Eoin MacNeill

Not to be confused withEógan mac Néill.

Eoin MacNeill
Minister for Education
In office 30 August 1922 – 24 November 1925
President	W. T. Cosgrave
Preceded by	Fionán Lynch
Succeeded by	John M. O'Sullivan
Ceann ComhairleofDáil Éireann
In office 16 August 1921 – 9 September 1922
Deputy	John J. O'Kelly Brian O'Higgins
Preceded by	Seán T. O'Kelly
Succeeded by	Michael Hayes
Minister for Industries
In office 1 April 1919 – 26 August 1921
President	Éamon de Valera
Preceded by	New office
Succeeded by	Office abolished
Minister for Finance
In office 22 January 1919 – 1 April 1919
President	Éamon de Valera
Preceded by	New office
Succeeded by	Michael Collins
Teachta Dála
In office August 1923–June 1927
Constituency	Clare
In office December 1918–August 1923
Constituency	National University
Member of Parliament
In office December 1918–November 1922
Preceded by	James Dougherty
Succeeded by	Constituency abolished
Constituency	Londonderry City
In office December 1918–November 1922
Preceded by	New office
Succeeded by	Constituency abolished
Constituency	National University
Member of the Northern Ireland Parliament
In office 24 May 1921 – 3 April 1925
Preceded by	New office
Succeeded by	Basil McGuckin
Constituency	Londonderry
Personal details
Born	John McNeill (1867-05-15)15 May 1867 Glenarm,County Antrim,Ireland
Died	15 October 1945(1945-10-15)(aged 78) Dublin,Ireland
Political party	Cumann na nGaedheal (1923–1933)
Other political affiliations	Sinn Féin (1900–1923)
Spouse	Agnes Moore ​ (m.1898)​
Children	8
Education	St Malachy's College
Alma mater	Queen's University Belfast

Eoin MacNeill(Irish:Eoin Mac Néill;bornJohn McNeill;15 May 1867 – 15 October 1945) was an Irish scholar,Irish languageenthusiast, Gaelic revivalist, nationalist and politician who served asMinister for Educationfrom 1922 to 1925,Ceann ComhairleofDáil Éireannfrom 1921 to 1922,Minister for Industries1919 to 1921 andMinister for FinanceJanuary 1919 to April 1919. He served as aTeachta Dála(TD) from 1918 to 1927. He was aMember of Parliament(MP) forLondonderry Cityfrom 1918 to 1922 and aMember of the Northern Ireland Parliament(MP) forLondonderryfrom 1921 to 1925.

A key figure of theGaelic revival,MacNeill was a co-founder of theGaelic League,to preserve Irish language and culture. He has been described as "the father of the modern study of early Irish medieval history".

He established theIrish Volunteersin 1913 and served as Chief-of-Staff of the minority faction after its split in 1914 at the start of the World War. He held that position at the outbreak of theEaster Risingin 1916, but had no role in the Rising or its planning, which was carried out by his nominal subordinates, includingPatrick Pearse,who were members of the secret society, theIrish Republican Brotherhood.On learning of the plans to launch an uprising on Easter Sunday, and after confronting Pearse about it, MacNeill issued a countermanding order, placing a last-minute newspaper advertisement instructing Volunteers not to take part.

In 1918 he was elected to theFirst Dáilas a member ofSinn Féin.

Early life

MacNeill was born John McNeill,one of five children born to Archibald McNeill, aRoman Catholicworking-class baker, sailor and merchant, and his wife, Rosetta (néeMcAuley) McNeill, also a Catholic.He was raised inGlenarm,County Antrim,an area which "still retained some Irish-language traditions".His niece was nationalist and teacher,Máirín Beaumont.

MacNeill was educated atSt Malachy's College(Belfast) andQueen's College, Belfast.He had an interest inIrish historyand immersed himself in its study. He achieved a BA degree in economics, jurisprudence and constitutional history in 1888, and then worked in the BritishCivil Service.

He co-founded theGaelic Leaguein 1893, along withDouglas Hyde;MacNeill was unpaid secretary from 1893 to 1897, and then became the initial editor of the League's official newspaperAn Claidheamh Soluis(1899–1901).He was also editor of theGaelic Journalfrom 1894 to 1899. In 1908, he was appointed professor ofearly Irish historyatUniversity College Dublin.

He married Agnes Moore on 19 April 1898. The couple had eight children, four sons and four daughters(though the 1911 census entry for Mac Neill noted 11 children, seven of whom were still alive).

Irish Volunteers

The Gaelic League was from the start strictly non-political, but in 1915, a proposal was put forward to abandon that policy and become a semi-political organisation.MacNeill strongly supported that and rallied to his side a majority of delegates at the 1915Oireachtas.Douglas Hyde, a non-political Protestant, who had co-founded the League and been its president for 22 years, resigned immediately afterward.

MacNeill circa 1916

Through the Gaelic League, MacNeill met members ofSinn Féin,theIrish Republican Brotherhood(IRB), and other nationalists and republicans. One such colleague,The O'Rahilly,ran the league's newspaperAn Claidheamh Soluis,and in October 1913 they asked MacNeill to write an editorial for it on a subject more broad thanIrish languageissues. MacNeill submitted a piece called "The North Began", encouraging formation of a nationalist volunteer force committed toIrish Home Rule,much as theunionistshad done earlier that year with theUlster Volunteersto thwart Home Rule in Ireland.

Bulmer Hobson,a member of the IRB, approached MacNeill about bringing the idea to fruition, and, through a series of meetings, MacNeill became chairman of the council that formed theIrish Volunteers,later becoming its chief of staff. Unlike the 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 theBritish army.

The Irish Volunteers had been infiltrated by the Irish Republican Brotherhood, which planned on using the organisation to stage an armed rebellion, with the goal of separating Ireland from theUnited Kingdomand establishing an Irish Republic. The entry of the UK into theFirst World Warwas, in their view, a perfect opportunity to do that. With the co-operation ofJames Connollyand theIrish Citizen Army,a secret council of IRB officials planned ageneral rising at Easter 1916.On the Wednesday before Easter, they presented MacNeill with a letter, allegedly stolen from high-ranking British staff inDublin Castle,indicating that the British were going to arrest him and all the other nationalist leaders. Unbeknownst to MacNeill, the letter—called the Castle Document—was a forgery.

When MacNeill learned about the IRB's plans, and when he was informed thatRoger Casementwas about to land inCounty Kerrywith a shipment of German arms, he was reluctantly persuaded to go along with them, believing British action was now imminent and that mobilization of the Irish Volunteers would be justified as a defensive act. However, after learning that the German arms shipment had been intercepted and Casement arrested, and having confrontedPatrick Pearse,who refused to relent, MacNeill countermanded the order for the Rising by sending written messages to leaders around the country, and placing a notice in theSunday Independentcancelling the planned "manoeuvres".That greatly reduced the number of volunteers who reported for duty on the day of the Easter Rising.

Pearse, Connolly and the others agreed that the uprising would go ahead anyway, but it began one day later than originally intended to ensure that the authorities were taken by surprise. Beginning on Easter Monday, 24 April 1916, the Rising lasted less than a week. After the surrender of the rebels, MacNeill was arrested although he had taken no part in the insurrection.The rebel leaderTom Clarke,according to his wife Kathleen, warned her on the day before his execution, "I want you to see to it that our people know of his treachery to us. He must never be allowed back into the National life of this country, for so sure as he is, so sure will he act treacherously in a crisis. He is a weak man, but I know every effort will be made to whitewash him."

Political life

MacNeill was released from prison in 1917 and was electedMPfor theNational UniversityandLondonderry Cityconstituencies for Sinn Féin in the1918 general election.In line withabstentionistSinn Féin policy, he refused to take his seat in theBritish House of CommonsinLondonand sat instead in the newly convenedDáil ÉireanninDublin,where he was madeSecretary for Industriesin the second ministry of theFirst Dáil.He was a member of theParliament of Northern IrelandforLondonderrybetween 1921 and 1925, although he never took his seat. In 1921, he supported theAnglo-Irish Treaty.In 1922, he was in a minority of pro-Treaty delegates at theIrish Race Conventionin Paris. Following the establishment of theIrish Free State,he becameMinister for Educationin its second (provisional) government, thethird Dáil.

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.

MacNeill's family was split on the treaty issue. One son, Brian, took the anti-Treaty side and was killed in disputed circumstances nearSligobyFree State troopsduring theIrish Civil Warin September 1922.Two other sons, Niall and Turloch, as well as nephew Hugo MacNeill, served as officers in the Free State Army.One of Eoin's brothers,James McNeill,was the second and penultimateGovernor-General of the Irish Free State.

Irish Boundary Commission

In 1924 the three manIrish Boundary Commissionwas set up to settle the border betweenNorthern Irelandand the Irish Free State; MacNeill represented the Irish Free State. MacNeill was the only member of the Commission without legal training and has been described as having been “pathetically out of his depth”.However, each of the Commissioners was selected out of political expediency rather than for any established competence or insight into boundary making. On 7 November 1925, a conservative British newspaper,The Morning Post,published a leaked map showing a part of easternCounty 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 that, especially since he said that it had declined to respect the terms of the Treaty,MacNeill resigned from the Commission on 20 November.On 24 November 1925 he also resigned asMinister for Education,a position unrelated to his work on the Commission.

On 3 December 1925, the Free State government agreed with the governments in London andBelfastto end its onerous treaty requirement to pay its share of the United Kingdom's "imperial debt" and, in exchange, agreed that the 1920 boundary would remain as it was, overriding the Commission. That angered many nationalists and MacNeill was the subject of much criticism, but in reality, he and the Commission had been sidestepped by the intergovernmental debt renegotiation. In any case, despite his resignations, the intergovernmental boundary deal was approved by a Dáil vote of 71–20 on 10 December 1925, and MacNeill is listed as voting with the majority in favour.He lost hisDáilseat at theJune 1927 election.

Academic

MacNeill was an important scholar of Irish history and among the first to studyEarly Irish law,offering both his own interpretations, which at times were coloured by his nationalism, and translations into English. He was also the first to uncover the nature of succession inIrish kingship,and his theories are the foundation for modern ideas on the subject.

He was a contributor to the Royal Irish Academy'sClare Island Survey,recording the Irish place names of the island.On 25 February 1911, he delivered the inaugural address on "Academic Education and Practical Politics" to the Legal and Economic Society of University College Dublin..His disagreements and disputes withGoddard Henry Orpen,particularly over the latter's bookIreland under the Normans,generated controversy.

He was President of theRoyal Society of Antiquaries of Irelandfrom 1937 to 1940and President of theRoyal Irish Academyfrom 1940 to 1943.

Later life and death

He retired from politics completely and became Chairman of theIrish Manuscripts Commission.In his later years he devoted his life to scholarship, he published a number of books on Irish history. MacNeill died in Dublin of natural causes, aged 78 in 1945.He is buried inKilbarrack Cemetery.

Legacy

His grandsonMichael McDowellserved asTánaiste,Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform,TDand aSenator.Another grandson, Myles Tierney, served as a member ofDublin County Council,where he was Fine Gael whip on the council.

Works

• Ireland Before Saint Patrick(1903)
• Duanaire Finn: the book of the lays of Fionn(1908)
• Early Irish population groups: their nomenclature, classification and chronology(1911)
• The Authorship and Structure of theAnnals of Tigernach(1913)
• Phases of Irish history(1919)
• The Irish law of dynastic succession(1919)
• The Case for an Irish Republic(1920)
• Celtic Ireland(1921)
• History of Ireland: Pre-Christian times to 1921(1932)
• Saint Patrick, Apostle of Ireland(1934)
• Early Irish laws and institutions(1935)
• The Irish Nation and Irish culture(1938)
• Military service in Medieval Ireland(1941)

External links

• Media related toEoin MacNeillat Wikimedia Commons
• Works by or aboutEoin MacNeillatWikisource
• Tierney/MacNeill Photographs, collection of over 500 images, the largest parts of the collection relate to the political and academic careers of Eoin MacNeill and his son-in-law Michael Tierney,UCD Digital Library Collection.

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  British Army military intelligence file for John McNeill
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  Eoin MacNeill Speech 1917