Sir, - Vincent Morley (June 2nd) implies by omission that Alexander O'Reilly (Don Alejandro O'Reilly, Knight Commander of the Order of Alcantara) had a quiet time in Havana from 1763 to 1775. The contrary, however, was the case, for in 1764 he was sent to Puerto Rico to organise the militia, in 1765 recalled to Spain to quell riots in Madrid, and in 1769 was sent by Charles III to sort out the rebel French colonists in the vast new Spanish acquisition of Louisiana.
Arising from the zealous manner in which he dealt with the problem, he is known to this day in New Orleans as "Bloody O'Reilly". He has been referred to by various 19th-century French historians as "the barbarian" and "the hired executioner".
However, 20th-century writers tend to be kinder and there is a very objective view of O'Reilly, his life and times in a short monograph by David Ker Taxada, published in 1970 by the University of Southwestern Louisiana, entitled Alejandro O'Reilly and the New Orleans Rebels.
Alexander was born in Baltrasna, Co Meath in 1722, the son of Thomas O'Reilly, a lieutenant in Reilly's Dragoons - a brigade of the Spanish Army. By the tender age of 10 he was already a cadet in the Spanish infantry. - Yours, etc.,
John E. O'Reilly, Rosemount, Enniskerry, Co Wicklow.