John (McNeill) MacNeill (1867 - 1945)

Born 15 May 1867 in Glenarm, County Antrim, Ireland

Husband of Agnes Ann (Moore) MacNeill — married 19 Apr 1898 in Allsaints, Ballymena, County Antrim, Ireland

Died 15 Oct 1945 at age 78 in Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland

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Biography

Eoin (McNeill) MacNeill was born in Ireland.

Eoin (McNeill) MacNeill is Notable.

Eoin MacNeill was born as John McNeill on 15th May 1867 in Glenarm, County Antrim. ^[1] He was the son of Archibald and Rosetta (née McCauley) McNeill. He married Agnes Moore on 19th April 1898 in Ballymena, County Antrim; ^[2] they had eight children that survived infancy.

He was recorded at 1 Hazelbrook, Kinsaley, Malahide, County Dublin, living with his mother, on the 1901 Census. ^[3] He was recorded at 19 Herbert Park Road, Ballsbridge, County Dublin on the 1911 Census. ^[4]

MacNeill served as a Teachta Dála from 1918 to 1927, in the 1st through 4th Dálaí. He held the position of Minister for Finance in 1919, Minister for Industries from 1919 to 1921, Ceann Comhairle from 1921 to 1922 and Minister for Education from 1922 to 1925. ^[5]

He passed away on 15th October 1945 at 63 Upper Leeson Street, Dublin. ^[6]

Personal and Professional Life

McNeill was educated at St Malachy's College (Belfast) and Queen's College, Belfast. He had an interest in Irish history and immersed himself in its study. He achieved a BA degree in economics, jurisprudence and constitutional history in 1888, and then worked in the British Civil Service.

He co-founded the Gaelic League in 1893, along with Douglas Hyde; MacNeill was unpaid secretary from 1893 to 1897, and then became the initial editor of the League’s official newspaper An Claidheamh Soluis (1899–1901). He was also editor of the Gaelic Journal from 1894 to 1899. In 1908, he was appointed professor of early Irish history at University College Dublin (UCD).

MacNeill was an important scholar of Irish history, and among the first to study Early Irish law, offering both his own interpretations, which at times were coloured by his nationalism, and offering translations into English. He was also the first to uncover the nature of succession in Irish kingship and his theories are the foundation for modern ideas on the subject. He was a contributor to the RIA's Clare Island Survey, recording the Irish place names of the island.

After losing his seat as a TD in 1927 he retired from politics completely and became Chairman of the Irish Manuscripts Commission. In his later years he devoted his life to scholarship, he published a number of books on Irish history. He was President of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland from 1937 to 1940 and President of the Royal Irish Academy from 1940 to 1943.

Irish Volunteers and the Easter Rising

McNeill became chairman of the council within the Gaelic League that formed the Irish Volunteers, later becoming its chief of staff. Unlike the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), MacNeill was opposed to the idea of an armed rebellion, except in resisting any suppression of the Volunteers, seeing little hope of success in open battle against the British army.

When MacNeill learned about the IRB's plans for the Easter Rising and that Roger Casement had been arrested and his German arms shipment confiscated, he stood down Irish Volunteer units across the country and placed a notice in the Sunday Independent cancelling the planned "manoeuvres". This greatly reduced the number of volunteers who reported for duty on the day of the Easter Rising. After the surrender of the rebels, MacNeill was arrested, although he had taken no part in the insurrection.

MacNeill was released from prison in 1917 and was elected Member of Parliament for the National University of Ireland and Londonderry City constituencies for Sinn Féin in the 1918 general election. In line with abstentionist Sinn Féin policy, he refused to take his seat in the British House of Commons and sat instead in the newly convened Dáil Éireann.He was a member of the Parliament of Northern Ireland for Londonderry during 1921–25, although he never took his seat. In 1921 he supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty. In 1922 he was in a minority of pro-Treaty delegates at the Irish Race Convention in Paris. Following the establishment of the Irish Free State, he became Minister for Education in its first government. In 1923, MacNeill, a committed internationalist, was also a key member of the diplomatic team that oversaw Ireland's entry to the League of Nations.

Irish Boundary Commission

In 1924 the Irish Boundary Commission was set up to renegotiate the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State; MacNeill represented the Free State. On 7 November 1925, a conservative British newspaper, The Morning Post, published a leaked map showing a part of eastern County Donegal (mainly The Laggan district) that was to be transferred to Northern Ireland; the opposite of the main aims of the Commission. Perhaps embarrassed by this and more so because, he said, that it had declined to respect the terms of the Treaty, MacNeill resigned from the Commission on 20 November. He resigned on 24 November as Minister for Education.

Sources

1. ↑ Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, "Civil Records," database with images, IrishGenealogy.ie, birth of John McNeill, 15 May 1897, Registration District/Office: Glenarm; entry 498 of the 'copied register' of the Birth Register Books, signed and dated 19 June 1867 by John Parker, Deputy Registrar. (https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/birth_returns/births_1867/03489/2282500.pdf : accessed 26 August 2022).
2. ↑ Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, "Civil Records," database with images, IrishGenealogy.ie, marriage of John McNeill and Agnes Moore, 19 April 1898, Registration District/Office: Ballymena; entry 109 of the 'copied register' of the Marriage Register Books, signed and dated 19 April 1898 by John MacAuley, P.P. (https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1898/10413/5791626.pdf : accessed 26 August 2022).
3. ↑ National Archives. (1901). McNeill, House 1 – Hazelbrook. 1901 Census. Retrieved from http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Dublin/Malahide/Hazelbrook/1266599/.
4. ↑ National Archives. (1911). Mac Néill, House 19 – Herbert Park Road. 1911 Census. Retrieved from http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Dublin/Pembroke_West/Herbert_Park_Road/11893/.
5. ↑ “Eoin MacNeill.” TDs & Senators. Houses of the Oireachtas. https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/member/Eoin-MacNeill.D.1919-01-21/.
6. ↑ Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, "Civil Records," database with images, IrishGenealogy.ie, death of Eoin (John) MacNeill, 15 October 1945, Registration District/Office: Rathmines; entry 188 of the 'copied register' of the Death Register Books, signed and dated 26 October 1945 by P.H. Lemass, Registrar. (https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_returns/deaths_1945/04614/4224117.pdf : accessed 10 June 2022).

• Wikidata: Item Q1346298, en:Wikipedia
• Find A Grave: Memorial #120722170
• Maume, Patrick; Edwards, Thomas Charles-. MacNeill, Eoin (John). Dictionary of Irish Biography (2009). https://www.dib.ie/biography/macneill-eoin-john-a5283.
• History Hub biography