‘A rumor went through the prison…However it came is a mystery, but there did come a rumor to the prison, even to the dark cells, of a ship sailing for Australia! Australia! the ship! Another chance for the old dreams; and the wild thought was wilder than ever, and not half so stealthy.’
- O'Reilly Describing the moment he realised that he was to be transported to Australia, 1867
'Home, friends, all that I loved in the world were there, almost beside me, - there, ‘under the sun’ and I, for loving them, a hunted, outlawed fugitive, an escaped convict, was sailing away from all I treasured, - perhaps, forever.'
- O'Reilly, an escaped convict, describes the moment he sees the coast of Ireland for what proves to be the last time, 1869