J. G. Swift MacNeill
Encyclopedia
John Gordon Swift MacNeill (March 11, 1849 - August 24, 1926) was an Irish
Protestant nationalist
politician
and MP
, in the House of Commons
of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
for South Donegal
from 1887 until 1918, Professor
of Constitutional and Criminal Law at the King's Inns
, Dublin, 1882–88, and Professor of the Law of Public and Private Wrongs at the National University of Ireland
from 1909. He was also a well-known author on law and nationalist issues, and became a QC (Queen's Counsel
) (later KC) in 1893.
MacNeill was from a Church of Ireland
Tory
background. He was the only son of the Rev. John Gordon Swift MacNeill, chaplain of the Richmond Bridewell, Dublin, and of Susan, daughter of the Rev. H. Tweedy, formerly Lieutenant, 7th Dragoon Guards. The ‘Swift’ in his name came from his descent from Godwin Swift, uncle and guardian to Jonathan Swift
(1667–1745). MacNeill was educated at Trinity College, Dublin
and Christ Church, Oxford
, and called to the Irish bar in 1875. He never married.
As a Professor of Law at the King’s Inns, MacNeill taught a number of Irish political leaders when they were studying for the bar, including Tim Healy
, John Redmond
and Willie Redmond
.
On his own account, MacNeill had been from his earliest years ‘enthusiastic in support of the restoration of the old Irish Parliament’. He joined the Home Government Association and its successor the Home Rule League
when he began studying for the bar, and was a member of the Council of these organizations. He was first elected to Parliament in a by-election at South Donegal in 1887 and sat for the same seat uninterruptedly until 1918. When the Irish Parliamentary Party
split over Parnell’s leadership in 1890, MacNeill sided with the Anti-Parnellites
. At the general elections of 1892 and 1895 he was opposed only by a Unionist candidate
, and not by the Parnellites. At the subsequent four general elections he was returned unopposed, but in 1918 he was deselected as Irish Party candidate in favour of John T. Donovan, who in turn lost the seat to Sinn Féin
.
MacNeill had a formidable mastery of Parliamentary procedure and was a member of the Committee of Privileges from 1908. He devised procedural tactics which enabled the Irish Party to defeat an attempt by the Salisbury
government to reduce Irish representation in the British House of Commons
. It was his ambition to be the first Speaker of the Irish House of Commons
which would have been established under the Home Rule Act 1914 had it been implemented. In parallel with his pursuit of Home Rule for Ireland, many of his efforts were devoted to improving the governance of the United Kingdom
. It was his motion to disallow the votes of directors of the Mombasa railway which resulted in the defeat of the Unionist government in 1892. He claimed the credit for establishing the principle that the position of Minister of the Crown is incompatible with directorship of a public company. In 1906, after much effort, he also obtained the abolition of flogging in the Royal Navy
.
Like the rest of the Irish Party, MacNeill supported Britain’s and her Allies
cause in the First World War
. His support had particularly deep roots. In 1890 he took an unpopular stance in opposing the cession to Germany of Heligoland
, which became an important German naval base in the First World War. MacNeill later described this as ‘one of the most important blunders in the history of the world’, and claimed that ‘But for it humanity could not have been scourged by the Great War’. He also campaigned successfully for the removal of titles from German members of the royal family, through the Titles Deprivation (Enemies) Act 1917.
MacNeill had some eccentricities. The Times
commented ‘his learning was allied to a disposition of quite an explosive kind, which, when he was on his feet, made him shout and gesticulate and twist about into many odd shapes and forms’. His memoirs, What I Have Seen and Heard (1925) in the main eschew substantive political discussion in favour of anecdotes and character sketches. They do however contain an important account of MacNeill’s discussions with Cecil Rhodes
in 1887-88 which led to the latter’s donation of £10,000 to the Irish Party and to the election of James Rochfort Maguire
to Parliament.
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
Protestant nationalist
Protestant Nationalist
Irish nationalism has been chiefly associated with Roman Catholics. However, historically this is not an entirely accurate picture. Protestant nationalists were also influential supporters of the political independence the island of Ireland from the island of Great Britain and leaders of national...
politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
and MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
, in the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
for South Donegal
South Donegal (UK Parliament constituency)
South Donegal was a UK Parliament constituency in Ireland, returning one Member of Parliament 1885–1922.Prior to the 1885 general election the area was part of the Donegal constituency. From 1922 it was not represented in the UK Parliament....
from 1887 until 1918, Professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of Constitutional and Criminal Law at the King's Inns
King's Inns
The Honorable Society of King's Inns , is the institution which controls the entry of barristers-at-law into the justice system of Ireland...
, Dublin, 1882–88, and Professor of the Law of Public and Private Wrongs at the National University of Ireland
National University of Ireland
The National University of Ireland , , is a federal university system of constituent universities, previously called constituent colleges, and recognised colleges set up under the Irish Universities Act, 1908, and significantly amended by the Universities Act, 1997.The constituent universities are...
from 1909. He was also a well-known author on law and nationalist issues, and became a QC (Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...
) (later KC) in 1893.
MacNeill was from a Church of Ireland
Church of Ireland
The Church of Ireland is an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. The church operates in all parts of Ireland and is the second largest religious body on the island after the Roman Catholic Church...
Tory
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
background. He was the only son of the Rev. John Gordon Swift MacNeill, chaplain of the Richmond Bridewell, Dublin, and of Susan, daughter of the Rev. H. Tweedy, formerly Lieutenant, 7th Dragoon Guards. The ‘Swift’ in his name came from his descent from Godwin Swift, uncle and guardian to Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift was an Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer , poet and cleric who became Dean of St...
(1667–1745). MacNeill was educated at Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...
and Christ Church, Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, and called to the Irish bar in 1875. He never married.
As a Professor of Law at the King’s Inns, MacNeill taught a number of Irish political leaders when they were studying for the bar, including Tim Healy
Timothy Michael Healy
Timothy Michael Healy, KC , also known as Tim Healy, was an Irish nationalist politician, journalist, author, barrister and one of the most controversial Irish Members of Parliament in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
, John Redmond
John Redmond
John Edward Redmond was an Irish nationalist politician, barrister, MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party from 1900 to 1918...
and Willie Redmond
William Hoey Kearney Redmond
William Hoey Kearney Redmond was an Irish nationalist politician. He was a Member of Parliament in the Irish Parliamentary Party for 34 years, a land reform agitator imprisoned three times, a determined advocate of Irish Home Rule, a barrister and a First World War fatality.-Family background:He...
.
On his own account, MacNeill had been from his earliest years ‘enthusiastic in support of the restoration of the old Irish Parliament’. He joined the Home Government Association and its successor the Home Rule League
Home Rule League
The Home Rule League, sometimes called the Home Rule Party, was a political party which campaigned for home rule for the country of Ireland from 1873 to 1882, when it was replaced by the Irish Parliamentary Party.-Origins:...
when he began studying for the bar, and was a member of the Council of these organizations. He was first elected to Parliament in a by-election at South Donegal in 1887 and sat for the same seat uninterruptedly until 1918. When the Irish Parliamentary Party
Irish Parliamentary Party
The Irish Parliamentary Party was formed in 1882 by Charles Stewart Parnell, the leader of the Nationalist Party, replacing the Home Rule League, as official parliamentary party for Irish nationalist Members of Parliament elected to the House of Commons at...
split over Parnell’s leadership in 1890, MacNeill sided with the Anti-Parnellites
Irish National Federation
The Irish National Federation was a nationalist political party in Ireland. It was founded in March 1891 by former members of the Irish National League who had left the Irish Parliamentary Party in protest when Charles Stewart Parnell refused to resign the party leadership as a result of his...
. At the general elections of 1892 and 1895 he was opposed only by a Unionist candidate
Irish Unionist Party
The Irish Unionist Alliance was a Unionist party founded in Ireland in 1891 to oppose plans for Gladstonian and Parnellite Home Rule for Ireland. The party was led for much of its life by Colonel Edward James Saunderson and later by the William St John Brodrick, Earl of Midleton...
, and not by the Parnellites. At the subsequent four general elections he was returned unopposed, but in 1918 he was deselected as Irish Party candidate in favour of John T. Donovan, who in turn lost the seat to Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...
.
MacNeill had a formidable mastery of Parliamentary procedure and was a member of the Committee of Privileges from 1908. He devised procedural tactics which enabled the Irish Party to defeat an attempt by the Salisbury
Marquess of Salisbury
Marquess of Salisbury is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1789 for the 7th Earl of Salisbury. Most of the holders of the title have been prominent in British political life over the last two centuries, particularly the 3rd Marquess, who served three times as Prime Minister...
government to reduce Irish representation in the British House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
. It was his ambition to be the first Speaker of the Irish House of Commons
Irish House of Commons
The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland, that existed from 1297 until 1800. The upper house was the House of Lords...
which would have been established under the Home Rule Act 1914 had it been implemented. In parallel with his pursuit of Home Rule for Ireland, many of his efforts were devoted to improving the governance of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
. It was his motion to disallow the votes of directors of the Mombasa railway which resulted in the defeat of the Unionist government in 1892. He claimed the credit for establishing the principle that the position of Minister of the Crown is incompatible with directorship of a public company. In 1906, after much effort, he also obtained the abolition of flogging in the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
.
Like the rest of the Irish Party, MacNeill supported Britain’s and her Allies
Allies of World War I
The Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire; Italy entered the war on their side in 1915...
cause in the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. His support had particularly deep roots. In 1890 he took an unpopular stance in opposing the cession to Germany of Heligoland
Heligoland
Heligoland is a small German archipelago in the North Sea.Formerly Danish and British possessions, the islands are located in the Heligoland Bight in the south-eastern corner of the North Sea...
, which became an important German naval base in the First World War. MacNeill later described this as ‘one of the most important blunders in the history of the world’, and claimed that ‘But for it humanity could not have been scourged by the Great War’. He also campaigned successfully for the removal of titles from German members of the royal family, through the Titles Deprivation (Enemies) Act 1917.
MacNeill had some eccentricities. The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
commented ‘his learning was allied to a disposition of quite an explosive kind, which, when he was on his feet, made him shout and gesticulate and twist about into many odd shapes and forms’. His memoirs, What I Have Seen and Heard (1925) in the main eschew substantive political discussion in favour of anecdotes and character sketches. They do however contain an important account of MacNeill’s discussions with Cecil Rhodes
Cecil John Rhodes
Cecil John Rhodes PC, DCL was an English-born South African businessman, mining magnate, and politician. He was the founder of the diamond company De Beers, which today markets 40% of the world's rough diamonds and at one time marketed 90%...
in 1887-88 which led to the latter’s donation of £10,000 to the Irish Party and to the election of James Rochfort Maguire
James Rochfort Maguire
James Rochfort Maguire , British imperialist and Irish Nationalist politician and MP. in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, as member of the Irish Parliamentary Party represented North Donegal and as a Parnellite Member for West Clare...
to Parliament.
Selected publications
- The Irish Parliament: What it was and what it did, London and New York, Cassell, 1885
- English Interference with Irish Industries, London and New York, Cassell, 1886
- How the Union was Carried, London, Kegan Paul, Trench, 1887
- Titled Corruption; the sordid origin of some Irish peerages, London, T. F. Unwin, 1894
- The Constitutional and Parliamentary History of Ireland till the Union, Dublin, Talbot Press, 1917
- Studies in the Constitution of the Irish Free State, Dublin, Talbot Press, 1925
- What I Have Seen and Heard, London, Arrowsmith, 1925
Other sources
- Irish IndependentIrish IndependentThe Irish Independent is Ireland's largest-selling daily newspaper that is published in both compact and broadsheet formats. It is the flagship publication of Independent News & Media.-History:...
, 25 August 1926 - Patrick Maume, The Long Gestation: Irish Nationalist Life 1891-1918, Dublin, Gill & Macmillan; New York, St Martin’s Press, 1999
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 'J. G. Swift MacNeill (1845–1926), politician and jurist', by S. L. Gwynn, revised by Alan O'Day
- The Times, 25 August 1926
- Brian M. Walker (ed.), Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801-1922, Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, 1978
- Who Was Who 1916-1928