Thomas Davis

Thomas Davis was born in 1814 in the town of Mallow in the rebel county of Cork. He studied in Trinity College, Dublin, and recieved an Arts degree, precursory to his being called to the bar which he duly did. He established "The Nation" newspaper with Charles Gavin Duffy and Dillon. He dedicated his life to the Irish Nation and so was against the English domination of Ireland. He himself was a Protestant, yet inspired by the holy ideas of Nationalism, he preached peace between Catholics and Protestants. To Davis, it was not blood that made you Irish, but the willingness to be part of the Irish nation. Although the Saxon and Dane were hated, their descendants would be Irish if they simply allowed themselves to be, and rallied round the flag of Ireland. He was to the fore of Irish nationalist thinking and it has been noted by later Nationalist heroes, such as Padraig Pearse, that while Wolfe Tone laid out the basic fact that Ireland as a nation must be free, Davis was the one who built this idea up promoting the Irish identity.