A Life in Two Hemispheres. John Boyle OReilly 1844-1890 was as Irish-born poet, journalist, fiction-writer, member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood/Fenians, political /civil rights activist, and the accepted voice and leader of the Irish American exiles. Wherever the Irish diaspora are to be found there too exists the Boyle OReilly Club, as the name plays host to Gaelic/athletic clubs in areas all over the world. At 17 he was a stenographer in England at 19 a soldier in the 10th Hussars at 22 in prison, by 30 a journalist and poet and then by 35 he was the leader of the Irish cause in America.