Davis gave a voice to the 19th-century foundational culture of modern Irish nationalism. Formerly it was based on the republicans of the 1790s and on the Catholic emancipation movement of Daniel O'Connell in the 1820s-30s, which had little in common with each other except for independence from Britain; Davis aimed to create a common and more inclusive base for the future. As a Protestant, Davis preached religious unity, often building on ideas promoted by the secular United Irishmen prior to the 1798 Rebellion. He was heavily influenced by Romantic nationalism and the ideas of Johann Gottfried von Herder, who argued nationality was not genetic but the product of climate, geography and inclination. In September 1842, he established The Nation newspaper with Charles Gavan Duffy and John Blake Dillon. Ostensibly designed to support O'Connell's campaign for repeal of the 1801 Union, Davis made it a vehicle for promoting the Irish language, and an Irish cultural identity separate from that of Britain. This focus can be seen in several letters written shortly before his death in 1843, that emphasise the uniqueness of the Irish countryside, and its inhabitants as a "rising, not declining, people." His June 1840 speech as the outgoing president of the College Historical Society, contains the first explicit statement of belief in the Irish nation.
"The country of our birth, our educations, our recollections, ancestral, personal, national; the country of our loves, our friendships, our hopes; our country: the cosmopolite is unnatural, base - I would fain say, impossible. To act on a world is for those above it, not of it. Patriotism is human philanthropy."
This placed him in the fore of Irish nationalist thinking; later notables, chiefly Patrick Pearse, suggest Wolfe Tone laid out the basic premise that Ireland as a nation must be free, but Davis expanded this by also promoting the Irish identity.
Relationship with Daniel O'Connell
Davis supported O'Connell's Repeal Association from 1840, hoping to recreate the old Irish Parliament. They split during a debate on the proposed new Queen's University of Ireland, when Davis was reduced to tears by O'Connell's superior debating skill. Davis was in favour of a university that would inclusively educate all Irish students; O'Connell and the Catholic hierarchy preferred a separate system for Catholic students within Ireland that would remain under church control O'Connell generally referred to his inexperienced allies as "Young Ireland", initially as a dismissive term, that from the 1870s became the accepted term for nationalists inspired by Davis. He also preferred a federal arrangement with Britain in the 1840s while Davis sought a greater degree of autonomy. Both agreed that a gradual and non-violent process was the best way forward. Despite their differences O'Connell was distraught at Davis's early death.
Davis composed a number of Irish rebel songs, and songs, including The West's Asleep, A Nation Once Again and In Bodenstown Churchyard, and the Lament for Owen Roe O'Neill. As well as many contributions to periodicals and newspapers, he wrote a memoir of Curran, the Irish lawyer and orator, prefixed to an edition of his speeches, and a history of the 1689 Patriot Parliament; other literary plans were left unfinished by his early death. A statue of Davis, created by Edward Delaney, was unveiled on College Green, Dublin, in 1966, attended by the Irish president, Éamon de Valera. The main street of his home town of Mallow is named Davis Street, which contains a bronze statue of Davis designed by sculptor Leo Higgins. One of the secondary schools in Davis' home town of Mallow, Davis College, is named after him. A number of Gaelic Athletic Association clubs around the country are also named after him, including one in Tallaght, Dublin and one in Corrinshego, County Armagh. Fort Davis, at the entrance to Cork Harbour, is named after him. Thomas Davis street, off Francis Street in Dublin 8 is also named after him.
