Patricia Anne Reilly • 2/22/1948 - 6/6/2026

 Patricia “Pat” Reilly, a widely respected journalist, Peace Corps volunteer, civic leader,

historian, tireless champion of Irish arts and culture whose vision supported and strengthened countless organizations and good causes, passed away on Saturday, June 6, at her home in Middleburg, VA. She was 78.

 Pat had an unwavering commitment to communities devoted to democracy, human rights, public service, and social justice. She was a devoted daughter, sister, aunt and friend and a talented writer and meticulous editor. Her work appeared in a number of national, regional and local publications, including The Washington Post, where she was as an editor on the national desk for a dozen years.

 The daughter of Hugh Joseph Reilly and Anne Josephine (Quinn) Reilly, immigrants

from Ireland, Pat was born on February 22, 1948 in Englewood, NJ, where she grew up. She

graduated from St. Cecilia High School in Englewood, earned a Bachelor’s degree in English Education at Truman University in Missouri and a Masters degree in Journalism at Ohio

University.

 Pat served as a US Peace Corps Volunteer teaching English at Bassa High School in

Buchanan, Liberia, from 1972-1975. On returning to the U.S., she was a Peace Corps recruiter in New York City and on the campus of Ohio University, while earning her Masters.

 Her Peace Corps experience became a lifelong commitment as she remained involved

with Friends of Liberia. She was on the executive committee for more than 20 years as the

former social/alumni group transformed itself into a force for advocating peace in Liberia

throughout the 1990s.

 Since 1998, Pat helped to design and secure funding for the Liberian Education

Assistance Project, LEAP, a teacher-training project focused on early childhood education in

Liberian schools that ran successfully until 2014, when it transitioned to a Liberian-led program.

The project sent master U.S. teachers annually to Liberia to train primary grade teachers.

  In 2014, she helped establish Liberia’s Family Literacy Initiative, which is an internationally recognized model that continues today under Friends of Liberia’s partnership with a Liberian non-governmental organization. She was on the Education Working Group that oversaw the Family Literacy Initiative.

 During the Ebola crisis of 2014-2015, she helped raise $100,000, which was awarded in

small grants to communities working on prevention and treatment. She also was on the Ebola Task Force of the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA), which awarded $80,000 to

communities fighting Ebola in three countries.

 She was the former Chair of the board of the National Peace Corps Association, the

alumni organization for U.S. Peace Corps members. She edited “Liberian Cookhouse Cooking,” a popular cookbook that has raised money for Friends of Liberia projects. Pat also contributed to an anthology for Peace Corps Liberia. She was instrumental in helping put together the 40th anniversary celebration of the Peace Corps in 2001 and many other activities, including events to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Peace Corps in Liberia in 2022, which was her final visit back.

 Pat was a longtime member of the RPCV alumni groups in the DMV - Northern Virginia

Returned Peace Corps Volunteers and the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Washington DC. She was active in the local chapter of the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Washington, D.C. and Northern Virginia.

 Her first job in journalism was at The Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record in 1981.

She continued to work as a reporter and editor for over 20 years at five U.S. newspapers,

including the Washington Post and New York Newsday. She was recruited to the Post in 1990

where she worked as an editor on the national desk until 2002.

 In retirement, she continued to write for local publications. For the last eight years, she

was a regular contributor to Country Zest & Style, a popular lifestyle magazine based in

Middleburg. The editor, Len Shapiro, said Pat “wrote wonderful pieces, she could write about anything.” 

 Her last published story ran in the recent summer issue of ZEST, a delightful story

featuring a middle school boy who had just witnessed a robbery at a Middleburg bank.

  Pat oversaw the final editing and production of a book written by her late husband, Richard “Dick” Irish—“Allies and Adversaries: Churchill and the Man Who Would be France” and

published it as an e-book later in 2018.

 After leaving the Washington Post, Pat worked as a public affairs officer for the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency and as a national spokesperson for U.S. Immigration &

Customs Enforcement for 10 years. She helped launch the Intellectual Property Rights Center when it first opened and raised the visibility of the cultural property investigations unit and organized many artifact repatriation ceremonies with numerous countries. She retired from the Department of Homeland Security in 2011.

 After retirement, Pat joined the board of Solas Nua, a non-profit organization dedicated

to showcasing contemporary Irish art. She directed the annual Capital Irish Film Festival from

2015-2023, helping transform it into one of the premier showcases of Irish cinema in the U.S.

 Pat was a tireless advocate for Irish arts and culture, and her vision, leadership, boundless enthusiasm and dedication helped shape both Solas Nua and the Capital Irish Film Festival into vibrant institutions. She championed Irish filmmakers, fostered cultural connections between Ireland and the U.S., and built a welcoming home for Irish storytelling on screen. Her impact on the Irish arts communities in Washington, D.C. and Ireland will be felt for many years.

 Pat also was an active Progressive, an ardent Democrat and fierce supporter of human

rights and social justice. She dedicated many hours to Democratic candidates and causes and served as a precinct captain. One friend described the breadth of her civic life by saying, “She was a walking Bill of Rights.”

 Pat was active in the League of Women Voters, especially the Prince William–Fauquier

Area chapter. She first served as media relations adviser to the board. From 2023-2025, she

served as its president and from 2025-2026 as co-president.

 Pat was constantly working to keep members current on legislative actions and with

League activities around the state, volunteering to register young people at community colleges and manning voter registration booths throughout Fauquier and Prince William counties. She believed in the League's nonpartisan stance, balancing that with her personal political beliefs.

She fought long and hard to support and expand American democracy.

 Pat and her husband were members of Trinity Episcopal Church in Upperville. After his

death in 2016, she joined Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Middleburg, where she served on the vestry, was elected senior warden, and took on innumerable volunteer roles, frequently involving publicity and community outreach.

 In the fall of 2025, Pat co-led Emmanuel’s oral history project, which has produced over

a dozen interviews with parishioners and townspeople on the life of the church, its people, and its historic place in the town. One of her favorite church contributions was to lead the Prayers of the People in Sunday services, a role to which she brought dignity and solemnity.

 She also volunteered regularly with the Friends of Fauquier library which operates a used book store in Warrenton and helps promote literacy. She served with the Hunt Country Society of Gardeners and was a member of the Middleburg Forum and Cosmopolitan Club in Washington, D.C.

 Pat met Dick Irish during her years with the Peace Corps. They married in 2006 and

spent 10 loving years together on their farm, “Raya” with their beloved pets, Clara and Midnight, in Marshall, VA. Pat resided in Marshall for 10 more years before recently moving to Middleburg, VA.

 Pat was fiercely proud of her Irish heritage and traveled regularly to Ireland, including

her family's ancestral Donegal. She loved history, culture, genealogy, reading, writing, theater, film, and water yoga. She subscribed to theater seasons, including at Arena Stage and the Kennedy Center, and attended the Irish Film Festival and Middleburg Film Festival.

 She also traveled with family and friends to Costa Rica, St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands,

Morocco and Iceland among many other destinations. She was an animal lover all her life and will always be remembered as a serial sender of cards. She was outgoing, quick-witted,

independent, and made a lasting impression on all who met her. She will be greatly missed by her family and by countless friends she made throughout her life.

 Pat was preceded in death by her husband, Richard “Dick” Irish, her parents and siblings, Peggy and Ginny. She is survived by her sister Mary Jane, niece Jennie, and husband Nathan, nephew John, and wife Nikki, niece Michelle and extended family in Ireland and Saratoga, NY. She was adored by her grandnieces and grandnephew, Sara, Jacky and Matthew.

 The family requests that donations be made in Pat Reilly’s name to one of the following

organizations that were close to her heart:

Friends of Liberia - https://fol.org/

Solas Nua Inc - https://www.solasnua.org/

National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) - https://www.peacecorpsconnect.org/

Emmanuel Episcopal Church - https://www.emmanuelmiddleburg.org/