Having blogged about Thomas D’Arcy McGee, it seems proper to mention Thomas F Meagher, if only because they were contempories who died within a very short time of each other.
Meagher was born in Waterford and was a member of the Young Ireland Movement. He is credited with designing the Irish National Flag although his original design (1848) had the colours in the reverse order….ie Orange, White and Green. It of course remained unofficial until Independence 1922…but even within Irish Nationalist circles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries it was secondary to the Green Flag/Gold Harp. The Meagher Flag ….based on the French tricolour was as much “republican” as “nationalist”.
Meagher was sentenced to be hanged drawn and quartered for his part in the 1848 Rebellion but this was commuted to Transporation to Van Diemens Land/Tasmania. From there he made his way to New York City and became a leading figure in the Irish-American community. He remained an Irish nationalist.
Although he did not actually organise the Irish Brigade in the Union Army (American Civil War) he became the Brigades Commanding Officer.
After the Civil War, he became Governor of the Montana Territory.
Yet his death in 1867 remains a mystery. There was trouble with the Sioux and he was involved in negotiations between Republicans and Democrats. And he was believed by British and Canadian authorities to be involved in Irish nationalism a a time when many of Meagher’s former comrades in the Union were involved in Fenian Raids into Canada.
His body was never found…..the official version is that he fell overboard from a boat into the Missouri River at Fort Benton. His body was never found.
His Irish Brigade comrades certainly believed he was assassinated .By post Civil War factions? By British-Canadians?
Or perhaps his body WAS found. Some years later a bullet-ridden body was found ….seemingly well-preserved in a shallow grave beside the Missouri River. It was bought by a Travelling Freak Show and displayed as the body of a gunfighter and outlaw from the American West. The body later ended up in Australia. Was it Thomas F Meagher?
Keeping An Eye On the Czar of Russia 
Mr Fitz,
Did you take my advice and read Redemption Falls by Joe O’Connor yet?
It closely resembles Meaghers life (Credited by Joe) and vividly brings the period to life.
No not yet……But I will……eventually.
I think everyone has a book they feel they should have written.
Do read it, I want to quiz you on the contents 🙂
BD, I have listened to it as an Audio book, the boy Joe has some imagination on him – some of the most sadistic passges i have ‘read’. Sometimes think he just overdoes it, almost everything is so remarkable it somwehat undermines its authenticty ( jaysus that sounds pretentious).
Thats an interesting interpretation Sammy. I don’t like the idea of an audiobook I have to say, as it’s a bit like seeing the movie before reading the book. It is an interpretation rather than your own imagination doing the work.
It didn’t strike me as particularly sadistic but maybe that’s me! I thought it was a very perceptive take on Human nature in the most difficult of circumstances. And a rattling good read too ……
re. “t didn’t strike me as particularly sadistic ”
e.g. what about tthe bit where the father was forced to torture the son to death or vice versa ?
I’ve always found Thomas Meagher a particularly fascinating character, not least for the mysterious manner of his death. There’s a great novel or historical thriller there somewhere. He’s certainly the more acceptable face of the Young Irelanders in the US than poor old John Mitchel, even though the latter was initially the greater and more influential thinker. Meagher was a man of action. Yet his principled stand against slavery probably puts him ahead. At least in modern eyes.
That said, I detest the tricolour. Give me An Gal Gréine, the Sunburst flag, any day. Say what you want about the Butcher’s Apron but at least, aesthetically, it is distinctive and now iconic. Could you say the same about that green, white and orange rag? Is that Ireland or the Ivory Coast or Italy?
The Gal Gréine is a thing of beauty 😉
Well thats the interesting thing. Mitchel a racist, McGee a convert to British Canada, Meagher the abolitionist in Montana.
Im not addicted to the National Flag. In a new Ireland a new Flag seems reasonable but its as good as it gets. 😉