MAHER, Valentine (1780-1843), of Turtulla, Thurles, co. Tipperary

Maher was descended from an ancient Irish family (O’Meagher) which originated in Queen’s County. His father was ‘a most respectable and wealthy landed proprietor’ who greatly extended his landholdings in county Tipperary during the early nineteenth century.1Burke’s Landed Gentry (1852) i. 821; T.P. Power, Land, Politics, and Society in Eighteenth-Century Tipperary (1993), 100. On the death of his father, Maher became one of the largest and least encumbered proprietors in the county, his estate of 19,000 acres having an annual valuation of £14,000, and at his death he was said to have possessed upwards of £100,000 in funds.2PP 1845 [605] [606] xix. 1, 57 [161]; Freeman’s Journal, 14 June 1841; Morning Chronicle, 19 June 1841, 28 Dec. 1843. He owned Turtulla, a pleasantly situated estate with a well-planted demesne on the river Suir, while his elder brother John came into possession of Tullemaine Castle: Lewis, Top. Dict., ii. 402; J.C. O’Meagher, Some Historical Notices of the O’Meaghers of Ikerrin (1890), 124, 138, 204. Although he was a ‘complete absentee’ before 1829, thereafter he returned to his estate, where he built a ‘spacious and elegant’ villa in the Elizabethan style. He gained a high reputation for his well-managed estates which provided much-needed local employment, and was distinguished for his liberality towards his tenants, wiping off £15,000 in rent arrears in December 1832, and making substantial rent reductions ten years later.3The Nation, 30 Dec. 1843, 13 Jan. 1844; Freeman’s Journal, 21 Dec. 1832, 28 Dec. 1842. He was, however, unable to avoid involvement in the agrarian violence which characterised Tipperary in the 1830s, and attracted adverse publicity when his agent, Charles O’Keefe, was murdered in October 1838 after ejecting tenants from his estate at Ballymoneen.4Freeman’s Journal, 2 Nov. 1838, 10 Dec. 1838; Champion and Weekly Herald, 4 Nov. 1838; Morning Chronicle, 29 Dec. 1838, and see HP Commons, 1832-68: ‘John Lanigan’.

Maher was a keen sportsman and legendary horseman of the Leicestershire Hunt. From the early 1820s he kept up a large hunting establishment at Melton Mowbray where, as the last living member of the ‘Old Club’, he spent each hunting season.5Derby Mercury, 14 Jan. 1829; The Nation, 13 Jan. 1844; Quarterly Review, xlvii (1832), 235; J.E. Eardley-Wilmot, A Famous Fox-Hunter. Reminiscences of the Late Thomas Assheton Smith, Esq. (1862), 29. Lord Derby would later own a racehorse bearing his name: The Times, 21 Jan. 1913. He was the cousin of John Maher of Ballenkeele, co. Wexford, who sat as Liberal MP for Wexford, 1835-41 and, after joining the Friends of Reform to oppose Lord Stanley’s registration bill, was invited by the Liberal electors of Tipperary to come forward for the county when Richard Lalor Sheil decided to contest Dungarvan at the 1841 general election. Though he declared himself ‘not anxious or ambitious for a parliamentary life’, he proved willing to abandon his country pursuits and, with the backing of viscount Lismore, the earl of Kingston, and Michael Slattery, the archbishop of Cashel, he stood as a Liberal, taking ‘no pledges of any kind’, and came a close second in the poll behind Robert Otway Cave.6Freeman’s Journal, 13 Jan., 25 June, 2, 7 July 1841; Dod MS, ii. 751.

Maher was described as having a ‘mild and cheerful’ disposition and being ‘plain and unostentatious’ in his habits. His ‘inoffensive manner as a politician’ meant that he was much respected by the local gentry of ‘both sides’.7Gent. Mag. (1844), i. 203. He is not known to have spoken in the house, and does not appear to have served on any committees or introduced any bills. He did, however, take a close interest in his constituency, where he served for many years as a magistrate.8The Nation, 13 Jan. 1844. He was a generous contributor to the Tipperary Reform Registration Club and, in May 1843, presented petitions on behalf of the board of guardians of Tipperary and Clogher for the amendment of the poor laws and made representations on behalf of the journeymen bakers of Tipperary.9Morning Chronicle, 7 Oct. 1841; Freeman’s Journal, 4 May 1843; D.A. Murphy, The Two Tipperarys: The national and local politics of the unique 1838 division into two ridings (1994), 55-6.

Though described as a ‘Reformer’ on his return, Maher behaved as a Whig and a protectionist, voting against the reintroduction of the income tax, 13 Apr. 1842, and opposing acceptance of the Chartist petition, 3 May 1842.10Freeman’s Journal, 24 July 1841. He divided against Peel’s proposed adjustment of the corn laws, 9 Mar. 1842, and opposed the motion for their abolition, 15 May 1843. He joined other Irish Liberals in opposing the controversial Irish arms bill, 31 May 1843, but was absent from the final division that July, and not present at the vote on the redress of Irish grievances, 12 July 1843. He was, however, widely-respected in Ireland as ‘an assiduous and right-acting representative’ and a sincere and consistent Liberal. Though he was not a declared repealer, there was, claimed John O’Connell, ‘but little … wanting to bring him to that opinion’.11Freeman’s Journal, 27 Dec. 1843.

Maher died unexpectedly on Christmas Day 1843, having been taken ill suddenly while riding near his Tipperary estate. He was buried in the family vault in Thurles churchyard. Never having married, he bequeathed the unentailed portion of his estate to his cousin, Nicholas Valentine Maher, who had acted as his land agent since the death of O’Keefe, and who sat as a Repeal MP for county Tipperary, 1844-52.12Morning Chronicle, 28 Dec. 1843; Freeman’s Journal, 2, 11 Jan. 1844; Burke’s Landed Gentry (1852) i. 821; PP 1845 [605] [606] xix. 1, 57 [165].