the juries) but Mitchel's trial went ahead as planned and he was sentenced to fourteen years transportation.  Mitchel confidently expected the artisans of Dublin to attempt a rescue at which the military would provoke an uprising but Smith O'Brien  and Duffy persuaded Mitchel's followers that the time was not yet ripe for insurrection.  At Mitchel's sentencing on 27 May he pointedly asked his friends which of them could he pledge to comtinue the struggle.  The scene in the courtroom was described in New Ireland (p.64) by A.M. Sullivan, who was no friend of Mitchel's extreme views:

    "As he uttered these closing words he pointed first to John Martin, then to Devin Reilly, next to Thomas Francis Meagher, and so on to the throng of associates whom he saw crowding the galleries.  A thundering cry rang through the building.  'Promise for me, Mitchel! Promise for me!' and a rush was made to embrace him..."

    After this the Young Irelanders began to organise so that they could lead an uprising against the English.  Due to the strength of the military and the police in Dublin it was decided that the rising should take place in the country.  Pikes were being made everywhere in blacksmith's forges and most farmers owned weapons.  On July 13th the Resident Magistrate in Carrick-on-Suir informed Dublin Castle that clubs in Cashel, Clonmel, Carrick, Kilsheelan, Fethard, Cill Cais and elsewhere had agreed on a meeting on Sliabh na mBan mountain.  This meeting was to be held on Sunday July 16th. 
 

    On that day the Carrick police constable was in Cill Cais, dressed in plain clothes, and he insinuated himself amongst the local club members.  He reported that the ringing of the chapel bell guided people in the dark to the spot on the mountain where the rally was to be held.  He said that he saw the 'Fenian' John O'Mahoney leading "a large assemblage" of people up the mountain at 2 a.m.  From an early hour the excitement was intense in Carrick for "Carrick Green" was the appointed rendezvous for all the clubs in the town and its environs.  Crowds poured into Carrick from the neighbouring counties of Waterford, Kilkenny and Wexford.  The slopes of the mountain were thronged as people came from every side.  The heat was intense when the clubs drew up on the "Green" under their leaders and commenced their march for the hill.  When Michael Doheny (at the head of 6,000 men) and Meagher made their appearance at around 2 p.m. it was said that there was a crowd of 50,000 within hearing distance of the speakers.  Doheny spoke for an hour and then Meagher delivered one of his impassioned speeches. When the meeting was over Meagher set out for Waterford and he was preceded all the way by the tri-colour flag of the Wolfe Tone Confederate Club of Waterford

    After Habeas Corpus had been suspended on 25 July 1848 the leaders took to the country to rouse the people to revolt.  They planned to take Kilkenny town and then spread the revolt to counties Kilkenny, Waterford and Tipperary, three counties with a record of agrarian resistance.  Meagher described the reception he got in Carrick-on-Suir, Co. Tipperary on 24 July:

    While Meagher and his friends O'Brien, MacManus and Patrick O'Donoghue awaited  the verdict they loudly sang the key verse of Charles Gavan Duffy's poem "Watch and Wait."

    In response to the usual request made by the judge to the accused before sentence of death is passed, Meagher delivered his famous Speech from the Dock.  He was sentenced to death; but the sentence was commuted to transportation to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania). The writer, poet and story-teller  John Keegan,1816-1849 wrote the following in honour of Meagher while Meagher was awaiting transportation.

           The ways of Providence are strange,
                But Providence is just at last!
                It smoothes the ocean’s wildest waves,
                And lulls the loudest mountain’s blast; 
                And he who sees the tyrant flag
                Flaunt on those old green hills of ours, 
                Will one day stretch his blood-red hand,
                And crush those withering ills of ours!

                The tyrant grips thee tightly now;
                But, well-beloved, don’t despair -
                The God that formed thy gallant soul,
                Of that rare soul will have a care;
                And Heaven that poured its richest gifts
                Upon that lofty brow of thine,
                Has registered in golden scroll,
                That Anti-Saxon vow of thine!

    Nine months after being sentenced, Meagher, Smith O'Brien, MacManus and O'Donoghue were transported in the brig Swift, sailing from Kingstown (Dún Laoghaire) on 29th July, 1849.  They reached Hobart in November. After spending some time in Australia as a "ticket of leave" prisoner and where he married a local girl who bore him a son, Meagher escaped in 1852 and fled to the United States, eventually settling in New York, where he was admitted to practice at the New York Bar and where he was active in the Irish independence movement.  He started on a round of public-speaking and his oratorical gifts were soon to place him among the celebrities of New York, féted by the best of fashionable society.  After the death of his Tasmanian wife Catherine 'Bennie' Bennett in 1854, Meagher met the woman who was to become his second wife. She was Elizabeth Townsend and she came from well known and wealthy family in Westchester County, New York.   She was twenty-six years old - Meagher was still only thirty-three.  They met at one of his lectures in New York city, were introduced and Meagher quickly became a regular guest at the Townsend mansion.  They married in November 1856.  Meagher and Elizabeth had no children but a correspondence ensued between Catherine's second son, Thomas Francis III in Waterford and his father in the USA. In the early 1870's Elizabeth sent to Waterford for Thomas Francis III and prepared him for West Point Military Academy in the hope that he would have a military career. The young man spent three years at the Academy but did not graduate. While he resembled his father to a remarkable degree in face, feature and physique he lacked application, though very bright, and his tastes were not military. After he left West Point he lived in New York for some years and was a familiar figure at Irish nationalist gatherings. He inherited his father's political opinions and became a member of teh Napper Tandy Club of Clann na Gael. He was a youmg man of fine presence and good manners but was of a retiring disposition. After some years in New York he went to California and married there. News of his death in Manila came as a surprise. Elizabeth never married again and she died of heart disease in Rye, New York, on July 6th 1906.

    When the American Civil War broke out, Meagher's eloquence proved one of the most potent recruiting forces on the Federal side.  He raised an Irish Zouave company, known as his Guards, in 1861  and joined the Union army, where his assignments included: major, 69th New York Militia (ca. April 20, 1861); brigadier general, USV (February 3, 1862); commanding 2nd ("Irish") Brigade, Sumner's Division (November 25, 1861-March 13, 1862); and commanding 2nd ("Irish") Brigade, lst Division, 2nd Corps, Army of the Potomac (March 13-June 28, June 29-July 16, August 8-September 17, September 18-December 20, 1862, and February 18-May 8, 1863).    

    He served as a field officer at lst Bull Run on July 21st 1861.  The Union army was routed but Meagher's Guards and the 69th Irish covered themselves with glory and saved the army from destruction by their gallant and repested charges in the teeth of the enemies guns.Meagher had his horse torn from under him by a rifled cannon-ball but, springing to his feet, he waved his sword and shouted, "Boys, look at that flag and remember Ireland and Fontenoy."  He was mustered out with his militia regiment on August 3, 1861. Meagher now proposed to the Federal authorities that he be allowed to form an Irish Brigade.  He was commissioned to do so and he formed it, originally, from three regiments, namely, Corcoran's old 69th Irish New York Regiment, the 88th New York Irish Volunteers and the 63rd New York Irish Volunteers.  Later, the Brigade was increased to six Regiments by the addition of the 29th and 28th Massachusetts Irish Volunteers and the the 116th Irish Pennsyvania Volunteers.  There were several Waterford men serving, under Meagher, in the Brigade - Colonel Daniel Kelly, Captain Patrick F. Clooney,  Captain Joseph Hyland,  Surgeon Laurence Reynolds, Captain Charles J. Quirk,  Lieutenant John Dillon.  This is not a complete list, just some of the officers.  The Brigade  was assigned, initially, to Sumner's Division.  Early the following year Meagher's commission as a brigadier came through.  Lee drove the Federal troops down the peninsula and, during the retreat, the Irish Brigade was called upon, time after time, to halt the Confederates in their advance.  At Gaines's Mill they held up a whole division of rebels and they held the Chichahominy bridgehead until the main Federal army had reached safety.  At Malvern Hill a Confederate general saw the Irish Brigade flag facing him and exclaimed "Here's that damned green flag again" before the Brigade fell on him and routed his men. 

He led the Irishmen in the fighting at Seven Pines and during most of the Seven Days. At Antietam he was injured in the fall of his wounded horse but was able to return to duty the following day. At Fredericksburg his command was slaughtered in the assaults on Marye's Heights and it was here that Meagher and the Brigade received their greatest tribute, that from a courageous enemy.  Robert E. Lee wrote, "Meagher rivalled Cleburne in bravery and in the affection of his soldiers.  The gallant stand which his bold Brigade made on the heights of Fredericksburg is well known.  Never were men so brave.  They ennobled their race by their splendid gallantry on that desperate occasion."  Meanwhile Meagher had become embroiled in army politics.  He was a Democrat in politics and he was highly critical of the Republican generals.

    This may have contributed to the later refusal by the authorities to grant him permission to recruit for his own ranks.  After the battle of Chancellorsville he resigned on May 14, 1863, in protest over this refusal and the proposal that the regiments of his brigade be distributed among other commands.  His resignation was rejected on December 23, 1863, and he returned to duty, holding minor commands in the Western theater. He finally resigned on May 15, 1865.   In the futile charge during the Battle of Fredricksburg, the Irish Brigade was decimated.  The Brigade was consolidated after that and Meagher resigned in protest. The reformed Irish Brigade did go on to fight at Gettysburg where it suffered heavily again. Meagher held various positions in the Union Army for the rest of the war.  He fought through the conflict with the greatest valour and distinction, and was promoted Brigadier-General. 

After the war, he was appointed acting Governor of Montana.  Desiring to establish an Irish community in that region, he was on his way to New York to make arrangements when he disappeared mysteriously from a riverboat at Fort Benton, Montana.  It is believed that the ‘Know Nothings,” whose bigotry in many guises so often tarnished American history, contrived his death, and spread the rumour that the heroic soldier fell by accident from the steamer on which he he was travelling, and was drowned in the Missouri River.  Meagher had many enemies.  He was an early supporter of Statehood and the Republican leaders feared that if Meagher were successful in pursuing statehood, he would be appointed a U.S. Senator.

    Despite his brief period in Montana, Meagher is an  important figure in Montana history. His importance is underlined by the equestrian statue that dominates the front lawn of the State Capital. When Helena was selected as the Capital the Irish people of Butte and Anaconda (the two mining towns) insisted that a memorial be built to Meagher.  Some dozen years ago some state legislators attempted to have the statue removed because, in their eyes, Meagher did not represent contemporary Montana. The people of  Butte and Anaconda reacted furiously to the move and the project was halted before it could gain any momentum.  Meagher was loved greatly by early settlers, many of whom were young Irish people looking for peace and a livelihood after the tumult of the Civil War. After Meagher's death, T.D.Sullivan wrote a poem in his honour.  The following is a verse from that poem

    In 1935 the eminent Waterford historian, Matthew Butler R.I.A.,  wrote;
"Even though the men and maids of Waterford city and Gaultier cannot visit the grave of Thomas Francis Meagher in storied Faithlegge yet they can always remember how many of those near and dear to him repose in that quiet grave, surrounded by such sylvan beauty; they can, perhaps, draw from that grave something of the sincerity, unselfishness and love of Ireland which, in face of misrepresentation, calumny, obloquy and unjust criticism, led him to take his stand in the dock at Clonmel and so earn for himself the proud title of 'the best-beloved Waterford-man of his generation.'  His calumniators have passed into oblivion; his critics have faded into obscurity; his detractors have completely disappeared; but he stands out as the embodiment of all that is noble, brave and unselfish for the youth of Ireland to follow." 

- Photo of Meagher as a soldier, courtesy of Frank McGady.