Born in Dowth Castle Co. Meath, Ireland, 28 June, 1844; died Hull, Mass., 10 Aug., 1890. Son of the master of Nettleville Institute at Dowth Castle. He did some journalistic work in Drogheda, near his birthplace, but was sent to England as an agent of the Fenian society. He was arrested and condemned to death, but his sentence was commuted, and he was sent to Australia. After a year of penal servitude he escaped in a boat, was rescued by an American whaler, and landed at Philadelphia, Penn., 1869. He became editor and joint owner of the Boston “Pilot,” and published “Songs of the Southern Seas,” 1873; “Songs, Legends, and Ballads,” 1878; “Moondyne,” novel, 1879; “Statues in the Block,” poems, 1881; “In Bohemia,” 1886; “The Ethics of Boxing,” 1888; “Stories and Sketches,” 1888. At the time of his death he was preparing a work on Ireland. In 1896 a statue of Mr. O’Reilly by Daniel French was unveiled in Boston. Below the statue, which is fourteen feet tall, is a group of symbolic figures.

Personal

  He was throughout all and above all a gentleman. There are a great many definitions of that word, most of them formulated by tailors or by footmen, and some by those who estimate a man’s worth by the social standing of his grandfather. He would have stood the tests of all those three critical classes, and if we happen to prefer a higher standard he would not have failed before that. For he was courteous to all men, of whatever estate; he was chivalrous to women and tender to children and all weak and helpless ones; he was magnanimous to his enemies, loyal to his friends, and merciful to all mankind. He believed in humanity and in his age; and his faith was rewarded, for he was appreciated in his life and mourned in his death as no private citizen ever has been mourned. What he did to lift his fellow men to that appreciation will be known in long years to come. If he was not a saint, he worked at least one miracle—he made men grateful.

  He was a revolutionist always; but he was much more than that. He was a reconstructive, also. I have never known any one who showed such deep and searching and wide interest in the welfare, comfort and progress of the whole human race. He had an almost infinite compassion for the sufferings of mankind, and an unlimited fund of hope for the alleviation of those sufferings. Sometimes, however, he uttered terrible theories looking towards the destruction of human society as it now exists. These theories were only a sort of rendrock, intended merely to blow up the granite walls of inert prejudice, and make an opening for broader paths of progress and enlightenment; but these caused him to be misunderstood. Full of the fighting spirit, athletic, independent, and absolutely uncompromising when he measured existing institutions by the standard of lofty ideas and pure principles, he was yet one of the gentlest among men. I never heard him utter a word of malice or ill will towards any one, even when he was speaking of those who represented the extreme of opposition to his views…. He did not obtrude his opinions; but, when moved to talk, he expressed them with a fire, a brilliance, a wealth of wit and humor and good fellowship, which convinced every unprejudiced listener that he was not only sincere, but was also the earnest and cordial friend of every living creature. Furthermore, it was evident that he possessed that quality which we call greatness of mind.

  He was the most widely beloved man in Boston, and it will be long before the mention of his name fails to provoke expressions of sorrow and affection. The anecdotes about him are unfailing. He was one of those men who sparkled with witticisms and unexpected sayings, and there is no friend who has not something to tell which is worth hearing.

  No man dared say twice to him: “We don’t mean your kind of Irish or Catholic O’Reilly.” All that bore the name was his, bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh; and this man, who cherished no personal enmities, who forgave and succored even the wretch who betrayed him, was merciless in his resentment of an insult to the least of his people, until condign satisfaction had been made. Thus he inspired a wholesome fear in the bully, and won the respect of all honest and fair-minded non-Catholics, for there is nothing your New England Yankee honors above grit.”… O’Reilly valued his personal advantages, his early-won literary fame, and immense social popularity and influence chiefly as they promoted the cause of his people.

  Boyle O’Reilly easily became one of the most popular men and scholars of Boston. He took an active part in all public affairs, social and political, and soon became as “to the manor born.” He was successful as a lecturer from the outset, for he had the genius of the poet, and the wit and warmth of an Irishman—qualities that, with a most attractive presence, made him popular always. But he cared more for his home, his newspaper, and his library than for the platform. Nevertheless, he was able to do a good deal of lecturing, where the distances would permit, without neglecting his other duties.

General

  His verse is masculine, spontaneous, and novel.

  Mr. O’Reilly’s work is known to all readers. He prefers to be known by it and through it. Otherwise one might be tempted to write indefinitely of his personal character, his unbounded popularity with all classes, his catholic sympathy with the oppressed and suffering of every class, creed and color, his healthy robustness, mental and physical. But all these are patent in his writings, which reflect the man as in a mirror. In the scant leisure of an active journalist’s busy life, supplemented by unceasing and earnest labors in the cause of Irish nationality, he has found time to write half a dozen or more books.

  In these later poems the ethical tendency of O’Reilly’s thought is vigorously developed, the spirit of human brotherhood is prominent, and an impatience with the conventions of society even when embodied in organized charities, is manifest. The interest taken by O’Reilly in athletics which was shown by his exploits with the gloves, the foils, and the paddles, is seen in “The Ethics of Boxing and Manly Sport,” published in 1888. Some of the most brilliant of O’Reilly’s literary successes were secured upon the platform, where as lecturer, orator, and poet he won a national reputation. His poem at the dedication of the Pilgrim monument at Plymouth in August, 1889, was a wonderful illustration of his sympathetic insight into characters and conditions which as an Irish Catholic he was thought unfitted to appreciate.

  Of the four notable poems of his maturity, one was for Ireland, “The Exile of the Gael;” one for America, “The Pilgrim Fathers;” one commemorated Wendell Phillips; and one the negro proto-martyr of American liberty, Crispus Attucks. His only novel, “Moondyne,” written but a few years after his escape from Australia, was based, not, as one would naturally expect, on the Irish national struggle, in one phase of which he bore so notable a part, but on phases of English life. Its hero, Joseph Wyville, “Moondyne” to the Australian aborigines, was an Englishman. Its motive was the reform of the English penal system.

  As an artist in verse he too often fell short; yet the very marked increase of dexterity and delicacy in some of his later pieces demonstrated how well fitted he was by nature to rise to the higher plane of expression. His influence as a writer and as a man was very wide, not only among classes usually little affected by artistic literature, but also among many cultivated, refined, and sensitive minds.

  His genius was his fortune. He worked for a small salary until 1873, when he published his first volume of poems, “Songs of the Southern Seas.” On reading these delightful poems, it is not probable that anybody asked or cared whether the author was a prince or an exiled stranger.