Séamus Ó Néill and Eithne O'Neill

Séamus Ó Néill (1910-1981) was an Irish language writer and educator born in Clough, Co. Down. He earned an MA in history from Queen’s University Belfast and studied under Eoin MacNéill at University College Dublin. Ó Néill was professor of history at Carysfort College, Dublin from 1937 to 1974.

A prolific author, he published short stories, novels, plays, and poetry in Irish. His novel Tonn Tuile (1947), notable for addressing urban middle-class marriage breakdown, was delivered to Sáirséal agus Dill in March of 1946. His anthology Dánta do pháistí (1949) features a striking dust-jacket drawing by Richard Kennedy, Virginia Woolf’s former office boy. The final haiku-like poem ‘Subh Milis’ with its sub-heading ‘Ceann do Mhama’ is addressed to his wife, echoing his dedication of Tonn Tuile to her: ‘Do Chaitlín’.

Ó Néill was also a journalist and editor, contributing to numerous Irish publications and serving as editor of An tUltach. Active in literary circles, he chaired both Cumann na Scríbhneoirí and PEN in Ireland, leaving a significant legacy in 20th-century Irish language literature.

Paris-based Eithne O’Neill is a Dublin-born film critic. She studied in Germany and France before teaching cinema and literature at Paris University 13. On the editorial board of the French monthly Positif for thirty years, she is a member of FIPRESCI (The International Federation of Film Critics) and has served on juries at international film festivals. Her publications include the books Stephen Frears, Le Voyage de Chihiro, Ernst Lubitsch (with Jean-Loup Bourget) and Chemin Faisant, a collection of poems. She has contributed extensively to academic journals on topics ranging from American gangster films to the cinema of Tim Burton and the Quay Brothers.