I read this posting with much interest because the "fell vs pushed" argument is very popular locally.

I found the referenced article (Thomas Francis Meagher, His Life and Murder) here:
http://snap.waterfordcoco.ie/collections/efolders/158180/158...
and the details therein agree with the message.

As we live close to the University of Montana and the university library has the Missoula Sentinel on microfilm, I went to the library to view the "original". Unfortunately, there was no Meagher article in the 20 May 1913 issue and the paper listed the day as Tuesday, not Thursday, which agrees with an online calender I checked. I checked several issues before and after, including both Thursdays and also 20 Mar 1913 (which was on a Thursday) with no success. I also checked for an index to articles but no joy.

I'll keep looking, but if anyone has any additional information on this incident I would be very interested.