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John Boyle Biography & Facts

John Boyle O'Reilly (28 June 1844 – 10 August 1890) was an Irish poet, journalist, author and activist. As a youth in Ireland, he was a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, or Fenians, for which he was transported to Western Australia. After escaping to the United States, he became a prominent spokesperson for the Irish community and culture through his editorship of the Boston newspaper The Pilot, his prolific writing and his lecture tours. Born in Dowth, O'Reilly moved to his aunt's residence in England as a teenager and became involved in journalism before enlisting in the British Army shortly thereafter. In 1863, he left the army after becoming discontented with British rule in Ireland. In 1864, after he had returned to Ireland, O'Reilly joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood under an assumed name and was part of the group for two years until he and many others were arrested by the British authorities in early 1866. After a trial the same year he was sentenced to death which was subsequently commuted to twenty years of penal servitude. In 1867, O'Reilly was transported to Western Australia and moved to the town of Bunbury where he escaped two years later. He was assisted in escaping by a Fr. Patrick McCabe from Arnaghan, Gowna, County Cavan. After the escape O'Reilly moved to Boston and embarked on a successful writing and journalism career that produced works such as Moondyne (1879) and Songs from the Southern Seas (1873), and poems such as The Cry of the Dreamer and The White Rose and In Bohemia. He married Mary Murphy in 1872 and had four daughters. In the last 4 years of his life he suffered various health issues before dying of an overdose in his summer home in Hull, Massachusetts in 1890. His memorial service held at Tremont Temple was a major public event. O'Reilly's literature and work with civil rights have been celebrated throughout the years. Early life O'Reilly was born on 28 June 1844 at Dowth Castle to William David O'Reilly (1808–1871) and Eliza O'Reilly (née Boyle) (1815–1868) near Drogheda. His father was a headmaster. He was the third child out of six. Ireland was at that time a part of the United Kingdom and many Irish people opposed British rule, and there was a strong nationalist movement in Ireland. O'Reilly's relatively wealthy family was fiercely patriotic; his mother was closely related to nationalist John Allen, who had played an important role in Robert Emmet's rising in 1803. A year after O'Reilly's birth, the Great Famine began, an event that would shape O'Reilly's life and beliefs. Most of O'Reilly's closest family managed to survive the famine, however many of O'Reilly's classmates lost their lives because of it. The son of a schoolmaster, O'Reilly received a good early education. When he was about thirteen his older brother contracted tuberculosis and O'Reilly took his place as apprentice at a local newspaper. England In 1859, at the age of fifteen, O'Reilly moved to Preston, Lancashire to live with his aunt Christina and uncle James Watkinson, a sea master, after being convinced by his uncle to travel back with him to England to visit. He took up work on local newspaper the Preston Guardian. In June 1861, O'Reilly enlisted in the Volunteer Force's 11th Lancashire Rifle Volunteers Corps, with whom he received military training. On returning to Ireland in March 1863, he enlisted in the British Army's 10th Royal Hussars regiment in Dublin. While O'Reilly was in the army, he grew disillusioned with British rule after witnessing first-hand government policies which he perceived as negatively affecting Irish Catholics. He left the army shortly thereafter. Irish Republican Brotherhood Irish Republican Brotherhood and arrest In 1864, O'Reilly joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood, then commonly known as the "Fenians", a secret society of rebels dedicated to an armed uprising against British rule. He turned his energies to recruiting more Fenians within his regiment, bringing in up to 80 new members. He presented himself to conspirators in Clonmel under the false name of Kelly. He assisted in recruiting Irish young men and soldiers to the Brotherhood. In February 1866 O'Reilly along with many other Fenians were arrested and sent to Arbour Hill military prison. On 27 June 1866 (the eve of his 22nd birthday) O'Reilly's trial by court martial began; he was charged with treason. He was found guilty and sentenced to death, but due to his age the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and later 20 years' penal servitude. From that point on he spent around 15 months in some of England's most notorious prisons such as Millbank, Pentonville and Dartmoor. During this time O'Reilly attempted to escape twice but was quickly recaptured and placed in solitary confinement. Transportation and life in Australia On 10 October 1867 O'Reilly was placed in chains and marched off to the convict ship Hougoumont, along with 61 other Fenian prisoners and 218 common criminals, for transportation to the British colony of Western Australia. Midway through the voyage, O'Reilly and another prisoner John Flood, established a handwritten newspaper called The Wild Goose which contained poetry, stories and anecdotes from members of the ship's convict fraternity. Seven editions were produced, and the single copy of the original set survives and is held in the State Library of New South Wales collection. The Hougoumont's passage was the last convict ship transport to Western Australia. After arriving in Fremantle on 9 January 1868, O'Reilly was admitted to the Convict Establishment (now Fremantle Prison), but after a month he was transferred to Bunbury. He was assigned to a party of convicts tasked with building the Bunbury–Busselton road. One day while clearing the bush in Bunbury to make way for a new road, O'Reilly refused to be a member of a party of a convict road gang ordered to cut down a huge tuart tree standing in the way of the new road. O'Reilly's action to save the tree soon came to the attention of the warder's wife Selina. And it wasn't too long before the word had spread throughout the district that a convict had disobeyed orders. Eventually, the tree was saved and the new road given a slight curve around the tree. O'Reilly quickly developed a good relationship with his warder Henry Woodman, and was appointed probationary convict constable. As assistant to the warder, he did record and account keeping, ordering of stores, and other minor administrative duties. He was frequently used as a messenger, which required him to travel regularly between the work camp and the district convict prison in Bunbury. The warder apparently used O'Reilly to maintain contact with his family, for the prisoner became a regular visitor to the Woodman family home, and at some point he began a romantic liaison with Woodman's daughter Jessie. This ended badly, at least for O'Reilly; he wrote poetry expressing his agony of mind, and hints at romantic causes. On.... Discover the John Boyle popular books. Find the top 100 most popular John Boyle books.