Enlistment in the Tenth Hussars
Poet involved
What happened
In May 1863, after returning to Ireland from Preston in March, O'Reilly enlisted as a trooper in the Tenth Hussars (the Prince of Wales's Own), then stationed in Drogheda. He was nineteen and joined the British Army specifically as a Fenian agent to recruit Irish soldiers to the revolutionary cause.
Literary impact
This dangerous double life as a soldier and a revolutionary spy provided O'Reilly with intimate knowledge of military life and the psychology of men under authority, which later informed the martial themes and the tension between duty and conscience in his poetry. His experience of subversion from within gave his work an authenticity that resonated with Irish nationalists.
Source: Wikisource
