John Boyle O' Reilly

John Boyle O' Reilly

John Boyle O' Reilly was born at Dowth in County Meath on the 28th of June in 1844 just before the great famine and he grew up along a stretch of the river Boyne that has seen more than a little bit of history. His father was a schoolmaster for orphans at the Netterville Institution and when he was eleven he began an apprenticeship with the Drogheda Argus moving on to the "Guardian" newspaper in Preston at fifteen. He enlisted in the Tenth Hussars and his meeting with John Devoy and involvement in the Fenian movement would lead to his imprisonment and transportation to Australia on the convict ship "Hougougont" .Within two years of his arrival he escaped on the American whaling ship "Gazelle" and joined the staff of the Boston Pilot newspaper in 1870, later becoming editor and owner. With John Devoy and others he helped to organise the escape of six of the remaining Fenians in Western Australia on the whaling ship "Catalpa" an incident that was televised not so long back on RTE. He married in 1872 to Mary Murphy and the couple had four daughters. After an exhausting tour of the west coast of America he died aged just 46 and his funeral was said to have  been one of the largest ever seen. No less than John F Kennedy held him in high regard and quoted him when speaking to a combined session of the Dail and Senate during his visit here in 1963. He was a poet, a political activist, a writer, and an adventurer, and someone who contributed in no small way to the setting up of this state. His poem "A White Rose" was included in the recent publication by Tom French "A Meath Anthology"  and is the only one of his I managed to find while searching through youtube. It gets a glowing tribute also from Brendan Kennelly on the back cover of "The Cry of The Dreamer", which was edited by Peggy O' Reilly and Brenda Tuite, and the source for much of the above, though not the poem I'd have gone for. On your next visit to the library or local bookshop check this man out.

A White Rose: click here

Fremantle Jail:click here

Photo: From Google images with thanks.



Sources "The Cry of The Dreamer and Youtube, editors and posters with thanks.