Review by New York Times Review
As Thomas Meagher waited alone in his prison cell, eight days into his 1848 trial for treason, a startling rumor reached him. The jury had deadlocked; he would not be executed after all. Ten minutes later, a second message arrived: The report was false. The sentence for the Irish revolutionary was death by hanging, after which his body would be beheaded and his corpse ripped into quarters. It didn't happen. Instead, the English commuted Meagher's sentence to life imprisonment and sent him into exile in Australia. Meagher (pronounced "Mar") was 26 years old, and his extraordinary life had only begun. Egan, a contributing Op-Ed writer for The New York Times, takes us through the story of the Irish in America with Meagher's particular journey as our guide. In 1852 Meagher fled to the United States. He landed in Manhattan and wandered through the alleys of Five Points, where, The Times told its readers, "the pigs and the Patricks lie down together." In time Meagher would form an Irish Brigade and lead those Patricks into bloody battle against the Confederacy. Twice his horse was shot from under him and he had to be dragged, helpless, from the battlefield. Meagher's life was crammed with so many unlikely adventures that a head-on train collision that killed 48 passengers earns only a single page. (Meagher had changed cars in search of a cool spot to sleep. The move saved his life.) This is what Tom Wolfe had in mind when he remarked that fiction is more difficult to write than nonfiction, because fiction has to be plausible. Egan has a gift for sweeping narrative - he moves briskly through the Great Hunger, the open-air prison that was Australia, the Civil War - and he has a journalist's eye for the telltale detail. During the potato famine, death was so common that "coffins were reused after hasty ceremonies, the bottoms cut out, the deceased dropped into the ground." This is masterly work.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [June 16, 2016]
Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Egan follows the blazingly interesting biography of a man not so much forgotten as insufficiently remembered the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction winner, Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher (2012), about photographer Edward S. Curtis with that of another, orator-soldier Thomas Francis Meagher (1823-67). The son of a wealthy Irish merchant, Meagher became the courageous public spokesman of the revolutionary, though nonmilitary, Young Ireland movement during the Great Hunger. For that he was first condemned to be drawn and quartered, then reprieved and transported, as were several of his confreres, to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), Britain's last penal colony. He escaped and reached San Francisco, where he fired up his fellow Irish immigrants for eventual return to and liberation of their homeland. He also embraced citizenship in his nation of refuge, speaking out against slavery and for the Union and organizing the Irish Brigade, which he led through many ghastly battles of the Civil War. After Appomattox, Meagher hoped to establish a New Ireland in the West and became acting governor of Montana Territory, a position that proved a death trap. Meagher lived life full-tilt, with old-fashioned honor as well as courage and dash, so inspiring Egan that the prose flashes and flares and sometimes strains grammar to accommodate the astonishing figure that he was.--Olson, Ray Copyright 2016 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Gerard Doyle does a grand job presenting Egan's dizzying tableau of the life of his restless subject, Irish revolutionary Thomas Francis Meagher (1823-1867). Meagher was condemned to death by the British but then exiled to Tasmania. He then escaped to America, where he lived in New York City and became active in Irish-American politics. He was later appointed general of the Union army's Irish Brigade. With an appealing Irish lilt to his voice, Doyle narrates Egan's book with a clear, easy delivery that draws the listener in chapter after chapter as Meagher's remarkable story plays out against history's backdrop. A Houghton Mifflin Harcourt hardcover. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Egan's biography of Irish revolutionary Thomas Francis Meagher (1823-67) illustrates a singularly Irish-American story. In outlining Meagher's life, Egan, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of the National Book Award winner The Worst Hard Time, seeks to demonstrate how Meagher's experience was emblematic of Irish immigrants' spirit and resolve. Meagher was born in a well-to-do family in Ireland but was deeply empathetic toward the plight of the Irish poor, having lived through the Great Famine in the 1840s. After a failed uprising against the English, Meagher was banished to a penal colony in Tasmania, Australia. He escaped to the United States and took up the cause of freedom, identifying with the new country's anti-British attitudes. Leading the Irish Brigade in the Civil War, Meagher fought in some of the bloodiest battles, including Bull Run in 1861. He survived the war and was appointed governor of Montana territory where he hoped to create a "New Ireland." His death by drowning in 1867 remains a mystery. VERDICT This important account is an excellent choice for all readers, especially those interested in the contributions of the Irish to U.S. history. [See Prepub Alert, 10/5/15.]-Barrie Olmstead, Sacramento P.L. © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The story of Thomas Meagher (1823-1867), an Irishman radicalized by the famine who became a hero on three continents.New York Times columnist Egan (Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis, 2012, etc.), winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, could have written multiple books about Meagher's broad successes. He was a natural-born orator, and his gift encouraged his fellow Irish in hopes of freedom sooner, rather than "in time," as per the Great Liberator, Daniel O'Connell. The author imparts the desperation of the starving families while pointing to the many wealthy Catholics and Protestants who worked to achieve liberty. During the Great Famine, England exported 1.5 billion pounds of grain as well as more beef than any other colony, while millions starved without the blighted potatoes that sustained them. After a fiery speech in Conciliation Hall and a betrayal by John Balfe, the English arrested Meagher and a handful of others for speaking out. Meagher was sent to Tasmania, and while he was not put into forced labor, he had limited contact with his fellow Irish. Discovering that the traitor Balfe had been given a land grant, he sent an anonymous series of letters to the press, exposing his perfidy. Eventually, with help from his wealthy father, he escaped. His reputation preceded him, and his welcome in America was riotous. His leadership and oration made him a great recruiter of his fellow countrymen during the Civil War. A different side of the Civil War emerges as the author describes the frustrations of war under Gen. George McClellan and the devotion of Meagher's men. Exhausted after Chancellorsville, Meagher resigned and moved to Montana with his wife, where he fought yet again against a rabid vigilance committee. A fascinating, well-told story by an author fully committed to his subject. Egan's impeccable research, uncomplicated readability, and flowing narrative reflect his deep knowledge of a difficult and complex man. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
