During March 2023 we presented a blog on the Irish who featured in the US Civil War (1861-1865), through County Longford based author, Aidan O’Hara;
A Damn Yankee, Am I? Thanks!
One of those who featured in Aidan’s work of 2022; Thomas Francis Meagher (1823-1867) is the subject of this month’s blog.
Meagher was born in Waterford and was part of a small group of Young Irelanders’ who began an Irish rebellion at Ballingarry, County Tipperary, July 1848. While staying within Richmond prison, Dublin Meagher presented this Lithograph to Sir Colman O’Loghlen (1819-1877).
Details of Lithograph dedicated to Sir Colman O’Loghlen:
Artist: Edw Hayes, 1848.
Title: Thomas Francis Meagher, Member of the Irish Confederation. October 23rd, 1848.
Dedication: To Sir Colman O’Loghlen from his grateful client and sincere friend,
(Signed) Thomas Francis Meagher; Richmond Prison (Dublin) June 30th, 1849.
Printing: J H Lynch, Lithog. Dublin. Printed and Published by Thos. Cranfield, Grafton Street (Dublin). M & N Hanhart. Lith Printers London.
Dimensions: about 830mm by 670mm.
Sir Colman O’Loghlen was legal counsel for Meagher at his trial for treason, and he was also instrumental in the commutation of Meagher’s death sentence, to transportation for life to Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania), Australia.
Meagher later escaped from Tasmania to New York. He became Brigadier General in the Union Army and, later, acting Governor of Montana, USA.
He is also very much associated with The 69th Irish Brigade (New York) which displayed the Gaelic motto – Fág-an-Bealach / Make Way.
Other leaders of The Young Ireland movement included; Gavin Duffy, John Mitchel, Jane Wilde and William Smith O’Brien.
Both William Smith O’Brien and Thomas Francis Meagher visited Paris during July 1848, which was also experiencing political upheaval. They returned from Paris later that month to begin the Irish rebellion, accompanied by the ‘French’ flag that became The Irish Tricolour, which celebrates 175 years of existence during 2023.
Acknowledgements:
- Michael O’Loghlen, Victoria, Australia
- Brendan O’Loghlin, Canberra, ACT, Australia
- Imelda Hussey, Athenry Public Library
- Adam Creaven, Galway city
- Dictionary of Irish Biography (DIB)
- Ireland’s Own magazine – 8th September 2023
Clan Ólochlainn 
This connection of TF Meagher to Sir Colman O’Loghlen means a lot to me. I’ve studied the irish Brigade for many years. Meagher is a pivotal character in US history, drawing the Irish into the Yankee army with the hope of thereby earning full acceptance as citizens of the USA. For a soldier’s inside account of the Irish Brigade in the Civil War I highly recommend “My-Life-Irish-Brigade,” the memoirs of Pvt.William McCarter, aide to General Meagher, who was wounded at Fredericksburg, Va., but survived. Another source for the Irish brigade and Meagher is Thomas Keneally’s ‘The Great Shame.”
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Link to “My Life in the Irish Brigade,” https://www.amazon.com/My-Life-Irish-Brigade-Pennsylvania/dp/0306813238
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In August 1851, T F Meagher, then living in a “little wooden cottage” which he built himself close to the shore of Lake Sorell, Ross, Van Diemen’s Land, wrote to Sir Colman O’Loghlen.
Meagher’s 17 page letter describes the incarceration and circumstances of his fellow prisoners, W S O’Brien, O’Donohue, John Mitchel, John Martin, O’Doherty, MacManus (who had escaped about 27 February) and, of course, himself. He mentions Tom Egan, “a county Kilkenny lad who was sent out here for having a Riband pass in his pocket”.
Copies of this and other relevant letters and materials are held in the National Library of Ireland and in the State Library of Tasmania.
Meagher, a famous son of Waterford, is well remembered there and (as you say) for his activities in the Irish Brigade, New York.
M O’Loghlen
Australia.
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Our thanks to both Michael and John for adding to our knowledge of T F Meagher who was pivotal towards the acceptance of Irish emigrants, as regular citizens of the USA, during those dark-decades following The Famine of the late 1840’s.
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