"Living the life of Riely" Who is reily ?

Question

Who is Riely and why is his life so good?

Answer 1

Well, it was a show in the 50's. Sounds like he was a bit of a bumbler, though:

"Like many sitcoms of the 1950s, The Life of Riley reinforced the promise of suburban gratifications open to hard working, white Americans. Even so, Riley's incompetence set him apart from his television counterparts. More so than Ozzie of Ozzie and Harriet, Riley's ineptitude called into question the role of the American father and therefore of the entire family structure, thus preceding some 1960s sitcoms such as Green Acres and Bewitched which carried that theme even further."

Going back even further, though, there were several songs written in the late 19th and early 20th century that refer to "the life of Reilly" (different spelling).

Going back still further, a gentleman by the name of Riley claims to know the true origin:

"After the incident with the hand the Rileys consolidated their hold (sic) on County Cavan. As befits such clannishness they minted their own money. This money was widely recognised for its value, even in England it was accepted as Legal Tender. The coins became known as "O'Reillys, or Reilly's", and as such, became synonymous with a monied person. A gentleman freely spending his cash was said to be "Living on his Reillys" or "Living the life of Reilly"."

Answer 2

Reilly was lost to us. Way back in the bad old days, before yon communications systems came and if a fellow left town then you'd never see or hear from him again. One night, Reilly just disappeared, and we didn't know where he'd got to. This led to a lot of speculation among the people of our town. And once we'd got over our tears for the poor lad, people would start to invent all sorts of wonderful things that might have happened to our lad Reilly. We would pretend that Reilly had escaped from our poor and rude lot, and was maybe rich from a pirates ransom, or had discovered he was somehow the long lost heir to the king of France, or was lying on a beach in the Azores, or something lovely like that. It was like we would invent all these extravegant stories to cover up our fear of what might really have happened to the poor boy. Eventually it just became an expression. Now, whenever we don't know what someone is doing but we just assume it must be pretty nice, we just say a fellow is living the life of Reilly.

Answer 3

That's what my dad says to me because I'm not working right now. I thought he just made it up one day but its an actual saying. weird. I dont know who reily is.

Answer 4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Life_of_Riley

"Living the life of Riley" suggests an ideal life of prosperity and contentment, possibly living on someone else's money, time or work.