Social Reformer. Irish Republican Brotherhood member who enlisted in the British Army in Dublin in 1865 to recruit Irish rebels. Convicted of treason by a Dublin court martial in 1866, he was transported to Australia in 1867, in the last group of convicts sent there from England. He escaped on an American whaling ship to the USA in 1868 and became editor and proprietor of the Boston Pilot newspaper and a poet, novelist, man of letters and Irish American leader. He defended Irish rebels, Native Americans, and opposed anti-semitism and racism. He was also a prominent promoter of amateur sports. His death in Hull, Massachusetts, was a cause for public mourning in Boston. (bio by: Peter Holloran)