Thomas Davis (Young Irelander)
| Thomas Osborne Davis | |
|---|---|
Davis in the 1840s
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| Born |
14 October 1814 Mallow, Ireland |
| Died | 16 September 1845 (aged 30) Dublin, Ireland |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Education | Arts degree |
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Dublin |
| Period | 1842–1845 |
| Literary movement | Young Ireland |
| Notable works | A Nation Once Again |
Thomas Osborne Davis (14 October 1814 – 16 September 1845) was an Irish writer who was the chief organiser of the Young Ireland movement.
Thomas Davis was born in the town of Mallow in County Cork, the son of a Welsh father, a surgeon in the Royal Artillery, and an Irish mother. Through his mother he was descended from the Gaelic noble family of O'Sullivan Beare. His father died one month after his birth and his mother moved to Warrington Place near Mount Street bridge in Dublin. In 1830, they moved to 67 Lower Baggot Street. He attended school in Lower Mount Street before studying in Trinity College, Dublin. He graduated in Law and received an Arts degree in 1836, before being called to the Irish Bar in 1838.
Davis gave a voice to the 19th-century foundational culture of modern Irish nationalism. Formerly it was based on the republicans of the 1790s and on the Catholic emancipation movement of Daniel O'Connell in the 1820s-30s, which had little in common with each other except for independence from Britain; Davis aimed to create a common and more inclusive base for the future. He established The Nation newspaper with Charles Gavan Duffy and John Blake Dillon.
He wrote some stirring nationalistic ballads, originally contributed to The Nation and afterwards republished as Spirit of the Nation, as well as a memoir of Curran, the Irish lawyer and orator, prefixed to an edition of his speeches, and a history of King James II's parliament of 1689; and he had formed many literary plans which were unfinished by his early death.
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