Thomas Francis Meagher Film
John Cusack Scouts the North for Thomas Francis Meagher Film
History Behind 3-7-77
Montana Highway Patrol
Vigilantes are an often revered part of Montana's history… Helena, the capital, even boasts its own tribute to the vigilantes with a "Vigilantes Day" including a parade and other events. ..
Read MoreAbout Thomas Francis Meagher
Meagher was born in 1823 to a prosperous merchant family in Waterford, Ireland. His rollercoaster of a life should be the envy of us all. Meagher became an Irish nationalist and campaigned for an independent Ireland, free from England. He was a rousing speaker and inspired the 1848 uprising in Ireland referred to as the New Ireland Rebellion. He was arrested and condemned to death for treason against the British crown.
His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, and he was transported to the British penal colony in Van Diemen's land, which is now Tasmania. He escaped and made it to NYC, 10,323 miles away, in 1851 and was met by adoring crowds of Irish immigrants. Among the greeters, however, was Malcolm Tierney Campbell, a British Secret Service informant. Meagher was an immediate hero among Irish immigrants and loudly proclaimed that one day he would return to Ireland and drive the British out. The British Secret Service kept close tabs on Meagher in America and, in the author's opinion, were financed Meagher's murder in 1867. Meagher joined and then parted ways with the Fenians, a secret Irish revolutionary group made up of US Army veterans who were committed to overthrowing British rule in Ireland. During Meagher's time in Montana, the Fenians made several cross-border raids into Canada in an attempt to seize the Canadian Province and use it as a platform to launch an invasion of Ireland. There was a large group of Fenians in Montana, a Canadian border state, when Meagher was Governor and it may not have been a coincidence that British Army Captain Wilfred Speer, travelling with $40,000 in gold [the equivalent in purchasing power to about $1,318,395 today] was travelling on the steamship Octavia which docked at Fort Benton on June 20, 1867, 12 days before Thomas Francis Meagher disappeared from that very same dock. Speer would not hear about Meagher's disappearance, however, because a Union soldier sentry on the Octavia, Private Barry, who also happened to be a Fenian, shot Speer in the head point blank on the deck of the Octavia just before the boat reached Fort Benton.
Why Doubt Persists
[A] very severe illness compelled me to defer to an answer to your letter, but realizing the importance of your request, I reply at my earliest convenience, though my health compels me to call the pen of a friend to my assistance. . .
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British Spies
British and Canadian officials took the threat posed by the Fenians seriously and directed that spies originally planted to monitor Confederate sympathizers in the northern United States ...
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Resisting The Truth
Why does the Montana Historical Society resist the truth regarding the death of Thomas Francis Meagher? Well, I'm glad you asked. . . .
Here's WhyUS Lynching From 1882 to 1968
4700
Total Lives Lost
3500
Killed In Former Confederate States
73
% of total Lynchings Were Of Black Men/Women
97
% of Lynchings in Montana Where Of White Men/Women
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