Eoin MacNeill

Eoin MacNeill (Irish: Eoin Mac Néill; born John McNeill; 15 May 1867 – 15 October 1945) 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 Dáil Éireann from 1921 to 1922, Minister for Industries 1919 to 1921 and Minister for Finance January 1919 to April 1919. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1918 to 1927. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Londonderry City from 1918 to 1922 and a Member of the Northern Ireland Parliament (MP) for Londonderry from 1921 to 1925.

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

He established the Irish Volunteers in 1913 and served as Chief-of-Staff of the minority faction after it split in 1914 at the start of the World War. He 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, MacNeill issued a countermanding order, placing a last-minute newspaper advertisement instructing Volunteers not to participate.

In 1918 he was elected to the First Dáil as a member of Sinn Féin. MacNeill was the representative of the Irish Free State on the Irish Boundary Commission of 1924–1925 but was obliged to resign during a political crisis that arose when the recommendations of the commission became known. He also resigned his position of minister of education and lost his seat in the election of 1927.

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 (née McAuley) McNeill, also a Catholic. He was raised in Glenarm, County Antrim, an area which "still retained some Irish-language traditions". His niece was nationalist and teacher, Máirín Beaumont.

MacNeill was educated at St Malachy's College (Belfast) and Queen's College, Belfast. He was interested 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.

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).