In Depth in County Waterford

Local Hero: Thomas Francis Meagher

The Granville Hotel ★★ on Waterford Quay has another claim to fame—as the birthplace of the colorful 19th-century politico Thomas Francis Meagher.

Twice elected mayor of Waterford (the city’s first Catholic mayor since the 16th century), Meagher was arrested for treason in 1848 after joining an anti-British rebellion. His death sentence, however, was commuted to exile in Australia—from where he eventually escaped. Fleeing to America, wily Meagher resurfaced in the Civil War as a senior Union officer.

By 1867, he had become governor of the Montana Territory, only to die suddenly, falling from a steamboat into the Missouri River. Or was he pushed? A rumor had it that he was assassinated in retaliation for his military campaigns against Native American tribes.