J. G. Swift MacNeill

Who was J. G. Swift MacNeill?

John Gordon Swift MacNeill was an Irish Protestant Nationalist politician and MP, in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland for South Donegal from 1887 until 1918, Professor of Constitutional and Criminal Law at the King's Inns, Dublin, 1882–88, and Professor of the Law of Public and Private Wrongs at the National University of Ireland from 1909. He was also a well-known author on law and nationalist issues, and became a QC in 1893.

MacNeill was from a Church of Ireland Tory background. He was the only son of the Rev. John Gordon Swift MacNeill, chaplain of the Richmond Bridewell, Dublin, and of Susan, daughter of the Rev. H. Tweedy, formerly Lieutenant, 7th Dragoon Guards. The 'Swift' in his name came from his descent from Godwin Swift, uncle and guardian to Jonathan Swift. MacNeill was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and Christ Church, Oxford, and called to the Irish bar in 1875. He never married.

As a Professor of Law at the King's Inns, MacNeill taught a number of Irish political leaders when they were studying for the bar, including Tim Healy, John Redmond and Willie Redmond.