Background
Although associated with east County Galway in some sources, O'Reilly was born in Galway City, living at the junction of Eyre Street and Suckeen (now St Brendan's Avenue).
Although associated with east County Galway in some sources, O'Reilly was born in Galway City, living at the junction of Eyre Street and Suckeen (now St Brendan's Avenue).
He also taught the piper Peter Kelly. He kept a dance hall in the Suckeen for some years before it was forcibly closed by a local priest. Francis O'Neill who published a short biography of him in 1913 wrote that "Sightless and old and unable to make a living by other means than music, he was obliged, like many another unfortunate Irish minstrel, to take refuge in the poorhouse as his only escape from starvation."
His performance - under the heading Large Concert Hall of the Rotunda - was described in a Dublin newspaper as follows:
Following this he performed at a number of concerts in various towns around Ireland, such as the Belfast Harp Festival of 1903.
A photograph was taken of him by a Father Fielding in Dublin, which in 1907 became the frontispeice for O'Neill's Dance Music of Ireland. O'Reilly however ended up back in the poorhouse, in Gort, where he died in 1904.