Thomas Francis Meagher Quotes

Judged by the law of England, I know this crime entails upon me the penalty of death; but the history of Ireland explains that crime and justifies it.

Jacobite rebellious spirit is so rooted in the nation’s mind that this generation must be pretty well wore out before this country will be quiet.

We French are colonized by the cruelest master of all. We are colonized by our past.

The Irish light as been extinguished by the foulest means that sword and tyranny ever practiced …. Any attempt to rekindle it is to be treated as sedition.

THE IRISH PEOPLE TO THE WORLD History bears testimony to the intensity of our sufferings …. Our war is against the aristocratic locusts, whether English or Irish, who have eaten the verdure of our fields—against the aristocratic leeches who drain alike our blood and theirs. Republicans of the entire world, our cause is your cause…. Avenge yourselves…. Herewith we proclaim the Irish Republic

Teaching the history of the British Empire links in with that of the world: for better and for worse, the Empire made us what we are, forming our national identity. A country that does not understand its own history is unlikely to respect that of others.

The white man made the mistake of letting me read his history books. He made the mistake of teaching me that Patrick Henry was a patriot and George Washington - wasn't nothing non-violent about old Pat or George Washington.

Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy.

We decry violence all the time in this country, but look at our history. We were born in a violent revolution, and we've been in wars ever since. We're not a pacific people.

To quell all nations - to dethrone all Kings, and plant the Tree of Liberty in our Irish land.

Ireland is a place where conditions are never normal—where class is distorted by race and an alien aristocracy.

No man ought to be condemned for exhorting people to pursue justice in a certain line, though he may foresee that in the pursuit of that justice the opposition given to those who are proceeding in a just course may produce collision, and that collision lead to the commission of crime; but our duty, as I conceive, is to seek for the injustice, and there to impute the crime… It is to that injustice, and not to those who pursue a just course for the attainment of a right end, that the guilt is to be ascribed.

The great object of my life has been the independence of my country; for that I have sacrificed everything that is most dear to man…. The connection with England has been her bane.

The English treatment of the Irish was appalling. It was absolutely appalling.

Roll back the clock, and every possession of every great country started with a crime.

If you look at the history of the U.S., we were an empire long before we were a nation.

The history of Israel-Palestine conflict cannot be understood without its underlying emotional meanders. The emotional frameworks of the loss of Palestine for the Arab-Islamic world touched deep scars that go back to the Crusades, symbolizing a proof of Arab-Islamic decay, political impotence, and perceived (British/French) betrayal and antagonism.

At one time in the history of the Americas, weapons and armies were associated with liberty and independence, and with new opportunities for our peoples. At one time in the history of the Americas, there were liberating armies.

Blood alone moves the wheels of history.

Eastern Muslim countries, such as Indonesia and Malaysia, are relative success stories, as they are not afflicted by the Arab heritage of retreat and humiliation at the hands of the French, Spanish, British, Turks, and Persians.

Ireland is such a young society. The British were the ruling class up until they left about a hundred years ago, and we've been trying to work out what our class hierarchy is ever since.

Filipinos are not worse than any other colonized people except that our colonization was a little longer, and the independence movement was always dictated in political terms, never in social ones. We borrowed terms, but we didn't understand them.

English history is all about men liking their fathers, and American history is all about men hating their fathers and trying to burn down everything they ever did.

I'm not saying this in a condescending kind of way, but it's quite simple: The making of America was a heroic thing. Australia has a much murkier, much more complex view of its history. It's just full of all these open wounds we don't really know what to do with.

The history of the white man in India really jumped up and bit me in the neck.