The Irish Revolutionary Who Became an American Hero

Excellent biography that also tells the history of Ireland during the Great Potato Famine. Also Thomas Meagher's leadership with the fighting Irish 69th brigaded tells of the hardships that civil war soldiers faced.

A well researched book about an Irish revolutionary who became a general in the American Civil war and a governor of Montana. Thomas Francis Meagher was born in Waterford Ireland in his family home, later to become the Granville Hotel. When I stayed there I noticed his picture in their lobby, and became curious about him...he lead quite a life!

A very readable story of a remarkable individual who shaped 19th century history in two nations.

I would specially recommend to those interested in the influence of Irish immigrants in American history.

Timothy Egan did a wonderful job at not only telling the story of an amazing Irishman but also telling a very readable history of Ireland. I am sure that I now have a much better understanding of the Irish English conflict and much less respect for the British. Well done!

Timothy Egan has written a real page-turner! His subject: Frances Meagher, was one of the giants of history. He electrified crowds on three continents with his eloquence and idealism. I look forward to reading another book by this writer.

I am writing memoirs of my Michael Whelan,(B. 1716), and Bridgette Fitzpatrick family migration from County Cork Ireland to Maryland about 1758. Timothy Egan's book is of great historical value as I write of their migration.
JGW,Jr. MD FACR

Excellent book. The book had a good account of the plight of the Irish people in the mid -19th century in Ireland, Australia and the United States. The book constantly kept my interest. I couldn't wait to turn to the next page.

The most gripping description of the "Great Hunger" I've ever read. It's no wonder my ancestors fled Ulster for America. To be Irish is to transcend any religion or folklore. Egan writes eloquently about the struggles of the Irishman throughout the centuries.

As a native Montanan I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the life of the governor of the Montana Territory. I did not know much about his background, so I learned alot about my state's early history.
Penny

A marvelous well researched historically significant biography of a man that embodied Ireland and the expanding United States of America and ALL of the growing pains of the two nations. Much has changed and regrettably much has remained the same. A must read!!!!

Great read about early Montana Territory history. I grew up in west central Montana, and I do not recall learning about this in my Montana history courses. Meagher's name was probably mentioned, but the entire story is so interesting. Highly recommended!

In prose of unusual grace, Timothy Egan tells the tale of The Immortal Irishman: The Irish Revolutionary Who Became an American Hero. His subject is Thomas Francis Meagher (pronounced “Mar”). At the age of forty-three, he vanished mysteriously, a victim of drowning in the Missouri River in Montana (probably at the hands of a political rival). Somehow, before that tragic end, Meagher managed to distinguish himself as a leader of the revolutionary Young Irelanders in the rebellion of 1848, be convicted and sentenced to death by hanging, serve two years as a convict exiled to Tasmania before escaping, found and run a newspaper in New York City, travel the U.S. as a highly paid orator, marry the beautiful daughter of one of New York’s richest men, lead the heroic Irish Brigade in the Union Army in the Civil War, and serve as Governor of the Montana Territory. The phrase “larger than life” could have been first written to describe him. Both as biography, and as a case study of Irish immigration in America, The Immortal Irishman is a saga no lover of history could possibly ignore. He was, as Egan describes him, “the greatest Irish American of his day.”

How England turned Ireland into a nation of rebels

It’s impossible to understand the story of Thomas Francis Meagher without some knowledge of the almost unimaginably cruel treatment he and his countrymen had suffered at the hands of the English for 800 years. (No sooner had the Normans conquered England than William the Conqueror’s son, Henry, invaded Ireland.) From the start, the Irish resisted being colonized. For several centuries, large swaths of Irish land remained free of English domination. But as England rose to global prominence and became the sole global superpower of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, English armed forces made short shrift of Irish resistance. The cruelty of English rule is difficult for us to fathom today, and it rose to a crescendo in the 1840s when the potato crop failed for several years in succession. The English Parliament, in thrall to the doctrine of laissez faire, steadfastly refused to send famine relief, year after year, as the bodies piled up. In fact, the Irish countryside was dominated by vast farms owned by absentee English landlords and produced voluminous crops of corn, wheat, and barley, all of it shipped to feed England or be sold at export as the Irish faded away from hunger. Between deaths from famine and emigration, the Irish population shrank during the last years of the 1840s by approximately one-quarter, from eight million to six. There had been emigration from the island for many years, but the Great Famine accelerated a steady stream into a flood. This was the legacy of English rule that led Meager and hundreds of other courageous Irishmen to rise up in revolt so many times over the centuries.

The “Black Irish” were yesterday’s Muslim immigrants

Americans are notorious around the world for our ignorance of history. In today’s turbulent political context, it would be wise to look backwards to the immigrant experience in centuries past. It’s a cliche, of course, that we’re all immigrants — even the “Native” Americans who moved to the New World from Asia more than 12,000 years ago. However, in modern history, the country’s population has grown markedly in four broad waves of immigration: in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as the slave trade brought millions of Africans to suffer in servitude, principally in the South; in the mid-nineteenth century, with an influx of Irish fleeing the potato famine and German-speaking Central Europeans fleeing the revolutionary upheavals of 1848; in the closing years of the nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth, notably with Jews escaping the pogroms of Eastern Europe and Italians fleeing poverty in Southern Italy; and, in recent decades, Mexicans, Central Americans, and both Eastern and Southern Asians. (The Muslims who figure so prominently in today’s political debates represent a mere trickle compared to all these other populations.) Throughout these intense and overlapping waves of immigrants ethnic and racial conflict has been common — but, outside of slavery, none has ever been more intense than that surrounding the millions of Irish who emigrated to America in the final decades of the nineteenth century.

During most of that century, the Irish were viewed much as intolerant Americans view Muslim immigrants today, with contempt and abject fear. The “Black Irish,” as they were known, were regarded as the dregs of society, worthy only of the most menial labor. In the mid-nineteenth century, a virulently anti-Catholic and anti-Irish political movement named The Native American Party but styled as the “Know Nothings” gained millions of adherents. As Egan reports, “In 1854, the Know-Nothings took all eleven congressional seats in Massachusetts, swept the Bay State legislature, captured nearly half of New York’s delegation and won six governorships. . . By the end of 1855, the Know-Nothings were the second-largest political party in the nation . . .” Fortunately, the movement faded as Civil War, with its larger preoccupations, intruded.

Irish immigrants responded to the racism and discrimination with racist action of their own, treating African-Americans much as they themselves were being treated. On many occasions, race riots broke out, their ranks almost invariably swelled by poor Irishmen. Hundreds of Blacks died at their hands.

Thomas Francis Meagher escaped from the prison colony of Tasmania and made his way to the United States in 1852. His arrival was greeted with delirium by Irish communities across the country who revered him as a hero of the Revolt of 1848. Immigrant though he was, however, Meagher, though then poor, was no typical immigrant. He had been raised in luxury in the ancient town of Waterford by one of the richest men in Ireland and educated (against his will) in England. He was said to speak five languages and possess an unmatched memory for poetry, which he could quote on command in front of huge audiences. Though he regarded himself as an inept writer, Meagher was one of the most brilliant orators of his day, at a time when oratory was the highest form of entertainment. After a short time, he made a good living giving speeches.

Meager at war

Meager was agnostic on the question of slavery that roiled America during his first decade in the country. But when the Civil War broke out, he soon rallied to the Union. He gained fame as the brilliant recruiter who persuaded thousands of Irishmen to enlist. Not long afterward, Meagher, only second-in-command at first, gained a commission first as a captain and eventually as a brigadier general as he led his troops into the thick of some of the bloodiest battles in that bloodiest of wars. The troops Meager commanded came to be known as the Irish Brigade. On several occasions, they saved the day when the Union’s defeat appeared imminent. Even Robert E. Lee spoke of their fighting spirit. The brigade became famous through newspaper reports of their courage. Sadly, the flip side of that courage was the casualty count, which was the second-highest of any unit in the Union Army. Meager had started with 3,000 men. He mustered out with 250.

Biographies are written about exceptional people. Thomas Francis Meager was an obvious choice — and Timothy Egan has done him justice in a book that is beautifully written and a compelling read.

About the author

Timothy Egan won the National Book Award for an earlier book, The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl. As a reporter for the New York Times, he also contributed to a series of articles on race in America that won a Pulitzer Prize. The Immortal Irishman is his eighth nonfiction book.

Like viewing a detailed oil painting of the entire mid-nineteenth century. Masterfully researched - enthralling for the first two-thirds. Then Egan keeps driving home the sentimentality of the subject's life. Reminding us again and again of the pathos of his story. It gets tiresome.

As if what Meaghan accomplished wasn't enough. Yes, that is how Meaghan felt, his writings say as much. Kind of typically, Irish, in being morose after living the life that was by most measures extraordinary. And I'm Irish so I can make that generalization. Sounds like I am blaming the author for the subject's self-pity. But, it isn't necessary to underscore Meaghan's self-pity with page after page of reprising the sad details of missed opportunities and estrangement from his Irish revolutionary pals.

Still the first two thirds, recreating New York city, Five Corners, the Civil War - very entertaining so I am giving it four stars.

This is an excellent book about a fascinating human being during a fascinating, but brutal time in history. Egan's writing style puts you right smack next to Thomas Francis Meagher on his journey in Ireland and from the Emerald Isle to Tasmania, and to the U.S. in New York City, throughout the Civil War, and finally into the Montana Territory. Egan's narration of the Civil War and Meagher's role in it makes the reader feel right there in the midst of the terror that went on between brothers and countrymen killing each other. His writing is highly graphic and he spares nothing in his description of the destruction of human beings in the Civil War. While not for the faint of heart, the book is highly informative and very detailed in the description of Meagher's life and role in trying to free Ireland and fight for the U.S. This work is a biography not only about one Irishman but about the Irish as a people devastated by the Great Hunger and English rule first and then devastated by the tragedy of the Civil War in which the Irish played a significant role. Egan is not bashful about detailing the mistreatment of the Irish in their native land as well as their adopted country. In the last analysis, this work is about a good man trying to do good things, and the hurdles that he faces in that mission. It is well worth the read.