Francis O’Neill

Francis O’Neill (1838-1936) and his immeasurable contribution to Irish traditional music in the twentieth century is well documented. Originally from Tralibane, near Bantry in Co.Cork, O’Neill lived most of his adult life in his adopted city of Chicago, where his life’s work as tune-collector, publisher, writer and supporter of Irish traditional music was carried out.

O’Neill emigrated from Ireland in 1865, and by accident rather than design, found himself a cabin boy working his passage from Cobh to Sunderland. His exploits as a mariner brought him all manner of places, and even involved a dramatic rescue in the Pacific. By 1869, he had foregone the briny seas, and in 1873 he joined the police force in Chicago where he had settled with his wife Anna Rogers, from Feakle, Co. Clare. The couple went on to have ten children, only four of whom survived O’Neill and his wife. O’Neill rose through the ranks of the police force to eventually become Chief of Police in Chicago in 1901, a position he held until his retirement in 1905.

O’Neill’s professional life was a busy one, and not without its challenges. Chicago was a rapidly growing city and the police force was expanding accordingly. Notwithstanding this, O’Neill found time to gather an extensive personal library (which now resides at the University of Notre Dame) and amass a vast collection of Irish traditional tunes from his time spent with visiting and resident musicians in Chicago. He is perhaps best remembered for two tune collections in particular: The Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems (1907) and O’Neill’s Music of Ireland: Eighteen Hundred and Fifty Melodies (1903). Henebry described the 1903 collection as the ‘great thesaurus of Irish music’ (1903, 30). O’Neill’s prose writings on Irish traditional music are, arguably, equally as important: Irish Folk Music: A Fascinating Hobby (1910) and Irish Minstrels and Musicians with Numerous Dissertations on Other Subjects (1913).