'I shall never forget his delivery of his “In Bohemia” at...the Papyrus Club, when, though not unaware that the creed was fustian, I subscribed unreservedly under the spell of the moment to the ardor of his rapturous eloquence....With what passionate faith did he proceed, and when he reached the glowing, relentless close, it was impossible not to feel that one was listening to a seer…What a tumult of applause when he sat down. I was stirred to the depths, though dimly aware that I was under a spell.'
- The writer Robert Grant describes his reaction an O'Reilly recitation.
'I am sick of the showy seeming
Of a life that is half a lie;
Of the faces lined with scheming
In the throng that hurries by.
From the sleepless thoughts' endeavour,
I would go where the children play;
For a dreamer lives forever,
And a thinker dies in a day.'
- A verse from O'Reilly's 'The Cry of the Dreamer'