Various

“ Three of the greatest poems of the past decade, "Wendell Phillips," "Crispus Attucks," and "The Pilgrim Fathers," are John Boyle O'Reilly's.
But in his poems of Ireland he touched, as was meet, the high-water mark of his genius. His "Exile of the Gael" is the best tribute the English language has ever paid to the Irish race. Of the rest, his poetry is in the hearts of the people. ”

“ John Boyle O'Reilly was born in Dowth Castle, County Meath, Ire., June 28, 1844. His father was William David O'Reilly, principal of the Netterville Institution, at Drogheda, a fine scholar, especially strong in mathematics. His mother was Eliza Boyle, a woman of rarely beautiful character and brilliant mind. Her love for Ireland became in her son the ruling passion of his life. Her fine literary tastes grew in him to the height of genius. ”

“ He entered into the Fenian movement with characteristic ardor. He told the writer of this sketch that he never fully realized the movement until he found himself in prison for his share in it. "They only said to us, 'Come, boys, it's prison or death; but it's for Ireland;' and we came."
In riper years, he enlisted with all the force, fervor, and single-heartedness of his nature on the side of constitutional agitation, and was unquestionably the greatest factor in making the American people a unit for Parnell and Irish Home Rule. ”