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800Years IrishPolitical, Literary&MilitaryHistory - 15thApril2014
not just a figurehead or “front” behindwhich the radicals plotted.
Therewas a tendency toportray him as a rationalmanof peace in
contrast to extremist messianic republicans. Such a simplistic in-
terpretation fails todo justice to the complexityof the background
to the1916Rising. Regardless of the effectiveness of his leadership,
MacNeill’s decisive role in the formationof theVolunteers is a sig-
nificant legacy and given that theVolunteersmetamorphosed into
the IRA that fought thewarof independence,his stanceonviolence
is particularlyworthy of assessment. He insisted in February 1916
“what we call our country is not a poetical abstraction…it is our
duty to get our country on side and not be content with the van-
ity of thinking ourselves to be right and other Irish people to be
wrong”. That contentionwent to the heart of the controversies of
nationalist Ireland almost a century ago andMacNeill’s counter-
mand andwhat followedneed tobe seen in the context of different
and evolving concepts of Irish nationalism. Definitions of loyalty
and legitimate violence were contested during this period of mul-
tiple allegiances and the outbreak of the GreatWar had complicated
them further
MacNeill tooknopart in theRisingbutwas triedbycourt-martial and
sentenced topenal servitude for life; hewas releasedunder amnesty in
June 1917. Despite recriminations, he took an active role in the recon-
stitutedSinnFéinparty. In1918hewaselected to the firstDáil forSinn
Féin as agreednationalist candidate forDerryCity and as representa-
tiveof the
NationalUniversityof Ireland
. InMay1921hewas re-elect-
ed for both constituencies in the elections for thenorthernparliament
and southernparliament (secondDáil) respectively.A supporterof the
Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921, he subsequently served as the
Free State’s minister for Education from 1922-5. He lost his Dáil seat
in1927 and returned to academia asProfessor of Early Irishhistory at
UCDwherehe remaineduntil retirement in1941.
DiarmaidFerriter, February2014
