6:00–7:00pm • Free • Pick up a copy of the book from the Des Plaines Public Library.

Philip Mohr of the Des Plaines History Center will lead a book discussion on The Immortal Irishman by Timothy Egan. Copies of the book are available at the 3rd floor Readers Services desk at the Des Plaines Public Library 60 days prior to the date. This discussion will be held at the Des Plaines History Center.

The Irish-American story told through the improbable twists and turns of the life of one man. Thomas Francis Meagher, a young orator during the Great Famine in 1840's Ireland, was arrested for leading a failed uprising against British rule and sent to a prison in Tasmania. He escaped and emerged in New York City six months later as a revolutionary hero at the beginning of the great Irish immigration to America. As the Civil War broke out, he led the New York Irish Brigade in some of the bloodiest battles of the war, where he was twice shot from his horse and eventually left for dead in the Virginia mud.

After the war, he re-established himself once again as he became territorial governor of Montana in his quest to find a peaceful home on the frontier, where he died under mysterious circumstances. Meagher's larger than life story blends the Irish desire for freedom with the pursuit of the American dream.