DAVIS, THOMAS OSBORNE ( t ,1_14-1-45„ poe., and politician, was born at Mallow, co. Cork. He graduated at Trinity college, Dublin, in 1836, and was called to the bar in 1838. Adopting nationalist views he joined John Blake Dillon in editing the Dublin Morning Register (1841), and worked, as a follower of Daniel O'Connell, on the committee of the repeal association. He helped Dillon and Charles Gavan Duffy to found the weekly newspaper, The Nation, in 1842, to which he contributed a series of lyrics, "The Lament of Owen Roe O'Neill," "The Battle of Fontenoy," "The Geraldines," "Maire Bhan a Stoir," and many others. Differences arose between O'Connell and the young writers of The Nation, and Davis was one of the leaders of the extremist party, "Young Ireland," till his premature death.
See his Poems and his Literary and Historical Essays collected in 1846 (new ed. 1915). There is an edition of his prose writings (1889) in the Camelot Classics. See the monograph on Thomas Davis by Sir Charles Gavan Duffy (189o, abridged ed. 1896), and the same writer's Young Ireland (revised ed. 1896) .