Blood Pact
This framed and glazed blood pact between William Smith O'Brien and Thomas Francis Meagher was signed in Clonmel Gaol on 21 October 1848. O'Brien was elected MP for Ennis in 1828 as a Tory, but gradually drifted towards the anti-Union position, and led the 1848 Young Ireland rebellion for which he was imprisioned along with Meagher. Both were exiled to Tasmania, but eventually pardoned. Meagher went on to lead the Irish Brigade in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
William
Smith O'Brien
Clare Champion, Friday, October 25, 2002
Ref: 2000.101
