Life
?1630-95 [or Reilly]; b. Co. Cavan; barrister; Master in Chancery and
clerk of council of Ireland under James II; Ireland’s Case Briefly
Stated (1695), frequently reprinted under various titles, viz, Impartial
History of Ireland (1720, 1754), and Genuine History of Ireland
(1787, 1799, 1837, etc) - it remained for 100 yrs the only printed defence
of Irish Catholics, including the enslavement of many in the West Indies
by Cromwell ‘to the number of 15 or 20 thousand souls’; accompanied
James II in exile; appointed Chancellor of Ireland while at St. Germain,
though other accounts report that the Case offended James II and
caused his dismissal from service. DIW DNB
Works
Hugh Reily, Ireland’s cause briefly stated ([Paris or Louvain]
printed in the year 1695), 12o [Wing R767; Dix 272]; reiss.
as The impartial history of Ireland (1754, 1787), and as The
genuine history of Ireland.
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Notes
Joseph Leerssen, Mere Irish & Fíor Ghael, 1986,
noting that this is a work of Catholic history challenging Protestant
interpretations of 1641; see also Leerssen, bibl., Ann de Valera, ‘Antiquarian
and historical investigations in Ireland in the eighteenth century’
(MA thesis UCD 1978).
British Library holds Hugh Reily, The impartial history of Ireland,
containing a summary account, of all the battles, sieges, rebellions and
massacres … To which is annexed … the case of the Roman Catholicks
of Ireland … by the Revd. Doctor Nary [1695]; another edn. as The Genuine History of Ireland ... [&c.]; another edn., revised and brought down from 1676 to the present time by a Gentleman
of this city; another edn. [with MS. notes]; another edn., as Genuine
History of Ireland … The whole revised and brought down from 1676
to the present time (London 1768) 132pp.; 12o; Do., another
edn. (Dublin 1787), pp. 142; Do., another edn. [Dublin ?1799]; Do., another edn. Dublin: Richard Grace 1837); Do., another
edn. (Dublin: James Duffy [?1840?]); Do., another edn. (Dublin:
C. M. Warren [c.1850.]), imperfect, with titlepage of London edition of
1754, reading ‘The impartial history of Ireland’ substituted,
and slightly cropped.
Muriel McCarthy & Caroline Sherwood-Smith, Hibernia Resurgens (Dublin: Marsh’s Library 1994) [Exhibition Catalogue] lists Ireland’s Case gives details of abuse of Catholics from reight of Elizabeth to that of James II, attacking the ingratitude of Charles II, with comments on contemporaries including Sir William Petty (‘an ingenious inquisitive person’], and Sir John Temple. (p.47.)
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)