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Spring 2002 John Boyle O'Reilly & Moondyne (1878) Susanna Ashton Clemson University, [email protected]

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ISSN 0791-8224 Farewell to the Irish Pound 0 1 Ulster Volunteers: Force or Farce~ Medieval Wexford John Boyle O'Reilly & Moondyne (1878) by Susanna Ashton

rrested for treason against the British Crown and deported to Athe penal colonies of Australia, the Irish revolutionary John Boyle ',\ \\,\• ,, O'Reilly managed to escape to the '~ l United States and within a few years became one of Boston's most promi­ ~; nent political and literary figures, one of the best known Irish immi­ I f grants in the United States, and one of the most charismatic individuals of the late nineteenth century. He wrote some of the most popular poetry of the period as well as one obscure but swashbuckling novel, Moondyne (1878), based in part upon the spectacular events of his own life. O'Reilly was a hero of national and international stature. His reputation, however, rested on more than his personal charisma, staggering life history and notorious achievements as political activist and editor of The Pilot, the most influential Catholic newspaper of the nineteenth centu­ ry. His clout truly stemmed from the way in which other Americans saw him as embodying a cultural role of conciliator, communicator, and given him by his Aborigine friends in john Boyle O'Reilly, 1844-1890. (The Pilot) cross-cultural ambassador. Both the Australian outback. A victim of a O'Reilly's contemporaries and more heartless British system of capital­ ters all end up on the same convict recent scholars have hailed him as ism and cruelty, our hero was arrest­ ship bound for Freemantle. Ostensi­ the great go-between for Brahmin ed when caught poaching deer in bly returning to Australia upon the Boston and what was rapidly becom­ order to feed his starving family. request of the British government in ing a city of Irish Catholic immi­ Summarily transported to the con­ order to reform the land policies and grants. By situating Moondyne in the vict colonies, he manages to escape penal system out there, Wyville/ context of not just the Australian with the help of Aborigines and Moondyne nonetheless manages to penal system, nor even the Irish share with him the secret of an save Alice from both despair and Land question, but in the context of immense gold mine. false imprisonment, re-unite a pair of questioning how America itself might Returning to England under. an lovers, punish the wicked, and make be a model for how cultures could assumed name, the convict, now numerous suggestions for how land work together, Moondyne explores known as Wyville, begins life anew. should be distributed in a just soci­ ideas the shouldn't be overshad­ As a mysterious man of wealth and ety, all before he dies in an attempt owed by its swashbuckling tone. respected humanitarian with special to save a villain from certain death in Moondyne takes on the question of expertise on theories of land distrib­ a raging brush fire. prison justice, yes. And it certainly ution, legal codes, and penal reform There's melodrama to be sure and poses questions about the United he befriends a young man, William troubling themes of race and nation States. But it also asks its readers Sheridan. In the course of his chari­ that complicate much of the novel's how we might imagine models for co­ ties Wyville becomes involved with impassioned goals. And yet, for all of operation among seemingly irrecon­ several sub plots; among other pro­ its exotic setting and themes, the cilable enemies. jects, he takes up the cause of a sense that kindness is ultimately young woman, Alice, who is falsely more important than nationalism, Moondyne's plot accused of murdering her own child. and that charity to the least deserv­ Hapless Alice is transported to Aus­ ing is the only charity worth valuing, The central figure of the tale is the tralia and she, Wyville/Moondyne, allows Moondyne to be a novel of sin­ convict called 'Moondyne'-a name Sheridan, and a dozen other charac- gular beauty and moral significance.

38 IHSTORY IRELAND Spring 2002 O'Reilly's many lives proud of the exchange'. He was to given various clerk and messenger 878) need such bravado, for his hardships jobs with the road crew which The story of O'Reilly's life is spectac­ had only just begun. allowed him considerable freedom. It ular on its own merits and deserves Moved from prison to prison, was at this point that O'Reilly even retelling, but the events and themes O'Reilly reportedly tried to escape developed a friendship with one of in Moondyne closely parallel his own from Chatham, Portsmouth, and his supervisors, warder Henry Wood­ life, and are a reminder that the Dartmoor prisons, although no offi­ man. Woodman introduced O'Reilly melodrama he might easily be cial documents record such to his family and the young and accused of was often very true to his attempts. As a young man with a charismatic, O'Reilly attracted the own experience. long sentence ahead of him and affections of the· warder's daughter, John Boyle O'Reilly was born on working under cruel conditions, he Jesse. Although this romance seems :28 June 1844, in County Meath, the probably thought he had little to incredible, journals and testimonials son of a schoolteacher William David lose. Ironically, his reputation as an vouch that some sort of affair did O'Reilly and orphanage matron, Eliza escape risk may have been what per­ indeed occur and it is tempting to Boyle O'Reilly. Growing up during suaded officials to send O'Reilly read the romantic scenes in Moon­ the Great Famine of the 1840s, O'Reil­ abroad: many of other military Feni­ dyne between Will Sheridan and Alice ly was fortunate to have parents ans languished in British prisons for Walmsley as shaped by O'Reilly's steadily employed with the memories of a hopeless love government rather than affair. Nothing could come of dependent upon the potato such a real life liaison, how­ crop. And so he survived the ever, and O'Reilly's life famine and was educated in instead took another dramat­ his father's school until the ic twist. age of eleven when, after his • · brother fell ill with tuberculo- Escape from Fremantle sis, O'Reilly took over his brother's apprenticeship at Assisted by a local priest, the Drogheda Argus, a local Father Patrick McCabe, and a newspaper. After a couple of settler named James Mc­ years there, O'Reilly went to Guire, O'Reilly arranged to be live with relatives in England, smuggled away on an Ameri­ who set him up with a job at can whaling ship. The plans another local paper. didn't work out as they were supposed to. O'Reilly ran off Joins the Fenians from his work crew on 18 February 1869 and was met In 1863, O'Reilly returned to by McGuire and friends who Ireland and enlisted with the led him to the coast. Hidden Kritish army's lOth Hussars in the sand dunes, O'Reilly then stationed in Dublin. With­ \ spent horrible days suffering in one or two years he was from the elements and wait- 'j,,. sa.me COI1VICt approached by representa­ ' ing to be picked up. He saw '•.'ll>ill1tl<>. Ostensi­ tives of the Irish Republican the ship, the Vigilant, which ,li~'riliia upon the Brotherhood (IRB) and, in per- was supposed to take him ish g1)vernn1ent in haps the most momentous on, but the captain did not · Li!HI policies and decision of his life, he took the see the small boat O'Reilly t ; 'wre. Wyville/ Fenian oath and became part a was on and so passed him lt'lf';l> manages to scheme to infiltrate the British by. Father McCabe and )•'''J despair and army in Ireland: he reportedly Maguire frantically made • r• -unite a pdir of recruited over eighty other Irishmen years. Whatever the reasoning other arrangements and found w•· ked. ami make to the cause. Informers betrayed the behind his selection, O'Reilly ·and another American whaler, the i 1ll ..; fdr how land Fenians and in 1866 the authorities sixty-one other Fenian prisoners Gazelle, which agreed to take O'Reil­ lit·(! !!l a just son­ began a series of raids and arrests, were sent to Fremantle, Western Aus­ ly aboard. h·· Ill an attempt taking O'Reilly in March of 1866. As tralia, arriving there on 9 January Before O'Reilly could be smuggled ·I'J ;•ctain death in an Irish political offender but also as 1868. aboard, however, McGuire's mysteri­ nne of seventeen military offenders When he arrived in Fremantle, a ous errands in the bush came to the \lll tt) bt· sun~ and arrested, O'Reilly's treason was con­ settlement on the mouth of Swan's attention of ticket-of-leave prisoner Jl t .1• t' and nati,_)ll sidered especially heinous and at his River, his skills were quickly put to (essentially a paroled convict), ucl· ()[ ttw novel's court-martial he was initially sen­ use in the comparatively free prison Thomas Henderson, alias 'Martin \,·.cl vet. for all of tenced to death. However, on the system of that time. He served Bowman', a man sent to Australia .l!.:l themes. tC!e grounds of his youth (he was only briefly as an aide to the parish priest after being sentenced for attempted ''s·. :s ultimatclv twenty-one at the time of his arrest), and then as supervisor of a small murder. Bowman was quick to seize rn;1n nationalisnl. his sentence was commuted to twen­ lending library. These attractive the opportunity to blackmail ' tlw least deserv­ ty years at hard labour. In July 1866 duties were altered when, after only McGuire and O'Reilly, forcing them r:t,· \vorth valuing, he used a nail to carve onto his cell a short time, he was sent out to join to smuggle Bowman aboard the ., 1>,· it novel of Slll- walls the words: 'Once an English a Bunbury road crew. His education Gazelle as well. This time the ren­ 1• '' 11 ;ignificancr· soldier; now an Irish Felon; and again served him well and he was dezvous was successful and both

HISTORY IRELAND Spring 2002 39 Bowman and O'Reilly made it on board. For several months they sailed on the Gazelle and O'Reilly became friends with both the cap­ tain, David Gifford, and the third mate, Henry C. Hathaway. When the boat stopped at the British island of Rodrigues. government authorities insisted on inspecting it for fugitives and stowaways, especially the noto­ rious escapee John Boyle O'Reilly. One of the regular seamen pointed at the hated Martin Bowman, who was immediately led away in chains. Hathaway and O'Reilly feared that as soon as he was in a position to bar­ gain, Bowman would give away O'Reilly and so they schemed a fake suicide. The next clay, when the authorities returned to the boat they were greeted by such genuine sor­ row on the part of the crew (who believed O'Reilly really had killed himself by jumping overboard rather than be taken back to Australia) that they left convinced. O'Reilly may have forgiven Bowman's treachery but he never forgot it. In Moondyne, the double-dealing Sergeant who reneges on his deal and murders the aboriginal guardians of the mine, is aptly namecllsaac Bowman.

Arrives in America

This experience at Rodrigues was a terribly close call. And so, when at sea the Gazelle sighted a whaler out of Boston, the Sapphire, O'Reilly look leave of the Gazelle and travelled to Liverpool with the Sapphire as a events did much to mitigate his revo­ john Boyle O'Reilly in Mountjoy Gaol, 1866. working sailor. Nervous about stay­ lutionary past. In a Pilot editorial of (Larcom Collection, New York Public Library) ing too long in England, within a cou­ 1870 he wrote: 'Why must we carry ple of days O'Reilly arranged to be wherever we go those accursed and taken aboard the Bombay, a ship contemptible island feuds? Shall we Globe. He wrote editorials, hired leaving Liverpool for Philadelphia. never be shamed into the knowledge writers, and built The Pilot up from Finally on 23 November 1869 O'Reilly of the brazen imprudence of allowing being a minor Catholic news weekly, arrived in the United States. He our national hatreds to disturb the to being a major newspaper with an stayed briefly in Philadelphia and peace and safety of respectable citi­ international reputation. Elected New York with ecstatic and welcom­ zens of this country?' O'Reilly's president of the Boston Press Club in ing members of the Irish immigrant increasing conservatism was skilfully 1879, O'Reilly's status assured that community, until January 1870 when parcelled out. As a rising celebrity, the 'ethnic' papers in Massachusetts he moved up to Boston-the city he had the clout to break the unified would get a serious hearing. with which he was associated for the front that had often characterised Despite a rather complex position rest oi his life. the public discourse of Irish America on the issue of racial equality (he Within a couple of months he without alienating his many follow-­ believed that enfranchisement of established himself as a reporter for ers. Blacks had been a mistake) O'Reilly The Pilot, then an eight-page weekly O'Reilly was rapidly promoted at was hailed by many of his contempo­ newspaper covering Irish and Irish­ The Pilot and soon felt established raries and by more recent scholars American affairs. He quickly made a enough to wed Mary Murphy, a as a champion of 'a spirit of equality' name for himself, covering events daughter of Irish immigrants. By which continually allied the cause of such as the disastrous 1870 Fenian 1876 he had become part owner and Ireland with the suffering of the ex­ invasion of Canada and bloody editor-in-chief of The Pilot. From then slaves in the United States. Taking on Orange riots in New York between until his death in 1890, O'Reilly con­ the mantle of the great liberators Catholic and Protestant Irish immi­ trolled what was probably the sec­ with whom he associated-Wendell grants in 1870 and '71. His balanced ond most powerful media outlet in Phillips, William Emery Channing and critical assessment of such Massachusetts short of the Boston and Charles Sumner-O'Reilly used

40 HISTORY IRELAND Spring 2002 ------, the gap between the Brahmin world of Beacon Hill and what was rapidly becoming a city dominated by Irish­ American immigrants, O'Reilly was hailed as the great cross-cultural ambassador.

Informal ambassador

Although his celebrity status was based upon his politics as much as his exploits, what allowed him to truly serve as an informal ambas­ sador for the vast underclass of working Irish-American families in Boston, was his literary work. He had .d • freeman tie prison, where O'Reilly was held, c./860. (Battye Library) begun writing poetry as a child and continued during his long stints in lw•·" rhe Cazelle, the whaler 11·hich rescued O'Reilly in 1869. prison and aboard ships. With The Pilot as a ready outlet, O'Reilly was ------~------~------, soon waxing poetic with great regu­ -~ larity. His speciality was uplifting verse which, in simple couplets, would call out for freedom and against tyranny. These immensely popular poems, written in a romantic and sentimental tradition promoted a genteel bourgeois sensibility. Nos­ talgic, often didactic, and essentially proselytising, these poems appealed to the Irish immigrants who sought assimilation and also to the 'proper Bostonians' who could read O'Reil­ ly's verses and see that while all was not well in the world, causes were common and values were shared. Through works such as his most famous poem, 'In Bohemia' (1888), O'Reilly attracted audiences from all sides. He had a fervent belief in the his llc·wspaper to preach brother­ siderable press coverage and popu­ arts themselves as bridging the gap hood across i·eligious and racial lar accolades. between the powerful and the power­ diYides. As O'Reilly announced in O'Reilly's ascent through Boston less and his easy radicalism cannot one of his editorials. The Pilot was to society was truly spectacular. Within be dismissed simply because it was IJe cht- vorce of all who 'yearned to a short number of years he was not reprinted on Christmas calendars be iree' no matter what their 'race, only considered the great spokes­ and recited in Boston drawing u>lour, creed. or former condition of man for the Irish immigrants of rooms. ~en·iturle· Boston, but also as a well known O'Reilly's poetry attracted impor­ poet, public speaker, sportsman, and tant commissions and throughout Boxed John L. Sullivan activist for political causes ranging the 1870s and '80s he wrote hun­ from labour reform to civil rights. He dreds of 'occasional' poetry to mark If hiS nedentials as newspaperman counted among his good friends not significant events. Some of his most and an Irish rr.'volutionary weren't only the stalwarts of what was rapid­ important poems include ones writ­ enough to give him status in the ly becoming an Irish political ten about the African-American patri­ Irish-American community. O'Reilly machine, but also literati such as ot Crispus Attucks, whaling adven­ built up for himself a colourful and Oliver Wendell Holmes and Julia tures, the American Civil War, West­ manly social reputation. He end­ Ward Howe and activists such as ern Australia, and of course, Irish eared himself to the sports enthusi­ Wendell Phillips. He became friends freedom. His poetry was so frequent­ asts bv boxing with John L Sullivan with President Grover Cleveland and ly anthologised and quoted that, and he regularly participated in pub­ with Cardinal Gibbons, the head of after his death Harper's Weekly mag­ lic spurting events. And despite his the Catholic Church in America. azine claimed: increasingly moderate rmd assimila­ O'Reilly was president of both the lit­ [He was] easily the most distin­ trorrist politics. he never forgot the erary Papyrus Club and the Boston guished Irishman in America. He rnen he had left behind. In 1876 he Press Club. A member of numerous was one of the country's foremost helped engirwer the daring rescue of Catholic charities and radical reform poets, one of its most influential five Fenian prisoners held in Western movements, O'Reilly was one of the journalists, an orator of unusual Australia, an event that received con- best known men of Boston. Bridging power, and he was endowed with

HISTORY IRELAND Spring 2002 41 ty for a civic ceremony of remem­ brance. Reading groups and social clubs were founded in O'Reilly's name, scholarships were endowed, statues put up, and honorary poems were written. Friends throughout Ire­ land, Australia, and the United States mourned together.

Legacy John Boyle O'Reilly certainly left a lit­ erary legacy-his poems, his news­ paper editorials and, "of course, Moondyne. His crusade to actively change the social world around him may have led him to create poetry often criticised as didactic or senti­ mental and Moondyne arises from the same crusading impulse, to be sure. Nonetheless, Moondyne was written at a time when sentiment and inspiration were understood as effec­ tive means of motivating genuine political change. A fiercely anti-impe­ rial novel which nonetheless pre­ sents degrading portraits of Aborig­ ines and glowing praise for capitalist exploitation of the British empire, the contradictions of this work mani­ fest deep cultural anxieties over the ethical imagination. For a novel con­ cerned with re-humanising prison­ ers, a truly miserable underclass of humanity, it still has trouble conceiv­ ing of humanity in its most inclusive sense. Yet, Moondyne offers us views on class, race, nation, and justice that defy easy categorisation. A dis­ quieting adventure, it employs stock characters and ridiculous coinci­ dences to frame issues that are any­ rhe john Boyle O'Reilly monument, erected bolic ascendancy to the heights of thing but stock or ridiculous. And in 1903, at Dowth, County Meath. rA.G. cultural acclaim marked a moment in [,.Hbl while Moondyne himself may not which the resolutely complex nature seem as heroic or believable today of American national identity was as he might have seemed in the nine­ proudly highlighted in the most pub­ such a gift of friendship as few men teenth century, the courageous lic of forums. are blessed with. breadth of this novel speaks to us O'Reilly died suddenly in 1890 as a more powerfully than ever. Scorning result of an accidental overdose of Thanks to his charisma and mentor­ pity and scoffing at hypocrisy, O'Reil­ his wife's sleeping medicine. He had ship, a coterie of genteel Catholic ly believed in redemption for people suffered terribly from exhaustion writers developed around The Pilot that society would far prefer to for­ and insomnia for the months before of the period, a circle including poets get. such as Louise Imogen Guiney. But his death and many scholars have seen his death as the result of the O'Reilly's poetry was part of a broad­ Susanna Ashton lectures in English at er world and in 1889, O'Reilly's com­ tremendous tensions he was under Clemson University, South Carolina. mission to write the dedicatory to constantly appease, explain, and poem for the Pilgrim monument at negotiate among various groups. Plymouth Rock should be seen as Whatever the cause, his sudden Further reading: one of the most extraordinary death at a comparatively young moments in American literary histo­ age-leaving a wife and four daugh­ A. G. Evans, Fanatic Heart: a life of ry. This foreign-born poet was select­ ters-shocked Boston and the world. John Boyle O'Reilly 1844-1890 ed over various Brahmin luminaries Tributes poured in from presidents (Boston 1999). to mark the most American of icons. and poets. Memorial services were Along with Emma Lazarus's poem, held in cities and townships around J. Boyle O'Reilly, Moondyne: a study 'The New Colossus' (1883), placed on the world. The New York Metropoli­ from the Underworld (New York the Statue of Liberty, O'Reilly's sym- tan Opera House was filled to capaci- 1879).

42 HISTORY IRELAND Spring 2002