Life
1844-1890; b. 28 June, Dowth Castle, nr. Drogheda, Co. Louth; son of William
David O’Reilly, school master in National School pertaining to Netterville
Inst.; mother Eliza Boyle, related to Col. John Allen of 1798 fame; second
child of 5 dgs. and 3 sons; apprenticed to newspaper compositor on Drogheda
Argus, 1855 (aetat. 11), up to the death of the proprietor; went to
live with relatives in England, sailing from Drogheda on ship under command
of Cpt. John Watkinson of Preston, m. to a sis. of Mrs O’Reilly;
employed on Preston Guardian; joined 11th Lancashire Rifle Vols.;
joined Fenians [IRB] during this period; called home by father, March
1863; settled in Dublin; enlisted in the 10th Hussars to recruit Irish
soldiers for the IRB; betrayed and tried, 1866; death sentence passed,
9 July 1866, and commuted to life imprisonment; spent a year in solitary
confinement in Millbank; Dartmoor, escaped and recaptured; transported
to Western Australia on board Hougoumont, 1867, with John Boyle
O’Reilly and others; held as prisoner No. 9843; attempted suicide
by cutting wrists, 27th Dec.1868; escaped from convict settlement near
Fremantle, Western Australia, on Bedford whaler Gazelle, with the
help of Fr. Patrick MacCabe; reached Philadelphia, Nov. 1869; joined Boston
Pilot, 1870, becoming co-prop. with Archbishop Williams, 1876-90;
condemned the Custer massacres, 1876; m. Mary Murphy (orig.
from Charleston, Co. Mayo), 1872; lecturer and writer; Songs from the
Southern Seas (1873); Songs, Legends and Ballads (1878) ran
to 8 edns.; participated in Fenian Canada Raid and the Catalpa expedition to rescue Fenian prisoners from Western Australia, 1875
[see Devoy, RX]; four vols. of poems, and novel, Moondyne (1880),
story of his Australian experiences, sometimes called the first Australian
novel, went into 12 eds.; presented address welcoming Parnell to New York,
1880; invited to speak at Ottawa on St. Patrick’s Day, but refused
permission by British Govt.; also The Statues in the Block (1881),
poems; offered reward for apprehension of Invincibles after Phoenix Park
Murders; published letter of Lakota Chief Red Cloud at land-robbery of
Dawes Act, 1887; accused of association with the murders in the ‘Parnell
forgeries’ (Times), and awarded £10,000; In Bohemia (1889);
and ed. Ethics of Boxing and Many Sports (1888); opposed anti-semitism
and anti-black prejudice; refused permission to speak in Ottawa by British
Government; d. Aug., Hull, Boston, from accidental overdose of sleeping
tablets (‘Heart Failure, superinduced, perhaps, by an overdose of
chloral, taken for insomnia’ acc. death cert.); bur. Holywood cemetery,
Brookline, Mass., with O’Donovan Rossa among the pall-bearers; lamented
by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Edward G. Walker (Pres. of Tufts), and Cardinal
Gibbons; left wife and four dgs.; pontifical mass, Boston Cathedral, 10
Sept.; Alcove of Celtic Literature ded. to him in Boston Public Library;
a life was written by J. Jeffrey Roche, appearing with his poems and speeches,
edited by his widow (NY 1891); there is a monument at his birthplace in
Dowth. CAB JMC DNB DBIV DIB DIH OCAL MKA OCIL
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Works
James Jeffry Roche, ed., John Boyle O’Reilly, His Life
and Poems and Speeches; together with his complete poems and speeches,
edited by Mrs John Boyle O’Reilly, introduced by James Cardinal Gibbons [Archbishop of Baltimore] (NY: Mershan Co. 1891), of which “Poems”, pp.429-710;
Speeches, pp.711-790 [End]. The story of the Catalpa is given in Chap. IX.
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Criticism
Daniel Connolly, Irish Monthly (1887); anon., in The Nation
(24 Nov. 1888).
Count George Noble Plunkett, [q.t.], Irish Monthly, 9 (1891), rev. & rep. in Ireland-American Review, 1 [1938].
Francis Russell, Irish Writing (1954).
J. David Hogan, ‘The Fenian Tradition and its Power: John Boyle O’Reilly: A Gallant Figure’, in Sunday Press (21 April 1957), p.11 [with sequel the following week].
Kevin T. Shanley, ‘John Boyle O'Reilly and Civil Rights’, Éire-Ireland, 4, 3 (Autumn 1969), pp.55-81.
Thomas Keneally, The Great Shame: A Story of the Irish in the Old World and the New (London: Chatto & Windus 1998), 540-42, et passim.
William G. Scholfield, Seek for A Hero (1956) 309pp., and E. G. Evans, Fanatic Heart (Boston: Northeastern UP 1999).
W. P. Ryan, The Irish Literary Revival (1894), pp. 10-11.
Dominic Daly, The Young Douglas Hyde (1974), p.94.
A. G. Evans, Fanatic Heart.
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Notes
Justin McCarthy, gen. ed., Irish Literature (Washington:
University of America 1904); b. Dowth Castle, Co. Meath, 28 June; son
of antiquarian; mother of great beauty; while in England contributed to
Dark Blue, an Oxford periodical; made the Boston Pilot notable exponent
of Irish-American opinions and high-class literary journal; d. 10 Aug.
from overdose of chloral to induce sleep; public statue, and a bust in
Catholic university; unfinished works were The Country with A Roof,
and The Evolution of Straight Weapons; works incl. Songs
from the Southern Seas and other Poems; Songs, Legends, and Ballads;
The Statues in the Block and other poems; In Bohemia, poems;
also Moondyne, novel; Ethics of Boxing, and ed. The Poetry
and Song of Ireland (first edition). JMC selects ‘The Common
Citizen Soldier’ [under copyright], being Decoration Day Address,
Everett, Mass., from John Boyle O’Reilly, His Life, Poems, and
Speeches [‘Veterans of the Grand Army, you are the orators ...
no matter who may be the speakers ... you still unroll the memory of the
great diorama ... the war marks the maturity of the Republic henceforth
only the weak and vapid American sought models in other countries. These
words of Emerson began to be appreciated, ‘They who made England,
Italy, or Greece venerable in the imagination did so by sticking fast
where they were, like an axis of the earth. The soul is no traveller;
the wise man stays at home ..’ Foremost among the teachers of true
Americanism were the veterans of the war, both North and South [quotes
‘the great American poet’ Whitman] ... dear battle flags of
America ... the veteran is nearer and dearer than the flag [discusses
the mercenary view of the contract of enlistment]; all men who fought
in the war for the Union ought to be pensioned for life ... [Miltiades].
Also selects ‘Ensign Epps the Colour Bearer [‘Flanders ..no
matter on which side, Philip or Earl/Their cause was the shell - his deed
was the pearl ... tied the colours his heart above/And plunged in his
armour in the tide/And there, in his dress of honour, died’; also,
‘At Fredericksburg, Dec. 13 1862’ [‘God send peace and
keep red strife away;/But should it come, God send us men of steel ...
... Who loveth the Flag is a man and a brother/No matter what birth or
what race or what creed’; ‘Unspoken words’; ‘Mayflower’l
‘A Savage’ [a verse tale of who voluntarily returns to face
the guns of his executioners]; from ‘Wendell Phillips’ [‘His
life was a ceaseless protest ... ... who dared to be traitor to Union
when Union was traitor to right’]; gives extract(s) from John
Boyle O’Reilly, his Life, Poems, and Speeches. Dublin Book
of Irish Verse; bio-dates, 1844-1890; ‘A White Rose’ [‘...
the love that is purest and sweetest/Has a kiss of desire on its lips.’]
T. W. Rolleston, Douglas Hyde, Lady Wilde, W. B. Yeats, Katharine Tynan, and others, from 1889; Arthur Quiller Couch, ed., Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1918 (new ed. 1929), 837; also Katie Donovan, A. N. Jeffares, and Brendan Kennelly, eds., Ireland’s Women (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1994).
Brian McKenna, Irish Literature (Gale Research 1978), Life of John Boyle O’Reilly, by James Jeffrey Roche, together with his complete Poems and Speeches (NY 1891); Watchwords from John Boyle O’Reilly [with crit. biog. pref. by Katherine E. Conway (Boston 1904); Selected Poems ... (1904); Selections from the Writings of J. B. O’Reilly and Rev. Abram J. Ryan (Chicago 1904); Selected Poems, ed. Mary J. A. O’Reilly (NY 1913); poetry, Songs from the Southern Seas and other poems (Boston 1873); Songs, Legends and Ballads (Boston Pilot 1878); The Statue and the Block, and other poems (1881); In Bohemia (1886); fiction, Moondyne, a story from the Under-world (Boston Pilot 1879); The King’s Men (Scribner 1884); others, The Poetry and Song of Ireland, with biog. sketches (NY 1887); Ethics of Boxing and Manly Sport (Boston 1888).
Hyland Books (Cat. 214) lists Songs, Legends and Ballads (1st edn. Boston 1878).
O’Reilly condemned the Custer massacre of American Indians as ‘methodistic cant [and] high-handed coercion, its object plunder, its results disgrace and the death of the Indians’.
Denis B. Cashman kept hand written copies of the poems of John Boyle O’Reilly in his Hougoumont Diary.
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)