The late Tip O’Neill was ‘a most prominent, powerful and loyal champion of the working people’ – former President Bill Clinton
PATRICK O’Neill, ‘ Tip’ O’Neill’s grandfather, one of five children, was born in Mallow to John and Johanna (Julia) neé Fox in 1832.
‘ Tip’s’ maternal grandparents, Eunice Fullerton and James Tolan, hailed from the Inishowen Peninsula in County Donegal.
Born in 1912 in North Cambridge, Massachusetts, Thomas Phillip ‘ Tip’ O’Neill (Jnr) had a keen interest in politics from an early age, volunteering for Al Smith’s campaign in the 1928 presidential election.
After graduating from Boston College, he was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, taking over as speaker in 1949.
Three years later he was elected to the US House of Representatives, taking over the seat vacated by John F Kennedy.
He represented Massachusetts for 16 consecutive terms, serving as House Majority Whip and Leader before being elected the 47th Speaker of the House in 1977, a position he held until his retirement a decade later.
In 1991, President George HW Bush presented to him the Presidential Medal of Freedom – America’s highest civilian award, which is given for especial meritorious contributions to the national interest of America and of world peace.
Following his death in 1994, President Bill Clinton described Tip O’Neill as “the nation’s most prominent, powerful and loyal champion of the working people... He loved politics and government because he saw that politics and government could make a difference in people’s lives. And he loved people most of all.”
Fiercely proud of his Mallow roots, Tip made his first stopover visit to the town in 1985 while on a Congressional Delegation to Cork, where he was granted the freedom of the city.
Such was his affinity for the town, on exiting from the train at Mallow station he kissed the ground in memory of his ancestors.
In July 1987 he returned to
Mallow, where a civic reception was hosted in his honour by the then Mallow Urban District Council. During that trip to Ireland, he was also awarded the honorary degree of LL.D by Trinity College Dublin.
The oration in his honour was delivered by the then chancellor, Francis (Frank) O’Reilly, who said of Tip, “he acquired an unrivalled knowledge of parliamentary procedure, assisting in the passage of much social legislation”.
“He was the first public representative to propose the ending of the war in Vietnam, for it has been his abiding conviction that political problems must be solved by discussion, not violence.”
That ethos was also highlighted by Mallow-born Professor Margaret Kelleher, chair of Anglo-Irish Literature and Drama at UCD, during a speech at the opening of an exhibition on Tip O’Neill’s life and career in Cork in 2017.
Organised by the Tip O’Neill Committee of the Mallow Development Partnership (MDP), the exhibition used a mixture of documents, personal correspondence, photographs and other memorabilia to paint a vivid and colourful portrait of the man and his times.
“His contribution to the peace process in Northern Ireland was immense and was widely recognised by his peers in the USA and elsewhere,” said Professor Kelleher.
“This exhibition is a precious opportunity to recognise not only the North Cork roots of Tip O’Neill but also to celebrate his and his family’s lives of distinguished public service and his landmark contribution to Irish and Irish-American history,” she added.