Sidney Reilly, often called the “Ace of Spies,” was one of the most enigmatic figures in early 20th-century espionage. A Ukrainian Jew born around 1873 in Odessa, then part of the Russian Empire, Reilly’s real surname was Rosenblum.
He later reinvented himself as Sidney George Reilly and claimed, without evidence,that he was born in Clonmel. He claimed that his father was - variously - an Irish merchant seaman, an Irish clergyman or an aristocratic landowner. It seems that Reilly’s Clonmel identity may have been created for him by a real Irish master spy, William Melville from Sneem, Co. Kerry, who was head of Scotland Yard’s Special Branch (forerunner to MI5 and MI6).
Reilly became a key agent for the Secret Service Bureau, and his exploits spanned continents. He allegedly secured vital oil concessions for Britain in Persia in 1902 by posing as a Catholic priest on the French Riviera. Before the First World War, he infiltrated German naval circles through his work with a shipbuilding firm in St. Petersburg. During the war, he operated in New York to counter German sabotage and secure munitions for the Allies. In 1918, he was involved in the so-called Lockhart Plot, an attempt to overthrow Lenin’s Bolshevik government, but narrowly escaped capture.
Reilly’s life was marked by charm, deception, and danger. He was a compulsive liar and womaniser, with multiple marriages and affairs under various identities. His audacity eventually led him into a Soviet sting operation known as “The Trust.” In late 1925, he was captured by Stalin’s secret police. He spent his last days under questioning in Moscow’s Lubyanka prison, where in keeping with along-established Tipperary cover story, he claimed to have been born in Clonmel. He was executed on 5 November 1925 in a forest outside Moscow. His death was announced shortly afterward, though rumours persisted that he had somehow survived.
Reilly’s daring missions and glamorous persona made him a legend in his own lifetime and is said to have inspired Ian Fleming, a desk-bound naval intelligence officer, while he was creating James Bond. While Bond’s world is fiction, Reilly’s was reality—filled with intrigue, betrayal, and high-stakes gambles. His fabricated Clonmel connection remains a curious footnote in the story of a man who lived like a character from a spy novel.
Sources:
https://www.independent.ie/news/the-irish-spy-who-inspired-james-bond/26038167.html
https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-742103
https://www.facebook.com/Wistorical/photos/sidney-reilly-ace-of-spies5-november-marks-the-90th-anniversary-of-the-execution/930375243736537/?_rdr
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irish-diary/2025/11/06/the-death-of-reilly-frank-mcnally-on-the-demise-of-reilly-ace-of-spies-100-years-ago/
