John James O’Reilly was born on 18 September 1883 in Corlattylennon, Shercock, Co. Cavan to Terence O’Reilly and Margaret Mary Winifred Smith. He was their second child after his sister Frances. Nine more siblings would follow.
In 1911, at twenty-seven years old he was still living with his parents and five siblings and presumably he would take over the family farm when his father died. However according to a neighbour he was not cut out for farming, he was a tall man who walked with a limp, it is unknown how he acquired it. He was a bright man and developed his own political ideas that he expressed through letters to the local newspaper, The Anglo Celt. His father died in 1926, his obituary stated that he was an uncompromising Unionist and always maintained that the breaking of the Union would prove a 'financial disaster to Ireland’. His father’s views were contrary to his republican views and those of his only brother Bernard who was a ‘Free Stater’.
John James was a member of the Bailieborough Rural District Council and he lived in William Street, Bailieborough. In June 1928 he was nominated along with fifty-eight others for thirty-two seats for Cavan Co. Council. As a new political aspirant he was up against seasoned administrators. However he may have been buoyed up by the fact that his first cousin Dr. J. J. O’Reilly from Tullyvin was a Cumann na nGaedheal deputy in Dail Eireann from 1925 (who served until 1957).
He stood as an independent candidate in the Bailieborough area where fifteen candidates ran for nine seats and unfortunately he did not succeed. Those elected in the Bailieborough area were John W. Vogan (Protestant Association), Patrick Farrell (lndependent), Colonel Clements (P.A.), John McCabe (National League), Owen Cooney (Fianna Fail), Eugene Carroll (F.F.), Patrick McQuaid (lnd.), Frank McKeon (Ind.) and Owen Sheridan (F.F.).
By 1929, his mother was living on the family farm with his brother Bernard, Bernard’s wife Bridget and their two children, two other sisters and a niece were most likely also living with them. Four of his sisters had previously emigrated to America. He must have felt he had limited prospects in Ireland as he departed from Belfast on 1 June 1929 on ‘The Melita’ and arrived in Quebec on 8 June 1929. He was going to J. Mahood, whose family were originally from Drumhilla, Shercock, they were neighbours and good friends. They lived in Poplar Garden Dairy, Box 1835, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
It is not known what John James worked at in Canada.
He died on 6 November 1949. The following notice in The Calgary Daily Herald, on 9 November 1949, stated:
‘John O'Reilly, 61, 221 10th Ave. E., died Sunday in the General Hospital. Mr. O'Reilly was born in Ireland and had lived in Calgary for the last 20 years. Requiem high mass will be celebrated Thursday at 9 a.m. in St. Mary's Cathedral. Burial will be in St. Mary's Cemetery’.
Carmel O’Callaghan (grand-niece).
| Additional Information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Date of Birth | 1st Sep 1883 | VIEW SOURCE |
| Date of Death | 1st Nov 1949 | VIEW SOURCE |
