Among the many literary men who owed gratitude to O'Reilly was George Parsons Lathrop, who wrote from
Except for the loss of my father, and that of my own and only son, I have never suffered one more bitter than that inflicted by the death of my dear and noble and most beloved Boyle O'Reilly. He is a great rook torn out of the foundations of my life. Nothing will ever replace that powerful prop, that magnificent buttress. I wish we could make all the people in the world stand still and think and feel about this rare, great, exquisite-souled man until they should fully comprehend him.
Boyle was the greatest man, the finest heart and soul I knew in Boston, and my most dear friend.It would require a larger volume even than this to contain all of the tributes of praise given to the dead journalist by the newspapers of the United States, Canada, Australia, Ireland, and England itself. Never was the worth of a great man so generally recognized. Lines of race, and creed, and party were forgotten when men wrote of this man, whose broad charity had known no such distinctions.
Universal as was the grief at his loss, it was felt most keenly by the people of his own race in America, for whose welfare he had wrought throughout his whole noble life. The Irish societies in all parts of the country held memorial meetings and passed resolutions of regret and condolence.
In the land of his birth he was mourned as deeply as in that of his adoption. A meeting of the Parnellite members was held in the House of Commons on August 11, Michael Davitt, T. P. O'Connor, Professor Stuart, and others testifying to the great services of the dead patriot in Ireland's cause. At the National League meeting in Dublin on the following day, John Dillon briefly recounted the life and achievements of his friend and fellow patriot, and told how he himself had endeavored to obtain O'Reilly's consent to apply to the Government for permission to revisit his native land, O'Reilly refused to grant that consent; "and,"
