34 Facts About Eoin MacNeill

Eoin MacNeill was an Irish scholar, Irish language enthusiast, Gaelic revivalist, nationalist and politician who served as Minister for Education from 1922 to 1925, Ceann Comhairle of Dail Eireann from 1921 to 1922, Minister for Industries 1919 to 1921 and Minister for Finance January 1919 to April 1919.

Eoin MacNeill served as a Teachta Dala from 1918 to 1927.

Eoin MacNeill was a Member of Parliament for Londonderry City from 1918 to 1922 and a Member of the Northern Ireland Parliament for Londonderry from 1921 to 1925.

Eoin MacNeill has been described as "the father of the modern study of early Irish medieval history".

Eoin MacNeill established the Irish Volunteers in 1913 and served as Chief-of-Staff of the minority faction after its split in 1914 at the start of the World War.

Eoin MacNeill held that position at the outbreak of the Easter Rising in 1916, but had no role in the Rising or its planning, which was carried out by his nominal subordinates, including Patrick Pearse, who were members of the secret society, the Irish Republican Brotherhood.

On learning of the plans to launch an uprising on Easter Sunday, and after confronting Pearse about it, Eoin MacNeill issued a countermanding order, placing a last-minute newspaper advertisement instructing Volunteers not to take part.

Eoin MacNeill was born John McNeill, one of five children born to Archibald McNeill, a Roman Catholic working-class baker, sailor and merchant, and his wife, Rosetta McNeill, a Catholic.

Eoin MacNeill was raised in Glenarm, County Antrim, an area which "still retained some Irish-language traditions".

Eoin MacNeill was educated at St Malachy's College and Queen's College, Belfast.

Eoin MacNeill had an interest in Irish history and immersed himself in its study.

Eoin MacNeill achieved a BA degree in economics, jurisprudence and constitutional history in 1888, and then worked in the British Civil Service.

Eoin MacNeill was editor of the Gaelic Journal from 1894 to 1899.

Eoin MacNeill strongly supported that and rallied to his side a majority of delegates at the 1915 Oireachtas.

One such colleague, The O'Rahilly, ran the league's newspaper An Claidheamh Soluis, and in October 1913 they asked Eoin MacNeill to write an editorial for it on a subject more broad than Irish language issues.

Eoin MacNeill submitted a piece called "The North Began", encouraging formation of a nationalist volunteer force committed to Irish Home Rule, much as the unionists had done earlier that year with the Ulster Volunteers to thwart Home Rule in Ireland.

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

Unlike the IRB, Eoin 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 Eoin MacNeill learned about the IRB's plans, and when he was informed that Roger Casement was about to land in County Kerry with 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 confronted Patrick Pearse, who refused to relent, Eoin MacNeill countermanded the order for the Rising by sending written messages to leaders around the country, and placing a notice in the Sunday Independent cancelling the planned "manoeuvres".

Eoin MacNeill is a weak man, but I know every effort will be made to whitewash him.

Eoin MacNeill was released from prison in 1917 and was elected MP for the National University and Londonderry City constituencies for Sinn Fein in the 1918 general election.

Eoin MacNeill was a member of the Parliament of Northern Ireland for Londonderry between 1921 and 1925, although he never took his seat.

In 1923, Eoin MacNeill, a committed internationalist, was a key member of the diplomatic team that oversaw Ireland's entry to the League of Nations.

Two other sons, Niall and Turloch, as well as nephew Hugo Eoin MacNeill, served as officers in the Free State Army.

In 1924 the three man Irish Boundary Commission was set up to settle the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State; Eoin MacNeill represented the Irish Free State.

That angered many nationalists and Eoin MacNeill was the subject of much criticism, but in reality, he and the Commission had been sidestepped by the intergovernmental debt renegotiation.

Eoin MacNeill lost his Dail seat at the June 1927 election.

Eoin 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 translations into English.

Eoin MacNeill was the first to uncover the nature of succession in Irish kingship, and his theories are the foundation for modern ideas on the subject.

Eoin MacNeill was a contributor to the Royal Irish Academy's Clare Island Survey, recording the Irish place names of the island.

Eoin MacNeill 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.

Eoin MacNeill retired from politics completely and became Chairman of the Irish Manuscripts Commission.

Eoin MacNeill died in Dublin of natural causes, aged 78 in 1945.