Description:Submitted by Stephen Roberts
Arthur O'Neill lived in Birmingham from 1840 until his death in 1896. He made his mark as a Chartist, a peace lecturer and a Baptist minister. O'Neill was of Irish descent & in adult life was a champion of Irish causes, notably Home Rule. He arrived in Birmingham as pastor of the Chartist Church in Newhall Street - the only Chartist Church which survived in England for any length of time.
After serving a prison sentence for addressing crowds of striking miners in the Black Country in 1842, he became a Baptist minister. His chapel in Livery Street and later Newhall Street was attended at its height by about 300 people. O'Neill knew them all by name. For fifty years O'Neill lectured for peace and international arbitration across the midlands. A man of great stamina, he often addressed four meetings a week. Sometimes his meetings were disprupted by soldiers, but he persisted. There was much for O'Neill to talk about; Britain was almost always fighting a war somewhere in the world.
O'Neill was also active in meetings in Birmingham in 1866-7 which called for the old Chartist demand of manhood suffrage and led to the Reform Act of 1867. O'Neill was buried at St. Mary's Church in Handsworth; his children continued to live in Birmingham. O'Neill's story is told in Stephen Roberts The Chartist Prisoners (2008).
A copy of this book has been donated to the Reference Library