Page:A Memorial of John Boyle O'Reilly from the City of Boston.djvu/27

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This immense assembly, filling this spacious temple, is itself a proof that we have come together to do honor to the memory of an extraordinary man. The man is John Boyle O'Reilly, whose untimely death we mourn, and whose departure is a loss to Ireland and America, and to humanity.

John Boyle O'Reilly was a many-sided personage. His character presented many phases to the public eye. A natural humanitarian, he was a Christian philanthropist. He was an Irish patriot and an American citizen. He was a true poet and an instructive public lecturer, a successful journalist and a patron of art, and an authority in athletic games.

While it is my privilege to allude to these various attributes of the departed, it is my duty to leave the treatment of them in detail to the speakers that are to follow me. Representing the Catholic clergy of this city, I will confine myself to an estimate of the man and his services to the Catholic Church. These services were many and very great, but to fully appreciate them we must call to mind some of his personal characteristics, for his most valuable services were the result of the influence these gave him. His abilities were as varied as his career was chequered and romantic. The halo of martyrdom in the cause of popular liberty was about his head. His engaging