Professor at Corpus Christi College, Melbourne. Author of biographies of Rev Julian Tenison Woods and Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop.

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Australian Dictionary of Biography entry: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/oneill-george-7909

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Fr David Strong SJ, The Australian dictionary of Jesuit biography 1848-2015, Second Edition, 2017:
O'Neill, George

Philosopher, academic, author; born Dungannon, Tyrone, Ireland, 16 April 1863; died Sydney, 19 July 1947, aged 84.

George O'Neill came to Australia in 1923, when he was over 60. It might have been thought that, at this age, his value to the Society in Australia would not be very great; but the work he did in the 22 years he spent at Corpus Christi College was of greater value for the glory of God than anything he had done in his earlier life.

Before his arrival in Australia, O'Neill had been engaged in university work in Dublin for 26 years, first with the Royal University of Ireland and then with the National University. This assignment began in 1897, when he was appointed to University College, where he prepared students for the Royal examinations, lecturing in modern and ancient languages. University College was a relic of the abortive attempt to establish a Catholic university in Newman's time. It was handed over to the Society by the Irish bishops, and became a kind of hostel for students preparing for the Royal examinations. O'Neill was a fellow of the Royal University of Ireland. He set and corrected examinations and received a modest salary.

O'Neill went to school at St Stanislaus, Tullamore, (later amalgamated with Clongowes) in 1874, and gave evidence of the ability so strikingly manifested later. He entered the noviceship at Milltown Park, Dublin, 7 September 1880. After this he was sent for a year to teach in Belvedere College, Dublin, and then returned to Milltown Park for a year's philosophy. He was at the same time doing his university course by taking the examination of the Royal University of Ireland. He was given a year free of teaching at University College, 1884-85, to prepare for his BA exams, and it was during this year that he lived with Gerard Manley Hopkins, who had been elected a Fellow of the Royal University at the beginning of 1884 and was resident at University College.

After obtaining his degree, O'Neill did two more years' teaching at Belvedere, where Albert Power was a pupil at the time, and a year at Clongowes. He was then given two years on the continent, one in Prague and one in Paris, preparing for his MA examinations in modern languages, which he took in 1891 with first class honours. Then he did a second year of philosophy (seven years after completing his first year) at Milltown Park, and went straight to theology in the same place.

He was ordained in 1895, at the age of 32, and did his tertianship at Tronchiennes. In 1897 he was appointed to University College and took up the work that was to occupy him until he left for Australia in 1923 at his own request, influenced by a period of ill health and a sense of dissatisfaction at the approach of retirement. In 1909, when the National University of Ireland replaced the Royal University, O'Neill became a founding fellow and was nominated the first professor of English language and philosophy in 1910. One of his pupils was a young James Joyce. He later joined the community at Lower Lesson Street, not far from the university. He was a precocious linguist, being master of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, and German. He was an omnivorous reader, particularly in English literature. He regularly contributed critical English articles in Studies.

When he reached Melbourne, it was a question whether he would go to Newman or to Werribee, and Werribee was chosen. He was to spend just over 22 years there, and his courses exceeded all expectations. He professed modern languages, 1923-45, and church history, 1932-45, and lectured and wrote in theology, history, literature and aesthetics. He had never been a real teacher, being too academic for the average student, though the specially gifted could obtain much from him. But his simplicity of character, his edifying religious life, and general culture, had a great influence on generations of students, even if he did not teach them much.

Even in Ireland O'Neill was noted for care of the young and being kind to them. He loved having the students around him at Werribee, and regretted their departure for vacations.

He had no gift for practical things at all, and many were the difficulties this created for him. Though he had very considerable musical gifts, possessing a sense of absolute pitch and being a competent player of the piano, he was not a real pianist, being rather hard and mechanical; and he had very poor handwriting.

O'Neill wrote a number of books and articles. In Ireland he had published a small volume, Lectures on Poetry, and two books on the Shakespeare-Bacon question, Could Bacon Have Written the Plays? and, The Clouds Around Shakespeare. He continued his writing in Australia. Though always a good writer, he never succeeded in becoming a popular one. His book on the Jesuit Reductions in Paraguay, Golden Years on the Paraguay, deserved more popularity than it attained. The two books that made most impact on the Australian public were his life of Saint Mother Mary of the Cross (MacKillop) and his life of Julian Tenison Woods. The latter was written first. It was not popular with the Black Josephite Sisters, for in matters of controversy concerning their origins, he came down too heavily on one side.

He wrote a history of the Australian mission, but it was never published. It was very good concerning the early years, but it was somewhat superficial in the treatment of the more contemporary period. He could hardly be regarded as an unbiased historian, since he tended to be influenced unduly by his likes and dislikes. He never maintained a sufficiently detached outlook.

He went to immense trouble in gathering material on the origins of the Josephite Sisters, particularly from surviving associates of Mother Mary and Father Woods, but his judgment on the facts could not always be firmly relied upon.

O'Neill put a great deal of work into his translation of Job, in which he received much help from Albert Power. It is greatly to his credit that he was always ready to help other writers. He had, for example, done a good deal of work on Caroline Chisholm, and helped Margaret Kiddle with her biography.

O'Neill was an extraordinary combination of genius, honesty and simplicity. He was childlike in many ways, always, for example, ready to experiment with strange combinations of dishes at meals. Though kind and even-tempered as a rule, he could become annoyed at times over what other people would regard as of no importance. Although a somewhat reticent and scholarly figure, he was nevertheless warm, frank, cultured and friendly, respected for his good critical judgment, his moral qualities of courage and sympathy for others, and for his spiritual outlook.

When his eyesight became so bad that he could no longer carry on his work at Werribee, he retired at the end of 1945 to Canisius College, Pymble, where he remained for the last year and a half of his life. As he could no longer read himself, the scholastics were very good to him by acting as readers, even if there was not always perfect agreement on both sides about the type of book to be read. He always enjoyed hearing his own creations. Towards the end he wanted to die. The Australian province should not easily forget the generous and notable service he gave in the autumn of his life.

(Reproduced by permission of Fr David Strong SJ.)