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Life
1798-1880; artist and antiquarian; b. Dundalk, Co. Louth (?or Tipperary), maternal grandson of bookseller Samuel Watson; raised by his paternal aunt Sarah, habedasher, St. Gt. George's St., Dublin; ed. Dublin Society Art School, winner of successive class awards; employed in TCD Library after rupture with his aunt; exhibited at RHA, 1835 and elected Hon. Member, 1837, resigning in 1844 in objection to advancement to full membership; one-time collaborator of George Petrie [q.v.] but alienated in dispute about inscriptions on the Cross of Cong, writing of him with ‘extreme antipathy’ thereafter (Leerssen, 1996, p.266); moved to London, 1847; and enlisted in Army - only to be bought out by friends, returning then to Dublin;
published The Most Interesting of the Sculptural Crosses of Ancient Ireland (1857) and The Fine Arts and Civilisation of Ancient Ireland (1863); his best-known portraits incl. Zozimus (Michael Moran) and Petrie (in Picturesque sketches of some of the finest landscapes and coast scenery in Ireland, 1835), and paintings of Daniel O’Connell and companions in Richmond Gaol, 1843; his landscape drawings were employed in W. K. Wakeman's Fourteen Views of the County of Wicklow (1835); illness and poverty in 1878 elicited public support for his wife and family; d. 21 Dec. 1880; 109 Lwr. Gardiner St.; survived by widow Juliet (nee Thierry) and four children; private publications associated with premises or home at Francis St., Dundalk, and 12, Middlesex Place, New Road, N.W. London; he named one son Tyrone. ODNB
Works
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An Essay on Ancient Irish Art, appended to Sculptured Irish Crosses, incls. the note - presumably referring to Legal Deposit Libraries: "[...] a publisher is compelled ... to give to the nation, for nothing, five copies of each literary work he publishes ... As the tax on my work would ... amount to twenty-five guineas if I issued letter-press with it, I have been obliged to publish it without; but I have had printed this Essay, &c., and will present a copy to each purchaser of my work on Irish crosses. Thus my patrons will have the advantage of the letter-press, and, as I do not publish any literary matter, I shall not be obliged to give five copies of my work for nothing.’
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Quotations
Ireland for the Irish (1880) - Dedicatory letter to Lord Stanley: In the report of the speech to which I have referred, you are stated to have expressed disapproval of certain suggestions for converting the Irish tenants of small farms into independent proprietors. In this respect I fully concur with you; it is also stated that you said you cannot tell what ought to be done, and that you are will to do what is right.
Under these circumstances you can understand why I dedicate this work to you, as it states the plan by which the Irish Land Question can be settled in a just and peaceable way, and one which would be a thorough, and is the only proper remedy for Ireland's monstrous evil, landlordism. (p.vi.)
[...]
Remember the cost of Irish disaffection; think of the value of Irish loyalty. Society has been deranged; many men of respectable social positions imprisoned; some lives have been lost by the feeble outbreak of discontent with England's rule which took place lately; neither the jail nor the scaffold has diminished disloyalty - far otherwise; - it can only be stayed by legislation. If not so stayed - I repeat my solemn warning - the Irish will try the remedy so ofter recommended by the aristocratic Press of England for "the oppresssed nationalities of Europe." I hope such a fearful trial may never be required.
Do justice to Ireland; do what would satisfy the conscience of inteligente, moral men; abandon the rule of force; adopt that of Christian moralit; do by us as you would be done by; spare our [ix] liberty; spare our lives; desserve our loyalty; win our affection.Erase the bitter memories of the past by simple justice.
We ask not more!
Your lordship's / obedient servant, / H. O'NEILL
Dubdalk, June, 1868.[ See also his criticism of George Petrie in The Fine Arts and Civilisation of Ancient Ireland (1863)under Henry O’Brien - as infra. ]
References
Dictionary of Irish Biography (RIA 2009) - “Henry O’Neill”, David McGuinness and Linde Lunney: &‘[...] O’Neill is remembered especially for his Illustrations of the most interesting of the sculptured crosses of ancient Ireland (1857), a well-illustrated account of several of the decorated Irish high crosses. O’Neill used these monuments as evidence for a sophisticated and distinctively Irish civilisation in ancient times. Other antiquarian works include The fine arts and civilization of ancient Ireland (1863) and several papers published in early volumes of the RSAI Journal. These show him to have been an intelligent man, working generally in the spirit of that new scientific and empirical antiquarianism usually associated with the names of George Petrie and John O’Donovan. In spite of this, however, O’Neill strongly disagreed with some of the conclusions reached by Petrie, preferring the more esoteric study by Henry O’Brien of the Irish round towers to Peby trie's prize-winning essay. He himself published one volume (1877) on round towers, in which he espoused the theory of their pagan origin." (Available online; accessed 13.09.2024.) [Most biographical details in Life are indebted to this source - as supra.]
Belfast Public Library holds Ancient Crosses [n.d.]; Fine Arts (1855); also Ireland for the Irish (1868), and Sculptured Crosses (1857).
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