O'NEILL, WILLIAM PATRICK

Architect and sculptor, of Dublin, active from the 1880s or earlier until 1927 or later. William O'Neill appears to have been a son (or possibly some other close connection) of PATRICK J. O'NEILL  PATRICK J. O'NEILL (or Neill), monumental sculptor of 182 Great Brunswick Street, Dublin. He was articled to JOHN JOSEPH O'CALLAGHAN JOHN JOSEPH O'CALLAGHAN (1) and may be the William O'Neill who was elected a member of the AAI on 24 April 1873.(2) He first appears in the directories in 1881, with the designation 'architect'; subsequently he is described as an architect or as a sculptor or as both. No buildings by him are recorded in the the Irish Builder. He is presumably the 'Mr O'Neill' of Dublin who executed the high altar in the Convent of Mercy chapel, Strabane, consecrated in 1881.(3) In 1891 his design for a memorial to John Mandeville at Mitchelstown, Co. Cork, was selected from several which had been submitted.(4) An altar which he executed for the Catholic church at Dungiven, Co. Derry, was the subject of legal action in 1895, when he sought to recover the balance of £81.3s. from the parish priest, who was prepared to pay only £57.(5) In 1901 he exhibited a design for the Hayes Memorial Cross, Adare, Co. Limerick,(no. 288) at the Royal Hibernian Academy, and the following year a 'Sketch Design for a new front in College Green' (no. 344). By 1910 he had changed his name to Mackey-O'Neill and moved to the suburbs. He was still living in Rathfarnham in 1925. An architect named William Patrick O'Neill, with an address at 30 York Street, Dublin, made an application to be admitted to Simpson's Hospital, in November 1925, when he was 69, and again the following year.(6)

RIA: member by 1896.

Addresses: 182 Great Brunswick Street, <=1881->=1897; 5 Ormond Quay Lr, 1900->=1907; Rathfarnham, 1918-1927.
Home: 52 Great Charles Street, 1894; 58 Great Charles Street, 1895-1897; Sans Souci Villa, Rathgar Road, Rathgar, 1910; Rathfarnham, <=1915-1917; Millbrook (or Willbrook?), Rathfarnham, 1918->=1925.

See WORKS.

References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from Thom's dirctories or Jones's transcripts therefrom.


(1) Obituary of J.J. O'Callaghan in Irish Times, 6 Dec 1905.
(2) IB 15, 1 May 1873, 127.
(3) J.J. Tracey, 'A dissertation on the buildings of John O'Neill and O'Neill and Byrne, architects, 1862-1883', unpublished thesis presented as part of Master of Architecture degree course, Queen's University, Belfast, 1987, 217, citing Londonderry Journal, 17 Oct 1881.
(4) IB 33, 15 Jan 1891, 21.
(5) Building News, 68, 24 May 1895, 749; the jury eventually awarded O'Neill £78.3s.
(6) Christopher Ryan, Simpson's Hospital (Ballinteer Family History Society, 2000), 67; his address is given as 27 York Street in the latter year.

11 work entries listed in chronological order for O'NEILL, WILLIAM PATRICK

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Building:	CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, CLARENDON STREET, CHURCH OF ST TERESA (RC, DISCALCED CARMELITES)
Date:	1879
Nature:	Communion rails.
Refs:	Clonliffe College Archive, MS p1/2

Building:	CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, CLARENDON STREET, CHURCH OF ST TERESA (RC, DISCALCED CARMELITES)
Date:	1880
Nature:	High altar.
Refs:	Clonliffe College Archive, MS p1/2

Building:	CO. TYRONE, STRABANE, MOUNT ST JOSEPH, CONVENT OF MERCY
Date:	1881a
Nature:	White marble high altar with 'stately outline and delicate carvings', donated by Mrs Mary Browne.
Refs:	J.J. Tracey, 'A dissertation on the buildings of John O'Neill and O'Neill and Byrne, architects, 1862-1883', unpublished thesis presented as part of Master of Architecture degree course, Queen's University, Belfast, 1987, citing Londonderry Journal, 17 Oct 1881

Building:	CO. WATERFORD, TRAMORE, CHURCH (RC)
Date:	1883
Nature:	Sacred Heart altar.
Refs:	P.M. Egan, History, guide and directory of county and city of Waterford [1894], ?.

Building:	CO. OFFALY, MOUNT ST JOSEPH ABBEY (RC, CISTERCIAN)
Date:	1884
Nature:	Some of side aisles and other works carried iout by WPO'N
Refs:	Weekly Irish Times, 16 Aug 1884.

Building:	CO. CORK, MITCHELSTOWN, MANDEVILLE MEMORIAL
Date:	1891
Nature:	W.P.O'N's design for 26 ft high monument with life-size figure of John Mandeville chosen from several submitted.
Refs:	IB 33, 15 Jan 1891, 21

Building:	CO. DUBLIN, DUN LAOGHAIRE, GEORGE'S STREET LOWER, ST MARY'S DOMINICAN CONVENT
Date:	1891
Nature:	New altar of Sicilian marble 'relieved by richly coloured marbles of rouge royal, Emperor's red and Mexican onyx' (Irish Times).  Designed by J.L. Robinson.
Refs:	Irish Times, 27 Oct 1891; IB 33, 1 Nov 1891, 246

Building:	CO. DERRY, DUNGIVEN, CHURCH OF ST PATRICK (RC)
Date:	1894a
Nature:	Altar, for Rev. E. Loughrey. Subject of lawsuit, 1894.
Refs:	Irish Times, 21 Jun 1894; Building News 68, 24 May 1895, 749

Building:	CO. DONEGAL, STRANORLAR, CHURCH OF ST MARY (RC)
Date:	1896
Nature:	Altar of Blessed Virgin Mary, designed by W.H. Byrne.
Refs:	Drawings, 1896, formerly in office archives of W.H. Byrne & Son

Building:	CO. LIMERICK, ADARE, HAYES MEMORIAL CROSS
Date:	1899
Nature:	Elaborately carved Celtic cross in white limestone from Sheephouse, Co. Louth.  Executed by George Smith, Great Brunswick St. On view at Adare in Sep 1899. Design exh. RHA, 1901.
Refs:	Irish Times, 11 Sep 1899;  RHA 1901, no. 288.

Building:	CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, BURGH QUAY (& HAWKINS STREET), SHEEHAN MONUMENT
Date:	1905p
Nature:	Monument to Constable Patrick Sheehan (d.1905).  Executed by Harrison & Sons.
Refs:	Christine Casey, The Buildings of Ireland: Dublin (2005), 457-8.