Family
Thomas Francis Meagher was born in what is now The Granville Hotel on the Quay in Waterford City, Ireland and from the age of two lived at Number 19, The Mall (a short distance from his birthplace). His father, Thomas Meagher (1796–1874), was a wealthy merchant who had retired to enter politics. He was twice elected Mayor of the City, which he also represented in Parliament from August 1847 to March 1857. He had lived in the city since he was a young man.
The senior Meagher was born in St John's, Newfoundland, where his father, also Thomas (1763–1837), had emigrated from County Tipperary just before the turn of the 18th century. From his life as a farmer, the grandfather Meagher became a trader, and advanced to merchant, and shipowner, in the only British colony where the Irish constituted a majority of the population. It was here that the senior Thomas Meagher married Mary, née Crotty, and established a prosperous trade between St. John's and Waterford. Later, the grandfather placed his eldest son Thomas in Waterford to represent their business interests. With his move to Waterford, the Meagher family had come full circle, returning to Ireland to prosper. The son Thomas became a successful merchant in Waterford, whose economic success was followed by political office.
Thomas Francis Meagher's mother, Alicia Quan (1798–1827), was the second eldest daughter of Thomas Quan and Alicia Forristall. She died when Meagher was three and a half years old. Meagher had four siblings; a brother and three sisters. Of his siblings, only his older sister Christine Mary lived past childhood.
Read more about this topic: Thomas Francis Meagher
Famous quotes containing the word family:
“If you are a genius and unsuccessful, everybody treats you as if you were a genius, but when you come to be successful, when you commence to earn money, when you are really successful, then your family and everybody no longer treats you like a genius, they treat you like a man who has become successful.”
—Pablo Picasso (18811973)
“No wealth can buy the requisite leisure, freedom, and independence which are the capital in this profession. It comes only by the grace of God. It requires a direct dispensation from Heaven to become a walker. You must be born into the family of the Walkers. Ambulator nascitur, non fit.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)
“Nor does the family even move about together,
But every son would have his motor cycle,
And daughters ride away on casual pillions.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)