Cushendall Parish Centre at 8.30pm on Friday 20th September. Everyone Welcome. Admission Free
In his forthcoming talk, ‘Brothers from the Glens’ Dr Éamon Phoenix will explore the lives and careers of two of the most influential figures in the making of Modern Ireland. The MacNeill brothers, John ( Éoin) and James were born over their father’s bakery in Glenarm within sight of the MacDonnelll castle. 
Eoin MacNeill (1867-1945)- known as ‘The Scholar-Revolutionary’- was educated at St Malachy’s College, Belfast and the Royal University, becoming an historian at University College Dublin in the early 1900s. Eoin is remembered as the co-founder of the Gaelic League in 1893 and the founder of the Irish Volunteers in 1913. Imprisoned after the 1916 Rising, he was to become Speaker of the fist Dail and a founding-father of the Irish Free State.
Eoin’s younger brother, James McNeill was educated in Dublin and Cambridge after which he pursued a successful career in the Indian civil service. Returning to Ireland after the Rising, James joined his brother in the Sinn Fein movement. In 1922 he helped to draw up the Irish Constitution and was appointed the Free State’s High Commissioner in London. In 1928 he became the last Governor-General of the Free State, representing the King in Ireland until forced to resign by Eamonn de Valera.
The talk will focus on the early lives of the McNeill brothers in North Antrim, their entry into public life and their contribution to the history of this island.
*Dr Éamon Phoenix is a political historian and writer and a member of the Irish Government’s advisory Committee on Centenaries.
