Patrick O'Neill (1875 – 2 February 1938) was an

Irish nationalist Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of cult ...

politician and hotel proprietor.

Life

Patrick O'Neill was born in Annaghmore,

County Armagh County Armagh ( ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It is located in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and adjoins the southern shore of Lough Neagh. It borders t ...

, Ireland, in 1875. He married Mary (Minnie) McConville in 1903 in

Portadown Portadown ( ) is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The town is based on the River Bann in the north of the county, about southwest of Belfast. It is in the Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council area and had a population ...

, County Armagh, and they moved to

Warrenpoint Warrenpoint () is a small port town and civil parish in County Down, Northern Ireland. It sits at the head of Carlingford Lough, south of Newry, and is separated from the Republic of Ireland by a narrow strait. The town is beside the village ...

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 552,261. It borders County Antrim to the ...

, where he became the proprietor of the Victoria Hotel. They had five children: Mary Theresa (Molly), Harry Gerard, Bernard, Patrick, and Nora. Mary died (likely in childbirth) in 1911. In 1913, O'Neill married Brigid Smith in Moynalvey,

County Meath County Meath ( ; or simply , ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. It is bordered by County Dublin to the southeast, County ...

, and they had four children: Brigid (Dolie), Jim, Teresa V. and Nuala. O'Neill and his family lived at the Crown Hotel in Warrenpoint, which he purchased in 1913. He died in 1938 in Warrenpoint.

Political career

In his early political career, O'Neill served as Chairman of the Warrenpoint Urban District Council, as well as Justice of the Peace, for a number of years. He was appointed as the presiding officer at the Warrenpoint Town Hall polling station during the 1918 general election in Ireland, and then in 1920, he ran unsuccessfully in the election for County Councilors for the

constituency. That year, the Government of Ireland Act, 1920 was introduced to establish the partition of Ireland and create two devolved parliaments within the UK. O'Neill was elected to the newly formed Parliament of Northern Ireland as a nationalist MP for the Down constituency in the

1921 Northern Ireland general election The 1921 Northern Ireland general election was held on Tuesday, 24 May 1921. It was the first election to the Parliament of Northern Ireland. Ulster Unionist Party members won two-thirds of votes cast and more than three-quarters of the seats in ...

. Partition, which had created a northern Catholic and nationalist majority in a primarily Protestant and Unionist state, was a key issue in this election. To protest the fact that Northern Ireland was established to have a Unionist majority, the Nationalist party members, including O'Neill, abstained from taking their seats during the first parliament. O'Neill was re-elected in the 1925 election, and in early 1926 decided to enter parliament after it was decided at a convention in his constituency that it was no longer useful for the nationalist MPs to abstain. In 1928, he was elected as a joint honorary secretary of the newly formed

National League of the North The National League of the North (NLN) was an Irish nationalist organisation active in Northern Ireland. The group was founded in May 1928 on the basis of a radical programme for the "National Unification of Ireland". It was in part an attempt ...

. He sat in the Northern parliament for County Down until 1929 when the Unionist government eliminated proportional representation. At the

1929 Northern Ireland general election The 1929 Northern Ireland general election was held on 22 May 1929. Like all previous elections to the Parliament of Northern Ireland, it produced a large majority for the Ulster Unionist Party. It was the first held after the abolition of pro ...

, he was elected for the Mourne constituency and was re-elected in 1933. He was spokesman of the

Irish Nationalist Party The Nationalist Party was a term commonly used to describe a number of parliamentary political parties and constituency organisations supportive of Irish Home Rule Bill, Home Rule for Ireland from 1874 to 1922. It was also the name of the main I ...

on financial matters. O'Neill sat for the Mourne division until his retirement in 1938.

References

External links

*http://www.archeion.ca/patrick-oneill-fonds *https://web.archive.org/web/20160304052134/http://www.proni.gov.uk/index.htm *http://www.election.demon.co.uk/stormont/stormont.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Oneill, Patrick 1875 births 1938 deaths Nationalist Party (Ireland) members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland Politicians from County Armagh Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 1921–1925 Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 1925–1929 Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 1929–1933 Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 1933–1938 Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland for County Down constituencies People from Warrenpoint Councillors in County Down Businesspeople from County Armagh Businesspeople from County Down

Life

Political career

Archives

References

External links