Moondyne: A Story of Convict Life in WA

Moondyne Joe: A story of Convict Life in Western Australia - John Boyle O'Reilly

$17.00

John Boyle O'Reilly was born beside Dowth Castle, near Drogheda, Ireland, on 28 June 1844. After becoming a reporter for the Preston Guardian in England he returned to Ireland where he became a trooper with the Tenth Hussars. His intention was to persuade Irish soldiers in the British Army to join the Fenian or Irish Republican Movement, which sought to stop British oppression of the Irish People.

For his activities he was arrested and sentenced to death. This sentence was finally commuted to twenty years of penal servitude and in 1868 O'Reilly was transported to Australia as a political prisoner aboard the Hougoumont.

After little more than a year in Western Australia, O'Reilly escaped to America and became a popular lecturer for the Irish cause and minority groups.