Thomas Francis Meagher - Early Life and Education

Early Life and Education

Meagher was educated at Catholic boarding schools. When Meagher was eleven, his family placed him in the care of the Jesuits at Clongowes Wood College in County Kildare. It was at Clongowes that he developed his skill of oratory, becoming at age 15 the youngest medalist of the Debating Society. These oratory skills would later distinguish Meagher during his years as a leading figure in Irish Nationalism. Though he gained a broad and deep education at Clongowes, as was typical, it did not include much about the history of his country or matters relating to Ireland.

After six years, Meagher left Ireland for the first time, to study in England at Stonyhurst College, a Jesuit institution in Lancashire. By the late 19th century, it was the largest Catholic college in England. Meagher's father regarded Trinity College, the only university in Ireland, as being both anti-Irish and anti-Catholic. Meagher established a reputation for developed scholarship and “rare talents.” While Meagher was at Stonyhurst, his English professors struggled to overcome his “horrible Irish brogue”; he acquired an Anglo-Irish upper-class accent that in turn grated on the ears of some of his countrymen. Despite his English accent and what some people perceived as a "somewhat affected manner", Meagher had so much eloquence as an orator as to lead his countrymen to forget his English idiosyncrasies. Meagher became a popular speaker "who had no compare" in Conciliation Hall, the meeting place of the Irish Repeal Association.

The white in the centre signifies a lasting truce between the 'Orange' and the 'Green', and I trust that beneath its folds the hands of the Irish Protestant and the Irish Catholic may be clasped in generous and heroic brotherhood.