Eoin MacNeill
Age 43 at the time of Census 1911
Photo: Eoin MacNeill
Address: 19, Herbert Park Road (Pembroke West, Dublin)1
The 1911 Census records Eóin (43), a Professor of History with a B.A. Mac Néill living in 19 Herbert Park Road in Dublin, along with his wife of 13 years Mór Ní Mhórdha (Agnes Moore), aged 38 and both originally from Antrim and also his four sons, Niall (12) Brian (11), Toirdhealbhach (7) and Séamus (3) and three daughters Eibhlín Ní Néill (9), Máire (6) and Róisin (4). Also in the house on Census night were Eóin’s 83 year old mother, Rosetta McAuley, his wife’s sister, Mary Josephine McNally (aged 52) and two servants, Margaret Johnston (27) and Bairbre Ní Iarnáin (19). The Census return shows that Eóin’s wife, Mór, had given birth to 11 children of whom 7 were still living at the time of the Census. The house and building return for the house shows that there were 12 rooms in the dwelling.
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Dublin/Pembroke_West/Herbert_Park_Road/11893/
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000125664/
Eoin MacNeill was an Irish scholar, Irish language enthusiast, nationalist activist and Sinn Féin politician. MacNeill has been described as "the father of the modern study of early Irish medieval history".
Eoin MacNeill co-founded the Gaelic League with Douglas Hyde in 1893. In 1913 he was a founder the Irish Volunteers and served as Chief-of-Staff. “It was Pearse who proposed MacNeill as head of the Volunteers. MacNeill was a lecturer in Maynooth and his uncle had been President of the college. It was felt that the appointment would help shield the Volunteers2”. MacNeill’s strategy was to organise an insurrection if there were adequate reasons and when circumstances seemed favourable; in the meantime, the Irish Volunteers should be fully armed, trained, and held in readiness to counter any attempt to disarm the organisation, to impose conscription, or to abandon Home Rule.
There was an inevitable clash between the inner and outer leaders of the Volunteers. On the one hand there was MacNeill, an ornamental figurehead of the organisation and then there was the inner group, the IRB who made secret plans. MacNeill had no interest in joining an oath bound secret society. MacNeill was at times more interested in his studies leaving the chair of the Volunteers to be taken by Pearse who was part of the Supreme Council of the IRB.
The Supreme Council did not take MacNeill into their confidence. They knew he was opposed to the Rising but MacNeill was not totally blind to what was going on but received evasive answers to his questions. He became anxious about rumours of a possibly impending outbreak and ensured that headquarters staff would not issue orders without being countersigned by him. He received assurances from Pearse that no independent action was being planned.
He was then presented with the so called Castle document. It was supposed to be a government document to disarm the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army after the holiday weekend, looking for the arrest of various persons. This had an immediate effect on MacNeill; he held a meeting of the executive of the Volunteers. At all the company parades the week before, the men were told to be ready for anything on the Sunday. MacNeill found out on Easter Friday from Bulmer Hobson that the word to the Volunteers had already gone out. He confronted Pearse and told him he would do everything he could to prevent the outbreak because the Volunteers were so unprepared and unequipped and they would be simply slaughtered. Pearse told him about the shipment of arms coming from Germany and that MacNeill was powerless to do anything. If he did, it would only cause confusion. Bulmer Hobson was kidnapped and held until the end of the Rising so that he would not interfere again.
The Volunteers attended confessions and communions on the Saturday night fully equipped with uniforms and rifles. The Volunteers organised routine manoeuvres for Easter Sunday 1916 as a cover for an insurrection throughout the country. Colm O’Lochlainn, an Irish Volunteer and a student of MacNeill, witnessed the next confrontation between MacNeill and Pearse when MacNeill found out that the Castle document was a forgery and that Roger Casement, who was attempting to land a boatload of arms from Germany, had been captured over the weekend by the British. Pearse told MacNeill “We have used your name and influence for what it’s worth, but we have done with you now. It is no use trying to stop us, our plans are all made and will be carried out3”. Concerned with the inevitable loss of life in what seemed a hopeless cause, MacNeill decided to do everything in his power to stop the armed rebellion and took out an advertsement in the Sunday Independent cancelling the scheduled 'manoeuvres'.
Ignatius Callender recalls “I attended 8 O'clock Mass at Arran Quay on the Sunday (Easter), on my way home I bought the Sunday Independent and was amazed to read the order from Eoin MacNeill calling off the parade - the use of the public Press, I thought, was an extraordinary way to call off a mobilisation, particularly as the Volunteers had a very efficient mobilisation system4.”
“It was headed in large type "No Parades/Irish Volunteer Marches Cancelled/A Sudden Order". It was dated April 22nd, signed by Eoin MacNeill and communicated to the press on Saturday night. The parades, etc., were cancelled "owing to the very critical position5”.
As a result of MacNeill’s countermand, the 1916 Rising was almost entirely confined to Dublin. The cancelling order did however throw the castle authorities off their guard. They had no suspicion of anything assuming that the capture of Casement was the end of it all. MacNeill took no part in the Rising. Nevertheless, he was tried by court-martial and sentenced to penal servitude for life but was released under amnesty in June 1917.
Although his countermanding orders of Easter Sunday struck a fearful blow to their plans, Pearse, Mac Diarmada and MacDonagh all in in their last hours were careful to exonerate him from any charge of disloyalty or lack of patriotism and MacNeill, deeply injured though he was at the moment when he faced his crisis of confidence, steadfastly defended the honour of his former comrades at his own court-martial and in later life6.
MacNeill was elected a Member of Parliament for the National University of Ireland and the Londonderry constituencies for Sinn Féin in the 1918 general election. He refused to take his seat in the British House of Commons and sat instead in the first Dáil Éireann. In 1921 he supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty and while his two sons Niall and Turloch served as officers in the Free State army, his younger son Brian took the anti-treaty side and was killed by Free State troops during the Civil War in 1922. Following the establishment of the Irish Free State he became the first Minister for Education. He was President of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 1937-19407 and the President of the Royal Irish Academy 1940-19438.
Eoin MacNeill died aged 78; his grandson is the former Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Michael McDowell.
Sources:
Reference:
Bureau of Military History Witness Statements: Mrs. Agnes MacNeill, widow of Eoin Mac Neill and member of Committee of Cumann na mBan
http://www.bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie/reels/bmh/BMH.WS0213.pdf
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