Eoin MacNeill
Former Minister for Education and Youth of IrelandWikipedia
4
MENTIONS
3
EPISODES
1
PODCASTS
Search complete. 4 mentions across 3 episodes found for "Eoin MacNeill".
Nov 1, 2026
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And this was what was cranking up the crisis.
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The Irish Volunteers had been formed in 1913 and this Irish Volunteer movement had been conceived by an IRB man, Bulmer Hobson, who persuaded an academic, Eoin MacNeill, to lead it.
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MacNeill argued that nationalists should defend legislative independence as the Volunteers of the 18th century had done.
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After a meeting on the 25th of November 1913 in the Rotunda Concert Hall, 3,000 had joined.
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He took two bullets and it was a stretcher bearer from the neighbouring Ulster Division who found him and stayed with him, taking two bullets himself as he vainly tended him.
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On the same day that John Redmond called on Catholics to enlist in the British Army, his colleague J London MP for Limerick, speaking at Kiltilly, stated that the interests of Ireland were associated with England's as regards the war against the accursed dictatorship of the Kaiser.
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This was all too much for separatists within the ranks of the Irish Volunteers, about 12,000 strong under Eoin MacNeill, although some estimates are slightly higher, who broke away and retained the name Irish Volunteers.
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But for the rest of the 130,000 or so now parading in Ireland's towns, cities and countryside, They stayed with Redmond and the Irish Parliamentary Party and renamed themselves the National Volunteers as their leaders threw themselves into the recruiting drive.
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But to get round this, a unionist J.R. Fisher was appointed by the British, and Justice Richard Fetham of the South African Supreme Court was appointed Britain's representative to chair the commission before the Labour government fell in October.
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Eoin MacNeill, axe head of the Irish Volunteers, was appointed by the Free State Government and the Northern Irish Government saw this new enemy to its life and postured.
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Craig's Government put in place test mobilisations of the BNC Specials and ordered 156 heavy machine guns and 114 million rounds of ammunition in case of a fight over the disputed areas with the British or the Free State Army.
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Not an inch was Craig's slogan.
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They had co-opted James Connolly, a leader for workers' rights whose Citizens' Volunteer Army, roughly 200 in number, had been created to protect striking workers from the depredations and rough treatment of the RIC.
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Eoin MacNeill, the head of the Irish Volunteers, countermanded the order, realising that the Castle document alleging the impending arrest was a forgery and that there was no prospect of success, but it was too late.
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The decision to go ahead with the rousing was taken by two Catholic Ulstermen, Thomas Clarke and Sean McDermott.
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In Ulster, the stirrings of rebellion were brought to an abrupt end.