Thomas Devin Reilly(Tomás Damhán Ó Raghailligh) (30 March 1824 – 5 March 1854) was anIrish revolutionary,Young Irelander and journalist.
Thomas Devin Reilly was born inMonaghan Town on 30 March 1824, the son of Thomas Reilly, a solicitor with a large practice in both Monaghan and Dublin. His early education was spent at Huddart's seminary inUsher's Quay, Dublin, and in 1842, would enrol inTrinity College, Dublin.[1] According toJohn Mitchel, Reilly, at the age of fifteen, "was attacked by a fit of some kind resemblingapoplexy."[2] In 1845, Devin Reilly would join the editorial staff ofThe Nation, becoming a regular contributor. The chief editor ofThe Nation,Charles Gavan Duffy, wrote of Devin Reilly in his memoirs,Four Years In Irish History[3]:
"...outspoken to a charm, perhaps to a fault. He was middle-sized, but strongly built, with a head that seemed unduly large even for his sturdy frame, a great crop of light hair, and large, full, protruding blue eyes. He was a big, clumsy, careless, explosive boy in appearance, but he possessed a range of ideas and a vigour of expression which made him a companion for men."
Among Devin Reilly's contributions forThe Nation included a critically acclaimed review of the French socialist and historianLouis Blanc's book,Histoire de Dix Ans (History of Ten Years: 1830-1840).John Savage wrote of Devin Reilly's contributions toThe Nation that he had "by his powerful pen, written his burly figure into a front rank."[4]
Devin Reilly was also a founding member of theIrish Confederation, having leftDaniel O'Connell'sRepeal Association in the famous walkout from Conciliation Hall in 1846. He would deliver two fiery speeches to the Confederation, promptingJames Fintan Lalor, in a letter to Mitchel in June 1847,[5] to write:
"Who, what and where is Devin Reilly? He made two speeches at the Confederation, which is all I know of him. If the man be equal to the speeches – not always the case – he ought to be the foremost man in the Confederation."
Mitchel, in particular, would prove to be Devin Reilly's closest ally and friend in Young Ireland with both chafing under the constitutionalist programme of the Confederation, and when Mitchel tendered his resignation from bothThe Nation and the Confederation in quick succession in late 1847, Devin Reilly followed suit and would join the editorial staff of Mitchel'sphysical force republican newspaper,The United Irishman,[6] in February 1848. One of Devin Reilly's most notorious articles would be "The French Fashion," which Mitchel himself regarded as "one of the most telling revolutionary documents ever penned."The United Irishman would run for only sixteen issues, before the paper was suppressed and Mitchel was convicted under theTreason Felony Act 1848. Devin Reilly would be briefly arrested on suspicion of having unlawfully engaged in drilling and training exercises with members of the Confederates through the streets of Dublin, although would be released without charge.[7]
Devin Reilly would then write forJohn Martin'sThe Irish Felon,[8] continuing to promote physical force republicanism untilThe Irish Felon was also suppressed by the authorities. In early July 1848, Devin Reilly would be elected to a five-man executive of the Confederate Clubs, who were organising for an insurrection. Travelling throughKilkenny andTipperary alongsideWilliam Smith O'Brien andMichael Doheny to muster men, Devin Reilly would play a role in the failedYoung Ireland Rebellion atBallingarry, County Tipperary.[1]
Following the defeat of the rebels, Devin Reilly would in the aftermath quietly escape to America, fleeing Dublin disguised as a groom, arriving inNew York City in December 1848.
Upon his arrival in New York, he became active in US political affairs in support of Irish independence.[9]
He is reported as having foundedThe People newspaper inNew York City which folded after six months in 1849.[10]
James Connolly claims that as the editor of theProtective Union labour rights newspaper for the printers ofBoston, Devin Reilly was a pioneer of American labour journalism and thatHorace Greeley believed of his series of articles in theAmerican Review on the European situation "that if collected and published as a book, they would create a revolution in Europe".[11]
It is possible that Connolly has confused theUnited States Magazine And Democratic Review, which was known for its political activism, with theAmerican Review, which for a time hadEdgar Allan Poe as an editorial assistant - other sources refer to Devin Reilly being editor of the New YorkDemocratic Review and later theWashington Union.[12]
He died in 1854 at the age of 30 and is buried atMount Olivet Cemetery inWashington, D.C., together with his infant child Mollie and wife Jennie Miller fromEnniskillen.[9]
In a speech to theIrish Confederation delivered on 21 April 1847:[13]
"You are all slaves. ‘Tis time you should learn the truth – ‘tis time you should open your eyes to your own abasement, and open your hearts to the sorrows of your country. False flatterers – sycophants of your vices – have told you, you are a brave and a noble people – that you are the bravest and noblest people of Europe, and so forth. Now, I, one of you – one of the class, in false language, called “the people” – one, too, of that native race which the English government proposes to brush off the Irish soil – tell you, you are no such thing. You are nobles, citizens, merchants, farmers, beggars, and all – what your present masters and owners call you – an inferior caste, because they are your masters and owners. You are at this present moment the most humiliated, the most pitiable, the most helpless, the most despised people, with a white skin, on the face of God’s whole earth...So, even should Irish Nationality perish for ever – should our race and name be indeed extinguished – should the memories of our fathers, the murder of our brothers, sink unavenged into the eternity of chaos – should the green island of ocean sparkle no more with verdure, but glisten in the Atlantic with the whitening bones of her children – even so, the world will recognise in the nobility of our death a grand example of patriotism and manhood; and Heaven itself, moved to tears and wrath, looking down upon the land where we fell, will avenge the fate of a nation of heroes."
Writing inThe Irish Felon on theJune 1848 uprising in France :-[11]
"We are not Communists - we abhor communism for the same reason we abhor poor-law systems, and systems founded on the absolute sovereignty of wealth. Communism destroys the independence and dignity of labour, makes the workingman a State pauper and takes his manhood from him. But, communism or no communism, these 70,000 workmen had a clear right to existence - they had the best right to existence of any men in France, and if they could have asserted their right by force of arms they would have been fully justified. The social system in which a man willing to work is compelled to starve, is a blasphemy, an anarchy, and no system. For the present these victims of monarchic rule, disowned by the republic, are conquered; 10,000 are slain, 20,000 perhaps doomed to the Marquesas. But for all that the rights of labour are not conquered, and will not and cannot be conquered. Again and again the labourer will rise up against the idler - the workingmen will meet this bourgeoisie, and grapple and war with them till their equality is established, not in word, but in fact".