Life
1878-1953 [also Seosamh Ó Néill; var. 1885, due to his own
misinformation]; b. Tuam, Co. Galway, ed. UCG, Manchester, and Germany;
spent childhood on Aran Islands where his father was an RIC-man; briefly
attended Maynooth; briefly lectured there; won studied under Kuno
Meyer, and later John Strachan, on a scholarship secured by his translation
of Cath Bóinde (Eriú 2, 1905); then under
Rudolf Thurneysen at Freiburg; joined Irish Civil Service in 1908; in
the Free State, acted as Permanent Secretary of the Department of Education,
1923-1944, in which capacity he appointed Yeats as a school inspector;
Wind from the North (1934), won Harmonsworth Prize; retired prematurely,
and spent some years in increasing unhappiness, especially following an
abortive move to the South of France. His Land Under England, was
a British best-seller (1935); portrait in oil by Sarah Purser presented
to NGI by Mrs O’Neill, 1951; his papers and correspondence are held
in National Library of Ireland. IF DIL OCIL
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Works
Drama, The Kingdom Makers, with lyrics by Mary O’Neill
Devenport (Talbot/Unwin [1917]); Buaid an ultaig, dráma nua
(1936). Novels, Wind from the North (London: Jonathan Cape
1934), 339pp.; Land Under England, foreword by AE [George Russell]
(1935); Day of Wrath (London: Gollancz 1936); Philip (1940);
Chosen by the Queen (London: Gollancz 1947), (iv), 5-247pp. Miscellaneous,
ed. Cath Bóinde, in Eriú 2, (1905); also Gaath
Adtuaidh Tomas de Bhial Di[a]strigh. Unpublished, The
Black Shore, novel.
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Criticism
M. Kelly Lynch, ‘The Smiling Public Man, Joseph O’Neill and
his Works’, in Journal of Irish Literature 12, no. 2, (May
1983) pp.3-27.
‘Bibliography of Joseph O’Neill’ by Cathy [?]Giffani, Journal of Irish Literature, No. 2 (May 1987), pp.14-19.
Robert Hogan, ed., ‘Seosamh O’Neill Special Issue,’ Journal of Irish Literature, 1989.
Léon Ó Bróin, Protestant Nationalists in Revolutionary
Ireland (1985), p.208.
Benedict Kiely, ‘The Historical Novel’ in Augustine Martin, ed., The Genius of Irish Prose (Cork: Mercier 1985), pp.53-66.
James Cahalan, Great Hatred, Little Room, The Irish Historical Novel (1983), In Wind from the North (1934), p. 110.
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Notes
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.
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.)
Stuart/O'Neill: A correspondence between O’Neill and Francis Stuart is among papers in the National Library of Ireland.
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)