The Select Speeches of the Rt. Hon. Henry Grattan. To which is added his letter on the Union, with a Commentary on his Career and Character.  Dublin: Duffy, 1845.  First Edition.  Pp liii, 471. Contemporary bespoke binding of full dark green morocco, decorative panels to upper & lower boards in gilt, Irish harp to centre, endpapers of sun & geometric motifs in gilt. Spine rebacked minor repairs to joints. Contents pages age-toned, but overall in very good condition. Extensive penciled notes and annotations throughout by an unidentified hand.

Sighed & Inscribed  by Thomas Francis Meagher, Willima Smith O’Brien, Charles Gavan Duffy and John Martin, Richmond Prison (Dublin) April 1849, and with presentation inscription from Meagher to P.J. Smyth dated December 1846: “To My Old School Brother and Good Friend, P.J. Smyth, December 16^th, ‘66”  Also with inscription by Smyth making reference to ‘Beautiful France.’ (In recognition of his services to France in organising the Irish ambulance aid to that country during the Franco-German war, Smyth was made a chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1871)

Thomas Francis Magher (1823-1867) was one of the seven Irish exiles who came out to Van Diemen’s Land in 1849 on the charge of high treason and was transported aboard the Swift. He arrived as an exile as did his colleagues, William Smith O’Brien, John Mitchel, Terrance Bellew McManus, John Martin and Patrick O’Donohoe. All of these were involved with the Young Ireland Movement, which had fermented revolution in 1848 in protest to British rule. Meagher, as he was then known, was arrested, tried, found guilty of high treason and was sentenced to death. This was commuted to transportation for life. He arrived in Van Diemen’s Land on October 17^th, 1849.

Charles Gavan Duffy (1816-1903) was tried for sedition and acquitted after four attempts to secure conviction & released, April, 1849.

Patrick James Smyth (1826–1885) received his education at Clongoweswood College, where he made the acquaintance of Thomas Francis Meagher. The two became fast friends, and in 1844 both joined the Repeal Association. In the cleavage between ‘Old Ireland’ and ‘Young Ireland,’ Smyth, like Meagher, sided with the latter, and became one of the active members of that body. After the failure of the abortive insurrection of 1848 he managed to escape to America disguised as a drover. He supported himself by journalism for some years, becoming prominently identified with the Irish national movement in America. In 1854 he visited Tasmania, and planned and carried out the escape of John Mitchel from his Tasmanian prison. In 1855 he married Miss Jeanie Myers of Hobart Town, Tasmania, and in 1856 returned to Ireland and began to study for the bar. He was called in 1858, but never practised. For a short time, about 1860, he was proprietor of the ‘Irishman,’ an advanced nationalist newspaper.