Riley's Death
Unlike the film portrayal of Riley in One Man's Hero it can be surmised that the circumstance of Riley's life after the war were not very pleasant.
Robert Ryal Miller, author of Shamrock and Sword (1989), found Riley's death certificate in book of burials No. 6, entry 133, of the then parish (now cathedral) of Veracruz. Like Riley's Mexican army records, it refers to the name "Juan Reley". It reads:
"In the H. city of Veracruz, on the thirty first of August of eighteen hundred and fifty, I, Don Ignacio Jose Jimenez, curate of the parish church of the Assumption of Our Lady, buried in the general cemetery the body of Juan Reley, of forty five years of age, a native of Ireland, unmarried, parents unknown; died as a result of drunkenness, without sacraments, and I signed it."
Read more about this topic: Jon Riley
Famous quotes containing the words riley and/or death:
“the ache here in the throat,
To know that I so ill deserve the place
Her arms make for me;”
—James Whitcomb Riley (1849–1916)
“It is a strange, strange fate, and now, as I stand face to face with death I feel just as if they were going to kill a boy. For I feel like a boy—and my hands so free from blood and my heart always so compassionate and pitiful that I cannot comprehend how anyone wants to hang me.”
—Roger Casement (1864–1916)