John Boyle O'Reilly Autumn School in Drogheda

Speakers

Dr. Patrick Geohegan, T.C.D. Presenter of Newstalk Radio's weekly Talking History programme and leading expert on Daniel O'Connell. His biography of O'Connell was presented to President Obama on his recent visit to Ireland.

Prof. Gary Owens, University of Western Ontario. Leading North American expert on British and Irish History, he pioneered research into O'Connell's use of pageantry, theatre and symbol to sway popular opinion.

Dr. Maura Cronin, MIC, University of Limerick. Foremost expert on the use of popular culture in Nineteenth Century politics and on labour history, agrarian movements and the history of towns. Dr. Cronin will speak on the role of the ballad sheet industry in this turbulent period in Irish history.

Brendan Matthews, Archivist, Drogheda Museum Millmount. Leader of the Old Drogheda Society's Millmount Research Unit, Brendan is constantly uncovering new and exciting information on local historical events and movements. His recent research has uncovered new local material on the plebeian movements castigated by O'Connell in Drogheda - labour movement Chartists and agrarian "Stickmen".

Booking:

Drogheda Museum Millmount Tel: 041-9833097 (Mon-Sat 10:00am-5:00pm) Publicity sponsored by Drogheda Borough Council Patron: Dr. T.K. Whitaker

Dowth Castle | Birthplace of John Boyle O'Reilly

John Boyle O'Reilly

John Boyle O'Reilly was born at Dowth, County Meath, on 28th June 1844. He became a poet, journalist and political activist, and later one of the best-known Irish figures in 19th-century Boston.

O'Reilly's father, William David O'Reilly, was a schoolmaster at Dowth. John grew up in the historic Boyne Valley landscape, close to the great passage tombs of Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth.

As a young man, O'Reilly joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood and became involved in Fenian activities while serving in the British Army. He was arrested in 1866, convicted and sentenced to death. His sentence was later commuted to penal servitude, and in 1867 he was transported to Western Australia.

O'Reilly escaped from Western Australia in 1869 and eventually reached the United States. He settled in Boston, where he joined The Pilot newspaper and became its editor. Through his journalism, writing and public speaking, he became a prominent voice in Irish-American life.

O'Reilly was also a poet and author. His published works included Songs from the Southern Seas and the novel Moondyne.

Despite spending the final two decades of his life in the United States, O'Reilly retained strong memories of Dowth and the Boyne Valley. In a letter quoted in an early biography of his life, he asked a friend to visit Dowth and look across the Boyne towards Tara, Newgrange, Knowth, Slane, Mellifont and Oldbridge, describing the landscape as a picture he carried forever in his "brain and heart".

John Boyle O'Reilly died at Hull, Massachusetts, on 10th August 1890, aged 46. A memorial to him was later erected at Dowth, close to the landscape of his childhood.