Thomas Devin Reilly, Journalist and Editor, Is Born in Co. Monaghan

Thomas Devin Reilly (30 March 1824 – 5 March 1854) was an Irish revolutionary, Young Irelander and journalist.

Thomas Devin Reilly was born in Monaghan 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 in Usher’s Quay, Dublin, and in 1842, would enrol in Trinity College, Dublin.

According to John Mitchel, Reilly, at the age of fifteen, “was attacked by a fit of some kind resembling apoplexy.”

In 1845, Devin Reilly would join the editorial staff of The Nation, becoming a regular contributor. The chief editor of The Nation, Charles Gavan Duffy, wrote of Devin Reilly in his memoirs, Four Years In Irish History:

“…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.”