I knew a little about Thomas Francis Meagher before I picked up this book on the recommendation of my sister. I'd stayed in the Granville Hotel and read the plaque there; the building was once Meagher's home where he was born in Waterford. I'm also a fan of the band Solas who put out a great album called Shamrock City about the Irish in Montana. But I knew little about the 1848 rebellion and decided to read this to find out more.
I came away a bit disillusioned. The author does a fine job in detailing Meagher's life using letters, newspaper articles, and other original material. Meagher and the Young Irelanders come across as spoiled rich men more interested in oratory and politics than the suffering of their fellow Irish in the famine. The sentence of transportation to New Zealand contrasts sharply with the hanging sentences of Henry Joy McCracken and Theobald Wolf Tone, or the later deaths in the 1916 uprising.
Meagher's escape to America again compares poorly to the many others who died or were forever exiled to Australia and New England.
His exploits in the Civil War were often personally brave, but it's hard to forgive his recruitment of Irish immigrants to be butchered on the battlefield since it appeared to me to be for his own aggrandizement. Maybe I'm being too hard on Meagher, but aside from his oratory, I find it hard to decide what made his life noteworthy. His later appointment in Montana was marred by his drinking and poverty. The biggest reason he seems to be remembered is the mystery of his death.
Mr. Wylie has done a fine job documenting this life and it's not his fault I didn't care much for Meagher or find his life intriguing. ( )