Margaret O'Reilly

Margaret, a Catholic, grew up as the daughter of a poor Irish farmer. One day, while she was tending to the field, William O'Reilly, the Protestant landlord of the area, happened upon her, and they spoke. He seemed quite taken by her beauty, but at the time, resentment and problems brewed between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland. As if that would not be cause enough to stop William, the poor were not allowed above their station. Margaret would have lived out a very different life, but William refused to follow the guidelines of etiquette, and he proposed to her. Margaret accepted, and with her at his side, many of the issues around Skibbereen between rich and poor, Protestant and Catholic, abated for some time. Brone Lorcan farmed the same land, and knew Margaret, and she introduced him, personally, to William. They formed a friendship, and peace reigned in the area, until the Great Famine.

Because of the evil machinations of the witches, Eleanora Blackwood and Anathema Sadsallow, the crops withered and rotted, and The O’Reilly’s tenants could not pay their rent. The same happened all over Ireland, but William thought on his feet, and took as much money as he could, rounded up his servants, and took to the United States. While not as wealthy as they had been, he and Margaret had a small fortune. They set up a home near Wakefield, New York, far from the big city, and settled into a quiet life. Though things were well for them, Margaret especially felt guilty about not being able to save so many of the people and farms back in their home country. However, one day the husband and wife met Brone, by chance, in New York City. Feeling that she could at least help one of her old friends, she asked Anaximanes Ravenhurst if he needed any servants saying that Brone could make a good butler. It worked, and Brone was forever grateful for her interceding on his behalf. She lived there in New York State the rest of her life, and had four children with William. That lineage would eventually lead to Walter Riley.