He was born at Derrymore, co. Clare, 3 November 1788. He belonged to an old Somerset family which had settled in Ireland in the seventeenth century. His father, William Steele, who died while he was an infant, was the younger brother of Thomas Steele of Cullane, the owner of a very considerable property in co. Clare, to which Steele succeeded at an early age.
He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated B. A. in 1810, and subsequently at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he graduated M. A. in 1820, after being incorporated B. A. in the same year.
As a volunteer he fought against the Bourbons in Spain in 1823, and, returning to Ireland, lie became an enthusiastic worker for Roman Catholic emancipation, helping greatly toreturn Daniel O'Connell to parliament for Co. Clare at the famous election of 1828. It is interesting to note that Steele himself was a Protestant. Having ruined his fortune by contributing liberally to the causes in which he was interested, he died in London on the 15th of June 1848. He wrote Notes of the War in Spain (1824) and Some essays on Irish questions.
Though his actions were often wild and his principles extreme, he appears to have been a man of absolute sincerity, and was known through his career as ‘Honest Tom Steele. ’
