Thomas Meagher was a common Irishman who cheated death, survived great struggles on three continents, and rose to prominence in the United States.
In the 1830s, teenage Thomas Meagher (pronounced Mahr) left Ireland for a Jesuit school education in England. At age 15 he became a debate champion.
1843: He returned to his Irish hometown of Waterford and joined his father in speaking publicly in favor of Irish independence from England. Young Thomas became a popular orator.
British forces occupied Ireland in the 1840s and kept the locals in a form of indentured servitude. Their agriculture went to feeding the English.
1845: Blight began destroying potato crops throughout the southern and western regions, which resulted in the Great Famine. Millions of Irish people died or left their country.
1848: At age 25, Meagher joined a rebel group. The Young Ireland movement fought against the occupiers. Ultimately, though, they were no match for the British troops, and the rebels were rounded up. Meagher and his associates were sentenced to death.
Upon sentencing, Meagher gave his historic ‘Speech from the Dock’ in which he was defiant to the end.
However, Queen Victoria had a change of heart and instead banished the rebels to a life sentence at a penal colony on the other side of the world.
Meagher survived the arduous sea journey to Van Diemen’s Land, a colonized island south of Australia which is now Tasmania.
The local authorities offered him a gentleman’s proposal. He could have complete freedom on the island provided he made no attempt to escape. Meagher settled into a simple life.
1851: He took a wife, Catherine, the daughter of another British convict serving time. She became pregnant but the child did not survive.
Meagher grew dissatisfied with island life and planned his escape. He rowed out to sea to board a whaling ship bound for San Francisco.
Catherine, who was herself a free woman, made her way to Ireland where she was greeted as a hero because of her marriage to the great Thomas Meagher.
Meagher made his way across the United States to New York City where he studied law and then began his own newspaper aimed at his fellow Irish expatriates. He also returned to public speaking. When Catherine died in 1854, Meagher remarried.
1861: He opposed slavery, and at the outset of the American Civil War he joined the Union Army. He recruited men to serve under him and formed the Fighting 69th Irish Brigade. They marched off to war with a flag bearing the phrase Erin go Bragh - Ireland Forever.
Meagher and his men fought at some of the war’s most memorable sites including Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. He lost countless men but Meagher survived each battle.
The war weighed heavily on him and he finally retired his position one month after the surrender at Appomattox.
Meagher then accepted an assignment out west in the Montana Territory (it didn’t become a state until 1889) where he was named the Acting Governor. Unlike with his previous leadership roles, he became an unpopular politician.
Then Meagher mysteriously disappeared.
1867: He took a ferryboat down the Missouri River en route to collect arms for the local militia. Meagher was in poor health during the trip. Then one summer night he was believed to have fallen overboard and drowned in the river. That was only speculation, though, because his body was never found.
Was the disliked Acting Governor murdered? No one knows for certain.
The Irishman who survived so many dangerous exploits finally ran out of luck. He died at age 44.
1905: A statue of Meagher on horseback was placed outside Montana’s state capitol building where it exists to this day.
For more in-depth information about Thomas Meagher, read Timothy Egan’s excellent biography The Immortal Irishman.
The Thomas Meagher Bar, an Irish pub dedicated to the man, is currently located in downtown Missoula, Montana.
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