Thomas Devin Reilly (Tomás Damhán Ó Raghailligh) (30 March 1824 – 5 March 1854) was an Irish revolutionary, Young Irelander and journalist. Early life and Young Ireland Thomas Devin Reilly was born in Monaghan Town on 30 March 1824, the son of Thomas Reilly, a solicitor with a large practice in both Monaghan and Dublin. His early education was spent at Huddart's seminary in Usher's Quay, Dublin, and in 1842, would enrol in Trinity College, Dublin. According to John Mitchel, Reilly, at the age of fifteen, "was attacked by a fit of some kind resembling apoplexy." In 1845, Devin Reilly would join the editorial staff of The Nation, becoming a regular contributor. The chief editor of The Nation, Charles Gavan Duffy, wrote of Devin Reilly in his memoirs, Four Years In Irish History: Among Devin Reilly's contributions for The Nation included a critically acclaimed review of the French socialist and historian Louis Blanc's book, Histoire de Dix Ans (History of Ten Years: 1830-1840). John Savage wrote of Devin Reilly's contributions to The Nation that he had "by his powerful pen, written his burly figure into a front rank." Devin Reilly was also a founding member of the Irish Confederation, having left Daniel O'Connell's Repeal Association in the famous walkout from Conciliation Hall in 1846. He would deliver two fiery speeches to the Confederation, prompting James Fintan Lalor, in a letter to Mitchel in June 1847, to write: Mitchel, in particular, would prove to be Devin Reilly's closest ally and friend in Young Ireland with both chafing under the constitutionalist programme of the Confederation, and when Mitchel tendered his resignation from both The Nation and the Confederation in quick succession in late 1847, Devin Reilly followed suit and would join the editorial staff of Mitchel's physical force republican newspaper, The United Irishman, in February 1848. One of Devin Reilly's most notorious articles would be "The French Fashion," which Mitchel himself regarded as "one of the most telling revolutionary documents ever penned." The United Irishman would run for only sixteen issues, before the paper was suppressed and Mitchel was convicted under the Treason Felony Act of 1848. Devin Reilly would be briefly arrested on suspicion of having unlawfully engaged in drilling and training exercises with members of the Confederates through the streets of Dublin, although would be released without charge. Devin Reilly would then write for John Martin's The Irish Felon, continuing