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E-mailThe Legendary Irish General
IF they made a movie of Thomas Francis Meagher's life, you'd probably say it was too far fetched. Irish patriot, American Civil War general, New York newspaper editor and acting governor of the American frontier, he lived an adventure packed existence criss-crossing the world, living hard and finally dying under suspicious circumstances.
It was Meagher's fortune - or misfortune - that his life took place against two of the most wrenching backdrops in Irish
and American history. Nowadays you don't meet such men, and such journeys are no longer possible.
Like many accomplished Irishmen of his era, there's a distinct lack of consensus regarding Meagher's character and achievements. Some claim he was a hero, others say he was merely a showboat, or a bloated drunk.
But anyone who studies his life as closely as Montana born author Paul R. Wylie has in his superb new biography The Irish General (University of Oklahoma Press) can't help falling under his spell. Handsome, aristocratic, Jesuit trained and a powerful orator, Meagher had a meteoric career and a colorful enigmatic life that still fascinates.
"I really didn't
know anything about Meagher's history until I took a trip to Belfast in 1994 and got interested in the Irish Troubles. The more I studied Irish history the more I encountered Thomas Francis Meagher's name. Before I knew it I was writing this book," Wylie said during an interview with the Irish Voice.
Meagher was educated at Clongowes in Ireland and then at Stonyhurst College in England, and upon graduation he returned to Dublin where he quickly fell in with the editors of The Nation, an influential Nationalist publication.
Shortly thereafter he was giving fiery speeches advocating the use of violence to achieve political ends in Ireland. Giving the era he lived in, his militant streak was hardly surprising - the country was passing through the darkest years of the Famine - and the manifest political failure of British colonialism seemed to offer no alternative but revolt.
"Meagher's speech was one of the first in modern Irish history that called for the use of arms against the British. He became an ardent revolutionary - one of many at the time - but he had no military training," says Wylie.
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