Thomas O'Neill Russell (1828–1908) was an Irish novelist and a founding member of

Conradh na Gaeilge (; historically known in English as the Gaelic League) is a social and cultural organisation which promotes the Irish language in Ireland and worldwide. The organisation was founded in 1893 with Douglas Hyde as its first president, when it emer ...

Life

He was born in Moate,

County Westmeath "Noble above nobility" , image_map = Island of Ireland location map Westmeath.svg , subdivision_type = Sovereign state, Country , subdivision_name = Republic of Ireland, Ireland , subdivision_type1 = Provinces o ...

, the son of Joseph Russell, a Quaker farmer. He interested himself in the Irish language from the 1850s. He emigrated to the United States in 1867 and returned to Ireland in 1895. He began to organise opinion in Dublin, by means of essay and lecture in the interests of a

Gaelic revival The Gaelic revival ( ga, Athbheochan na Gaeilge) was the late-nineteenth-century Romantic nationalism, national revival of interest in the Irish language (also known as Gaelic) and Irish Gaelic culture (including Irish folklore, folklore, Iri ...

. To his efforts to arouse in Irishmen a sense of the value of their ancient language and music was largely due the inauguration of the Gaelic League in 1893 and of the first ''

Feis Ceoil Feis Ceoil ( ; "Festival of Music") is an Irish music organisation which holds an annual competitive festival of classical music. It was first organised in Dublin in 1897 by Dr. Annie Patterson and Edward Martyn for the purpose of stimulating musi ...

'' (Irish musical festival) in 1897. He died on 15 June 1908 in Synge St.,

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

, and was buried in

Mount Jerome Cemetery Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: Places * Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England * Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, C ...

Select works

* ''The Adventures of Dick Massey, or the Battles of a Boy'' (Dublin: James Duffy 1860; Gill, new ed. 1908) * ''True Heart’s Trials, a Tale of Ireland and America'' (Dublin: M .H. Gill 1872; rep. 1910); (1904) * ''Red Hugh, Or the Life and Death of Hugh Roe O’Donnell, Lord of Tyrconnell'' (Dublin: M. H. Gill 1905).

Life

Select works

Notes

Further reading