Eoin MacNeill

Eoin MacNeill (15 May, 1867 - 15 October, 1945) was an Irish scholar, nationalist and revolutionary.

MacNeill was born John McNeill in Glenarm, County Antrim. He was educated in Belfast at Queen's College, Belfast. MacNeill had an enormous interest in Irish history and immersed himself in the study of it. In 1893 he founded the Gaelic League with Douglas Hyde. He became editor of its newspaper Gaelic Journal. In 1908 MacNeill was appointed professor of early Irish history at University College Dublin (UCD).

His brother,James McNeill, was the second last Governor General of the Irish Free State.

Through the Gaelic League MacNeill met members of Sinn Féin. He became chairman of the council that formed the Irish Volunteers in 1913; he later became its chief of staff. MacNeill was vehemently opposed to the idea of an armed rebellion, except in resisting any British suppression of the Volunteers, seeing little hope of success in open battle against the empire. However, the Irish Republican Brotherhood went ahead with its plans of an armed rebellion with the co-operation of James Connolly and the Irish Citizen Army. Pádraig Pearse and some other Volunteer members supported this move also. Easter Sunday, 23 April, 1916, was the day the revolution was to be staged. MacNeill heard about the plans the previous Thursday, and when informed that German arms were about to land in Ireland, he was reluctantly persuaded to agree, believing British action was now imminent.

However, on learning of the arrest of Roger Casement, and the interception of the promised German arms, he countermanded the order for the Rising in print, costing the republicans thousands of potential volunteers for what would become the Easter Rising. Pearse, Connolly and the others all agreed that they must go ahead with the rising - it began on Monday, April 24, 1916. After the surrender MacNeill was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment.

MacNeill was released in 1917 and was elected MP for the National University of Ireland for Sinn Féin in the 1918 UK general election. In line with Sinn Féin policy, he refused to take his seat in the House of Commons and sat instead in the newly-convened Dáil Éireann. In 1921 he supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Following this he became Minister for Education in the first government of the Irish Free State. In 1924 an Irish Boundary Commission was set up to renegotiate the border between the six counties of Northern Ireland still under British jurisdiction and the Free State. MacNeill represented the Free State. MacNeill resigned after a report on the commission's proposed changes (which were minuscule) was published in a newspaper. In December 1925 the Free State government reluctantly gave in to British government insistence that the boundary remain as it was. This angered many nationalists and MacNeill was the subject of much criticism. He was forced to resign as minister and he lost his Dáil seat in 1927.

He retired from politics completely and became Chairman of the Irish Manuscripts Commission. He published a number of books on Irish history. In his later years he devoted his life to scholarship.

Eoin MacNeill died in Dublin of natural causes at the age of 78. He is also the grandfather of the current Minister for Justice, Equality & Law Reform, Michael McDowell.