{"id":637537,"date":"2026-09-27T11:40:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T11:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/637537\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T11:40:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T11:40:16","slug":"i-booked-a-one-way-ticket-to-america-with-no-idea-when-i-was-coming-home-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/637537\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I booked a one-way ticket to America with no idea when I was coming home\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dublin-born Tony Reilly experienced first-hand how small moments can define an entire life. Worried about his future status as his soccer<\/a> scholarship in Kansas<\/a> was drawing to a close in the late 1980s, and drawing a blank with the relevant authorities, Reilly managed to evade security and buttonhole senator Bob Dole<\/a> when the politician visited campus. Dole, already a powerful figure then, went on to become a Republican<\/a> presidential candidate and majority leader of the Senate. <\/p>\n

\u201cHad it been post 9\/11, I probably would have been arrested. I pressed a letter into his hand explaining my situation and not knowing how things worked back then, I told him not to pass me off to one of his people. I said I wanted a leg up rather than a handout. It worked. He smiled, scanned the letter, asked me if I was of good character and said if everything in my letter checked out, he was going to help me,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n

The cheeky intervention paid off and within days he had a call from the senator\u2019s office. A work visa was sorted and a mistake meant that what should have been a 12-month card was authorised for 18 months instead. He stayed quiet about that and never looked back. <\/p>\n

Reilly is modest about the football talent that brought him to the attention of a US college scout, saying that his major strength was an ability to organise midfield and show leadership on the pitch, but it was enough to provide an opportunity to go to Sterling college in Kansas where he helped lead the team to success in college soccer tournaments. <\/p>\n

He recalls arriving in the US with a borrowed, battered suitcase. \u201cIt was 1986 and things were bleak in Ireland and we couldn\u2019t see what was coming for the economy. I booked a one-way ticket to the US with no idea when I was coming home and no idea how I would pay for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Studying finance and economics, he developed a keen interest in the world of investment. \u201cI became fascinated by the teachings of Warren Buffett and started reading the Wall Street Journal every day. I was drinking the Kool-Aid.\u201d<\/p>\n

The scholarship didn\u2019t cover the full cost of his education, so he undertook jobs around the college such as painting, mowing lawns and working cafeteria shifts to pay his way. While he was only left with a small stipend to live on, it enabled him to graduate debt free.<\/p>\n

A college professor encouraged him to send a final-year paper he had written on community banks to people name-checked in the work, which resulted in a call from a firm in Ohio called the Bank Stock Group, then a niche operation. <\/p>\n

\u201cI flew up for an interview with the boss there and as I already had another job lined up, I didn\u2019t hold back. I told him that they were a statewide firm with a great proposition, but they needed to go national. I convinced him, he offered me a job and within two years I had the budget to lead a national roll-out,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0The Irish woman in New York tapping successful emigrants to fund education back homeOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

By 31, Reilly had become CEO, renamed the firm Diamond Hill Capital Management, brought in a new experienced team, and took it in a broader direction managing diversified global asset portfolios. <\/p>\n

In 2021, he left to set up Ascend Advisory Group, an investment advisory firm which now manages more than $3 billion in assets for clients throughout the US. Ascend has its HQ in Dublin, Ohio, offices that were officially opened by the Irish ambassador to the US, Geraldine Byrne Nason, in 2024. The firm\u2019s clients come from all walks of life, such as a typical working couple saving for retirement or a business owner or farmer looking to build financial independence, he explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a saying here that every dollar has a mission. Investment is a long journey, and we advise people what to do during good markets and bad,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

Married to Trish, the couple have one daughter, Sophie Grace, currently studying in Fordham University. Reilly has named a women\u2019s soccer foundation after his daughter; \u201cSophie\u2019s Grace\u201d has helped around 20 young women to fund their college education. <\/p>\n

Having enjoyed both the struggles and the rewards the US offers, Reilly reflects that the journey for an emigrant can be difficult at times. \u201cNobody tells you that you won\u2019t have Easter Sunday, Sunday dinners, Mother\u2019s Day or your own birthday at home. People don\u2019t think about these simple things but that\u2019s the trade-off you have to make for the opportunities you pursue.\u201d<\/p>\n

He enjoys life in Columbus, the 14th most populous city in the US (population around 940,000) which he says is a city that doesn\u2019t always get the recognition it deserves. \u201cIt\u2019s a major centre of business and enterprise and one of the reasons for that is Ohio State University, which is a real academic powerhouse. Ohio is quite representative of the wider mix of the US and is a swing state in elections. It\u2019s also sports mad, with every major sport well represented here.\u201d <\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018The US still has a frontier mindset that you can go and make something of yourself\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The climate can be \u201cbrutal\u201d in the winter months, with a lot of snow a wind-chill factor off the Great Lakes adding to already cold temperatures, but this is compensated for by beautiful summer and early autumn weather, he says.<\/p>\n

Reilly believes the US offers many opportunities for those wishing to follow in his footsteps, and his advice for young people is to have an open mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cSay yes to more ideas. Don\u2019t say \u2018I don\u2019t want to be involved in that sector,\u2019 because when you are in your early 20s you don\u2019t even know what that is. You should pursue things that there\u2019s a good chance you\u2019ll love. You want to be still walking with a pep in your step when you\u2019re in your 50s and beyond.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dublin-born Tony Reilly experienced first-hand how small moments can define an entire life. Worried about his future status…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60,10970,115,27079,1962],"class_list":["post-637537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-abroad","tag-united-states","tag-wild-geese","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}