A political prisoner, John Boyle O'Reilly (1844-1890) was deported to Australia by the English government to serve 20 years of penal servitude. He managed a daring escape and his reputation preceeded him to Boston where he became an influential political correspondant on the Pilot as well as an author of books on diverse subjects. The prestigious emigrant's contributions were also memorialized in an earlier monument in Boston by Daniel Chester French.