John Boyle O'Reilly

American Catholic History

Noelle & Tom Crowe

History, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Education

5 • 724 Ratings

🗓️ 21 October 2024

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Born just before the potato famine ravaged Ireland, John Boyle O’Reilly grew up in an Ireland still dominated by England. His father was a schoolmaster, so John and his siblings received an excellent education. He was very outgoing, made friends easily, and was a natural leader. He became a journalist, and then a soldier. He also joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood — the Fenians — who were bent on revolution and the end of British rule of Ireland. Eventually arrested for treason, O’Reilly was sentenced to "transportation" and was sent to a penal colony in Australia. He escaped from that colony in epic fashion, arriving in Boston in 1870. He got a job as a reporter with the Boston Pilot, eventually becoming part owner and publisher. He used the pages of the Pilot to advocate for civil rights for all. He became a very respected journalist, poet, speaker, author, and activist. His sudden death at 46 years old shocked Boston and beyond.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to American Catholic History, brought to you by the support of listeners like you.
0:11.0	If you like this podcast and would like to support our work, please visit American Catholic
0:16.0	History.org slash support. I'm Noelle Heister Crow. And I'm Tom Crow.
0:21.5	Today we're talking about a remarkable Irishman, the soldier escaped convict, poet, and
0:26.9	journalist John Boyle O'Reilly.
0:29.2	This guy's life is epic.
0:31.3	He was a babe in arms in Ireland when the potato famine started.
0:35.2	Then, after being convicted of treason, a little later after being a babe in arms,
0:39.9	he ended up in a penal colony in Australia.
0:42.6	After an escape that's worthy of Hollywood, he ended up in Boston,
0:46.2	where he became one of the most respected journalists in America.
0:49.5	He was a champion of civil rights for all at a time when this was not the norm.
0:54.1	He helped engineer another
0:55.5	escape from Australia, and along the way, he wrote four volumes of poetry and a few other books.
1:01.0	He was not one to let the grass grow under his feet. Ah, no. And he was one who made easy friends
1:07.0	everywhere he went. And eventually, his mug shot from back when he was a convict ended up
1:12.1	on a bottle of wine. Yeah, that was a pretty unexpected find. Yeah. For those curious, the labels on
1:18.2	the 19 crimes series of wines have photos of actual British convicts on them. These convicts were
1:24.2	all sentenced to transportation, which meant being sent to the penal colonies of Australia.
1:28.9	The name comes from the list of 19 crimes that could result in being sentenced to transportation.
1:34.3	One of them was if you were sentenced to death, but your sentence was commuted.
1:38.6	This was O'Reilly's situation.
	...

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