DICTIONARY OF NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY
REILLY, or more properly REILY, HUGH (d. 1695?), political writer, was born in co. Cavan, and became master in chancery and clerk of the council in Ireland in James II's reign. He went to France with James II, and is said to have been appointed lord chancellor of Ireland at the exiled king's court at St. Germains. In 1695 Reilly published ‘Ireland's Case briefly stated’ (12mo, 2 pts.), without place on the title-page; another edition, also without place, appeared in 1720. It gives an account of the conduct and misfortunes of the Roman catholics in Ireland from the reign of Elizabeth to that of James II, and complains of the neglect they suffered under Charles II. The statements throughout are general, and few dates or particular facts are given. The last speech of Oliver Plunket [q. v.] is added. It is said that James II, offended by the tone of Reilly's book, dismissed him from his service. He is believed to have died in the year 1695.
The ‘Impartial History of Ireland’ (London, 1754) is a reprint of Reilly's ‘Ireland's Case,’ and it was again issued under the same title at Dublin in 1787, and as the ‘Genuine History of Ireland’ at Dublin in 1799 and in 1837. Burke's speech at the Bristol election of 1780 is printed with the edition of 1787, and a memoir of Daniel O'Connell with that of 1837. The form, paper, and type show that it was intended for the populace in Ireland; it was long almost the only printed argument in favour of Irish Roman catholics.
[Sir James Ware's Works, ed. Harris, Dublin, 1764; Reilly's Ireland's Case. ]
REILLY, THOMAS DEVIN (1824–1854), Irish revolutionary writer, was the son of Thomas Reilly, a solicitor, who obtained the office of taxing-master for his services to the liberal party. The younger Reilly was born in the town of Monaghan on 30 March 1824. He was educated there and at Trinity College, Dublin, but did not take a degree. In Dublin he renewed an early acquaintanceship with his fellow-townsman, Charles Gavan Duffy, and through him became known to the leading Young Irelanders. He sent contributions to the ‘Nation,’ and in 1845 joined its staff, writing in it fiery and eloquent articles. He became devotedly attached to John Mitchel [q. v.], but did not work well with the other members of the advanced nationalist party, and especially disliked Thomas D'Arcy McGee [q. v.] When Mitchel broke off his connection with the ‘Nation’ in December 1847, Reilly followed his example, and became early in 1848 a contributor to Mitchel's newly established paper, the ‘United Irishman.’ A violent article by Reilly, entitled ‘The French Fashion,’ which appeared in the paper on 4 March 1848, formed one count in the indictment on which Mitchel was subsequently tried. Mitchel declared Reilly's article, for which ‘he was forced to undergo all the responsibility—legal, personal, and moral’—to be ‘one of the most telling revolutionary documents ever penned.’ Reilly escaped from Ireland to New York in 1848, and contributed to the Irish-American papers. For two years he edited the New York ‘Democratic Review,’ and afterwards the presidential organ, the ‘Washington Union.’ He died suddenly in Washington on 6 March 1854, and was buried in Mount Olivet cemetery. In May 1881 a fine monument was placed over his grave by the Irishmen of that city. On 30 March 1850 he married Jennie Miller in Providence,
