'I wrote these slips before I knew my fate, and I have nothing more to say, only God's holy will be done! If I only knew that you would not grieve for me I'd be perfectly happy and content.'
- O'Reilly to his parents while awaiting his Court Martial, 1866
'Better the old dungeon, with its gloom; better for the sake of humanity. The new prison is a cage - a hideous hive of order and commonplace severity, where the flooding sunlight is a derision, and the barred door only a securer means of confinement.'
- O'Reilly describing life in Millbank Prison, 1878