Author Description

Australasian & Pacific History: C 1750 to C 1900. Australian. John Boyle O'Reilly (28 June 1844-10 August 1890) was an Irish-born poet and novelist. For his part in the Fenian conspiracy, O'Reilly was sentenced to twently years penal servitude. There is evidene that his orginal sentence was a death sentence and that this was subsequently commuted. He served nearly two years in English prisons, before boarding the convict ship Hougoumont[1] for tranpsortation to the British colony of Western Australia. It is interesting to note that this passage by the Hougoumont represented the last convict ship transport to Western Australia. After arriving in Fremantle, on 9 January 1868, O'Reilly was initially admitted to the Convict Establishment (now Fremantle Prison), but after a month was transferred to Bunbury to join a party of convicts who were building the Bunbury-Vasse road. After escaping to the United States, he become a prominent spokesperson for Irish sentiment and culture, through his editorship of the Boston newspaper The Pilot, his prolific writing, and his lecture tours.