‘A. J. Balfour once said, that Ireland was only a geographical entity. Nowadays one might think that in the patriotic view, Ireland is only a patriotic entity.’ This opinion is but one of many revealing and insightful comments offered by Eoin MacNeill in his unfinished memoir. This draft memoir, dictated by MacNeill initially to Lelia Carroll and later Ita Mallon, is now edited by Brian Hughes of Mary Immaculate College, Limerick. Anticipating disapproval, the editor pre-empts critics by admitting:
many of its themes and topics are underdeveloped, it is sometimes scattered in its chronology, there is no sense of chapter structure, and it is often repetitive, with MacNeill repeating several anecdotes on more than one occasion. … in some ways, this is what makes it so powerful a historical document.
That power results in no small part from MacNeill's honesty. Described by Hughes as ‘a reluctant politician, and a rather inactive and often ineffectual minister’ his centrality in Irish politics and culture from 1893 to 1940 is undeniable.
Responsible for all Conradh na Gaeilge correspondence as well as its weekly and monthly journals Irisleabhar na Gaedhilge and An Claidheamh Soluis, such work gained him no favour with official supervisors at the Four Courts and the burden brought him ‘very near to a breakdown’. Investing financially in An Cló Chumann left him with considerable debt. He recalls the bitterness of the Parnell crisis as ‘deeper and sharper and more widespread than anything’ during the Civil War. Equally revealing is that he and others had debated a new ‘open air popular movement’ to maintain the Irish language, but hesitated until home rule was secured. Reports of Douglas Hyde's New York lecture spurred them to act, thus was born the Gaelic League.
Other gems include his assertion that Richard Henebry had to leave Maynooth for ‘not conforming to the discipline.’ Equally important is the impact of William Rooney's speech that criticised the Irish Parliamentary Party and led politicians such as John Dillon, William O'Brien and Joseph Devlin, as well as the A.O.H., to consider the league with suspicion. He admits his ‘error’ in urging those at the 1915 Oireachtas to support the recently formed Irish Volunteers and the impact that had on the league. On more than one occasion, he claims Carson's actions set the stage and conditions for Irish nationalism. The memoir also divulges his responsibility for acquiring Heinrich Zimmer's library for U.C.D.; his distrust of Germany during the First World War; and the impact of Standish O'Grady's The story of Ireland on his peers and their children. Such disclosures offer an illuminating window into the contemporary mindset.
This draft memoir, fumbling and repetitious in places as the editor admits, is nonetheless a revealing insight into the mindset of a man who played critical roles at key moments in Irish history. Those roles had consequences. The Rising saw him removed from his chair at U.C.D. and expelled from the R.I.A. The Civil War led to one son's death as an anti-Treaty I.R.A. member, while two other sons took the Free State side. On such topics, the memoir is largely silent. It dwells largely on the language movement, the Volunteers, 1916 and its aftermath.
Apart from an account of witnessing Kevin O'Higgins's assassination, the narrative concludes with the 1923 Westminster imperial conference. While raids on his home and arrests feature, his personal life is largely absent. No insight is offered as to why MacNeill parted with Conradh na Gaeilge. How did the Civil War politics affect the R.I.A. and U.C.D.? Readers will search in vain for insights into the Boundary Commission, academic intrigue, or his family life. Equally frustrating is the absence of diacritic markers and misspelling of Irish-language words.
Without MacNeill one may well ask whither the Irish language as a spoken vernacular? Whither Irish-language literature without An Cló-Chumann? Whither the Irish-language novel without Séadna? Whither early Irish history? Whither the Irish manuscript tradition? Such a key figure deserves attention. This publication is an important step in pushing him back toward centre stage and out of the shadow of his better-known colleagues. This memoir is a welcome addition to The scholar revolutionary: Eoin MacNeill, 1867–1945 (Dublin, 1973) and Eoin MacNeill, scholar and man of action, 1867–1945 (Oxford, 1980), and should inspire further evaluation of such a critical and intriguing figure.
