Joseph O’Neill (1878-1953)

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Commentary
Léon Ó Bróin, Protestant Nationalists in Revolutionary Ireland (1985), writes: In 1932, just as the first government was going out of office, Joseph O’Neill, the Secretary of the Dept. of Education, admitted that he attainment of easy success [in Irish language revival] was not to be expected, though time was of the essence of the problem. While they were relying onthe English-speaking parts of the country to become Irish-speaking, the natural Irish-speaking parts, the Gaeltacht, continued to decline. Would the language be resuscitated by the schools be a full living speech with a creative cultural power? it was hard to believe it could be so. (p.208.)

Benedict Kiely, ‘The Historical Novel’ in Augustine Martin, ed., The Genius of Irish Prose (Cork: Mercier 1985), pp.53-66: ‘It would be fascinating ... to study Joseph O’Neill’s novel about Norse Dublin, wind form the North, and to relate its method and content to his novel about Lord Essex, Chosen by the Queen, in which it would be almost seem that the novelist had read Ben Jonson until his head echoed with the rhythm of the time.’ (pp.65-66.)

James Cahalan, Great Hatred, Little Room, The Irish Historical Novel (1983), In Wind from the North (1934) O’Neill emulated O’Grady’s romantic view of ancient Ireland, writing a first person account, in the style of a memoir, about the coming of the Danes. [110].

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References
Desmond Clarke, Ireland in Fiction [Pt. II] (Cork: Royal Carbery 1985); lists Wind from the North (1934); Day of Wrath (1936), and Chosen by the Queen (1947), the story of Essex and Elizabeth, as told by his secretary [compare method of Emily Lawless, In Ireland with Essex].

Robert Hogan, ed., Dictionary of Irish Literature (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1979), entry by M. Kelly Lynch, citing trans. of ‘Caith Boinde’ in Eriu [1905]. Married Mary Devenport. Native speaker and habitual visitor to Aran Islands. Studied Irish under Kuno Meyer, and formed lasting friendship with Osborn Bergin. Permanent Sec. of Education 1923-1944. Published in Freeman’s Journal under pseud ‘Oisin’. The Kingdom-Maker, verse play (1917). Held literary evenings at 2, Kenilworth Square, Dublin. Wind from the North (1934), a novel about a Dublin clerk who is hit by a tram and wakes up in Viking Dublin; based on Jung’s doctrines. Won Harmsworth Prize of I. Acad. of Letters. Land under England and Day of Wrath are Wellesian, ‘exciting but unimpressive work[s] of imagination’ [DIL]. Philip (1940), historical fiction, set in Jerusalem at the time of Christ. ‘Flawless’ [DIL]. Contrib. historical sketches to The Dublin Mag. Chosen by the Queen is busy with Elizabethan atmosphere. Removed his household to France, and returned disappointed by expense. ‘Pages from the Journal of Edmund Shakespeare’, published serially in The Dublin Magazine, 1951-52, and uncompleted.

Libraries holdings: BELFAST PUBLIC LIBRARY holds O’Neill, J., [?] Drunkard (n.d.); Land Under England (1935); [?] The Rock of Aranmore (1904); Wind from the North (1934); Day of Wrath (1936), and Philip (1940). BRITISH LIBRARY holds Joseph O’Neill, Gaath Adtuaidh Tomas de BhialDi[?]strigh.

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Notes
Land Under England: A terrifying journey into the earth's interior. The protagonist refuses to join the rigidly controlled society of the interior world's inhabitants and must find a route to the surface or perish. ‘... a totalitarian utopia where little individual emotions are absorbed by the love for the common good. There are only two classes: the leaders and the robot-like citizens, whose minds have been “rearranged.”’ (Gerber, Utopian Fantasy, 1973, p.152; quoted in Goodreads - online; accessed 25.07.2021.)

W. B. Yeats (1): became friends with the O’Neills and learned a lot about Irish schooling from them (see A. N. Jeffares, W B Yeats: A New Biography, London: Macmillan 1988, p.278).

W. B. Yeats (2): Yeats’s personal library, now held in the NLI (Dublin) contains a copy of Land Under England by Joseph O’Neill with 17 sheets of notes slipped in (MS 40,568 / 167; O’Shea 1505; Envelope no. 170.)

Frank O’Connor, My Father’s Son (1968), remarks that Osborn Bergin’s ‘greatest rancour was reserved for his old friend Joseph O’Neill married to a literary woman [...] The O’Neills dropped Bergin [...] and he resented it fiercely.’ (p. 92.)

George Russell (as “AE””) prefaced Land Under England, ‘[...] how was I to know for all the torrent of picturesque speech and prodigality of humour, that, within that long head and long body, there were other creatures than those he exposed to me? ... How was I to know that he had it in him to imagine and write Land Under England?’ (Robert Greacen, Brief Encounters, 1991, p.30.)

Adolf Mahr: the archaeologist Adolf Mahr came to Ireland in 1927 and served as curator [Keeper of Irish Antiquities] of the National Museum. He joined the Nazi Party in 1933 and was appointed Director of the National Museum in July 1934. In 1938 he wrote to Joseph O'Neill, Secretary of the Dept. of Education, announcing that he was resigning as leader of the Nazi party in Ireland, but was not replaced. He came under surveillance of the Irish Army some months later. During 1938-39 he made efforts to help Jews he knew to escape from Germany but otherwise supported anti-semitic policies. A trip to Germany in July 1939 resulted in their being stranded; imprisoned by the British Army in 1946; returned to Ireland but was refused admittance, possibly because (unlike others who were let in), he was a Protestant. He died in Germany. (See interview-article with Gerry Mullins, author of Dublin's No. 1 Nazi, in Books Ireland, March 2007, pp.37-38; also Cathal O'Shannon, Ireland's Nazis, an RTÉ documentary.)

Francis Stuart: A correspondence between Stuart and O’Neill is among papers in the National Library of Ireland.

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