MacNeill, Eoin

MacNeill, Eoin (1867–1945), historian and political activist. A Co. Antrim‐born Catholic, he was a founder of the Gaelic League, first editor of An Claidheamh Soluis, and from 1909 professor of early and medieval Irish history at University College, Dublin. His article ‘The North Began’, pointing to the example of the Ulster Volunteer Force, provided the inspiration for the Irish Volunteers. As commander‐in‐chief of the Volunteers, he opposed participation in the First World War, but insisted that armed resistance was justifiable only if the government attempted to suppress the movement or impose conscription. When he learned, at a late stage, of the planned rising of 1916, he was initially persuaded to acquiesce, partly by an apparently forged official plan for the suppression of the Volunteers (‘the Castle Document’), and partly by the argument that matters had gone too far to retreat. His last‐minute order counter‐manding all plans for ‘special action’, issued after he had learned of the loss of the Aud and the capture of Casement, was too late to prevent the Dublin rising, but destroyed any hope of a nationwide insurrection.

Imprisoned after the rising, MacNeill was a minister in the first Dáil, and then minister for education 1922–5. His service as the Free State's representative on the Boundary Commission ended his career: MacNeill may have recognized that he was to take the blame for the inevitable failure to achieve a united Ireland.

MacNeill's historical works, Phases of Irish History (1919) and Celtic Ireland (1921), pioneered the serious study of early Irish society. He was also the main force behind the establishment of the Irish Manuscripts Commission.