In the Irish Uprising of 1848, nine men were captured, tried and convicted of treason against Her Majesty, Queen Victoria. All were sentenced to death. The condemned men were:
Patrick Donahue
Charles Duffy
Michael Ireland
Morris Lyene
Thomas McGee
Terence McManus
Thomas Meagher
John Mitchell
Richard O’Gorman
Passionate protests from all over the world persuaded Queen Victoria to commute the death sentences. The men were banished to Australia – as remote and full of prisoners as Russian Siberia.
Years passed. In 1874 Queen Victoria learned that a Sir Charles Duffy who had been elected Prime Minister of Australia was the same Charles Duffy who had been banished 26 years earlier. She asked what had become of the other eight convicts. She learned that:
Patrick Donahue became Brigadier General in the United States Army.
Morris Lyene became Attorney General for Australia.
Michael Ireland succeeded Lyene as Attorney General.
Thomas McGee became Minister of Agriculture for Canada.
Terence McManus became a Brigadier General in the United States Army.
Thomas Meagher was elected Governor of Montana.
John Mitchell became a prominent New York politician and his son, John Purroy Mitchell, a famous mayor of New York City.
Richard O’Gorman became Governor General of Newfoundland.
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“If our democracy is to flourish, it must have criticism; if our government is to function it must have dissent.” Henry Steele Commager.
What are you, some kind of OUTLAW?
Yes, thanks for asking. In some societies, yes.
Really? Good on ya then.
Nine Irish convicts sent to Australia, but I’ll bet she didn’t launch 1000 ships..
One of these days we will have a list of the names of 9 Jihadis exiled from Gitmo. The list will conclude by showing how many innocent people died in their suicide explosions.
I remember a Playboy letter from some sailors, years back.
They’d decided that the millihelen — defined as a face that would launch one ship — was a better unit for everyday use. The scale included negative values (i.e., how many ships you’d be willing to scuttle to avoid contact with the woman in question).
“Yeah, I remember when the towers first went topless.”
I denounce myself for this.
To be fair, though, Vicky Saxe-Coburg-Gotha wasn’t half-bad when she was young. Ravishing, by the standards of British royalty.
So…they all went out and got government jobs.
Meagher was also a BGEN in the Federal Army during the Civil War and commanded the famous Irish Brigade for awhile. He was alleged to be drunk at Antietam, where he was injured by falling off his horse. Nevertheless, he became Secretary and Acting Governor for Montana Territory in 1865-66. He died in 1867 under “mysterious circumstances” by falling overboard from a riverboat during a drinking party, body never recovered…
Nobody’s perfect.
He was alleged to be drunk at Antietam, where he was injured by falling off his horse.
Given the political considerations that went into forming the Irish Brigade and their actual performance at Bloody Lane I can’t think of a single offense that would have threatened his military career. He could have gone into battle screwing a chicken and it wouldn’t have cost him a thing.
Well, except a good meal.
Greetings:
That Richard O’Gorman must have really pissed someone off.
A society that gets rid of all its troublemakers goes downhill.
Robert A. Heinlein
hmmm…I thought Terence McManus became a somewhat lame blogger and comments section gadfly. Who knew?
[…] Nine Irish Convicts [Dan Collins, from Enoch Root] […]
After that they opened up a pub at the New York, New York in Las Vegas.
True story.
Well, except a good meal.
You missed the cookbook thread, didn’t you?
Eh. Great story but it’s so great, I suspect glurge. Duffy, for instance, was a real Irish nationalist who went on to be a real Aussie politician, but his life appears to have been missing transportation (he went to Oz on his own in ’55) and a treason verdict:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/173135/Sir-Charles-Gavan-Duffy
Although this down-under site says he was tried five times, and the jury was hung, so he wasn’t:
http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/speaker/former/duffy.htm
I’d check Snopes but they were so dishonest during the election I’ve given them up. Their site is loaded with pop-up spam anyway.
It does look like these guys have already busted some of the other myths here:
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/CoTipperary/2002-11/1038662098
Ah, but can’t an Irishman, of all people, just have a good story? In the day of the net, I guess not. On the other hand, a half-Kenyan might.
It gets better. Here is the whole thread from the ancestry hobbits about an earlier circulation of this exact tall tale.
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/CoTipperary/2002-11/1038588295
The original source of this BS: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Yes, that Kennedy, Chavez’s pal.