Meagher, Thomas Francis (1823-1867)

Irish nationalist, born in County Waterford, the son of a Waterford merchant. Meagher became a founder member of the Irish Confederation and served as a member of its war council; he is said to have proposed the tricolour as the Irish national flag. Meagher was condemned to death for his revolutionary propaganda during the 1848 Young Ireland rebellion, but the sentence was commuted to transportation to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania). In 1852 he escaped to the USA where, on the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, he commanded the pro-Union Irish brigade for the Federals.

Meagher was educated at Clongowes and Stoneyhurst College. He joined the Repeal Association but left in 1846 after attacking Daniel O'Connell's constitutional approach to nationalism, for which he was named ‘Meagher of the Sword’. In 1848 he unsuccessfully contested the Waterford by-election.

On his arrival in the USA Meagher became a journalist in New York. Following the civil war, he was appointed temporary governor of Montana territory where he drowned in 1867.