The Astounding True Story of an Irish Revolutionary

There is only one rule when it comes to history: you will never know everything. Try as you might, there will always be huge swaths of unexplored territory and unmet figures who are mysteries to you. The trick to dealing with this inevitability is to accept it, and view it as an opportunity. The undiscovered country of history also means there will always be books out there that can offer you hours of entertainment and education. Timothy Egan’s The Immortal Irishman: The Irish Revolutionary Who Became an American Hero is one of those books. If you’ve heard the name Thomas Francis Meagher, it’s likely in relation to his role as a brigadier general with the Union Army during the Civil War. But there’s so much more to Meagher’s story, and Egan tells it brilliantly in his new book.
Timothy Egan
Egan is one of the most talented historians working today. From his Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism with The New York Times, to his National Book Award-winning study of the Dust Bowl, The Worst Hard Time, Egan has a proven talent for condensing original research and primary sources into well-paced narratives that are almost cinematic in their pacing. Egan’s ability to write histories that double as great stories makes us excited to read just about anything he publishes.
The man
Thomas Meagher is one of the most fascinating figures in United States history—not to mention Irish history. If his life weren’t so well documented, his story might be dismissed as a Hollywood fantasy: born well-to-do in Ireland, he lived through the Great Famine, emerging determined to champion the Irish people against Great Britain. Arrested for treason, he was sentenced to life imprisonment in Australia, but escaped to the United States, where he was welcomed by an Irish immigrant community struggling to find a place in an America that wasn’t exactly welcoming. Meagher went on to fight for the Union in the Civil War, leading the Irish Brigade (the “Fighting 69th”) and befriending Abraham Lincoln himself, then going on to become acting governor of the Montana Territory. A revolution, a journey across three continents, a prison escape, and military glory—Meagher’s story rivals most movies in terms of action and plot twists.

The escape
If Meagher had done nothing else with his life, his escape from a penal colony on what is today known as Tasmania would secure his reputation—and could be an entire book of its own. In a world before phones, air travel, or modern medicine, being shipped 12,000 miles from your home to serve on a chain gang in an unfamiliar, untamed land must have been harrowing. To not only escape, but to escape and successfully make it another 10,000 miles to New York City is incredible. The chapters detailing Meagher’s prison break are reason enough to pick up the book..
The legacy
Meagher’s legacy hasn’t received the attention it deserves. Even if you’re not moved by the bare facts of his life—imprisonment, escape, and battlefield glory–the impact he had on American life can’t be denied. This is a man who helped move the Irish into the mainstream of American society by convincing his fellow countrymen to serve their new country in the Civil War, leading an Irish regiment that has become synonymous with bravery and service (and which still uses the rallying cry Meagher introduced, Garryowen in glory!). A man who was one of the earliest proponents of granting citizenship to black soldiers serving the Union. A man who left his mark on the molten wilderness of the American West. His is a story that all Americans should know.
The mystery
Egan opens with speculation about Meagher’s death, turning this epic examination of a historical figure into a thrilling mystery. At the age of 43, Meagher fell from a steamboat into the Missouri River and drowned, and Egan explores the possibility that he was, in fact, murdered by frontiersmen in Montana who resented his efforts to bring law and order into the territory. In fact, decades later a man claimed he’d been paid to kill Meagher, although his story was never confirmed. We can’t wait to discover what Egan has uncovered. Even if he can’t convince us it was murder, it adds a fascinating wrinkle to an unbelievable life story.