On This Day: Thomas Francis Meagher, the greatest Irishman in American history, was born

Today, August 3, we commemorate the birthday of Thomas Francis Meagher, one of Ireland’s most consequential figures in both nationalist and American history. Born in Waterford in 1823, Meagher became a fiery Young Ireland agitator, famously introducing the green‑white‑orange tricolor as a symbol of unity. There have been some excellent books on 19th-century Irish America including Terry George’s seminal work on John Devoy and Peter Quinn’s fictional, but deeply revealing, “Banished Children of Eve.” Subscribe to IrishCentralBut this book on Brigadier General Thomas Francis Meagher is of a different category again. Egan’s take on Irish American history gives this book a breadth and significance that would be very hard to match.