James McNeill

Who was James McNeill?

James McNeill was an Irish politician and diplomat, who served as first High Commissioner to London and second Governor-General of the Irish Free State.

The brother of nationalist leader Eoin MacNeill, James McNeill served as a high-ranking member of the Indian Civil Service in Calcutta. Although unconnected with the Easter Rising in 1916, McNeill was arrested and jailed by the British Dublin Castle administration. On release, he was elected to Dublin County Council, becoming its chairman. He served as a member of the committee under Michael Collins, the chairman of the Provisional Government, that drafted the Constitution of the Irish Free State. He was subsequently appointed as Irish High Commissioner to the Court of St. James's, meaning the United Kingdom. When the first governor-general of the Free State, Timothy Michael Healy retired in December 1927, James McNeill was proposed as his replacement by the Irish government of W. T. Cosgrave and duly appointed by King George V as Governor-General of the Irish Free State.