Laurence
Neil was born on 4 March, 1864, to John Neil and Mary Neil (née Murphy). The
family had land and a house in Portmarnock, north County Dublin, and lived at 7
King’s Inn Street in Dublin City. In the 1880s, the family put the ‘O’ in their
surname, probably restoring it to its former place.
Laurence
attended the local Christian Brothers’ primary school in Strand Street and then
moved on to Belvedere College—both schools within a pleasant walking distance
of home. In his schooldays, a strong enthusiasm for cycling developed, an interest
that O’Neill continued after school through the Irish Cycling Association. The Belvederian of 1919 reported that
‘in those days [his schooldays] he was a great athlete, and possesses a medal
for cycle racing, won, we believe, whilst still a boy.’ In the page tribute to
O’Neill that year, it said that he had ‘very vivid recollections of Belvedere’.
Although it cannot be said for sure, Laurence may have benefitted from
Belvedere’s cultivation of public speaking and drama in its students.
After
his formal schooling, he went into his father’s thriving potato and corn
business. In the markets of nearby Smithfield, he mixed and traded with people
of all classes and backgrounds.
O’Neill
was elected to Dublin Corporation in 1910 and showed an interest in assisting
the poorer sections of Dublin society. In 1913, he supported the Irish Trade
and General Workers’ Union, in the Strike and Lockout of that year, when most
did not.
He
as wrongly imprisoned in the aftermath of the rebellion in Dublin in 1916. In
his witness statement to the BMH, William O’Brien recalled:
However,
on Saturday [6 May, 1916], about noon, all prisoners were cleared out of the
gymnasium [of Richmond Barracks]. De Valera, Foran and I, together with five
other prisoners were brought to Room 4 in ‘L’ Block. There we found 15 or 18
other prisoners. These included Count Plunkett, Alderman Laurence O'Neill, John
O'Mahony, Joseph Murray, Batt O'Connor, Bean O'Connor, Douglas French-Mullon,
Sean T. O'Kelly, Frank Thornton, Diarmuid Lynch, Patrick Mahon and Con Collins.
This
experience of imprisonment increased O’Neill’s empathy for political prisoners
and, significantly, increased his political reputation. In the trials of the
leaders of the rebellion, O’Neill refused to act as Crown Prosecutor and acted instead
as Counsel for the Defence.
In
January, 1917, O’Neill was unanimously elected Lord Mayor of Dublin. He held
the confidence of the council and used his talents to advance the interests of
the populace of the city. Mary Clark asserted that ‘O’Neill combined charm with oratorical gifts,
political skill, mediation in industrial disputes, and a strong social
conscience.’ His balanced, temperate approach to public
office is glimpsed through his ‘ambition that the Mansion House would be the
meeting place of the citizens of Dublin, no matter what their social
qualifications, political leanings, or creed may be’. He was critical of the treatment of Irish
prisoners in 1917 but pleaded for a temperate response.
During
his terms as Lord Mayor (he was elected for six consecutive terms of office,
1917-1924) O’Neill campaigned for housing for the poor of Dublin. In this, he
met with great enthusiasm from Alderman Tom Kelly, chairman of the housing
committee. Their appeals to the Chief Secretary, Dublin Castle, the Local
Government Board, as well as to Prime Minister Lloyd George, were all in vain.
They needed much state aid, but the war, post-war reconstruction and the
continuing instability in Ireland meant that state funds were directed
elsewhere.
In
July, 1917, O’Neill participated in the Irish Convention of Prime Minister
Lloyd George and negotiated on behalf of those on hunger strike, such as Thomas
Ashe and Austin Stack. On 25 October, 1917, O’Neill, as Lord Mayor of Dublin,
hosted the Sinn Féin Convention which elected Éamon de Valera as the party’s
president. In a show of his rare ability to bring conflicting elements
together, O’Neill convened and chaired the Mansion House conference against
conscription in April, 1918. He appeared on a decorative, commemorative version
of ‘Ireland’s Solemn League and Covenant’ (pictured on right) denying the
government’s right to introduce conscription to Ireland. Éamon de Valera proposed a statement on behalf
of the conference, entitled Ireland’s
Cause against Conscription, for the attention of Woodrow Wilson, President
of the United States of America, and he deputised O’Neill with its delivery to
Washington D.C.
Continuing
his defence of prisoners, he strongly protested against the imprisonment of
Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington and Dr Kathleen Lynn and was instrumental in their
release. Later again, he pleaded for Terence MacSwiney and had an interview
with Lloyd George in London in an attempt to have the death sentence given to
Kevin Barry (a fellow Old Belvederian) reprieved.
In
the early 1920s, O’Neill facilitated the creation of the Irish White Cross to
alleviate the distress and hardship in Ireland arising from the War of
Independence. He worked with the American White Cross and found much support
from them, particularly when he visited the United States of America in 1921.
Lord
Mayor O’Neill endeavoured to use the mayoralty to bring conflicting parties
together. Mary Clark has written that,
[a] constitutional nationalist himself, O’Neill was
friendly with both Éamon de Valera and Michael Collins and republican leaders
secretly found shelter in the mayoral residence during the Troubles… At the
same time, Lord Mayor O’Neill cultivated the leading authorities on both the
Irish and British sides so as to promote openness to negotiation, employment
and civil peace.
In
early 1921, O’Neill was an important unofficial channel of communication
between the assistant under-secretary for Ireland and the leadership of Sinn
Féin. O’Neill was then one of five delegates—the others were Arthur Griffith,
Robert Barton, Count Plunkett and Éamon de Valera—who attended a conference in
London in September, 1921. O’Neill supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty and was
elected to Dáil Éireann in June 1922. Due to exhaustion he did not contest the
election in 1923. He received the support of W. T. Cosgrave for his election to
the Seanad in June 1929, a position he held until 1943.
In
the years after his mayoralty, O’Neill continued his campaigns to improve the
lives of Dubliners. The Belvederian in 1936 wrote that
Senator L. O’Neill, who was Lord Mayor of Dublin as
far back as twenty years ago, still takes a keen interest in every movement
that tends towards the improvement of the city.
He
died in Portmarnock 26 July, 1943.
