The Irish standard., 1916-07-08
ELLEN RYAN JOLLY
National President of L. A. A. o. H. Rebukes Mar!
Boyle O'Reilly for her unpatriotic expressions
recently made in Boston Newspaper

boyle ~ Kelly IOT neT u
recently made in a
The readers of the Boston American
issued on Sunday, May %, 1916, were
RECALLED with rather remarkable con-
tribution, of which the following is an
extract, featured with photograph,
evidently not of recent snapshots, of
the sender, Mary Boyle O'Reilly, eldest
daughter of the Irish Fenian poet, John
Boyle O'Reilly, whom l knew and ad- |
mired. The article took the regula-
ton form of personal letter, but how
an epistle of such colossal dimensions
could have passed the British Censor
unless as heavy package via parcel
post, is still matter for speculation. 1t
seems to be the current fad to pub.
lish personal letters, no matter how
damaging may be their contents, to
the sanity or intelligence of the writ
ers or receivers.
To the casual reader of Miss O'Reil-
ing quality is its brazen assumption
of an inside Gin the know knowledge"
of the Sim Fein plans and an insolent
diagnosis of Sir Roger Easement and
his private affairs which offers an ex.
act parallel to the contemplate con-
duct of Poultney Bigelow, scoundrel
and cad, whom Kuno Meyer chastises
roundly in recent issue of the New
York Times. But Poultney Bigelow
did at least acknowledge that he knew
Sir Roger Easement, having met him
in Africa, which meeting formed the
basis of a friendship of which Bige-
low has proved himself utterly I'M
worthy. Miss O'Reilly disclaims all
acquaintance with Sir Roger previous
to his having called on her as she
says to use her as stool pigeon.
Conceit evidently is not stranger
in Miss O'Reilly's mental makeup
for she claims to be known from Bos-
ton to San Francisco. She is not the
first who has lived upon the patrimony
Of parental prestige. When she went
to the high priests of parliamentary
politics Mr.. T. P. O'Connor, man
execrated in five continents and to the
traitor John Redmond, the political
boss of the recent disgraceful move.
ment to enlist all Ireland in the world
war for British ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, and
these two honorable gentlemen swore
like Plate of old they knew not the
man, Sir Roger Easement. Curious
avowal from two such we'll informed
leaders" of the Irish people.
Finally, after much search in Israel,
Miss O'Reilly found out all about Sir
Roger Easement from another Sir-the
novelist Arthur Conan Doyle. She de-
votes nearly column to giving us in
innate personal and sacred details of
the Ulster family of Easement and of
the work of Sir Roger in the interests
of the British Government, for twenty
five years exiled from Ireland search
ing out facts in the rubber traffic of
Belgium with the natives.
In an incoherent fashion Miss O'Reil-
ly jumps from a detailed description
of Sir Rogers efforts in 1914. to get
the German line of steamships to re-
place the Cunard line stopping at Irish
ports to the amazing statement which
cite verbatim: Half an hours talk
with him was enough to prove that he
understood the Southern Irish even
less than do we Irish-Americans-
which is not at ALL" l wonder how
the same Southern Irish readers of
the Boston American, among whom
Miss O'Reilly's father made his home
from the date of his settling in Bos-
ton in January, 1870. to his death in
August, 1890, and with whom he lived
in harmony and love and absolute un-
,derstanding, appreciated and relished
this f1ippant statement.
James Jeffrey Roche states in the
biography of John Boyle OReilly, that
Miss Mary Boyle O'Reilly was born
May IS, 1878, so before the writing Of
this facetious letter on the Sim Fein
mutiny she must have celebrated her
forty-third birthday on the soil of her
father. Coming from the pen of ma
ture woman of the world, with career
of cosmopolitan variety. to boot this
absurd admission stands out in pec,l-
liar light Her father evidently un.
derstood the Southern Irish, though
wearing the Queens uniform of the
Tenth Hussars, he took the Fenian
oath Of allegiance to an Irish Republic
from the hands of John Dewey in DC.
tober of 1865, for which oath O'Reilly
served four years of penal punishment
in British prisons and on the convict
ship Hougomont and in the Australian
bush. He understood the Southern
Irish" when, through the untiring eff.
forts Of Rev. P. McCabe and the Ma.
CURES, he made his escape to America
on the Gazelle and the Sapphire, and
4 was warmly welcomed in America by
] the Fenians, who made an idol of him
H everywhere he went.
With utter Inconsistency Miss
O'Reilly goes on to tell that she first