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Capturing O'Neill: Dedication pages of books on Irish traditional music, signed by Capt. Francis O'Neill

Capt. Francis O'Neill portrait

This page is referenced by:

Capturing O'Neill

With the Irish Traditional Music Archive in Dublin and the Ward Irish Music Archives in Milwaukee, this initiative will build an online display of signed dedication pages of books by Capt. Francis O'Neill, gifted to others by the author. Each entry will have a biography of the recipient, and (if possible) a story of provenance for each book. This project will be researched and assembled by the students in Scott Spencer's (University of Southern California) "Irish Music" Spring 2021 graduate course, and curated by by Drs. Aileen Dillane (University of Limerick), Michael O'Malley (George Mason University), Daniel T. Neely (Irish Echo), and Scott Spencer (USC) with the Ward Irish Music Archive and ITMA.

The goal of this display is to contextualise O'Neill's projects and publications on Irish traditional music in the larger Irish experience. This includes placing O'Neill, through his gifts of books and florid dedication pages, at the heart of the Irish Diaspora and its associated political and social movements at the turn of the century; before the 1916 Uprising; and through the 1922 creation of the Free State.

O’Neill’s Music of Ireland (1903)
The Dance Music of Ireland (1907)
O'Neill's Irish Music: 250 Choice Selections Arranged for Piano and Violin (1908)
Irish Folk Music: A Fascinating Hobby (1910)
Popular Selections from O'Neill's Dance Music of Ireland (1910) [edited by Selena O'Neill]
Irish Minstrels and Musicians (1913)
O’Neill’s Music of Ireland: 400 Choice Selections Arranged for Piano and Violin (1915)
Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody (1922)
Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody 2nd edition [1924]

Readers can navigate this site through the Table of Contents in the upper left hand corner of this page.

Do you have a signed O'Neill book? If so, we would love to include a scan of the dedication page, as well as your story. You can participate by uploading information and images through this online form, or by sending an email to scottspe@usc.edu for information and instructions.
Biography of Capt. Francis O'Neill By Michael O’Malley

Daniel Francis O’Neill lived a remarkable life by any standard. He was born in Tralibane, near the town of Bantry in Cork, in 1847. The youngest son of a “strong farmer” family of some means, he was educated in the National Schools. He excelled at school, especially at mathematics, and by his early teens served as a classroom monitor and eventually even taught some classes himself. His family wanted him to become a priest, but he had a thirst for adventure and Ireland offered very limited opportunities, so at seventeen, with a flute and a small stack of books, he shipped as a cabin boy on an English merchant vessel.

He spent four years at sea, circling the globe once and enduring shipwreck on a desert island the South Pacific. He made lengthy stays in Yokohama, Honolulu, New York and California, where he spent months herding sheep. He lived for a year on the prairie in Edina, Missouri, teaching mathematics and attending weekly barn dances. While living in Edina he reconnected with Anna Rogers, a young woman he had met while working on an emigrant ship. They married in 1871 and moved to Chicago, settling in the heavily Irish neighborhood of Bridgeport.

Working first in unskilled labor jobs and then as a clerk, O’Neill joined the police force in 1873. O’Neill began a steady rise through the ranks, based on a combination of education, coolness under pressure, and the help of aldermen, judges, and political allies from the city’s business class. In 1901 Mayor Carter Harrison II appointed him General Superintendent of Police: he served two full terms and part of a third.

Police work was rough, and exposed officers to the worst side of human behavior. He navigated saloons and backroom politics; he got into a street brawl with a notoriously thuggish alderman that put him on the front pages, and he pulled bodies from the wreckage of the Iroquois theater fire, which killed 600 people. He worked on behalf of the city’s business class to break strikes organized by his fellow Irish Americans, and defended harsh interrogation methods. But he also promoted African American officers, and strongly supported reforming the police department on the basis of merit rather than political connections.

Throughout his police career O’Neill played Irish music, with his fellow officers and Chicago’s large Irish community. More than once he got a good musician a job on the force. O’Neill especially loved the dance music of Ireland, the instrumental tunes he had heard growing up in Cork. He began systematically collecting tunes in the 1890s, working with a network of people, especially Edward Cronin and James O’Neill, who could read and write music fluently. By 1901 he had seven large notebooks full of tunes, many heard on the streets of Chicago, others learned from published collections. 

In 1903 he published his first book, O’Neill’s Music of Ireland,  which included almost 2000 songs, airs and dance tunes. In 1907, after he retired, he refined that collection down to 1001 tunes in the Dance Music Of Ireland. O’Neil wrote two large and unique histories of Irish music and musicians. The books put him in an international community of folklorists and scholars. He published his last book in 1924, but continued to write occasional pieces on Irish music for Irish and American audiences until his death in 1936, at age 87.

Further reading on the subject:
Carolan, Nicholas. A Harvest Saved: Francis O'Neill and Irish Music in Chicago. Dublin: Ossian, 1997.

Timeline of O'Neill's life
Born August 28, 1848, Tralibane, County Cork

1865: Departs Ireland as cabin boy on barque "Anne"

1866: Sails to US for first time on clipper ship "Emerald Isle," meets future wife Anna Rogers

1866-1867: Sails on clipper "Minnehaha" to Yokohama and then to Honolulu

November, 1867: Sails to Baker Island in the South Pacific on "Minnehaha." Shipwrecked and marooned on Baker Island on November 30, 1867

Dec. 11, 1867: Rescued from Baker Island and lands in San Francisco

April-September 1868: Herds sheep in Sierra Nevada foothills for rancher Clavin Salter

September 1868-March 1869: Sails in barque "Hannah" to NYC

Spring 1869: Worked as stevedore in Erie PA for his brother Phillip

Summer 1869-summer 1870: Taught school in Edina, Missouri

Summer 1870: Traveled to Chicago to work ships on the Great Lakes

November 1870: Married Anna Rogers in Bloomington, IL having reconnected with her on his way back to Edina from the Great Lakes

1870-1873: Works in Chicago in packing houses and freight yards

Summer 1873: Joins Chicago police force

1878: Promoted to sergeant

1883: Having been earlier promoted to Lieutenant, named Assistant Chief Clerk of the police department

1890: Moves to Drexel Blvd in Hyde Park

1893: Named Chief Clerk of the Chicago Police Department, attends World's Columbia Exposition, meets pipers Patsy Touhey and Turlough MacSweeney

1894: Promoted to Captain, serves during the Pullman strike

1900?: Purchases farm in Palos, Illinois

April 30, 1901: Promoted to General Superintendent of Police

April 1903: Reappointed to second term as General Superintendent of Police

1903: Publication of O’Neill’s Music of Ireland

December 31st, 1903: Supervises rescue at the deadly Iroquois Theater Fire

April 1905: Reappointed to third term as General Superintendent of Police

July 1905: Resigns after conclusion of the teamster’s strike

Spring, 1906: Hosts Douglas Hyde at private party in Chicago

Summer, 1906: Spends two months in Ireland

1907: Second book, Dance Music of Ireland

1908: Publishes O’Neill’s Irish Music, a selection of tunes arranged by James O’Neill for violin and piano

1910: Publishes Irish Folk Music: a Fascinating Hobby, and Popular Selections from O’Neill's Dance Music of Ireland, arranged by Selena O’Neill

1913: Publishes Irish Minstrels and Musicians

1914: Purchases winter home, “Glengarrif” in Gulf Springs, Mississippi

1915: With Selena O’Neill publishes O’Neill's Irish Music: Choice Selections Arranged for Piano and Violin

1922 and 1924: Publishes two editions of Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody

1931: Donates his library to Notre Dame

December 1933: Attends ceremony commemorating the 1903 Iroquois Theater fire

1934: publishes article on Irish Dances and Dance Music in Cork Examiner, 4/7/1934

1934: Contributes an article on the history of Irish music to the program for The Pageant of the Celt at the 1934 Chicago World’s Fair

1934: Wife Anna dies

1936: O’Neill dies at his Hyde Park home on January 26
Capt. Francis O'Neill
By Michael O’Malley
Biography
Daniel Francis O’Neill lived a remarkable life by any standard. He was born in Tralibane, near the town of Bantry in Cork, in 1847. The youngest son of a “strong farmer” family of some means, he was educated in the National Schools. He excelled at school, especially at mathematics, and by his early teens served as a classroom monitor and eventually even taught some classes himself. His family wanted him to become a priest, but he had a thirst for adventure and Ireland offered very limited opportunities, so at seventeen, with a flute and a small stack of books, he shipped as a cabin boy on an English merchant vessel.

He spent four years at sea, circling the globe once and enduring shipwreck on a desert island the South pacific. He made lengthy stays in Yokohama, Honolulu, New York and California, where he spent months herding sheep. He lived for a year on the prairie in Edina, Missouri, teaching mathematics and attending weekly barn dances. While living in Edina he reconnected with Anna Rogers, a young woman he had met while working on an emigrant ship. They married in 1871 and moved to Chicago, settling in the heavily Irish neighborhood of Bridgeport.

Working first in unskilled labor jobs and then as a clerk, O’Neill joined the police force in 1873. O’Neill began a steady rise through the ranks, based on a combination of education, coolness under pressure, and the help of aldermen, judges, and political allies from the city’s business class. In 1901 Mayor Carter Harrison II appointed him General Superintendent of Police: he served two full terms and part of a third.

Police work was rough, and exposed officers to the worst side of human behavior. He navigated saloons and backroom politics; he got into a street brawl with a notoriously thuggish alderman that put him on the front pages, and he pulled bodies from the wreckage of the Iroquois theater fire, which killed 600 people. He worked on behalf of the city’s business class to break strikes organized by his fellow Irish Americans, and defended harsh interrogation methods. But he also promoted African American officers, and strongly supported reforming the police department on the basis of merit rather than political connections.

Throughout his police career O’Neill played Irish music, with his fellow officers and Chicago’s large Irish community. More than once he got a good musician a job on the force. O’Neill especially loved the dance music of Ireland, the instrumental tunes he had heard growing up in Cork. He began systematically collecting tunes in the 1890s, working with a network of people, especially Edward Cronin and James O’Neill, who could read and write music fluently. By 1901 he had seven large notebooks full of tunes, many heard on the streets of Chicago, others learned from published collections. 

In 1903 he published his first book, O’Neill’s Music of Ireland,  which included almost 2000 songs, airs and dance tunes. In 1907, after he retired, he refined that collection down to 1001 tunes in the Dance Music Of Ireland. O’Neil wrote two large and unique histories of Irish music and musicians. The books put him in an international community of folklorists and scholars. He published his last book in 1924, but continued to write occasional pieces on Irish music for Irish and American audiences until his death in 1936, at age 87.
Book Recipients
Capt. Francis O'Neill sent copies of multiple books to a number of people - collaborators, friends, etc. Here are a few prominent figures who received multiple copies.

Selena O'Neill

Irish Literary Scene

Clergy