Roman Catholic
citizen at Waterford. Mr. Meagher was the youngest of all the Young
Ireland leaders.

He had been educated at the Jesuit College, Stonyhurst, Lancashire,
where it would appear that one principle undermined another in his
education; for while he came forth a Roman Catholic politician and a
patriot, he found that the consistent profession of the one came into
such frequent collision with the other, that his honest and manly mind
could not reconcile them, and, as some regarded it, he sacrificed his
creed to his country. Sir Jonah Barrington represents the Roman Catholic
leaders of his day as sacrificing their country to their church.
Thomas Meagher certainly appeared to perform the converse of this.
His enunciations of religious opinion were boldly liberal, and utterly
incompatible with the ascendancy of his own or any other church. In this
respect, as, indeed, in every other, he preserved throughout his course
a most laudable consistency. He probably comprehended the principles of
civil and religious liberty better than any other member of the Young
Ireland confederacy. Young Meagher was full of ardour for the cause of
repeal. Like Davis and Smith O'Brien (to both of whom he was attached
by the tenderest friendship), he believed it to be the salvation of his
country. His soul was inflamed with love of her, and he consecrated
his genius and his life to her resuscitation by the modes which
alone appeared to him calculated to restore her from political death.
Intellectually, Mr. Meagher was superior to any other leader of the
party. Davis had neither the compass nor versatility of Meagher, who
was the only finished orator of the remarkable group of men whom he
intellectually outshone. Some of his orations are as chaste and
fervent as Emmet's, as rich and varied as Curran's, as intellectual
as Grattan's, as logical as Flood's, and as graceful and eloquent as
Shiel's. There are few specimens of political oratory in the English
language which rival some of the speeches of this young tribune. He was
almost as gifted with his pen as with his tongue. His letters abound
with pathos, and poetry of thought and feeling; his descriptions
are graphic and lifeful; his analysis of character accurate and
discriminating; his aspirations noble and pure. There was a pleasing
fascination in his oratory and writing which never passed away. One can
hardly think of his sad story without remembering also the simile of his
national