Eoin MacNeill

Who was Eoin MacNeill?

Eoin MacNeill was an Irish scholar, nationalist, revolutionary and politician. MacNeill has been described as "the father of the modern study of early Irish medieval history." A key figure of the Gaelic revival, he was a co-founder of the Gaelic League, to preserve Irish language and culture. In 1913 he established the Irish Volunteers, and becoming Chief-of-Staff. Though he held this position at the outbreak of the Easter Rising, he took no role in it or its planning, and even went so far as to try to prevent it. He was later elected to the First Dáil as a member of Sinn Féin.