Nine men were captured, tried and convicted of treason against Her Majesty, the Queen, during what was referred to as "The Young Irish Disorders", in 1848 or thereabouts. The nine, who were sentenced to death were, Pat Donahue, Charles Duffy, Michael Ireland, Morris Lyene, Thomas McGee, Terrence McManus, Thomas Meagher, John Mitchell and Richard O\'Gorman.
The judge asked if there was anything any of them wished to say before being sentenced. Meagher, whose response summed up the attitude of them all, replied, "My Lord, this is our first offense, but not our last. If you will be easy with us this once, we promise on our word as gentleman to do better next time - sure we won\'t be fool enough to get caught".
The judge outraged rather than amused at Meagher\'s remarks indignantly decreed that the defendants should be hanged until death and then drawn and quartered. Passionate protests, however, influenced Queen Victoria to commute the sentence to banishment for life and transportation to far wild Australia.
In 1874, an astonished Queen Victoria received word that the Sir Charles Duffy who had been elected Prime Minister of Australia was the very same Charles Duffy who had been transported there some twenty-five years before. Curious about the fate of the other eight, the Queen demanded that the records of those transported in the 1848 incidents be researched and revealed.
This is what was found: Thomas Meagher - Governor of Montana; Patrick Donahue - Brigadier General, U.S. Army; Morris Lyene - Attorney General of Australia; Terrence McManus - Brigadier General - U.S. Army; Richard O\'Gorman - Governor of NewFoundland; Michael Ireland - Attorney General of Australia ( after the term of Morris Lyene); Thomas McGee - Member of Parliament, Montreal Minister of Agriculture and President of Council Dominion of Canada; John Mitchell - Writer and prominent New York politician. His son became Mayor of New York City.