The Immortal Irishman
The Irish Revolutionary Who Became An American Hero
eBook
- 2016
"From the National Book Award-winning and best-selling author Timothy Egan comes the epic story of one of the most fascinating and colorful Irishman in nineteenth-century America. The Irish-American story, with all its twists and triumphs, is told through the improbable life of one man. A dashing young orator during the Great Famine of the 1840s, in which a million of his Irish countrymen died, Thomas Francis Meagher led a failed uprising against British rule, for which he was banished to a Tasmanian prison colony. He escaped and six months later was heralded in the streets of New York--the revolutionary hero, back from the dead, at the dawn of the great Irish immigration to America. Meagher's rebirth in America included his leading the newly formed Irish Brigade from New York in many of the fiercest battles of the Civil War--Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg. Twice shot from his horse while leading charges, left for dead in the Virginia mud, Meagher's dream was that Irish-American troops, seasoned by war, would return to Ireland and liberate their homeland from British rule. The hero's last chapter, as territorial governor of Montana, was a romantic quest for a true home in the far frontier. His death has long been a mystery to which Egan brings haunting, colorful new evidence"-- Provided by publisher.
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Add a CommentA million people in Ireland died of starvation while England did basically nothing to help them, but blamed the victims. This story is almost too painful to read, especially now that millions of Syrians are in refugee camps and so many countries have turned their backs on their plight. I'm not sure I can keep reading.
Egan's book traces the life of idealistic Thomas Meagher and his life spent on three continents—in Ireland, Tasmania, and the United States—during tumultuous times in the 1800s.
Egan took inspiration from a statue on the grounds of Montana's capital building and explored the life of this remarkable Irishman. It’s quite a story. Well worth the reading.